HR Club IPSA at Jaipuria, Noida organized its 5th HR Conclave on the 19th of September. The conclave welcomed the presence of leading lights from the industry and the world of academia. The theme of this year’s event was “Strategic HR – Fuelling Sustainable Growth in Millennium”, and it sought to answer important industry-related questions. Mr. Manoj Misra, Chairman & CMD, Cement Corporation of India, and Ms. Ester Martinez, CEO & Editor in Chief of “People Matters” were the Chief Guest and the Guest of Honour for the inaugural session that set the tone for fruitful discussions throughout the event. The packed venue, which included students beyond the campus, had their day’s worth as things progressed.
The proceedings began with the traditional lighting of the lamp. Dr. Rajiv R Thakur, Director of the institute welcomed the guests and gave a brief overview of the topic of discussion for the day. Ms. Martinez then took to the dais and said in her inspiring speech, “People are the most important assets for an organization. It is very difficult to predict the behavior of client, product, competition and market. Only people can connect, innovate, look ahead and see competition.” Mr. Misra dug deep into his own experiences and shared, “Achievers never expose themselves; their achievements introduce others to their great work. Performance is old fashioned, doing something achievable before you die is the new focus.”
An important element of the conclave was the two panel discussions that were held to shed light on crucial subthemes in the field. The first panel discussion “HR Practices in the VUCA World” brought together preeminent speakers, including Mr. Sunil Omanwar, Head – Learning & Organization Development, Fortis Healthcare; Mr. Rajiv Kakkar, GM – HRD, JK Organization, Mr. Danish Saleem, AVP – Resourcing, Barclays; and Dr. Ajay Kumar Jain, Associate Prof, HR & OB, Management Development Institute (MDI). The engaging discussion began with Dr. Kakkar suggesting that VUCA is a concept that has been around for hundreds of years. According to him, farming and defense are two areas where VUCA has been prevalent for a long time where VUCA stands for Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous.
Mr. Saleem added, “VUCA is all about adaptability. There should be strategic HR during the time of crisis because a crisis can decrease employee morale and motivation.” Dr. Jain was of the opinion that human behavior is shaped by our environment, situations, cultures, salary and expectations – and the struggle is to deal with internal VUCA. Mr. Omanwar described VUCA as Vision, Understanding, Clarity and Agility, and explained why the ability to face challenges is what leadership is all about. He left the audience with a message: “Stay competitive, commercialized and talk business with a problem-solving approach. Define and redefine the job and role of HR.” It was an important lesson for students in the gathering.
“Managing HR for Generation Y” was the theme for the second panel discussion that was attended by Mr. Mussarat Hussain, GM – Training, Maruti Suzuki, Mr. Abhishek Saxena, AVP HR, Radisson Blu, Ms. Rubi Khan, Capability Development Manager, Max Life and Mr. Sandeep Joshi, AVP – HR, JCB India. They led an invigorating session with Mr. Hussain starting things off by saying that managing Gen Y has been a true challenge for all organizations. “There is no particular approach for handling Gen Y, so one should look at the key indicators for coping with it. Organizations that can handle Gen Y effectively are going to be successful,” was his simple advice.
Ms. Khan described Gen Y as restless, impulsive and impatient, which is why it should be given the instant feedback that it needs. Mr. Saxena, on the other hand, quoted, “Gen Y knows how to manage emotionally, as compared to previous generations. Timely Recognition, Respect, and Rewards in terms of career direction are its hallmarks.” Finally, Mr. Joshi left the audience thinking by coining the term “Self-management for Gen Y.” He believes Gen Y is focused on learning and gaining experience and the key lies in empowering it and letting it harness its true potential. Thus, the conclave brought to the fore several novel ideas that got the audience pondering and left them with important takeaways for the future.
