Trust and transparency are synonymous especially in the domain of Human Resource Development. In a recent conclave at IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management, this fact has been deliberated by leading HR professionals in the country. A key aspect which was highlighted during this Conclave was the need for an organization to create the right atmosphere for work. The panel, moderated by Mr Saveen Hegde, Design Thinker & Business Storyteller, steered the discussion towards current industry practices and how they can be fine-tuned.
In the opinion of Dr Anjan Bhowmick, Director-HR - India & EMEA, at The Hershey Company, it is critical for organizations to allocate greater time to performance planning stages to cut down on the appraisal stage and encouraging the asking of questions which can give individuals the platform to define the status quo. This can possibly improve trust within an organization.
De-layering of organizations may be required in order to break hierarchies, enhance openness and foster an environment of transparency and innovation suggested Mr. Subhankar Roy Chowdhury, Executive Director & Head-HR, Asia Pacific & Japan, at Lenovo.
Since all organizations are made of individuals, ‘trust’ is also about trusting oneself and one’s abilities. Mr Arun Kumar Krishnamurthy, Head of HR - India, Barclays said, “Purpose aligned with character and competence forms a great environment to be trustworthy, leading to sustained success in the workplace.” Mr S. K. Bose, Director-HR, IOCL talked about the importance of trust and transparency not only in good & favourable times but also in the face of adversities. One simply cannot demand trust without trusting others. We need to demonstrate trust. Mr Sandeep Tyagi, Director - HR at Samsung Electronics, adding to Mr S. K. Bose’s comment said, “The main characteristics of successful people is that they trust themselves. Trust in yourself gives you the confidence to face adverse situations with zeal."
How organizations deal with individual employees and how much they are able to trust their own selves in solving problems for the company are important elements in building up the trust quotient of a company. Given the rise of social media, employees’ evaluation of the company they work for – sometimes openly in public forum - form an important attribute in building customer trust. Dr Sujatha Sudheendra, Head of HR at Aditya Birla Finance Ltd., drew attention to the growth story of a child and the way a mother trusts her child to stand on its feet despite the feeble footsteps of the child.
Business relations are perhaps way more complicated than that between the mother and child, but the analogy shows how intrinsic the matter of trust is to the success of an enterprise. “HR thrives on empathy, empathy builds trust and HR means ‘HRidaya Se’ – direct from the heart” pointed out R.K. Mohapatra, Director - HR at Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Chairman at Lanka IOC.
The HR Conclave’18 concluded with an interactive question & answer session, the exchange of ideas turned a full circle with the panellists, teachers & students of VGSoM bridging the knowledge gap between academia & industry in terms of best practices & relevant know-how. The event succeeded in reducing the contours of knowledge gap and helped the beneficiaries break barriers and add an extra dimension to their thinking capabilities - a key takeaway from the three-hour marathon discussion.