Report on HR Summit 2017

Heuristic 2017

“People, Purpose, Passion: Igniting Human Resources and Building Competencies for Next Generation Organisations”

The School of Management, G D Goenka University organized its 1st HR Summit,Heuristic 2017, on 18 November 2017. As the HR priorities over a period of time have witnessed major changes, they have moved on from complying to legislations and looking backwards to using sophisticated technologies, to deriving strategic decisions, building competencies and developing future leaders, from reducing turnover to attracting talent through employer branding activities, it was the need of the hour to understand how closely the HR processes for example work measurement and reward processes, talent management and reward processes, organizational effectiveness and reward processes, talent management and organizational effectiveness are aligned. Viewing all these aspects, the theme for the HR Summit was very aptly chosen and titled as “People, Purpose, Passion: Igniting Human Resources and Building Competencies for Next Generation Organisations” and deliberations on three areas were done:

a. Driving Innovation through new HR paradigms
b. Leader’s Insights: Imaging the next generation organization
c. Wind of Change: The future of HR in the digital age

The phenomenal day started by invoking the blessings of Goddess Saraswati and a welcome address by the Honourable Vice Chancellor, G D Goenka University, Prof. (Dr.) Shrihari. Dr. Shrihari in his address congratulated School of Management for organizing this amazing interacting opportunity between Industry stalwarts and University. He highlighted that HR designs its own systems and is extremely subjective in nature. He added that for all the educational institutions need of the hour is to train their students with the skills sets needed to prepare them for future. After the welcome address, a briefing about the HR Summit was given by Prof. (Dr.) Arun Sacher, Summit Chair and Dean, School of Management. Dr. Sacher provided a backdrop of the Summit and emphasized that with the inevitable business changes HR professionals will have to play diverse challenging roles in the coming times.

During the inaugural ceremony, the Guest of Honour Mr. Rajesh Tripathi, GM-HR, National Small Industries Corporation Ltd.deliberated about the role of HR in changing paradigm. He added that HR is basically a perception which has been evolving with changing times. HR is about igniting human resources and HR personnel’s have to be effective managers. He also discussed about the significance of employee engagement and employee effectiveness at work place and urged that HR people should possess power of adaptability and people in the organizations too should be equally adaptable to changes. Mr. Raj Gupta, GM HR, TCShighlighted that role of HR is trifold. It deals with generating revenue, training people and creating leaders. He mentioned that as we have moved on from machine age to industrial age to network age we need to focus on PIE principle i.e. performance, projection, perception, image and exposure.

The Inaugural session was followed by Panel Discussion on the theme “Driving Innovation through new HR paradigms”. The members of Panel namely Mr. Raj Gupta, Head HR, TCS, Mr. Amit Sharma, National Distribution Head, Panasonic, Mr. Sugato Palit, Chief HR Officer, VBL and Mr. Dev Jha, HR Business Partner, Videocon Industries highlighted that in this era of globalization, innovation in organizations is truly an imperative for survival. They shared that cultivating holistic approach and strong employee relationships are above other HRM practices and continue to be the most influential and significant innovation driver. They added that for recruitment and selection, investing in people with both experience and the right fit contribute the most.New recruits must share the same value systems and beliefs held and fostered by the company to contribute to their culture of innovation. Essential training and development practices should be included to encourage the students and employees to take responsibility for their own career and personal development and companies should foster a culture of growth and leadership strong enough to allow the emergence of its own future leaders.With reference to making students corporate ready, they emphasized on a string collaboration between industry and academia.

p align=\"justify\">The Panel Discussion was followed by a Plenary Session on the theme “Leader’s Insights: Imaging the next generation organization.” The keynote speakersof the session namely Mr. Ajay Agarwal, Director, Alcatel-Lucent India Ltd, India, Ms. Ashu Goswami, Head HR Swiss Military, Swiss Military Lifestyle Products Pvt. Ltd., Ms. Geetika Seth, Kleos Marketing Consultancy, India, Mr. Babu Vittal, Head HR, ShopClues, Ms. Shefali Shukla, Associate Vice President - Human Resource, Scoop Brand Holdings Pvt. Ltd. and Ms. Prerna Kapoor, Senior Manager- HR, Pepsico India Holdings Pvt. Ltd. discussed that organizations need to refocus on leadership as a whole. They need to form leadership teams that mix different generations and varieties of leaders and develop leaders deeper in the organizations substantiated with a structured and evidence based foundation. In this session, Mr. Ajay Agarwal suggested that we should stick to the basics of ABCD of our life i.e. Awareness, Belongingness, Commitment and Direction. Ms. Ashu Goswami emphasized on being passionate about our work and continuously motivate our teams. Ms. Geetika Seth urged that leaders should be professional yet helpful and friendly. Mr. Babu Vittal shared about the role of technology and machines in guiding us and directing us in getting works done. He emphasized on the role of building relationships in place of being merely slaves to technology because that is what will bear fruits in future. Ms. Shefali Shukla specifically suggested the present generation to take their lives and careers seriously and build their EQ and integrity. Ms. Prerna Kapoor shared about the redesigned role of HR in Pepsico in training and retaining employees.

The Plenary session was followed by another Panel Discussion on a very pertinent topic “Wind of Change: The future of HR in the digital age”. During this Panel Discussion HR Professionals from diverse fields namely Mr. K. K. Seth, ex- ED, BHEL, Mr. Pulkit Trivedi, Director, Global Sales Organization, Facebook India, Mr. Mukul Chopra, Director HR, Huawei and Mr. Sandeep Gautam, ED-HR, Spencer\'s Retail Limited shared their views about the changing role of people management in the digital age. They pointed that HR needs to be more pre-emptive with regard to digital transformation as it plays an important role in shaping the organisations’s digital identity. They discussed how it is a challenge and a real complexity to plan future capabilities of a workforce in the digital economy and highlighted how restructuring the organization to enable the digital transformation, embracing the digital talent lifecycle and empowering digital leadership can bring in the desired changes.

In the end, a valedictory ceremony was organized. The Guest of Honour Mr. Ved Parkash, Group General Manager, RITES Limited shared that in the present times the role of HR has become even more important in the present times. He shared his insights and changes which he has seen in the evolution of HR in the last few years. At the end of the valedictory session, Mr. Manoj Sahani, Director, CRC, G D Goenka University extended a vote of thanks to all the dignitaries and particpants for building an immense store house of information related to HR field which will help the professionals, faculty members and students to study rare phenomenas and candidly understand HR related challenges, issues, theoretical assumptions and opportunities. Due to the accurate scholarship, immense insights and discerning observations of the dignitaries the Summit led to tremendous inspiring and change facilitating ideas, opinions, suggestions and viewpoints which will be of immense importance in the times to come.