Bhubaneswar: KIIT School of Management (KSOM), Bhubaneswar based B-School, organised successfully its 7th National HR Conclave recently (30 July 2016). The theme of this years’ conclave was “Changing Business Environment: The Evolving Role of HR and IR Professionals”. The conclave was a part of three National Level Conclaves in the areas of HR, Marketing and Finance conducted by KIIT School of Management. Think Talent Services, a leading HR services company in India (based in Gurgaon) focusing on Leadership Development, Talent Management & Culture Transformation, was knowledge partner of the conclave.
The conclave was attended HR leaders and experts: Mr. Parthasarathi Mishra, CHRM, Tata Steel, Kalinga Nagar & Gopalpur Project; Mr. Vipul Sabharwal, Managing Director, Luminous Power Technologies; Mr. Nishith Mohanty, Global HR Head & CHRO, Manipal Group; Mr. Vinay Deshpande, Chief People Officer, Financial Services sector, Mahindra & Mahindra Group. Prof. P. P. Mathur, Vice Chancellor, KIIT University, Prof. Anil Bajpai, Director, KSOM and Prof. S.N Mishra, Dean, KSOM also attended the function on behalf of KIIT.
Speaking at the conclave, Mr. Parthasarathi Mishra highlighted the vast changes in the HR landscape. He stressed on the humane aspect in HRM and urged HR professionals to stay connected with employees for better management. Delivering his keynote address, Mr. Vipul Sabharwal commented on managing talent, career planning, manpower cost & productivity, reactive vs. proactive HR and leadership styles. He clearly delineated the varying degrees of change in the HR profession in the past thirty years and also spoke about the management of people as one of the most crucial activities for an organization.
Mr. Nishith Mohanty in his keynote address stated MBA acronym should be redefined as “Management by Ambiguities” while saying the industry is facing difficulty in retaining HIPOs in organizations. He also spoke of the massive changes that a VUCA environment had brought into the domain of HR. Mr. Vinay Deshpande spoke of changes in HR in terms of career pathing, performance management systems, the rise and fall of the bell curve & incentive management. He urged for closer relationship of the HR vertical with business strategy to enhance capacity and capability of employees.
The first panel discussion of the KIIT HR Conclave was on the theme “Changing Business Environment: The Evolving role of the HR and IR Professionals”. This panel comprised of Mr. Shubhayu Sengupta , Senior VP & Head HR, Hinduja Global Solutions; Ms. Lipika Verma, Director Rewards, India & Pacific, Schneider Electric; Mr. GP Rao, Management Advisor & CEO, GPR HR Consulting and Mr. Srinivasan Pagadala, Director HR, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. Major perspectives that emerged through the discussion were need for HR analytics and drawing insights from big data for the purpose of business decisions, need for HR to be proactive than reactive, need for domain expertise in HR and the importance of humane role of HR in difficult times.
“Is IR gaining over HR?” the theme of discussion in the second panel was found to be interesting. The panellists opined that with the “Make in India” initiative, the country will drive the manufacturing sector resulting in increasing importance of IR professionals. The regulatory framework of IR would have a greater impact the environment. Meanwhile the panellists also recognised that IR still remained at lower end of the spectrum in the HR pyramid.
The final session of the conclave had 10 informative and interactive workshops with thought-provoking discussions on topics such as Surviving the Talent War, Looking Beyond the Bell curve, Engaging and Motivating the Multi-Generational Workforce, HR Analytics, Business Strategy Impact on Human Capital, Managing Change, Workforce Flexibility and Career Foundations.
