inform 9

10 Chapter News
February 2011
contents

incubate 15
18 Workplace Conflict and Resolution

illuminate 39
40 Column by Prof. Arup Varma
41 The Executive Coaching Conundrum!

inspire 21 44 Strategic HR for a Simpleton

48 HR Analytics: The Strategic Tool in
Talent Management
Cover Story
Over 1300 delegates, who attended the 14th
NHRDN Conference at Kingdom of Dreams,

imagine 53
Gurgaon, in the first week of December, agreed
that this was truly a conference with a difference.
The theme of the conference- Towards the
Next Orbit - and its location (The Kingdom of
Dreams) distinguished it from the many other HR 54 Numbers
conferences that took place throughout the year.
57 Amazed
Team

Lighting of the lamp at National HRD Network’s 14th National Conference

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National President’s Message
Dear friends,
A new year has dawned upon us and I take this opportunity to wish all of you a wonderful
year ahead. Just a month ago, when over a thousand of us gathered at the kingdom of
dreams, we had celebrated the need to move to the next orbit. It is then indeed opportune
to welcome the unfolding year with intent to make a difference to the lives of those we
lead. It is my submission that even as we are facing challenges of enhancing the HRD
function, maybe it is worth contemplating our role in creating happy people and thereby
happy organisations.
The pursuit of happiness has been an eternal quest of mankind, and it is my avowed
belief that as custodians of human capital, we indeed have a reason to commit ourselves
to the subjective and psychological well being too, of those we are responsible for. After
all, a professional spends a significant portion of his wakeful day at work. Thoreau had
bemoaned that men have become tools of their tools. This rings true often for the human
resources function too. It is a necessary endeavour to unravel individual needs and
personal aspirations of employees and find avenues to create and deliver happiness.
Today the HR function must go beyond the captivity of standard functions and learn to
embrace new dimensions where psychic incomes are consciously created. In a world
perennially bereft of good talent, employers no longer hire employees; rather people
are hiring organisations they wish to work for. The brilliant satire ‘Brave New World’
penned by Aldous Huxley in 1931 depicts an England from which unhappiness has
been completely eliminated. The conditioned citizens of this make believe world, set in
contemporary twentieth century, are subject to chilling attempts to engineer an artificial
paradise and imbibe the utopian wonder drug soma for a chemically induced state of
wellness: “one cubic centimeter cures ten gloomy sentiments”. Aristophanes had aptly
observed that we need others to complete us.
Thankfully the modern day alchemists of the HR function can discover that the real life
transforming elixir of happiness is well within their grasp; heightened care, concern and
compassion for those we are responsible for is what it takes. Research has observed that
key facets of a workplace including the quality of environment, sense of purpose, feeling
of ownership, social embeddedness, empowerment and autonomy could be real sources
of happiness. Reciprocally much as success is being able to achieve what we want, desiring
what we get could lead to happiness. When our employees are happy, even hard work can
be effortless. “Happiness is an ideal not of reason but of imagination”, noted Immanuel
Kant. I would urge our fellow travellers to reflect and imagine possibilities of taking our
role to hitherto unexplored domains. Carpe diem!

Sincerely,

NS Rajan
National President, NHRD Network
and
Partner, EMEIA People & Organisation Leader, Ernst & Young
Editorial
My Dear Fellow Travellers,
I hope the New Year has begun in all earnest with new Learnings, Joy,
Challenges, Adventures and hope.
As we re-look at 2010, we have a lot of memories, beginning with the
assembly of a like-minded team to lead the Editorial panel, designing
and launching of the Newsletter in its new avatar, to having seasoned
professionals contributing regularly as columnists; the journey is still
in its initial stages and we have miles to go before we sleep. We hope
that 2011 will be as memorable and hope to set new standards for the
Newsletter.
2011 for the HR professional is going to be more challenging than ever,
as the economy wakes up as sleeping giant, the challenges of attraction
and retention will get further compounded with new horizons like
leadership pipelines to manage future growth, managing expectations
of a diverse workforce and the menace of business expecting HR to
be more proactive, with a mindset of business and heart of employee
champion. I am sure we all are geared up and looking to conquer these
and many more.
In this edition of Newsletter the spotlight is on ‘towards the next orbit’
the National Conference held at New Delhi from December 1 – 3, 2010.
We are thankful to Ms. Anuradha Sharma for taking out time to scribe
down the memory lane in such a simple and vivid format; she spend
time with other participants and tried to capture the happenings of the
3 days, for all those who couldn’t make it to the conference.
The keywords on the cover page capture the mood and essence of the
conference, for many of us the cover page will act as an anchor sheet, to
not only capture the learnings of the 3 days but also for future reference.
Brennon Dowrick, the Australian Olympian, shared his insights on how
we must strive to break our own records - not following the bench mark,
but setting the bench mark.
The Illuminate section throws light on the topics ‘Executive Coaching
Conundrum’, ‘Strategic HR for a Simpleton’ and ‘HR Analytics: The
strategic Tool in Talent Management’. Prof. Varma’s column, in this
section, engages the reader on his thoughts of how ‘Old is Not Always
In this edition of Gold!’ The Incubate Section features a solo article ‘Workplace Conflict
Newsletter the spotlight and Resolution’ (so as to capture the proceedings of the National
Conference in greater detail).
is on ‘towards the next
My personal favourite for this issue is Visual Voyage of the 3-day
orbit’ the National celebrations and learnings. I have always believed pictures speak more
Conference held at New than we generally estimate; we have tried to capture the images as per
the schedule of the conference for a visual walkthrough.
Delhi from December Once again let me wish you the very best for 2011 and share it’s pleasure
1 – 3, 2010 to be your fellow traveller in this journey. Happy Reading and do write
in to us with your feedback…

K Srinivas Rao
Editor
Chief Strategist and Partner – The Strategist
Chapter
News
Bangalore
The first ever Dr. Udai Pareek memorial
lecture was delivered by Dr. TV Rao on
November 30, 2010 at Bangalore on the
topic, ‘Evolution of HRD over Three
Decades’. Dr. Rao began with a quip, “his
talk for the evening was as disorganised
as the HR profession today!” Though
armed with a presentation, he chose to
use a compilation of over 300 pages of
articles that had been published over the
years by different people.
He then shared nostalgic memories
and photographs of the early NHRD
years. He referred to the keen interest
demonstrated by CEOs to share, listen
and learn about HRD experiences,
which had helped the quick spread of the
HRD Philosophy in the country.
While he was delighted with the
recognition of HR Practitioners in terms
of their progression to CEO roles in
many Indian organisations, he however
felt that progress in the function had got
slowed down – especially when he sees
that the issues and topics of discussion
(in the newsletter/chat groups/
conferences) have not significantly
changed over the last 20 years.
He said that often he and Udai had
discussed whether HRD would have
been served better if it was treated
as a discipline (like economics);
generic and common to all managers
and not developed into a profession
(pursued only by a few)? He exhorted
all HR Professionals to continuously
read, research and experiment in ‘the
laboratory,’ namely an organisation for a
HR professional.
The session ended with an extended
Q&A session and an audience of close to
200 HR professionals staying engrossed
till the end of the session.
Bhubaneswar
The monthly meeting for the month of
December was held on December 11, 2010
at the conference hall of Bharatiya Vidya
Bhavan. The meeting was attended by Ms.
Bobby Patnaik, Life Member and DC HR
Manager, Infosys Technologies and Mr.
Anjul Pratyush, Co-founder and Managing
Director of Think Careers Private
Limited. Ms. Bobby Patnaik presented
the takeaways from the 14th National
Conference of NHRD Network held in
New Delhi. Think Careers Private Limited
is an organisation focused on creating
high-quality learning solutions to support
individuals in acquiring critical workplace
skills. Mr. Anjul Pratyush discussed the
proposed workshop titled ‘Developing
Internal Consulting Skills for effective HR
Business Partnering’ scheduled during
January 2011 at Bhubaneswar.
The members’ meet for the month of
January was held on January 8, 2011 at
the same venue with a presentation on
‘HR Challenges in the Power Sector’
by the guest speaker, Mr. Santanu
10

Rath, who is a post graduate from
PM & LW Department and LLB,
Utkal University. An active member
of NHRDN and NIPM, Sri Santanu
has also been actively associated with
Power HR Forum, a professional body
of State Power Utility. With the advent
of restructuring and formation of Orissa
Power Transmission Corporation
Limited, need-based recruitment
has picked up in momentum. The
strategic initiatives of OPTCL include
incorporation of best management
practices, IT enabled systems and above
all, talent management, organisational
and manpower restructuring to cope up
with growth plans. He also announced
the rollout of the HRMS module in the
ensuing months. Sri Rath was felicitated
by the President, Dr. Saroj Mahapatra.
The talks were followed by the monthly
meetings.
Delhi & NCR
The Delhi & NCR Chapter had the
privilege of hosting the NHRDN 14th
National Conference – ‘Towards the
Next Orbit’ from December 01-03,
2010, and held at Kingdom of Dreams,
Gurgaon. The conference was attended
by more than 1300 CEOs and HR
Professionals from the entire spectrum
of industry from India and abroad as well
as by management students.
The Conference was marked with the
presence of Mr. Arun Maira, Member,
Planning Commission, as the Chief
Guest during the inaugural session on
December 01, 2010 and a galaxy of 81
CEOs, Business Heads and Thought
Leaders who participated as Speakers
and shared their valuable insights.
The course of the two and a half days
witnessed deliberations on topics
ranging from Orchestrating Change,
Business Strategy and Leadership to
Value Adding Governance.
The Principal Sponsor, Sri Balaji Group
of Institutions, Pune and co-sponsors,
Maruti Suzuki India Limited and Power
Grid Corporation lent phenomenal
support in making the Conference a
grand success. S.K. Chaturvedi, CMD,
Power Grid and Conference Chairman
highlighted the significance of the
emerging strategic role of HR as it relates
to the world economy at large.
In a first of its kind initiative, the NHRDN
Conference saw a special session where
26 senior and highly experienced HR
professionals conducted one-to-one
Mentoring Session with over 100 young
professionals. Yet another highlight of the
Conference was the B-School Conclave
held at MP Hall on 01 December attended
by Senior Academicians from all over
India.
It was also another proud moment for
Delhi & NCR Chapter to receive its 6th
‘Best Chapter Award’ for the year 2009-
2010.
Hosur
Annual Meet 2010: The NHRD Hosur
chapter’s annual meet was held on
December 18, 2010 at Radha Regent
Hotel, Bangalore. The evening started
with a prayer song. A short note on
the NHRD and Hosur Chapter was
disclosed by Mr. Sebastian, Student
Coordinator which was followed by the
welcome address by Chapter President
Mr. Alphonse. Mr. John Robert, Vice
President, imparted the code of conduct
to the members. GRT Jewelers, Artha
Properties and Hotel Radha Regent
were the sponsors for the evening. A
wonderful and enjoyable magic show
was hosted by Mr. Sethu Raman from
PMC Tech, Hosur. Mr.Selvam George,
Former Secretary of NHRD Hosur
chapter presented a memento to Mr.
Sethu Raman.
NHRD Hosur Chapter organised a
Cricket tournament where the Prabha
Engineers team was the Winner and
PMC Tech was the Runner up. Both
the teams were awarded with mementos
by the Chapter President. A standing
ovation was given to Mr. Nehruji, the
Coordinator of Sports Committee for
his excellent service and hard work. Mr.
Israel Inbaraj, the Honorary Secretary,
introduced the new members and
felicitated the best volunteers Ms. Jeeva,
Mr.Dinesh, Mr. Sebastian and Ms. Pavana
with a memento for their outstanding
contribution to NHRD Hosur chapter.
A Personal Talent Display Show was
11
conducted wherein members actively
participated and proved their talents.
Treasurer Mr. Ravindran played Flute,
which was followed by Mr. Murugesa
Pandian’s singing, and poetry recitation
by Mr. Gnanaprahasam and Mr.
Manivannan. A quick gift entertaining
show was conducted by Mr. Bharmanand,
HR Manager, Wendt India Ltd. All the
members were given goody bags as a
complimentary gift.
Hyderabad
HRInterACT
Best Practices in developing Line
Managers as effective People Managers
was the theme for the month of November
2010. Mr. Subbaraju, Director – HR,
Infosage Systems, Dr. Suresh Kumar,
VP – HR, Aurobindo Pharma, Mr.
Mukund Menon, VP – HR, Mahindra
Satyam and Dr. Ved Puriswar, Head
L&D, Cognizant shared their insights
and experience on this topic.
For the month of December 2010, the
chosen topic was ‘Trends in Learning
and Development’. Mr. Ahmed, Head
Talent Management at MNARC Group,
Mr. R. K. Dinavahi, Manager Alliance,
Global Talent Track; Mr. Sirish K K,
HR, Core Logic; Mr. Sharat Sharma,
HR Manager, Brodridge and Prof. G.
Surender Reddy, Visiting Professor,
JNTU presented the latest concepts
on learning and development and
progress in this area. Both topics were
well received and appreciated by the
audience.
Meet the Mentor
Meet the Mentor session was led by
Mr, Divakar Kaza, Head – HR, Lupin
Limited on of December 10, 2010.
Indore
A Special Lecture on ‘Learning Skills
and Career Development’ at PIMR:
Prestige Institute of Management
and Research organised a Special
lecture on ‘Learning Skills and Career
Development’ on December 18, 2010
in Association with National HRD
Network – Indore Chapter. Dr. Santosh
Ragnekar, Associate Professor, IIT,
Roorkee was the keynote speaker on
the occasion. In his deliberation Dr.
Rangnekar emphasised that students
should be more focused towards their
career rather than on getting jobs only.
Dr. Yogeshwari Phatak, Director of the
Institute welcomed guests and Prof.
Suyash Jhawar, Coordinator - NHRD
Indore Chapter proposed the vote of
thanks.
Kolkata
Gender Issues at the Workplace: The
evening of December 10, 2010 was very
special. We had with us Ms. Beth Payne,
US Consul General, Kolkata. She shared
with us her thought provoking views on
‘Gender Issues at the Workplace’. The
evening started with an introduction by
our Secretary Abhijit Sengupta.
Ms. Payne spoke about the position
of women in today’s workplace. She
said that women, who are also our
employees, can develop more without
some ‘bars’ (of a cage). We don’t have to
change the world, but look at ourselves
and recognise the ‘bars’ of stereotypes
and norms that we have. These are the
‘bars’ of discrimination. She cited the
example of ‘language’ that we use. We
always say ‘Chairman’, ‘Spokesman’.
We should rather say ‘Chairperson’ or
‘Spokesperson’, which is more neutral.
Addressing the women in the audience
she said, “We need to be strong”. She
continued that in an organisation, those
women who are strong should help other
women to be stronger as well.
Ms. Payne believes that organisations
should define their values like ‘equality’
and practice them across gender.
Benefits like flexible hours of work not
only gives women the time to manage
their household, but also allows men ‘to
have a life’ away from work. Further, HR
should create ‘Support Groups’ within
an organisation where employees can
talk about their problems.
12
The evening concluded with a vote of
thanks by Mr. Indranil Banerjee and
the presentation of a memento to Ms.
Payne.
Mumbai
NHRDN Mumbai Chapter and Trainers
Forum jointly organised a workshop on
‘Professional Personality Profiling’ on
November 12, 2010 which was addressed
by Mr. Hemang Laheru, Programme
Director – PRISM and Country Head
Sanda Excellence, a Certified PRISM
Practitioner and Business Coach. A
highly enlightening and educative
evening, wherein the participants learnt
about:
• Psychology and neuroscience the
differences;
• Brain structures and functions;
• The PRISM colours and their
meaning;
• The validity and reliability of PRISM;
and,
• PRISM applications.
On November 26, 2010 Mr. Serge
Sardo, CEO and MD at Australian
Human Resources Institute (AHRI)
Ltd., Australia, and Secretary General
of the Asia Pacific Federation of Human
Resources Management, addressed
NHRDN Members on the subject ‘AHRI
Operations and HR Issues in Australia’.
The fifth lecture under the ‘Speak for
Smiles’ series was organised on 27
November 2010 at WeSchool campus.
Dr. Ashok S. Ganguly, Member of
Parliament, Rajya Sabha, Chairman
ABP Pvt. Ltd. and former Chairman of
Hindustan Unilever Ltd. delivered a
speech on ‘How to Develop Leadership
Qualities’.
NHRDN Mumbai Chapter and Trainers
Forum jointly organised a screening of
a very special movie on management,
titled ‘The Shift - Conversations and
Reflections’ on December 16, 2010.
NHRDN Mumbai Chapter Annual Get
Together: To bid farewell to the current
year and to welcome the New Year 2011,
NHRDN organised a special programme
, ‘Jashan – A Funfilled Evening of Masti
and Dhamaka’ for all its members
together with spouses on December 24,
2010 at Welingkar Institute.
Nagpur
Nagpur Chapter organised a Members’
meet and an evening lecture by Mr.
Suresh Pandilwar, Sr. Manager,
Employee Relations and HRD, Mahindra
& Mahindra Ltd. on ‘Innovative HR
Practices for Enhancing Productivity’
at F.W. Taylor Hall, Central Institute
of Business Management Research and
Development on November 26, 2010.
During his talk Mr. Pandilwar explained
how Mahindra & Mahindra has been
able to engage its employees more
productively and quoted his experiences
on innovative HR practices in the
organisation.
On December 24, 2010, a one-
day workshop on ‘Measuring HR
Effectiveness’ was conducted by Mr.
Sudhir V. Sohoni, Founder Director,
Purple HR Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (Former
Executive Vice President-HR, IR &
Admin, Thermax Limited), at Hotel
Airport Centrepoint, Nagpur. It was
inaugurated by Mr. Arvind Jain, Sr. Vice
President Indorama Synthetics (I) Ltd.
and Patron-in-Chief NHRDN, Nagpur
Chapter. Through various role plays,
exercises and live examples, Mr. Sohoni
covered many topics, such as,
• The tools for measuring HR
effectiveness in the organisation;
• What is competitive advantage and
role of HR in creating competitive
advantage;
• Jobs design and what HR can do to
enhance hit rate in sourcing talent;
• What is cost and what is investment.
How to measure the cost effectiveness
of HR;
• How does HR create value for the
organisation;
• How to use the Balanced Score
Card as a Tool for tracking strategy
implementation; and,
• How to measure effectiveness of HR.
At this occasion Mr. Ajay Sinha, GM
Ispat Ltd. and Vice President NHRDN
Nagpur Chapter honoured Mr. Shyam
Laddha, CEO Amul’s Vasundhara
Dairy and Patron, NHRDN Nagpur
Chapter with ‘NHRDN Nagpur Chapter
Leadership Award’ for his meritorious
and exceptional contribution to the
Chapter.
13
Advertorial
Samik Chakraborty

Workplace Conflict and

Resolution

A
s HR professionals, we’ve often
come across issues arising out of
workplace conflicts and needless
to state, they are one of the most difficult
and persistent ones to handle. Not being
able to effectively identify conflict
and ensure its resolution within the
stipulated time may lead to debilitating
and potentially disastrous effects. The
purpose of this article is to help you
identify workplace conflict, understand
how it arises and how to resolve it most
effectively, as well as recognise the
benefits of resolving conflict in its early
stages.
Identifying Workplace
Conflict
Identifying workplace conflict is not
always as simple as one might think.
Conflict is regularly associated with
acute and isolated incidents such as
outbursts, arguments or verbal/physical
altercations. However, it is important to
note here that they are only indicators
of conflict. In our attempt to identify
conflict at the workplace, it is important
to distinguish between ‘disagreement’
and ‘conflict’.
Disagreement or differences of opinion
are regular occurrences, not only at
the workplace but also in our everyday
lives. In fact, disagreement is often
the means through which creative and
cutting edge ideas are generated. The
process of developing, defending and
reconciling opinions indicates a healthy
and vibrant workplace. Even seemingly
aggressive and intense disagreements
should initially be looked upon as
normal and acceptable. One should not

Conflict is entirely different

from disagreement.
Disagreement can be
considered as an expression
of confidence, enthusiasm
or caring, whereas
conflict is an expression
of frustration, self-
consciousness, and anger

18

make the error of stifling a creative and
exuberant environment by identifying
disagreement as conflict.
Conflict is entirely different from
disagreement. Disagreement can
be considered as an expression of
confidence, enthusiasm or caring,
whereas conflict is an expression of
frustration, self-consciousness, and
anger. This brings us to the primary
identifier of conflict. Those in conflict
are unable to sustain a productive and
stable exchange.
Let me explain with an example. Picture
an interaction or conversation between
two or more individuals where at least
one person’s participation becomes
increasingly rigid and short as the
interaction continues. There is often a
‘breaking point’ where someone abruptly
cuts off the interaction or erupts with
anger. In both instances, the breaking
point is usually taken as ‘irrational’,
‘inappropriate’, or ‘unbelievable’ by
those on the receiving end and can lead
to a vicious circle of conflict driven
exchanges. Those of us who enter into
organisational working environments
on a daily basis would agree that it is
precisely this vicious circle of exchanges
that is disruptive to our workplace and
destructive when left unresolved.
Unfortunately, workplace conflict can’t
always be easily identified by these
isolated interactions. Moreover, as an
HR professional, we are rarely present
to observe these exchanges. While we
can rely on the account of others, we can
also identify conflict at the workplace by
being aware of and watching out for the
following signs:
• Low morale and productivity;
• Repeated time spent dealing with the
same department or team (regardless
of the reason);
• Transfer requests from productive
employees;
• Concerns raised by employees
regarding other employees,
managers, teams or departments;
and,
• Client or customer feedback
expressing dissatisfaction
or inconsistencies with the
organisation’s operating procedure,
particularly when there have been no
changes.
The above mentioned are just an
indicative list and might not hold true
in every scenario. In fact, you may
already be on the look out for each of
these events. However, keeping in mind
that conflict could be the driving force
behind these kinds of occurrences may
lead you to take a different approach
when dealing with them. For example, if
you ascertain that a request for transfer
is being fuelled by conflict, you can see
to it that the situation gets addressed
directly as opposed to simply addressing
the symptom. Addressing the symptom
does nothing to resolve the conflict or
protect the organisation. To the extent
you can, always be on the look out for
conflict that masquerades as ordinary HR
issues. From my personal experience, I
can surely vouch that asking a few extra
questions will surprisingly reveal the
presence of conflict more often than
not.
How Workplace Conflict
Arises
Although easily an article all on its
own, the issue of how workplace
conflict arises can be traced back to two
distinct areas. These areas are ‘lack of
effective leadership’ and ‘qualities and
characteristics of individuals’. Lack of
effective leadership refers to an individual
or organisation’s failure to implement
and utilise effective leadership skills and
structure. If an individual in a position
of leadership does not know how to lead
others or an organisation does not have a
clear leadership structure, then conflict
will surface. Issues that stem from a lack
of effective leadership fuelling conflict
are: lack of trust; inconsistent application
of policies and procedures; unclear
communication; lack of appreciation;
and, feelings of disrespect.
The qualities and characteristics of
individuals also play a major role in how
conflict arises. Personality traits and
ego largely influence whether someone
will initiate a conflict. The bottom
line — individuals with a clear sense of
self and a commitment to teamwork
will be less likely to engage in conflict
behaviour. Employees who are low on
self confidence or morale and who are
not comfortable working in teams are
more susceptible to conflict.
How Workplace Conflict is
Most Effectively Resolved
Workplace conflict is most effectively
resolved by the process of mediation
where the mediator is an objective third
party who is completely independent
from the conflicting parties or the
concerned team. Firstly, the process
19
of mediation is most effective because
it allows the individuals in conflict to
maintain control of the situation. In
addition, participants are more at ease
in the mediator’s presence because, as
a third party, the mediator has actually
no power or authority to control the
resolution. Overall, irrespective of the
magnitude of the conflict, mediation is an
opportunity for those involved to resolve
their differences which they usually do
with the assistance of a competent and
skilful mediator. This results in reduced
burden on the organisation, since it does
not need to formally intervene.
Second, mediation is most effective at
resolving workplace conflict when the
mediator is an objective third party who
is completely independent from the
organisational structure. This is because
individuals in conflict are more likely to
be open to speaking with and listening
to someone who has no connection
to the organisation other than for the
purpose of resolving the conflict. When
the mediator comes from within the
organisational structure, participants
will often be suspicious of bias and
hidden agendas as well as have concerns
about the internal mediator’s ability to
competently handle the situation when
mediation is not that person’s primary
job. Having an unskilled volunteer from
the internal structure responsible for
resolving conflict in the workplace is an
unrealistic expectation.
Mediation is most effective
at resolving workplace
conflict when the mediator
is an objective third
party who is completely
independent from the
organisational structure
Effects of Workplace
Conflict and Benefits of
Early Resolution
The single most important benefit of
resolving workplace conflict early is
avoiding its debilitating and potentially
disastrous effects. The debilitating
effects of workplace conflict which are
seen regularly include:
• Decreased morale and productivity
among both employees and
managers;
• Dysfunctional teams or departments;
• Poor work product; and,
• Increased employee turnover.
The outcome of each of the above
effects points towards the organisation’s
‘bottom line’ getting affected which
means less profitability. The disastrous
effects of workplace conflict come in
various forms ranging from dealing with
employee complaints to something more
severe and extreme like media intrusion
thereby tarnishing the organisation’s
profit margin, reputation and overall
success significantly.
Beyond the benefit of avoiding the
negative effects of unresolved workplace
conflict, organisations that remain
disciplined in addressing conflict early
also receive the following benefits:
• Increased morale and productivity
(often above historic levels);
• Greater employee loyalty and
retention;
• Clarification of corporate purpose
and policy; and,
• Increased profitability, reputation,
and success through superior
products and services.
Perhaps the most fundamental benefit
of resolving workplace conflict early,
particularly through the use of mediation,
is the opportunity an organisation gets
to learn about itself. A tremendous value
is added when a mediator communicates
to HR and other employees what he/
she has learned about the organisation.
This kind of post-mediation discussion
can help an organisation further reduce
its exposure to the negative effects
of workplace conflict as well as the
resources necessary to deal with them.
In conclusion, the negative effects of
workplace conflict are persistent and
difficult to deal with. However, by being
able to properly identify these situations
and resolve them within the stipulated
time, the organisation will benefit by
becoming more aware of itself and
being more profitable in the competitive
marketplace. Many organisations are
brought to their knees by allowing
workplace conflict to go unidentified
and unresolved. This should not happen.
Resolve workplace conflict early and
success is guaranteed. ■
Samik Chakraborty is Assistant Manager –
Human Resources, TATA Consultancy Services
Ltd, Kolkata; He can be contacted at samik.
chakraborty@tcs.com
20
HRD

inspire

Towards the Next Orbit

A Crystal Ball Gaze into
National NHRD Network’s
14th National Conference

Compiled by Anuradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, Fulki Communications

Pvt. Ltd. and Anjali Raina, Executive Director, Harvard Business School India
Research Centre with inputs from other participants

Over 1300 delegates, who attended the 14th NHRDN Conference at Kingdom
of Dreams, Gurgaon, in the first week of December, agreed that this was truly
a conference with a difference. The theme of the conference- Towards the Next
Orbit, and its location (The Kingdom of Dreams) distinguished it from the many
other HR conferences that took place throughout the year.

22
A
s December drew nearer and
the dates for The National HRD
Network’s three-day National
Conference drew closer, my sense of
anticipation built. Having attended a
number of the NHRDN conferences
over the years I was expecting to connect
with old friends and make new ones, as
this conference attracts delegates from
different facets of the HR community
– academia, business, multinationals,
NGOs, government and public sector.
This time the theme – Towards the
Next Orbit – resonated with a sense of
possibility and optimism, (welcome after
the 2008-2009 recession). The list of
over 70 confirmed speakers included
HR and business luminaries, many from
overseas. The setting – the much talked
about Kingdom of Dreams, described
as ‘A Magical, Mystical and Memorable
Experience of India’ – was very different
from the usual five star hotels where
conferences are usually held.
As promised by Suresh Dutt Tripathi,
President, NHRDN, Delhi and NCR
Chapter, President - HR, SRF Ltd.
before the conference when I was
sharing my growing sense of anticipation
with him, the reality more than met my
expectations, as well as those of the
delegates. The feedback was awesome,
with food for thought and nourishment
for the body over three action packed
days. The discussions flowed fast and
furious, through four plenary sessions,
eight concurrent sessions and four
special sessions, with speakers engaging
with the delegates both within the
conference halls and over coffee, tea and
meals. The conference opening itself
(which was in the evening on December
1) was mind boggling, setting the tone
for the next three days. Mohit Rao
enthralled all present with mind bending
exercises, mind games and mind reading.
One delegate wistfully remarked that she
wished she was able to wield these skills
while engaging with her colleagues,
family members and boss!
Most of the people present were in total
agreement with N. S. Rajan, National
President, NHRDN; Partner, EMEIA,
People & Organisation Leader, Ernst
& Young, who while inaugurating the
conference shared his view that HR
heads can contribute significantly in
shaping the new India. “Intellect is a
new form of property”, he explained.
“…and the NHRDN annual conference
is special because it brings the entire HR
community in India together in a learning
space with thought leaders from around
the world.” Sharing the 26-year journey
towards growth of NHRDN from a small
body of professionals in Hyderabad, to a
network 25,000 strong with Indian and
overseas chapters, Rajan emphasised
23
the importance of building on the past,
while moving towards a strengthened
NHRDN. “How can we institutionalise
an institution?” he questioned. In this
context he shared the role that the three
pillars of governance, engagement and
network play in crafting the NHRDN of
today; the success of the Learning Centre
where more than 2000 HR professionals
have been trained on HR competencies
around the HR compass; and some of
the new initiatives - webinars, refreshed
newsletters, journals, and the launch
of the new NHRDN logo. It made me
proud to be a member of this community
and a member of NHRDN1.
While the critical role of HR has often
been spoken about, I confess that I
have sometimes cynically felt that when
it comes to the crunch, profits win out
over people. Different speakers in those
three days presented their perspective
on business cases as to why the future
demands an enhanced role for HR.
This is what gave me some hope that
going forward HR’s role would be
appropriately recognised. S.Y. Siddiqui,
Regional President, North, NHRDN
and Managing Executive Officer –
Administration (HR, IT, Finance &
COSL), Maruti Suzuki India Limited
exhorted HR practitioners. He said,
“We as ‘proud Indians’ must strive to
leave a legacy for the next generation
by creating inclusive, sustainable and
robust growth. How can we prepare our
nation for robust growth and remain
up to date?” He suggested that rather
than reacting or responding to change,
one must build capabilities to anticipate
it. He said, “The need of the day is for
leaders who can drive this, who can look
ahead and around, and beyond and not
behind”. S. K. Chaturvedi, Conference
Chairman, and Chairman and Managing
Director, Power Grid Corporation of
India agreed that HR’s role is pivotal.
“Earlier only a peripheral and a support
function, today people, and so HR, are
critical in understanding and evolving
strategies to take our businesses to the
new orbit”, he said. Dr. Pritam Singh,
Conference Academic Director, added,
“The 21st century is the century of men
and it is this power of men which will
decide the future of the country or the
organisation”.
One of the features that had attracted me
to the conference was the promise that,
being a confluence of global thought
leaders, it would provide a space for
1
To become a life member apply at www.nationalhrd.org
reflection on three important aspects
– the emerging business landscape,
the consequent challenges for today’s
companies and HR practitioners, and
evolving management practices. I
was hoping to gain some insights into
roadmaps and signposts that would
help in managing HR in the future. This
article is a distillation of my experience
of the conference combined with my own
perspective, but isn’t really a report of
the proceedings (visit www.nationalhrd.
org). I will therefore dwell on three major
themes discussed at the conference – try
to crystal ball gaze into the ‘next orbit’,
i.e. the contours of the future, attempt to
prioritise the 5 critical challenges, share
my takeaways with next generation HR
imperatives and dwell on the roadmaps
and signposts which HR needs to watch
out for.
Crystal Ball Gazing:
Reflecting Backwards, then
Looking Forward
Before looking ahead, I took a quick
peep into the rear view mirror and came
to the sobering conclusion that twenty
years ago we had no idea of what today
would look like. In 1990 I thought I
was privileged to have a landline at
home, had access to a shared computer
(which had a horrible green screen) at
the office, and still typed letters on a
typewriter. I had never heard of a cell
phone, the World Wide Web, Google or
Social media. I was still in my first job,
and thought that, that was where I would
be at ‘retirement’. I had a few friends of
my age at work, but was the only woman,
and the top echelons all wore black suits
and Hermes ties. India’s coffers were
24
empty, we had mortgaged our gold to Crystal Ball Gazing:
save the nation, and I was considered
foolish not to flee overpopulated India Different Skills for the

and encash my opportunity to study and
work in the United States.
In twenty short years there have been
tectonic shifts, with the physical collapse
of the World Trade Centre on 9/11 and
the virtual collapse of Wall Street. Today
India rising and reverse colonialism is the
to action
Future
While the contours of the future are
somewhat obscure, it is clear that
managing the future will require different
skills from the traditional. The problem
arises because organisations are trying
to get into this new orbit with skills
translation of

story, with Indian companies swallowing
venerable brands like Jaguar and ‘Jai
Ho’ winning an Oscar. The spectre of
overpopulation has been replaced by the
mantra of the demographic dividend.
But the future is still unclear. Dr. Pritam
Singh attempted to define the new
orbit. “The contemporary world is very
complex… and in this confluence of
complexities, the business model has
changed from one of vertical integration
to virtual integration. In a war you know
who your enemy is, but in the business
world this is not clear...somewhere,
someone is preparing a bullet in a garage!
...Co-partnerships and competitive
collaborations are the need of the hour...
but what is interesting is that smaller
fish are swallowing bigger fish! Is it the
power of size or the power of mind that is
important?”
which were meant for another bygone
era. Arun Maira, Member, Planning
Commission clarified this point with
a metaphor. “For India to sustain its
growth rate of 9 percent and take it to
double digits, it needs to improve the
design of its institutions. To launch these
newly designed crafts (institutions)
into the next orbit, we need the right
staff (propellers) to sail them, and most
importantly, the pilots of these crafts
need to have the right competence.”
Mr. Maira highlighted three mega
forces shaping tomorrow’s world – the
concept of economic progress and
pursuit of GDP growth; the notion that
citizens have rights – to information,
to livelihood and to be heard; and the
ubiquity of information. He suggested
that leaders of tomorrow need to grapple
with two fundamental questions – is it
“For India to sustain its
growth rate of 9 percent and
take it to double digits, it
needs to improve the design
of its institutions. To launch
these newly designed crafts
(institutions) into the next
orbit, we need the right staff
(propellers) to sail them,
and most importantly, the
pilots of these crafts need to
have the right competence.”
POLICY
fair, and is it sustainable? No doubt India
is seeing the emergence of a large and
vibrant middleclass, but accompanying
this is the increasing gap between the
rich and the poor; on one hand a family
of four building a 22 storey tower as their
home while on the footpath 22 families
occupy 4 feet of space. As he spoke, my
mind drifted to Gandhi, who over a 100
years ago pointed out that the world
has enough for every man’s need, but
not for his greed. Mr. Maira referred to
some research he had done with CII on
future scenarios for India, and painted a
vivid picture of the possible options. He
said, “Each Indian needs to have his own
light, like fireflies, so that when they
come together, they collectively create
sustained light and hope. We have to
learn to make a difference together.”
Day 2 opened with a plenary session
where R.C. Bhargava, Chairman
– Maruti Suzuki Ltd., Chanda D.
Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO
– ICICI Bank, Manoj Kohli, CEO and
Joint MD, International Operations –
Bharti Airtel and Adam Werbach, Global
Chief Sustainability Officer – Saatchi
& Saatchi, USA, provided perspectives

25
on the relationship between emerging
global trends, the consequent new
business landscape and the new models
of organisations and business. What
became clear to me was that the world
to come will be a global world, where
business models of interconnectedness
and openness are likely to be most
successful. Leaders who are comfortable
with this will be able to craft the
organisations of the future.
Critical Challenge 1:
Inclusive Growth
With the engine of growth in the global
economy increasingly moving from
developed to emerging countries,
the impact is seen in the expansion of
the middleclass, and in rising social
aspirations. In this scenario the mantra
of ‘inclusive growth’ moves from being
a vote garnering political platform
to an imperative for our continued
existence. Mr. Bhargava eloquently
drew attention to the fact that unless we
include the majority of the population
as beneficiaries in the eco system, there
will be social turmoil. He shared that he
had experienced many conferences and
talks. “People come and listen, applaud
the speaker but take little or no action...
what changes can you bring about in
your organisations as a result of this
conference?”, he challenged. “How can
you be the change?” With nightmares of
the French revolution being re-enacted
on Indian soil, I resolved to do my bit.
Critical Challenge 2:
Demographic Trends
Mrs. Kochhar pointed out that in India
the ratio of dependants to the earning
population is 50 percent while in other
countries it has reached its peak. “We
are going to be a young country while the
rest of the world is old,” she said. In my
view, the prospect of a young populous
India set in a rapidly greying world
creates an exciting opportunity for India
to be the labour market of the world; as
well as the sobering responsibility for
the HR fraternity to make this possible
through creating an ecosystem for both
skill development and re-skilling.
As multi-generational workforces
become the norm, one often debates
which elements of ‘youth culture’ are
relevant in an organisational context,
and also in what ways organisations need
to grow and change as Gen Y employees
form a larger and larger proportion of
the workforce. A common challenge
nowadays is the difficulties in dealing with
the ‘culture clash’ of Gen Y employees
working for Gen X supervisors. Mr. Kohli
said, “Business needs to develop to meet
changing demands, the aspirations and
The prospect of a young
populous India set in a
rapidly greying world
creates an exciting
opportunity for India to
be the labour market of
the world; as well as the
sobering responsibility
for the HR fraternity to
make this possible through
creating an ecosystem for
both skill development and
re-skilling
the unarticulated needs of the youth.”
Critical Challenge 3: The
War for Talent
Many leaders struggle to find the right
balance as the model of ‘employability’
assumes a direct link between higher
education and the labour market. Indian
employers are looking for ready to
use trained employees rather than an
‘educated’ individual while historically
universities have concentrated on broad
competencies leaving organisations to
impart knowledge and skills needed for
specific roles.
Companies have traditionally used
either the cadre building approach or
the poaching approach to acquiring
talent. However both approaches have
not served companies well. The cadre
building companies have become talent
factories supplying their top talent to
other companies. The poaching approach
has resulted in high employee turnover
and assimilation costs. Dr. Ritu Anand
stated, “Companies want successors,
not replacements”. The challenge lies
26
in developing an alternative approach to
Talent Management; and adding to the
talent pool and expanding it, instead of
nibbling at the turf.
Further, leaders need to increasingly
focus on how they can encourage the
HR team to join hands with educators,
policy makers and parents to build a
knowledge economy that fully leverages
the creativity and diversity of its youth
thereby moving from producing talent
to nurturing talent, and from quantity to
quality. V.M. Kaul, Director-Personnel,
Power Grid Corporation of India argued,
“HR needs to build a strategy to prepare
for the future; for globalisation.”
Critical Challenge 4:
Multicultural Markets,
Employees and Stakeholders
In the next 5 years, 25 percent of Indian
companies will be global. Indian leaders
also have to become global leaders. Kohli
cited the example of Toyota which has a
dedicated cell that studies ergonomics
of the backbone of consumers so as to
make their cars the most comfortable
for people to drive. He shared that
Bharti Telecom’s workforce is so
diverse and widespread, that they need
to develop capabilities to understand
the cultures, travel requirements,
languages etc. of over 45 countries!
The major demographic shift which is
metamorphosing every marketplace
into a global microcosm makes the ‘one
size fits all’ talent management model
outmoded. Diversity and inclusion
(D&I) agendas, customised for different
groups of employees, have become
a business-driven prerequisite for
market success, especially in the face
of globalisation, which drives greater
interaction between cultures, within
and between businesses. Organisations
are developing strategies to fish in an
increasingly diverse global talent pool,
and also working on institutionalising
inclusiveness and capitalising on
diversity. We have much to learn from
the best and unique practices of member
organisations of the ‘Hidden Brain Drain
Task Force’ (Focus on women, Nurture
global networks, Spread the flex etc.).
Critical Challenge 5: Speed
and Sustained Growth
Sushil Kapoor, CEO, Technical Textile
Business, SRF Ltd. added that multi
country opportunities, and multi cultural
and lingual entities show us, that the
need of the hour is to move from ‘a slow
and steady organisation to a high speed
evolving business’, in other words, ‘an
adaptive organisation’. Dr. Arun Jain,
Professor of Strategic Management,
IIM – Lucknow, echoed this view when
in another session he said, “The Asian
Games success shows that India needs
to move faster and faster to sustain its
place”.
Mrs. Kochhar with her ICICI experience,
shared, (where they focussed on both
opening of employee mindsets and
development of skill sets to drive
transformation during the consumer
business rollout and re-branding
exercise) and suggested some options
Companies have
traditionally used either the
cadre building approach or
the poaching approach to
acquiring talent. However
both these approaches
have not served companies
well. The cadre building
companies have become
talent factories supplying
their top talent to other
companies
to deal with the accelerated pace of
change that India is experiencing. The
Indian economy has shifted from largely
agriculture based, and the historic 5
percent ‘Hindu’ rate of growth has
accelerated to nearly 10 percent. And
the people are also changing with
increased innovation, and knowledge is
broadening perspectives.
“Are we just struggling or are we trying
to catch up?” Mr. Mukesh Khetrapal
from the audience, questioned. Mrs.
Kochhar responded, “We have a set of
opportunities; it is in our hands. India
is demand-led and other countries are
investment-led. The continuum on which
our country is based is much better and
sustainable. What is important is that we
must not become complacent.” She held
that demographics, investments and
implementation are the factors which
will drive us to sustained growth.
HR Imperative 1:
Establishing the Purpose of
Work
HR strategy needs to connect business
goals to a higher order purpose. This
was a recurring theme. Werbach
questioned how one can sustain an
organisation in this time of chaos. “This
is the time of transparency, engagement
and networks. One needs to set the
North Star goals”, and cited examples
from Toyota, P&G, and Starbucks to
explain this. Anil Sachdev, Founder
and CEO of SOIL (School Of Inspired
Leadership), in the following session
continued with the thought that the
purpose of the business is to save the
planet. Community, ecology, employees
and business strategy are the bridge to
overcome the issues of the planet and
strategy. He said, “Workplaces leave a
profound influence on our culture. What
are the differences that the organisations
and businesses are making to the planet?
Are we making the world a better place?”
The Role of HR is to ensure that the vision
is truly owned by all, to generate creative
strategies and foster genuine openness
27

and transparency. While I have always
known the importance of alignment
between vision and strategy, Sachdev
emphasised that inspired leaders also
align employees’ personal values to the
organisation’s vision and strategy, taking
performance to unparalleled heights.
This environment of ‘inspired work’ –
where people come to work not because
they are hired hands but because their
minds and hearts have been inspired
by the purpose they are serving, is the
model of the workplace of the future. HR
needs to help organisations deal with
the challenge of inspiring individuals to
understand the importance of balancing
material rewards and the invisible
fulfilment of knowing they have made a
difference. Mr. Maheshwari spoke about
‘people energy’ in organisations and the
challenge that lies in creating the energy
in people to produce more.
HR Imperative 2: ‘Aligning
HR at a Strategic, Business
and Board Level’
Two panels debated the different
perspectives and challenges faced by
the contemporary organisation and the
role that HR is expected to play to align
HR needs to help
organisations deal with
the challenge of inspiring
individuals to understand
the importance of balancing
material rewards and the
invisible fulfilment of
knowing they have made a
difference
with the organisation at a strategic,
business and board level. Many believe
that business in this new century has
lost the trust of the people, and that
leaders in all sectors are seen as self-
seeking and self-serving, rather than
driven by the larger interest. The panel
dialogued on how HR should work with
the top management of the organisation
to imbue the institution with a sense of
responsibility and accountability for
the triple bottom line of profit, people
and the planet. Dr. P.V. Bhide, Group
President, HR, JK Industries stated
that the HR team needs to develop ‘a
deep understanding of the business’.
Sonali Roychowdhury, Head-Human
Resources, Procter and Gamble India,
advised, “Participate, have a dialogue,
then align”, to the larger organisational
purpose.
HR Imperative 3: Sculpting
the Future
Today, the biggest business challenge is
responding to a world in which the frame
and basis of competition are always
changing. Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS,
Secretary to the Government of India,
Department of Public Enterprises,
Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public
Enterprises commented, “…as we
de-monopolise and de-regularise, we
are shaking up the public sector like a
grinder.” Confronted by the economic,
social and technological forces shaping
the global business landscape, most HR
managers assume that their ability to
sculpt the future is minimal. I believe that
the ability of managers to systematically
spot and act on these emerging trends
is the key to the companies capturing
market opportunities, taking risks
and spurring innovation. In the face
of intensifying competition, advances
in technology, and shifts in customer
preferences, ‘learning organisations’ are
more able to cultivate tolerance, foster
open discussion and think holistically
and systemically. This helps these
organisations adapt to the unpredictable
more quickly than their competitors
can, and more successfully orchestrate
change. Dr. Sripada Chandrashekhar,
Vice President and Head HR, India &
South Asia, IBM India quoting from the
book ‘How to make an Elephant Dance’
said, “…what to change is as important as
how to change.” Organisations need to
develop a compelling vision and a shared
sense of urgency for change in their
people, so as to push them into action
and steer them in the right direction.
Dr. Davide Sola, Professor, Strategy
and Former Director, ESCP, London
Campus, suggested that we should
look at change through a different
lens. “Orchestrating change is like
orchestrating the human factor”, he
said. Mr. Pramath Sinha, Founder and
Managing Director, 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt.
Ltd. said that change happens at two
levels – changing the organisation and
changing individuals. Sushil Kapoor
opined that often people believe that –
if you leave it, it will get done. However
what is important is to get the right
people onboard, because only then will
there be a fair chance that the vision
envisaged gets implemented.”
HR Imperative 4:
Connecting Internally
Communication too can play a key role
in the success of organisational change
efforts. As Mr. K.R. Kamath, Chairman
and MD, Punjab National Bank said,
“…in order to orchestrate change, your
communication must make an impact.
It is important to make people part
of your vision and give credit to the
team. Sincerity, walking the talk and
approachability is critical for a leader.
Change cannot be communicated
through mail alone.” Based on my
own experience where I have seen the
critical role that well-crafted internal
28
communication can play in driving
change, I found myself in total agreement
with Kamath. Development of relevant
activities, tactics and tools can help
organisations move individuals from
total lack of awareness of the problem
to understanding and committing to the
vision.
In summary, creating positive agents for
change is vital. We need to provide skills
and capabilities in people to cope with
the change. We need to consolidate the
changes and implement more change.
So how can HR managers orchestrate
this change, and implement the vision?
How can they become leaders of
organisations in the next orbit? Vinita
Bali, Managing Director, Britannia
Industries said, “… for example, any
sales manager responsible for a territory
is exercising leadership, because he
is empowered to take decisions.” She
reiterated that leadership is what we
need and must exercise and said “…
at the heart of Leadership, there are 3
questions – Where are we headed? Why
are we headed there? And how do we get
there?”
HR Imperative 5: ‘Towards
Value Adding Governance’
In the light of the dynamic business
landscape, the age of transparency and
globalisation, Organisational Boards
can add tremendous value if they are
focussed on doing the right things, better.
Different perspectives on the same theme
building
PEOPLE CAPABILITIES
were offered by panellists in a session
chaired by Senthil Chengalvarayan,
President and Editorial Director of TV18
Business Media; R.S. Sharma, Chairman
and Managing Director, ONGC; Raman
Roy, Chairman and Managing Director,
Quatrro BPO Solutions; Balwinder
Kalsi, MD, DuPont India; Armin Bruck,
Managing Director, Siemens India; Anil
Khandelwal, Former Chairman, Bank of
Baroda; Harshpati Singhania, MD, JK
Industries; Kalpana Morparia, CEO, JP
Morgan; and, Gurdeep Singh, COO,
Aircel, dialogued on how the Board
can provide high-level operational
oversight and on ways they can they
assume accountability and ownership
for operational matters. They were of
the opinion that it is in the hands of the
Board to select leaders who have the kind
of skills that can boost the energy of the
organisation and take it to new heights
of performance excellence.
Roadmaps and Signposts 1:
From the Best to the Next
In order to address shifting market
opportunities and add exponentially
higher value to their organisations,
leaders need to fundamentally rethink
their business model. Along with coping
with the challenges of strengthening
the bottom line leaders of today must
also focus on creating and sustaining
performance excellence. H.N. Srinivas,
Senior Vice President, HR, Taj Group,
echoed this view when he opined that the
responsibility of managing performance
should shift from HR to the business.
He said, “Performance Management
calls for building trust, understanding
values, articulating vision and goals and
most importantly, it makes sure that
your employees know that their dreams
matter.” S.V. Nathan, Director, Talent
Deloitte Consulting India Pvt. Ltd. too
stressed the importance of ‘meaningful
conversations’ where leaders should
reiterate that they are willing to hold
their employees hand, take an interest in
their personal lives, and invest in them.
While listening to this interesting
discussion, I wondered if reporting
relationships and performance
measurement ensure that people are
accountable for business results, and
also whether in a world where ‘what gets
measured gets done’, was enough being
done to change measurements to reflect
the new responsibilities of organisations.
As if in answer, Mr. Ramkumar, Executive
Director ICICI Bank while citing some
interesting anecdotes from his childhood
said that, “Managing performance is
managing ability, not end results.” He
said, “If you manage numbers, you
manage business. Leaders must shift
their focus from managing numbers to
managing. Performance is nothing but
strategy execution while numbers are
guiding lines; while racing for it, focus
on strategy.”
29
value-adding
GOVERNANCE
Roadmaps and Signposts 2:
The Right Leadership
Many agree that values, motivation,
patriotism, volunteerism and other
‘higher-order’ needs play a pivotal role in
driving excellence in performance. And
it is this thought which was echoed over
and over again by many as they described
the several facets that leadership needs
to reflect in order to take organisations
to the next orbit. What makes one leader
different from another? Why do some
people inspire confidence naturally?
What transforms ordinary men into
extraordinary leaders?
General (Retired) V.P. Malik, Indian
Army held the audience enthralled
as he reiterated that commitment,
camaraderie and patriotism are the core
of leadership. He illustrated his views
with the words and letters of young
men who lost their lives, fighting for the
country, touching the hearts of many in
the audience. “In the defence services,
life is so uncertain…,” he said, that
every person is trained for the next two
appointments, till they become chief.
People are so committed; they have a ‘do
or die’ mentality. They are ready to lay
down their lives in order to achieve their
goals. He was of the opinion that it is
this commitment and training that needs
to be built in leaders in the corporate
world too. “Leadership is 12 percent
knowledge and 88 percent attitude to
deal with people to get their best. …the
basics of leadership remain the same,
whether you lead 5 people or 5 million.”
He said.
Over the two and half days we were given
ample opportunity to draw leadership
inspiration from not only the army, but
also sports and the theatre. ‘Zangoora’,
beyond
TIME ZONE
RISK
management
the theatrical performance put up on the
second day, kept the audience riveted as
true leadership values were displayed by
a poor gypsy boy even before he realised
he was actually a royal prince. Australian
Olympian Brennon Dorwrick, in his
session ‘Stretching the Limits’, said, “…
what is required is that we must be an
Olympian. We must strive to break our
own records... not following the bench
mark, but setting the bench mark.”
It is true that a leader must learn the art
of being more focused on others, the
organisation, and the nation as a whole.
Only this can lead the contemporary
organisation and the nation, into the
next orbit. M. Damodaran, Retired
IAS and former Chairman, SEBI; IDBI
and UTI questioned the function of a
leader, while commenting that it was
to create an environment that enables
his team to perform to the best of their
potential. “Power is a difficult animal,
if you don’t know how to ride it, you
can’t dismount! One can’t be a leader by
remote control; one needs to face people
and demonstrate one’s true actions
to them.” He said. Honourable Shri
Tejendra Khanna, Lieutenant Governor
of Delhi commented, “Each one must
do his best to provide genuine respectful
service.”
Simple Answers to Difficult
Questions
It was with a sense of regret, but deep
satisfaction, that I saw the curtain fall on
the third day of the conference. It had
been an amazing experience. I had found
simple answers to my many difficult
questions while I connected the dots on
the emerging business landscape, shared
ideas on the consequent challenges for
today’s companies, validated my views
with global thought leaders and HR
practitioners on evolving management
practices, and networked with old
friends and new, over lavish meals at
the Culture Gully. The award ceremony
hosted so well by Pankaj Bansal, Co-
Founder and Chief Executive Officer,
PeopleStrong HR Services, gave me
the unique opportunity to reflect on the
achievements of the different chapters
over the previous years. As I drove
away from the Kingdom of Dreams
in the evening, I clutched in my hand
a delegate bag, full of goodies I had
collected during the conference - reading
material, brochures from the exhibitors’
stalls, as well as a small memento of the
conference for my daughter - a unique
Indian artefact from one of the many
shops I had browsed during the break.■
Anuradha Sharma can be contacted at anuradha.
sharma@fulki.co.in; www.fulki.co.in
30
 Towards the Next Orbit - A Visual Voyage
Day 1

Venue: Kingdom of Dreams, Gurgaon, India Welcome Address: Mr. S. Y. Siddiqui, Regional President – North,
Hosted by: Delhi & NCR Chapter NHRDN; Managing Executive Officer – Administration (HR, IT,
Finance & COSL), Maruti Suzuki India Limited

Mohit Rao (right) Energizer session - MENTALIZER Address: Dr. Pritam Singh, Conference Academic Director; Professor
of Emminence, MDI - Gurgaon

Lighting the Lamp: (left to right) Mr. Arun Maira, Member Planning Vote of Thanks: Mr. Suresh Tripathi, President – Delhi and NCR
Commission Shri. S. K. Chaturvedi, Conference Chairman; Chairman Chapter, NHRDN; President – HR, SRF Ltd.
and Managing Director, Powergrid Corporation of India.

31
Mentoring Session for young HR Practitioners

Registration Desk Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) and Member
of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. – during the
mentoring session

Mentoring an HR practitioner - Mr. Aquil Busrai, Former Executive The Mentors and Mentees
Director (HR), IBM; CEO, Aquil Busrai Consulting

Mentoring Session in progress Mr. Vinay Bassi, Chief Human Resource Officer at Onicra Credit Rating
Agency of India Limited – during the mentoring session.

32
Day 2
Plenary Session – Emerging Business Landscape: (left to right) Mr.
Manoj Kohli, CEO & Joint MD, International Operations, Bharti Airtel;
Mr. R. C. Bhargava (Session Chair), Chairman, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.;
Ms. Chanda D. Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank, Mr. Adam Werbach,
Global Chief Sustainability Officer, Saatchi & Saatchi, USA.
Concurrent Session on Crafting and Implementing Business Strategy
for Creating the Next Generation Global Enterprises : (left to right) Mr.
Sushil Kapoor, CEO (Technical Textile Business), SRF Ltd.; Dr. Gregory
Prastacos (Session Chair), Professor of Management Sciences, Rector
Athens University of Economics and Business; Dr. Arun Jain, Professor
of Strategic Management, IIM – Lucknow; Mr. Anil Sachdev, Founder
and CEO of SOIL (School of Inspired Leadership)
Concurrent Session on Crafting and Implementing Business Strategy
for Creating the Next Generation Global Enterprises : (left to right)
Mr. Vincent Swift, Chairman Asia-Pacific, TRANSEARCH, Dr. Frederic
Frery (Session Chair), Professor of Strategy, ESCP Europe Business
School, Mr. Rohtash Mal, CEO Escorts Agri Machinery Group, Mr.
Mayank Pareek, Managing Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales),
Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
Concurrent Session on Performance Excellence – From Best to Next:
(left to right) Dr. Anadi S Pande, VP (HRM) Corporate Planning &
Strategy, Hero Honda Motors; Mr. H. N. Srinivas, Senior VP – HR, Taj
Group; Mr. Vivek Paranjpe (Session Chair), Consultant – Vivek Paranjpe
Associates; Mr. S V Nathan, Director – Talent, Deloitte Consulting India
Pvt. Ltd.; Mr. Ramkumar, Executive Director, ICICI Bank, Mr. D. K.
Bakshi, Chief Mentor & CEO, Global Talent Consultants Co. Ltd. &
Executive Director India – Thai Chamber of Commerce.
Concurrent Session on Architecting Talent: (left to right) Prof. Dr. Uday
Salunkhe, Group Director, Welingkar Institute of Management ; Dr.
Mukund Vyas, Head Corporate Development Excellence, South Asia,
Siemens India; Dr. Arvind Agrawal (Session Chair), Management Board
Member, President – Corporate Development & Human Resources,
RPG Enterprises; Dr. Richard S. Wellins, Senior VP, Global Marketing
and Business, DDI (Development Dimensions International); Dr. Sunil
Maheshwari, Advisor, Ministry of HRD, Government of India; Dr. Ritu
Anand, Dy CHRO, TCS
Concurrent Session on Orchestrating Change: (left to right) Dr. Alfredo
Behrens (Session Chair), Professor, Cross-Cultural Management, FIA,
University of Sao Paolo, Brazil; Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS, Secretary
to the Government of India, Department of Public Enterprises, Ministry
of Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises; Ms. Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia
Industries; Dr. Davide Sola, Professor, Strategy and Former Director,
ESCP, London Campus
33
Concurrent Session on Orchestrating Change: (left to right) Mr. Pramath
Sinha, Founder & MD, 9.9 Mediaworx Pvt Ltd.; Mr. Serge Sardo (Session
Chair), President, AHRI, Australia; Mr. K. R. Kamath, Chairman & MD,
Punjab National Bank; Dr. Sripada Chandrasekhar, VP & Head HR,
India and South Asia, IBM India
NHRDN AWARDS
Mr. S Varadarajan, EVP and Chief Human Resources Officer of Quatrro
BPO Solutions, receiving the President’s Award.
Mr. Rajiv Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market) & Member of
the Group Executive Board, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, receiving the
Special Commendation 2009-2010 for the Mumbai Chapter.
Plenary Session on Kaleidoscope of Leadership: (left to right) General
(Retd.) V. P. Malik, Indian Army; Mr. M. Damodaran (Session Chair),
Retired IAS and Former Chairman, SEBI, IDBI & UTI; Mr. M. D.
Mallya, Chairman and MD, Bank of Baroda; Dr. Debashis Chatterjee,
Director, IIM Kozhikode
Best chapter award 2009-2010, Delhi & NCR Chapter
Ms. Leena Nair, Executive Director - HR for Hindustan Unilever,
receiving the HRD Excellence Award for Seasoned HR Professional.
34

Marcel P Parker receiving the award
Mr. Siddiqui receiving the Delhi NCR Best Chapter Award.
Sonali Roychawdhary, Director (HR) for Procter and Gamble (P&G)
India, receiving the HRD Excellence Award for Young HR Professional
2010.
Day 3
Towards the Next Orbit – “Go for Gold”: Session by Mr. Viren
Rasquinha, former captain of the Indian Hockey Team.
Special Session – “Stretching the Limits”: Session by Mr. Brennon
Dowrick, Australian Olympian
HR Panel Discussion on “Aligning HR at Strategic Business and Board
Level”: (left to right) Dr. M. J. Xavier, Director, IIM Ranchi; Mr. S.
Varadarajan, EVP & Chief HRO, Quatrro BPO Solutions; Mr. P.
Dwarkanath, Director – Group Human Capital, Max India; Mr. YV
Verma, COO, LG Electronics India; Mr. S. Y. Siddiqui, (Session Chair),
Managing Executive Officer – Administration (HR, IT, Finance &
COSL), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.; Mr. Rajeev Dubey, President (Group
HR & After-Market) & Member of the Group Executive Board, Mahindra
& Mahindra Ltd.; Mr. Vineet Kaul, Chief People Officer, Hindalco
Industries Ltd.; Mr. Harish Devarajan, Leadership and Organization
Consultant, People Unlimited
35
HR Panel Discussion on “Aligning HR at Strategic Business and Board
Level”: (left to right) Ms. Sonali Roychowdhury, Head – HR, Procter and
Gamble; Mr. V. M. Kaul, Director – Personnel, Powergrid Corporation
of India; Mr. Yugesh Goutam, VP – HR, RPG Enterprises; Mr. Aquil
Busrai (Session Chair), Former Executive Director (HR), IBM & CEO,
Aquil Busrai Consulting; Dr. P. V. Bhide, President – Corporate HR, JK
Industries; Mr. Sourav Daspatnaik, Director – HR & Strategy, Apeejay Planning for Growth – Lesson from Change : EY Global Research Mr.
Surendra Group; Mr. Marcel R Parker, Chairman of the Board, IKYA Anurag Malik, Partner, People & Organisation, Ernst & Young
Human Capital Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Plenary Session on Towards the Next Orbit: (left to right) Honorable

Shri Tejendra Khanna, Lieutenant Governor of Delhi; Mr. B. K.
Chaturvedi (Session Chair), Member, Planning Commission Contours of Conference Session: Dr. Asha Bhandarkar, Raman Munjal
Chair Professor for Leadership Studies, MDI – Gurgaon

Plenary Session on Towards Value Adding Governance: (left to right)

Mr. Gurdeep Singh, COO, Aircel ; Dr. Anil Khandelwal, Former
Chairman, Bank of Baroda; Mr. Balwinder Kalsi, MD, DuPont India;
Mr. Raman Roy, Chairman & MD, Quatrro BPO Solutions; Mr. Senthil
Chengalvarayan (Moderator), President & Editorial Director, TV18 Valedictory Address:Mr. Adi Godrej, Chairman, Godrej Industries
Business Media; Dr. Armin Bruck, MD, Siemens India; Mr. Harsh Pati
Singhania, MD, JK Industries; Ms. Kalpana Morparia, CEO, JP Morgan;
Mr. R. S. Sharma, Chairman & MD, ONGC

36
Passing the baton to Mr. Harish Devarajan (Bangalore Chapter
President) for the 15th National Conference

37
Column by Prof. Arup Varma
OLD is NOT always
GOLD!
A
recent study reported that people
in South Korea change their cell
phones every eleven months.
Indeed, all over the world, people are
known to want to get the latest versions of
all those exciting electronic gadgets, from
cell phones to TVs, to what-have-you!
Rarely do you hear anyone excited about
the fact that they still proudly use Betamax
systems, or VCR’s, or rotary phones, and
so on!
So, what does this have to do with HR?
Well, a lot! I have been amazed at how
many HR folks seem proud of the fact
that they are still using systems that have
been in place for a long time. So, what is
the problem? Exactly that! Just because
something has been in place for a long
time does not mean it is still relevant. Note
that I did not say, “… does not mean it is
still working.” I am sure it is working, and
working well. But the question is – could
updating or upgrading the system give
better results?
I believe all HR
There have been many cases in the U.S.
departments need to
where organisations were merrily using
stop and take a look at HR instruments/systems put in place a
long while ago, and did not see the need
the systems/instruments
to review or update them until someone
they have in place for the challenged the relevance of the system or
instrument. In one case, an organisation
various activities within had been using a well-known personality
test as part of the selection process. One
their purview – namely, of the candidates who took the test looked
recruitment, selection, at some of the questions, and believed he
had been given the wrong test, in error.
compensation, evaluation, When he approached the HR associate
and so on asking that s/he take a look at the test
that was given to him, he was informed
very confidently that it was the right test.
After all, the test did include ‘personality’
in the name. ‘Long story short – it turned
out the test had originally been designed
to evaluate individuals’ mental health, and
had very little to do with the corporate
world. I realize some of you are probably
thinking – well, some of our corporate
leaders clearly have problems with their
mental health – and I do agree with you.
But, that’s another topic for another time.
In the meantime, I believe all HR
departments need to stop and take a look
at the systems/instruments they have in
place for the various activities within their
purview – namely, recruitment, selection,
compensation, evaluation, and so on. A
simple series of questions would help
determine how relevant the systems are to
current needs. First, when was the system
or instrument initially implemented? Next,
were the systems statistically validated
before these were first used? If not, let’s
stop and validate them now. If these were
validated, great! Now, let’s see if there have
been any major (or, even minor) changes in
key factors, such as strategy, economy and
competition, since that time? If so, did
we at least tweak the instrument/system
accordingly? Did we follow this up with
re-validation? Let’s start asking these
questions, so the systems may be able to
help us find the right answers! ■
Arup Varma is Professor of Human Resource
Management at Loyola University, Chicago. He
has published numerous research articles in
leading academic and practitioner journals and
co-edited two books ‘Performance Management
Systems: A Global Perspective’ and ‘Doing
Business in India’. He has presented his research at
Management and Psychology conferences around
the world. He can be reached at avarma@luc.edu or
arupvarma@gmail.com.
40
C. Mahalingam

The Executive Coaching

Conundrum!

C
orporate corridors are afire trained and certified to be an executive
with another interesting (and coach, to coach an executive/manager
intriguing for some) management who is already a high performer, but
intervention. You guessed it right: has some developmental needs. These
Executive Coaching! As a leadership developmental needs are often not
service, executive coaching is a fairly technical in nature, but behavioural and
established practice in United States and interpersonal.
Western Europe, but it is still barely out
In my recent article to a leading daily, I
of diapers in a country like India. You
have articulated a point of view that the
may raise your eye-brows as to why I am
professional credentials of the coach are
saying so while the fact remains that for
perhaps much more important than the
many years now we have been practicing
fact the coached contracted for service
coaching, mentoring and counselling
has any certifications as executive
in India. No gain-saying the fact
coach. This article can be accessed at
relationship-oriented developmental
Executive coaching interventions like coaching have
http://www.thehindubusinessline.
com/manager/2010/11/22/
is very different than been around for a long time. But then
stories/2010112250140600.htm.
executive coaching is very different
normal coaching. In than normal coaching. In simple terms, Understandably, the ideal coach is one
simple terms, it means it means and involves engaging a paid who has great professional credentials
coach with the right credentials, often and is well-respected for their
and involves engaging a
paid coach with the right
credentials, often trained
and certified to be an
executive coach, to coach
an executive/manager
who is already a high
performer, but has some
developmental needs

41
contributions in his or her chosen field of
work and is as well a certified coach and
therefore adept at coaching principles,
tools and techniques and code of ethics
that govern coaching as a helping
profession or leadership practice.
In this article, I would like to focus on
why there may be hesitation on the part
of organisations, or even individual
executives, who stand to gain a lot from
being coached. I call this the coaching
conundrum or riddle since the inherent
benefit of executive coaching is well
1
understood and appreciated, but when
it comes to investing in and helping an
already successful executive become
even more successful, there is marked
hesitation. I set out on finding an answer
to this riddle by speaking to a host of
professional friends doing successful
coaching practice and learnt that one
or more of the following myths and
mistaken beliefs may actually be the
reason for such a situation. While a web
search will yield a lot of good reading
material on this subject, I have captured
my conversations with practicing
coaches on the subject. Of the five
coaches spoken to, two of them were
highly successful CEOs, two were very
accomplished HR leaders and one was
a partner with a leading consulting firm
Coaching builds on
strengths and makes
weaknesses irrelevant or
less harmful. Therefore,
coaching is not for those
in trouble, but meant
to prevent successful
managers from getting
into one, if at all!
prior to becoming fulltime executive
coach. Initial list of reasons or mistaken
beliefs shared by the interviewees/
coaches crossed a whopping twenty three
and after removing similar sounding
reasons and closely associated ones, I
have arrived at the following six mistaken
beliefs (I call them Syndromes) on the
part of organisations and/or individual
managers who could have been potential
targets for and beneficiaries of executive
coaching. To make it interesting and
easy to remember/recall, I have branded
them with interesting titles!
Overdosed Feedback Syndrome:
Performance management systems, 360
degree feedback, skip level conversations
with up-line managers, internal blogs,
external blogs, whistle-blowing policies,
management roundtables, HR pulse
check, employee satisfaction surveys
and oops, give us a break… we have
enough and more feedback. Need
we one more through the executive
coaching? The reality is that executive
coaching goes beyond feedback and
helps the executive concerned address
problems with appropriate changes in
behaviour. It is an established fact that
the successful executives do not enjoy
feedback particularly if negative. While
surveys and other HR systems are useful,
they also come with limitations. And
motivation to overcome weaknesses that
can potentially become de-railers is not
much left to the executives themselves.
Jim Collins (co author of ‘Built to Las’t
and ‘Good to Great’) makes a point when
he says level 5 leaders need strong egos
and not big egos. Learning to understand
this distinction is critical to accepting
feedback that throws light on weak areas
and an executive coach can help in this
process as opposed to self reflection and
correction.
2
Surrender-the-Freedom Syndrome:
Resistance to coaching also can emanate
from the fear of losing the freedom of
choice and action. While any of the
helping relationships including coaching,
counselling and mentoring runs the
danger of becoming prescriptive, trained
executive coaches exercise a lot of care
and caution to preserve the independence
of their clients. Good coaches are great
facilitators and do not prescribe. At the
same time, they are assertive enough
to make the client confront the reality
which is half the solution to solving the
problem. Coaches help their clients
explore the unexplored options rather
than letting the clients play ‘wooden leg’
or ‘yes, but’ games that Dr. Eric Berne
so eloquently covers in his best selling
book ‘Games People Play’. Freedom of
choice and action actually enlarges with
executive coaching intervention and not
otherwise.
3
The Ambulance Service Syndrome:
Another mistaken belief is that executive
coaching is for managers in serious
trouble! Far from real, coaching actually
benefits most the hugely successful
managers who are poised for higher
levels of success and significance in
their careers provided they care to take
help and resolve some of their nagging
behaviour flaws. Coaching as a practice
has its roots in sports. And coaches
out on the field will confirm that it is
difficult to coach someone who has no
strong fundamentals. A friend of mine
used to criticise coaching classes that
prepare students for securing admission
into institutes of higher learning such as
IITs and IIMs for their practice of taking
in admissions after a tough entrance
test. His argument is that students
seek admission into coaching institutes
because they are poor in some subjects
and rejecting them based on entrance
scores defeats the purpose of the very
existence of these coaching centres. I
went around with him to a few of these
centres and guess what the response
from these centre managers could have
been. It was a uniform message that they
can only prepare a 70 percent scorer
into becoming a 90 percent scorer and
not a 30 percent scorer into a 70 percent
scorer leave alone a 90 percent scorer!
My friend is still unconvinced, but truth
does not change because of what he
believes! Coaching builds on strengths
and makes weaknesses irrelevant or less
harmful. Therefore, coaching is not for
42
A practicing HR manager
friend of mine was on the
lookout for an executive
coach for one of his
engineering Vice Presidents
and when he went with
suggestions of potential
coaches to his colleague; all
the names were turned down
by the VP citing that none of
the suggested coaches had
an engineering background
those in trouble, but meant to prevent
successful managers from getting into
one, if at all!
4
The Nuts and Bolts Syndrome: It is also
a mistake if you believe that the coach
ought to have the same background
as me before I could accept him as my
coach. This may be true when it comes to
a coach on the playing field or if you are
learning to hone your skills in playing
Tabla (or any other instrument!). But
when it comes to executive coaching of a
senior manager, he or she is already good
at technical skills. Executive coaching
rarely focuses on technical skills, but on
the interpersonal and leadership skills.
Senior managers across various technical
and domain backgrounds have benefited
from experienced executive coaches with
varied backgrounds in enhancing their
effectiveness on the job. A practicing
HR manager friend of mine was on
the lookout for an executive coach for
one of his engineering Vice Presidents
and when he went with suggestions of
potential coaches to his colleague; all the
names were turned down by the VP citing
that none of the suggested coaches had
an engineering background. It took a
lot of persuasion and explaining both on
the part of the HR manager, but also on
the part of the CEO-manager of the VP
concerned before one of the coaches was
contracted. Now, the VP of engineering
is a happy man having benefited from
the coaching he received from the coach
whose background is in banking – a
successful stint at that!
5
The Know it All MBA Syndrome:
MBAs seem to live in a world of their
own worldwide! How can my coach be
someone without an MBA degree? What
does he know about management and
leadership? This was uniformly expressed
by all my five interviewees as at least the
initial hiccup before eventually signing
up with these MBA-ed Senior Managers
in need of coaching. Part of the problem
is the high pedestal the candidates put
themselves on thanks to their high
profile MBA degree (in other words their
MBA-triggered egos) and part of the
problem is innocent misunderstanding
that successful coaching has to do with
an MBA degree or even a psychology
background, neither of which is a
prerequisite for becoming a successful
executive coach! This is also often the
case with clients who have doctoral
degrees and the coach being contracted
is not even a post graduate degree holder.
This is a mental barrier that needs a lot
of perspective building on the part of
the sponsor – often the manager of the
coachee candidate.
The Indian Fig Tree (Arasa Maram)
6
Syndrome: In some parts of India, there
is a belief that going round the Indian Fig
Tree and offering prayers help realise
prayers including becoming pregnant.
The Fig Tree is supposed to remove
any dosha that may be the cause of all
problems. While the belief needs to be
respected, it is important to recognise
in the context of coaching that the
coaches are not magicians. They do not
have any of the powers attributed to the
Indian Fig Tree. Executive coaching has
proven impact and produces measurable
return on investment. However, it works
best when the client takes the coaching
seriously and considers behaviour
change seriously. The best of coaches
cannot deliver results when the client
does not have enough awareness and
conviction as to how changing behaviour
produces positive relationships at work
and morale in the team or even improves
personal productivity and enhanced
confidence.
In a nutshell, executive coaching
matters. For an executive who is a high
performer with high potential but has
certain interpersonal or behavioural
challenges, it proves very effective.
Here lies a key role for the executive
sponsor of the coaching intervention to
help the colleague being recommended
to take a coach to understand what
executive coaching is all about including
its limitations and opportunities and
the need to accept the coach carefully
selected with an open mind. With the
afore-mentioned syndromes addressed
and overcome, executive coaching offers
a bright future for the executives in need
of help. Long live executive coaching
and its effectiveness! ■
C. Mahalingam is Executive Vice President
and Chief People Officer with Symphony
Services Corporation. He can be reached at
mahalingam.c@symphonysv.com. The author
gratefully acknowledges the contributions from the
5 successful coaches he spoke with in preparation
for this article.
43
Rohini

Strategic HR for a Simpleton

T
he word ‘strategic’ sounds huge
and gigantic to the smaller and
fast growing Companies. Though
repercussions of recession are still being
faced by the world economy since 2008,
we have seen startups emerge and divulge
into the bigger picture worldwide. Now
what makes them keep HR Management,
Strategic HR take the back seat while the
management drives the whole business.
Management is relishing the cash cows
of the business but it’s the need of the
hour to build an Organisation Culture
and bestow the responsibility to an HR
within the organisation to nourish it.
We will look into the challenges and
the processes that one can follow in
implementing the strategic HR in small
and fast growing Organisations.
Brief introduction to Strategy and
Strategic HR
Strategy is the process of determining
a company’s long-term goals and
then identifying the best approach for
achieving those goals. Keep the profit
motive aside; goals can be categorised
into various facets from institutional,
technical and functional. We will look
at the integration of the three areas with
the HR Systems.

Specific strategic decision to HR function means:

Environment Factor Business Decision Strategic HR Decision
External Competitive advantage Organisation wants to be •Bench mark the recruitment practices
(Institutional ) technically competent
Aggressive growth Rapid sales and marketing •Internal training for better customer
(Technical) exercises service and account management
Internal Controlled environment Year wise team meetings • Skip level team meets
(Functional ) roosters
•More responsibility to middle level
managers
Reliability (Institutional ) To be more caring •Flexi work policies
and accommodative of
•Better grievance handling
employee needs
•More mature approach towards the
employee-manager relation

44

Strategic Human resources management
would be the alignment of the decisions
about people with decisions about
the results an organisation is trying to
obtain. To elaborate this we may look at
the task metrics.
About the Mid Size and Fast
Growing Companies
Here the categorisation is not only on
the strength of the firms but also the
tendency of the new startups who are in
the growth spree where the environment
is more dynamic with new focus areas,
and challenges they face day in day
out as they work with their teams from
the single digits to the 20-30’s to the
100’s. Below are the major contributing
parameters:
Leadership Styles
Most of the private owned Companies,
CEO’s have the Coercive or the
Authoritative Leadership style. It makes
the environment to be more closed,
controlled and leaves a lean chance
for strategic HR ideas from the HR
Department into the system.
Operational Costs
These companies would end up hiring a
mediocre or an average HR professional
Most of the private owned
Companies, CEO’s
have the Coercive or the
Authoritative Leadership
style. It makes the
environment to be more
closed, controlled and
leaves a lean chance for
strategic HR ideas from
the HR Department into
the system
seeking for the mundane activities that
need to be taken care and rather don’t
think beyond scope of what HR can
bring to the table. Or rather they are least
bothered. As per the traditional thinking
cost of hiring more experienced person
would hit their cost centre. On the flip
side a Management Graduate from a top
line B-school looks for more established
firms for faster career advancement.
Hence the gap exists like the egg-
chicken dilemma.
Alternately, hooked to this issue is
the career path of the HR professional
who choose a mid size firm for the next
few years to build their career in the
corporate world. They are stuck with the
mundane admin facilitation jobs rather
than bringing a value add to the team
as they are being hired in place of three
positions - an admin, finance-operations
coordinator, employee relation and the
least job responsibility in the Core HR
activities who will be the face of major
HR activities of the organisation. But
sadly the core HR activities are well
defined by the senior management; they
45
only need to represent the ideas what the
management thinks about process.
Over all Organisation
The employees are clue less what is
happening to them and likewise they
don’t know if they can believe the HR
for any changes they can introduce into
the system. They are often left with
thoughts that influence them from
the management. Hence it becomes
the rescue source of driving the HR
Process which will address most of these
questions in the minds of new hires.
The existing employees have the most
common questions like why am I working
for a small size firm if only I could make it
through the big brands? And ultimately
am I at the right place...?
Why these Issues Exist
The small, mid size and the fast growing
firms are in the tendency of aggressive
growth where focus is on the external
market and they fail to strike balance
to look internally if they are justifying
the environment within to manage the
growth.
President Kennedy made the
statement that man to land on
moon within a decade during a
meeting in 1961, and then three
men successfully landed and
returned back safely in 1969
making the most historic event of
the world
• High Confidentiality about the
growth details, operations data is
kept very confidential;
• They are striving towards the
sustainable business;
• They would have stereotyped the HR
as a cost center.
Why is it required? The
context and the classic
example:
Moon Mission: President Kennedy
made the statement that man to land on
moon within a decade during a meeting
in 1961, and then three men successfully
landed and returned back safely in 1969
making the most historic event of the
world. To achieve something, we need to
work towards a goal and never shy away
from making most challenging goals.
Process of implementing
strategic HR
Organisations can start with simple
questions like:
• What is its strategic achievement for
the next one year?
• What activities will it do to build
brand recognition for itself?
• Can it define a Work Culture?
In addition, we can also talk about
advancement plans, company policies,
administration, working condition etc.
It can also be as simple as interpersonal
relation, financial benefits to employees
etc.
The Process - what the HR
personnel will be doing
The HR personnel can jot down the most
influential factors of the organisation
based on the industry, work style that
they have adopted and choose the three
most critical attributes and work on
building the design HR programmes
around it.
The three areas where an HR can
deliver their programmes/ideas are
- the HR functions itself, may it be the
performance management, organisation
46
structure, organisation development,
recruitment etc.
The HR system and
Employee Relations
We can summaries it as mentioned
below:
• Study the existing culture in details
by informal meets, one on one,
feedbacks and other sources.
• Identify what needs to be eliminated
from the organisation, as it is said
‘nip it at the bud’.
• Put focus areas as to what should
be the process initiatives from
organisation to impart a positive
vibes into the system to enhance the
business strategy.
Examples:
Company A
Let’s take a fast growing consulting firm
that support contract staff for MNC’s
like Accenture, IBM, MS etc. Here the
organisation size is of 50 odd or so. Here
the most critical influential factor would
be ‘administration’ as the employees of
the company would look for professional
services from the Company. Hence the
strategic decision from Management
should be to delivery service within
SLA’s and maintain high standards
towards responding to the employee
request, cutting down process time and
closure.
Strategic decision should enhance
employee satisfaction who in turn will
perform at the client site to earn a good
repute for the organisation. Here it
becomes a strategic decision because the
company is investing in the goodwill of
the employee who are in turn the blood
of the organisation. Hence service and
satisfaction will be the key strategic HR
decisions.
Company B
Other example can be of an Engineering
firm that provides services to automobile
spare parts. Here the most influential
factor would be ‘working condition’.
An engineer would anticipate best
work environment and work culture
where his skills are highly respected
and acknowledged. Hence Management
should design an employee friendly
environment. The strategic HR decision
will be on employee needs like work
condition, acknowledgement of skill,
upgrading of scope and overall team
building activities.
How to Implement
The key is communication: The more
you communicate the better is the
relation. It requires both the bottom up
and top down communication channels.
Management can formulate an agenda
for the formal top down communication
and employees to be given a channel
where they can voice out their opinions,
ideas and comments on the process.
Create a platform to collaborate at
common level: Jam sessions, open
forums and debating issues will help
in getting the questions answered but
leaves more confident environment for
further collaboration and integration of
the company goals to personal goals.
Focus on the bigger picture: Dare to
compete with the organisation cultures
of the biggies, the best of the lots are
Microsoft, Dell, Proctor & Gamble and
IBM. Give the employee the chance to
feel proud of the unique and special HR
systems that you have, after all they only
want to flaunt about the organisation
which in turn brings a better brand
awareness to you.
Invest for Future: A little bit of budgeting
for the organisation building activities
will be a big wins that you can aim at, i.e.
a better employee retention, employee
satisfaction and committed employees.
Conclusion
A committed HR can diagnose the
problem better and treat it in a more
specific way. There is zeal inside every
matured HR professional, and I am sure
if given an opportunity they will bring out
great result with their ideas and build a
sophisticated HR architecture to protect
the patents of the company and beautify
it according to the changing needs.
It invites for more involvement from
the management and call for a debate to
these issues faced by the organisation as
a whole. ■
Rohini can be contacted at
rohini.mede@inspirage.com
47
Radha Mohan Chebolu
HR Analytics: The Strategic Tool
in Talent Management
Abstract
In recent times, there has been a major shift in HR
operations in some global corporations towards
applying the best of available talent that makes them to
beat the market competition with renewed interest and
enthusiasm. Also the amount of research being available
now on HR and their rededication to the growing
business issues forms the core of attention for strategists.
Rather than going for new talent acquisition that involves
an additional cost, some companies are focusing more
on management of available talent by drawing new work
profiles and configurations. Research on the firm’s HR
inputs and outputs has helped create a new roadmap
towards talent management with the help of IT systems
and applications. Popularly known as ‘HR Analytics’, the
intensity of addressing human-centric issues in the firms
now rises to new levels of attention by the board room
members. HR analytics, being one of the most discussed
HR topics in the management of organisational resources,
has the power of aligning business priorities with people
imperatives. This article attempts to bring to the readers
various facets of HR Analytics through the experiences of
those who have been using them effectively.
What is Analytics?
The simplest definition of ‘Analytics’ is ‘the science of
analysis’. A practical definition would be how an entity
(i.e. business) arrives at an optimal or realistic decision
based on existing data. Business managers may choose
to make decisions based on past experiences or rules
of thumb, or there might be other qualitative aspects to
decision making; but unless there is data involved in the
process, it would not be considered Analytics.
Common applications of Analytics include the study
of business data using statistical analysis in order to
discover and understand historical patterns with an eye
to predicting and improving business performance in the
future.
This article focuses mainly on Analytics that is being used
in the domain of HR with a view to synergise the available
efficiencies and behaviours. Also the latest trends specific
48
to HR Analytics are captured by locating
them in the context of organisational
effectiveness.
Benefits of HR Analytics…
For years, companies have analysed
data of all types – customer, product,
financial – with one important exception:
Human Resources. In fact, for decades,
HR departments have largely shunned
analytics altogether, instead focusing on
automating previously manual personnel
processes. That needs to change, and
fast. Especially during post-recession,
HR must manage their workers like
strategic assets, and one way to do that
is using HR-based data analytics. HR
Analytics can help HR model their
workforces and ensure they have the
right skills and competencies to meet the
organisation’s business objectives.
Most large organisations now have in
place HR Information Systems (HRIS),
which record basic HR transactions
such as Hiring date, Compensations,
Promotions, Performance Ratings etc.
Some go well beyond that level and
record skill levels on a variety of aptitudes
and learning programmes to improve
skills as well as Talent Management
and Succession Planning decisions.
Companies increasingly have the ability
to relate their investments in Human
Capital to their returns on Financial
Capital. Whether companies have the
desire is another question. They may
say that people are our ‘Most Important’
assets, they may even be a company’s
most expensive assets, but they rarely
are the ‘Most Measured’ asset. Many
companies are slowly beginning to
employ HR Analytics, but they are hardly
‘competing’ on them.
The obvious exception is in professional
sportsmen/teams, where high salaries
are paid to players depending on their
individual talent and ‘win-ability’. Here,
we are talking about ‘players’ in an
organisational context.
Examples of How
Organisations Use HR
Analytics
At American Express, which has
employees in 83 countries, everything
has a ‘metric’ attached. Whatever they
do uses globally consistent processes,
measurements and databases. Such
discipline is a prerequisite for HR
Analytics. Another organisation using
HR Analytics is Sprint, the Forbes 500
wireless telecom company in the US.
The HR team at Sprint discovered
that employee relationships follow a
predictable life-cycle that is very similar
to that of their Customer Relationships.
The HR team created a 6-stage life cycle
into the HR process such as:
• How do employees learn about
Sprint?
• How do we make sure we find and hire
the most qualified candidates?
• How are we going to get them their
first paycheck and make sure they are
happy with that first paycheck?
• How are we going to get the employee
up and running and get them
productive?
• How are we going to intervene when
the employee is unhappy?
• How are we going to get the employee
recommitted year after year to the
business?
Sprint attempts to measure as many of
these issues as possible for employees
and has found that the insights gained
from this analysis help the company
optimise each stage of its relationship
with employees and promote a motivated
and positive workforce.
What Hinders HR
Analytics?
The major barrier hindering companies
from implementing human resources
analytics is not lack of data on employees
– salary information, performance
reviews and education level – but
compartmentalised employee data.
Many HR departments have bypassed
IT and use SAAS-based (Software as
A Service) applications to manage
different types of employee data, which
are difficult to connect to internal data
sources like payroll systems. The result
is a mishmash of disparate employee data
that is nearly impossible to aggregate for
analysis.
Calculating the ROI of HR Aanalytics
is also difficult precisely because many
HR systems and applications are not
integrated with the financial system. A
lack of historical data against which to
compare HR analytic results, also makes
measuring ROI tricky, as a change
of even a percentage point or two in
employee retention or turnover can
have a significant financial effect. This
involves a critical dimension that has
been neglected for quite a long time.
A Five-Step Process of
Using HR Analytics to
Analyse Data:
Step 1: First and foremost, companies
need to do a thorough accounting of all
their employee and human resources
data, identify where it resides, and plan
for integration. There are numerous
data integration tools on the market
to aid companies in this effort, and the
emergence of Web services has made
the job even simpler.
Step 2: Once employee data is
integrated and discrepancies reconciled,
companies must determine what metrics
to measure. This involves a three-step
process, starting with backward-looking
metrics; moving towards predictive,
forward-looking analytics; and finally
resulting in KPIs based on historical
data. These metrics should be linked
directly to business outcomes and not
laser-focused on cost cutting.
Step 3: Companies have to choose one
of three technology strategies. The first
and least effective approach is to use
widely available but limited tools from
49
the major ERP vendors such as SAP and
Oracle. The second and most expensive
option is to create a custom human
resources data warehouse and leverage
business intelligence applications on
top. Or third, companies can tap a best-
of-breed talent management vendor
- Taleo Corp, Workscape, SilkRoad
Technology Inc., for a suite of human
resources analytics tools, which is
probably the best approach for most
companies.
Step 4: With analytics in place, the next
step is to determine in which format to
present the results to ensure maximum
effectiveness.
Step 5: Finally, companies have to be
ready and willing to change and refine
their human resources data analytics
approach to meet changing demands.
Just six months ago, you could have
been evaluating recruiting processes,
but given the ever-changing economic
List of HR Metrics that can be measured by HR Analytics:
HR Function Performance
• Employee satisfaction
• Job evaluation factor
• Workforce stability factor
Workforce Demography
• Headcount in different divisions
and locations with gender/age
composition
• Distribution of employees with respect
to skill sets
• Management to worker ratio
Recruitment
• Number of applications received,
offers made and accepted in a
particular period
• Cost incurred during the recruitment
process
• Average time to fill requirements
• Effective usage of channels
1. Strategic Reporting 4. Service Delivery Reporting
Do all of your managers understand how Do you have a clear view on the
workforce capabilities and behaviours performance of your outsourced service
drive strategy execution? delivery model?
2. Operational Reporting
Have you identified (and collected) the
right measures of strategic workforce
capabilities and workforce success?
3. Tactics Reporting
Do your managers have the access,
capability and motivation to use these
data to communicate strategic intent and
monitor our progress towards strategy
execution?
Training and Skill Development identify growth trends
•Training expense as percentage of Employee Performance
revenue
• Number of employees appraised at
•Percentage of training budget spent different levels
•Average training hours and training • Employee performance across
costs per Employee divisions
•Departmental training costs vs. budget Employee Relationship
allocated
• Grievances reporting
Leave and Absenteeism
• Average time taken for resolving
• Leave and types of leave availed grievances
• Cost of leave availed • Details on locations/divisions with
maximum grievances received
• Details on unauthorised absence from
duty • Number of employees’ suggestion
implemented
Compensation and Benefits
Attrition
• Average compensation ratio
• Attrition rate
• Payroll cost per employee
• Critical resource attrition
• Deviation in salary costs from industry
benchmark • Average employee life in the company
• Cost comparison over periods to • Reasons for exit
50
challenges, the focus will most likely shift performing employees and internal Talent Analytics: Talent Analytics
towards succession and development. mobility to better develop and retain is another major off-shoot of HR
Data analytics must take these changing key talents, understand the impact of Analytics. Leading edge companies are
goals into account. workforce turnover on performance increasingly adopting sophisticated
and costs and proactively identify and methods of analysing employee data to
Emerging trends in HR remove retention trouble spots. enhance their competitive advantage.
The best of the best American employees
Analytics • Providing the capability to correlate
such as Google, Best Buy, Sysco etc.
workforce information with
In recent times, the growing awareness are beginning to understand exactly
operational measures to better
on the subject of HR Metrics how to ensure the highest productivity,
understand the causal effect of
had revolutionised the corporate engagement and retention of top talent
workforce investment on operational
performance by means of multi-tasking and then replicating their successes.
results.
and multi-strategies at various junctures. They also understand that if you want
This made the firms to invent various Below is a pictorial example of HR better performance from their top
tools and technologies catering to the Analytics/Dashboard used at Sonata employees, who are their greatest assets
needs of business strategists. Prominent Solutions Inc., an American marketing – they’ll do well to favour Analytics over
among them is the HR Dashboard which company.
is the most sought-after by today’s HR
executives.
The HR Dashboard: An HR Dashboard is
simply a collection of charts, reports and
other metrics displayed in an organised
manner and presented to business users.
An HR Dashboard is typically hosted in a
business intelligence system and is part
of a performance management initiative
designed to use dashboards to measure
company performance vs. strategic
goals. In this case the HR Dashboards
might measure key performance
indicators (KPIs) related to employee
information. An HR Dashboard might
measure employee off-time as a percent
of total available or other key metrics
vital to an HR organisation.

Benefits of an HR
Dashboard
• Improving overall profitability
through more effective workforce cost
control. Managers can understand
how to optimise staffing levels to
ensure satisfactory delivery of service
while maintaining the lowest effective
headcount.
• Providing HR executives and line
managers consistent and integrated
talent insight to better manage
workforce performance and
capabilities. HR and business leaders
Source:http://www.dashboardinsight.com/dashboards/screenshots/hr-dashboard-
can gain visibility into top or bottom-
somatica-soltions-inc.aspx

51
pure gut instinct.
For example, Harrah’s Entertainment
Corp. (US) is known to use Analytics
to select customers with greatest profit
potential and to refine pricing and
promotions for selected segments. Also
it uses metrics to evaluate the effects of
its health and wellness programmes on
employee engagement and bottom-line.
Many companies favour job candidates
with stellar academic records from
prestigious institutes and Universities.
However, AT&T and Google have
established through analytics that a
demonstrated ability to take initiative
is a far better predictor of high
performance.
Employee Attrition is also a lesser
problem when HR Managers see that it
is coming to Sprint, which we read about
before, is a prime example.
All these examples prove without any
doubt, that analytics can be used to
uncover data that hitherto no one could
have unearthed, in order to use to
make the organisational working more
effective and efficient. Percentage wise,
Unfortunately, apart from a handful of • Jac Fitz-Enz. ‘The New HR Analytics - Predicting
speaking the number of companies
companies, the broader scenario with the Economic Value of Your Company’s Human
making use of analytics as the popular
regard to the awareness on analytics Capital Investments’. AMACOM Publishers,
form of performance management 2010.
mode of HR operations in most of the
system (PMS) is quite low and still there
firms is quite disappointing. Even if they • Thomas Davenport, Jeanne Harris and Jeremy
is a long way to go.
are aware of its utility but the real usage Shapiro. ‘Competing On Talent Analytics’.
Six Uses of Talent Analytics: Analysing of it is a question of big surprise. Perhaps Pages 39-44, Harvard Business Review – South
talent is not significantly different from Asia Edition, October 2010.
the real emphasis on this will come in
analysing customer relationships or due course of organisational growth • www.wikipedia.org
supply chain management. It starts with and development. But what seems to be • www.searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.
the delivery of historical facts and ends lacking most is the management’s desire com/news/1507118/Human-resources-
with real-time deployment of talent based to compete on HR, in the first place. data-analytics-brings-metrics-to-workforce-
on rapidly changing needs. Following are Perhaps as people costs continue to management
the different types of Talent analytics: rise and constitute higher percentages • www.humanresourcesmagazine.com.au/
of the organisations’ total costs, and articles/ee/0c02cbee.asp
Conclusion as executives realise that their people • www.northgatearinso.com/hr-analytics-
are ‘truly their most critical resource’, reporting
Future organisational performances are
Analytics will catch on and proliferate • www.russellconsultinginc.com/docs/PDF/
inextricably linked to the capabilities
more and more in the field of HR. ■ ASTD2003.pdf
and motivational levels of a company’s
workforce. As such, organisations that • www.oracle.com/us/products/057353.pdf
References
used HR Analytics extensively have • www.emanio.com/HR-Dashboard.html
already gained a good competitive • Thomas Davenport and Jeanne Harris.
advantage over the rivals as seen ‘Competing on Analytics – The New Science
of Winning’. Harvard Business School Press, Radha Mohan Chebolu, IBS Mumbai, can be
from the examples discussed above.
2007. contacted at radhamohan@ibsindia.org

52
53
 7 Days of the week
Wonders of the Ancient world
Continents of the world
Notes in music
The Atomic number of Nitrogen Days of the week
Wonders of the Ancient world
Continents of the world
Notes in music
The Atomic number of Nitrogen

7
7
Habits of Highly Effective People (- Stephen Covey)
Pillars of Wisdom (- T. E. Lawrence)
Seeds of meaningful work (- Dave Smith)
(- Enid Bylton) Secret Ages of Man (- William Shakespeare)

7
Islands of Bombay
Isle of Bombay
- Pointed star on the flag of Jordan Colaba
symbolising the seven verses of the opening Sura (Al-Fatiha) Little Colaba

7 7
of the Holy Koran; the seven points on the star represent faith Mahim
in One God, humanity, national spirit, humility, social justice, Mazagaon
virtue, and aspirations
Parel
Worli
Deadly Sins
Colors of the rainbow – VIBGYOR (identified by Isaac
Newton) And the connection with Michael Jackson
Kingdoms of the United Arab Emirates 7th of nine children
Is the original diameter in inches of the 45rpm format 7 letters in his first & last names
gramophone record 7 weeks, Black & White and Billie Jean
were the Number One on the charts
7/7/09 – date of memorial service
7 7 7 7 is the total of the date he died (25th i.e.
2 + 5 = 7)
The winning number on a slot machine

54
7
Is the International Dial Code for Russia
Is the number of times that a sheet of paper can be folded
Is the number of games that a tennis player must score to win a set
Is the number of players in the starting lineup for a water polo team

7 The number of saints appearing in a constellation called “Saptharishi

7
Mandalam” in Indian astronomy.
Rounds (Pheras) and Promises in a Hindu Wedding

The Boeing Aircraft Series

37
47
67

7
77
87 (Dreamliner) - Sided British 50 pence coin
made it the world’s first heptagon shaped coin.

7
7
Sisters – the seven states of Northeast India
Is the month in 1776, when United States declared Independence
Is a Card Game
Is the release of Windows series of operating systems from Microsoft
Are the types of virus according to Baltimore classification

Types of Intelligence
(Howard Gardner’s MI theory)
Linguistic
Logical-Mathematical
Bodily-Kinesthetic
Spatial Use in phrases..
Musical
Interpersonal “Sail the 7 seas…”
Intrapersonal Is an international chain of “On 7th heaven…”
convenience stores “The 7-year itch…”

55

Recruitment Process
Outsourcing
I
ndia Inc has weathered slowdown and has ramped up its
operations. Many corporates across industries and many
multinational companies which have forayed into India are
taking first mover advantage by recruiting people in volumes
for implementing their projects. But, simultaneously firms
are keeping a very cautious approach for recruitment, as they
do not want to compromise on quality of candidates. Lessons
learned during slowdown have helped firms to re-focus on
cost, quality, time and efficiency, which are present in RPO.
For large no hirings, organisations are increasingly turning to
Recruitmenet Process Outsourcing providers.
In ‘Recruitment Process Outsourcing’, not only employers
transfer entire procedure of recruitment services like sourcing,
screening, testing, interviewing, background checks,
coordinating offer letters, and orientation but they also transfer
their worries.
The market is flooded with numerous service providers but
a right way of opting for a partner is by assessing service
provider’s experience, resources, bandwidth, infrastructure,
expertise, technology advancement and by knowing how much
pace that company can keep up with your requirements.
If your company is strengthening its presence and is recruiting
people in large numbers, then here is why your company should
go for an RPO:
Advertorial
Guarantees closure - RPO companies are answerable for
closing positions unlike other recruitment firms and also save
human capital cost for internal hiring as recruitment are done
in volumes. Besides, RPO companies also implement best
practices such as orientation, retention, employee branding
etc.
No additional resources – When companies hire in volumes,
they also need to get few additional people on board to hire
next few people in hundreds or even more. By selecting a right
RPO company, your firm does not need to go for additional
resources. Here, you save your time.
Transfer your worries - Time is money. Yes, it is true. Thus,
by saving your time, your company can focus on its strategic
initiatives; leverage its core competencies, without any worry of
getting on board high-quality staff members for all positions.
Aligns procedures – Unlike your Internal HR department,
for volume based hiring, where metrics like time-to-fill, cost-
per-hire, quality of hire are left unmeasured, RPO manages
entire gamut of services and bring into line all procedures
like candidates’ tracking system, calendars and schedules, and
document-sharing tools.
Flexibility – Oh, so your company has just started R&D division
for one of your brands, and is need of only few people. And in
next quarter you get to know that the brand is doing well and
more investment in terms of manpower is required. So, based
on your company’s requirements of scaling up and down, RPO
will offer complete flexibility to your organisation.
RPO is the new buzz word among HR professionals and there is
already a lot of noise about it in the market. GlobalHunt suggests
that if your company wishes to save human capital cost, carry
operations with speed, aligns procedure and implement best
practices, then do not delay to opt for a right RPO provider.
Mail us at: corporate@globalhunt.in, Visit us at:
www.globalhunt.in
56
 ACROSS
3. Raise in pay because upon a favourable review of
an employee’s performance (5,8)
6. Workers, both skilled and unskilled, engaged
primarily in physical labour. (4, 6,)
8. It refers to the regular day shift, which is paid on
the basis of time rather than output.
10. A simple reproval of an employee by a
supervisor
11. Stands for reassignment of an employee to a
position requiring lesser responsibilities with a
lower rate of pay.
12. Short-cut process of reasoning that hunts for
a satisfactory, rather than an optimal, solution
to a very large, complex and/or poorly defined
problem.
14. Special wage rate for production above a
previously fixed standard of performance (9,4)
15. Work schedule intended to give employees an
equal share of both day and night work (8,5)
16. A person who frequently changes jobs (3,6)
17. It is a process of adjusting the raw statistics
obtained from a particular sample to
corresponding statistics obtained for a base
group or reference population.

DOWN
1. It is an aggregated term used for all government employees who are Solution
not members of the military services (5,7)

2. Dismissing an employee while at the same time providing him/her

with a large cash bonus. (6,9)

4. Latin abbreviation for et alia: (“and others”). (2,2)

5. These are findings or conclusions derived from direct and repeated

observations of a phenomenon under study.

7. Work site where employees worked long hours for low wages usually
under unsanitary conditions (5,4)

9. Mental measurement and/or testing

13. Is the basic element of work motions; basic ones are search, select,
grasp, reach, move, use, unavoidable delay, avoidable delay, plan,
and rest to overcome fatigue.

57