Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida organised its 4th Jaipuria Annual Management Conference (JAMC-2014) on December 13, 2014 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.The theme of this year’s event was on the theme “Employee Engagement: Harnessing Human Capital”.

There were many other distinguished guests at the gathering, including Chief Guest Dr. A. K. Balyan, MD & CEO, Petronet LNGLtd., and Mr. Vipin Sondhi, MD & CEO, JCB India, who was the Guest of Honour. Mr. S. Y. Siddqui, Chief Mentor, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Mr. Kamal Singh, Director General, NHRD, and Mr. G. P. Rao, Management Advisor also attended as special guests. Also in attendance was Mr. Sharad Jaipuria, President of PHDCCI & Chairman, Jaipuria Institute of Management, and Mr. Shreevats Jaipuria, Vice Chairman of the institute, Dr. Rajiv R. Thakur, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Noida. The inaugural session of the conference began with the guests taking part in the lamp lighting service. After the ceremonial lightning of the lamp, Honourable Director Dr. Rajiv R. Thakur introduced the theme of the conference. In his welcome address, Mr. Sharad Jaipuria emphasised significance of employee engagement. He also stressed the importance of harnessing human capital for reaping the benefits of competitive advantage, productivity and growth for all the stakeholders in the organization.

Mr. G.P Rao, while presenting the conference overview, energized the gathering with his witty and eloquent deliberation on the need of employee engagement. He also introduced the agenda for the conference and the distinguished speakers in the inaugural session.Mr.KamalSingh, while sharing his thoughts on the event, presented important and interesting data on employee engagement, backed by research and rating agencies, including Dale Carnege, NHRDN and Tower Perrins.

In his address, the Guest of Honour Mr. Vipin Sondhi ignited the young minds in attendance by sharing four short stories that confirmed the importance and need of employee engagement for the success of any organization and its people. He stated that engagement initiatives are inclusive in nature and the drivers should ensure that everyone is a part of engagement, including leaders, followers, and both weak and strong players in the process. The key to the success of employee engagement lies in the hands of leadership.

The Chief Guest, Dr. A.K Balyan, while delivering his inaugural address, enthralled the audience with his pearls of wisdom. He emphasised the leadership-driven employee engagement endeavours, which is a combination of hardware and software, with policies and procedures being referred to as hardware and execution and people as software. He illustrated for an emotional connection between employees and management, and a commitment of employees toward the organization. He showed the immense benefits of engagement on the bottom line of a business. While delivering the vote of thanks, Mr. Shreevats Jaipuria appreciated the engaging deliberations of all the guests. He stated that employee engagement is a value chain and that all the stakeholders should chip in to complete this important practice. While organizations are taking important initiatives in this direction, business schools like Jaipuria Institute of Management are also instilling values and ethics in its students, the future flag bearers of employee engagement in organizations.As the session reached its end, the distinguished guests were honoured by presenting mementoes as a gesture of gratitude.

The first session on Leadership Values & Brand Alignment was chaired by Ms. Ester Martinez, Founder & Editor-in-chief, People Matters. The eminent panellists were Mr. Pradyumna Pandey, Chief GM-HR, JK Tyre, Mr. Deepak Dobriyal, VP-HR, Birlasoft, Ms. Usha Subramanian-VP, Technical and Campus-Mphasis, and Mr. Rajiv Kapoor, CPO-Fortis Healthcare.The session highlighted the different methods of defining values and their evolution. They also discussed the relationship between values and brand creation.The session was based on experiential sharing about how an organization defines and disseminates its values.

The second panel session on Employee Engagement Strategies & Best Practices was led by Ms. Shampi Venkatesh, CPO-NIIT Ltd. The eminent panellists were Mr. Sushil Baveja, President-HR, DSCL Ltd., Ms. Ashu Sawhney, VP-HR, DCB Bank and Mr. Abhay Kapoor, AVP-HR & Corporate ER, Escorts Ltd.The panel discussed the role of engagement by 3 key stakeholders: Reporting Manager, Business Leader, and HR. They also spoke about engagement at various stages of the employee life cycle, as well as the role of engagement for future generations. Also discussed were the role of communication,auto mationand entertainment in engagement.

In his special address, Mr. S.Y. Siddiqui spoke about the expectations of employees of different categories and age groups. He spoke about the various aspects of leadership, including mentoring, listening, influencing, and networking. He emphasised on the need to develop a culture of respect, empowerment, commitment and ownership within an organization. He shared that the best strategy for employee engagement is to develop an element of pride among the employees. He also discussed various HR initiatives at Maruti Suzuki and shared his insightful experiences.

The conference concluded with the conference summary by Prof. Abdul Qadir, Conference Coordinator and a vote of thanks by Mr. R.K. Rishiraj, Head Corporate Relations & Placement, Jaipuria Institute of Management.