Article: HR & Business Strategy: Two Cogs of the Same Wheel

Diversity

HR & Business Strategy: Two Cogs of the Same Wheel

Leadership is not a function of hierarchy; each and every employee is expected to display leadership competencies in their everyday roles
 

Engagement both in terms of rational and emotional connect, with the organisation and its purpose is a key driver of business success

 

Leadership is not a function of hierarchy; each and every employee is expected to display leadership competencies in their everyday roles. At Coromandel, the pillars of the leadership model are: integrity, passion, quality, respect, and responsibility. Classroom training, stretch assignments, and executive coaching are amongst a few of the initiatives undertaken by Coromandel for leadership development. At the junior management level, the focus is on building functional competencies and graduates towards behavioral competencies.

HR and business strategy are considered to be two cogs of the same wheel at Coromandel, wherein HR is an active participant in the formulation of the business strategy, and HR strategies are deeply embedded in the business strategies. In fact, it is HR which anchors the business excellence journey at Coromandel.

One of the unique practices include a well articulated and defined internal venture funding model for supporting experimentation and incubation of ideas, thereby boosting innovation and creativity. Employee engagement at Coromandel gets driven through the Gallup Q12 Framework. A lot of emphasis is laid on identifying and grooming internal talent. The succession pipeline utilization rate for critical roles is close to 80 percent. Even in new business models like retail, the internal fill rate of critical roles is close to 70 percent.

Coromandel’s evaluation follows the ‘Philips Model’ of training evaluation. Learning and development function is evaluated for its business impact by tracking business HR metrics and is executed through a robust and scalable learning management process. Data gathered from various processes like PMS, succession planning, business plan, competency assessment, etc. are comprehensively processed to arrive at learning strategies and models. The learning and development expenses per employee are around 25 percent more than that of the industry average.

Engagement both in terms of rational and emotional connect, with the organization and its purpose is a key driver of business success. Some of the key engagement initiatives are the Q12 Manager Education Program, Q12 Team Action planning workshops and enterprise-wide engagement action planning. The action planning process provides inputs for improvements/changes in the HR practices.

Arun Leslie George is Sr. VP & Head-HR, Coromandel International
 

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Topics: Diversity, Strategic HR, C-Suite, #BestPractices, #ExpertViews

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