After the success of HR e-conclave 2020, on 8th October 2021, the Human Resource Department of SCMS NOIDA Human Resource Department of SCMS NOIDA hosted the HR E-Conclave on the topic “The Strength of Employee Experience in an Uncertain Business World: Redefining Purpose”. BBA Students from all three batches as well as students from other management institutes, academicians, research scholars, and HR professionals actively took part in the event. There were a total of 8 speakers. The primary motive was to provide a platform to the participants where they can listen to the experts who share their insights and knowledge in the HR domain in the light of evolving business paradigms and how to respond to new employee work expectations and preferences after more than a year of remote work.
The conclave was hosted by Ms. Sachleen Bajaj, head and student-in-charge of HR Club. The event began with a warm welcome to all the participants who were present at the event by Dr. Ruby Sengar, Area Chair – HR, SCMS NOIDA. The event continued with an insightful and inspiring speech by Dr. K. P. Venugopala Rao, Director, SCMS NOIDA.
The event was then followed by the keynote address delivered by Mr. Mohit Sethi, Executive Director – HR NielsenIQ, who spoke about how the terms employee and experience are two disjointed terms. The main aim was to bring them together by putting in efforts in the area of organizational culture, employee engagement, inclusivity, etc. The keynote was further followed by the first-panel discussion which consisted of following panellists: Mr. S. Ramkishore, VP & Head – HR (Divisional Corporate), L&T Construction; Mr. Mohit Sethi, Executive Director – HR, NielsenIQ; Ms. Koushalya Raghavachari, Head-Talent of Partnering for Engineering, Product and Corporate, Ather Energy, and their topic of discussion was “Redefining Employee Experience Definition and Models Post-Pandemic”.
After the panel discussion, the Mid-Day Keynote address was delivered by Mr. S. Ramkishore, VP & Head – HR (Divisional Corporate), L&T Construction. Here he talked about how priorities have completely changed, from striving for survival to normalization the journey was not easy. The way of working has now undergone a change and a certain change is inevitable, things have completely changed in terms of studies, job, career, and growth in the job. The Mid-Day Keynote was followed by second-panel discussion which consisted of following panellists: Mr. Sunil Naik, Director – HR (India and South Asia), DHL Global Forwarding; Mr. Deepak Gupta, Group Head-HR, Karvy Group; Ms. Ritu Mendiratta, HR Head, Oxfam India, and their topic of discussion was “Developing an Organizational Culture Focusing on Mindfulness and Mental Health”. The moderator for the conclave was Mr. Kingshuk Nag: Editor-in-chief, Chairman, and MD Khabarstreet.com and Words Worth Publishing Pvt. Ltd.
Following were the list of speakers or the Panellists and the highlights of their speeches:-
Mr. Mohit Sethi, Executive Director – HR, NielsenIQ, discussed the organization’s work in the pandemic times. He stated that a pandemic during the early 2000s would have made working impossible. But now, we have online facilities during 2020, when the pandemic happened. Work-From-Home is a gift and is comfortable. Online mode means lesser budget due to the absence of infrastructure, facilities & logistics. Due to the shift in the budget, employees get higher salaries. There is more time to learn new skills. Employees do not have to travel to get training. And for collecting data, once we employed field agents, now we use drones. The world is celebrating virtual working, but it’s just about survival.
Mr. S. Ramkishore, VP & Head – HR (Divisional Corporate), L&T Construction; spoke about the challenges faced by HR during these one and a half years of the pandemic. His organization has done a lot for the welfare of its employees, they promoted asynchronous work and had been trying to bring automation in HR and help employees to meet their requirements. HR made a huge push to persuade their employees to adopt online working and learning. He told that this pandemic has given wheels to learning. The compensation has been made in terms of reach. Power of learning has come to people, curating content, usage of analytics to keep employees happy and it had been a happy journey as far as learning is concerned.
Ms. Koushalya Raghavachari, Head-Talent of Partnering for Engineering, Product and Corporate, Ather Energy; talked about how the perspective of looking at work changed, the lines are blurred between work and personal lives. In these times, technology helped in engaging our employees with each other. emphasized creating a balance between the wellbeing and productivity of employees. She focused on the larger picture and not the profit the company was making during this challenging time. It was important for employees to focus on themselves and their safety. The ability to be agile, show empathy, focus on curating culture & have a real understanding of business, business objectives & what impact the business makes were the qualities that Ms. Koushalya looks for in a person who is joining an HR department.
Mr. Sunil Naik, Director – HR (India and South Asia), DHL Global Forwarding; agreed that the organizational culture is very important to equip ourselves and manage everything in the organization. Employee engagement needs to be increased, they need to bring whole selves whether its CEO or a delivery boy they should feel valued and engaged towards the organization to maintain a good culture. Therefore, how you treat your employees or peer workers is very important. Further, he added that respect and results should be an integral part of any organization even before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and after the pandemic. Also, he stated that nothing can go consistent. We need to reconstruct our policies as the recent time demands it to be. We need to reconstruct what works today.
Mr. Deepak Gupta, Group Head-HR, Karvy Group; discussed why employees leave organizations. He stated that leaders are responsible, organizations should keep understanding that. There is no rigid and no one size fits all solution. We should lay out the purpose today. It depends on the organization and the things it offers, like brand value and top-of-the-line products. Also, it depends on the team that you are working with for 12-14 hours a day. Your processes you go through with your team. And your trust in the team. It is the desire which leads you to work at a company. You have to find your purpose and your goal, and completely commit yourself to it.
Ms. Ritu Mendiratta, HR Head, Oxfam India; mentioned that in her organization the top priority is to look into a humanitarian crisis with adequate responses. She further added that shifts in working practices and work from home patterns being introduced have significantly changed their organizational environment. She mentioned that this change in work pattern caused hindrance in performance delivery and they were also unable to engage employees. As a result, they started conducting wellness sessions and the core team started interacting with the staff facing a crisis. They reached out to them individually and this helped them in enhancing emotional wellbeing and engaging virtually.
