When pioneers meet, what follows is a highly gripping discussion. 27th September was one of those afternoons in IIM Indore, Mumbai Campus, when three eminent people from the HR domain met to discuss on the topic “Integrating HR strategy with business strategy.” The panelists included Mr. Harjeet Khanduja, VP-HR at Reliance Jio; Mr. Prasanth Nair, Managing partner and Country Head at Inhelm Leadership Solutions and Mr. Charanjit Pati, Head HR at Reliance Project Management Group. The discussion was moderated by Prof. Meenakshi Aggarwal Gupta, IIM Indore.
Mr. Harjeet Khanduja began the discussion by talking about where the role of HR starts. He went further to talk about strategy, precisely about Cost leadership, differentiation and focus with respect to product design so as to enunciate how HR plays the role of the strategist. He told how important it is to empower the people of the organization who deal with customers. It is not the count of employees but the value creation that matters. The most important requisite for a good HR manager is to make good judgement in all situations.
After this, Mr. Prasanth Nair explained that unlike most people think, business and HR strategy is integrated. The major challenges that HR personnel face are the metrics to be considered for measuring their performance. Drastic changes are taking at workplace in today’s world and the major factors leading to such changes are Globalization, Technology, Demography, Social changes. The four C’s that organizations should focus on are: Capability management, culture management, competitiveness and connect.
The discussion was taken forward by Mr. Chandrajit Pati who discussed the role of HR managers, and the major processes to be followed by them: talent acquisition strategy creation, creating the required on-boarding experience, keeping an effective performance management system in place, developing an efficient communication strategy, and formulating optimal policies. He spoke about the Gallup Model which is a significant model to be followed in case of employee engagement.
Such useful insights were followed by questions by the participants. The intriguing discussion between the participants and the panelists offered the participants some useful takeaways. The questions revolved around bond systems, employee retention, the role of HR in startups and the Bell-curve to which the panelists gave apt replies. The panel discussion was extremely informative and interesting and widened the horizon of the participants with respect to HR.