Having gone through the difficult three years, Indian organizations today are busy preparing for the promising new future. While we all celebrate that the boom is back, the HR Leadership Dialogue 2011, a conference organized by Network 18 in association with Monster.com, is a reality check for all people leaders. To meet the challenges that come along with the projected positive growth for businesses, here are some actionable points that HR leaders and professionals across the industry can emulate.

STOP POACHING

The prevailing talent gap has led to high attrition as a result of increased poaching. While individuals stand to gain in the short term due to higher salary, in the long term it will benefit neither the organization nor the individual. The situation keeps HR busy with increased hiring, organization cost increases and individual face uncertainty as a result of increased movement from job to job. Companies need to consciously move from fishing (read poaching) to forming (read developing talent from within). For this HR must reassess its competency and bandwidth to address the new talent problems.

CHANGE YOUR LEADERSHIP APPROACH

The economic zones have undergone a change in the last 3 years which has a grave impact on management and leadership. There will be a paradigm shift in leadership and HR leaders will have to emphasize a culture to nurture collective leadership at the middle and junior levels and focus on building a talent pipeline across levels. Along with performance, HR needs to look at creating a value driven culture for sustainable performance.

ENHANCE IN-DEPTH SECTOR KNOWLEDGE

For HR to contribute beyond the nuts and bolts of the function, HR leaders have to understand the industry very well which is not possible by moving from industry to industry as many HR professionals do, along with a detailed understanding of their respective business. HR should prepare to tweak the existing process and system to impact the bottom line.

USE MEASUREMENTS AND METRICS

Measurement and metrics will become more popular as HR strives to contribute to the business agenda. This requires HR leaders to be equipped to undertake demographics measurement, exit analysis, human capital assessment, performance measurement and more emphasis on the use of tools like the Balanced Scorecard which brings a closer correlation of HR activities and business realities.

MAKE INNOVATION A SENSE OF PRIDE

While many companies claim to promote innovation, the truth is that allocating 20% of employee time per week is not all that companies need to do. HR will have to create a culture of innovation together with the leadership. There is a need for reward mechanisms which will reward employees for a new idea, be it in process, product or system, and not necessarily reward only those who file for patents. The present scenario has often seen HR stifle individual innovation streaks, while the reality is that as people, everyone is capable of innovating and it is up to the organization to tap it effectively.

NURTURE EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT

With the return of the boom, employee engagement is once again a HR agenda where the focus should be on how organizations can nurture and foster commitment. HR should recognize that commitment is an attitude and an innate sense of working for a purpose while HR often mistakes tenure for commitment.

BALANCE WORK AND LIFE

With growth opportunities increasing, companies will want to maximize performance. While this is crucial, HR has to help leadership conceptualize the right approach to ensure sustainable people contribution. This calls for an equal emphasis on affording its employees the right balance between work and life. There is a need to look at the individual and help them optimize their contribution to work and life.

THE EXPERTS’ VIEW

Sanjay Modi
Managing Director, India, Middle East and South East Asia, Monster.com
“As an individual, while we talk about high performing organizations, I juggle a lot of things- work, family, friend, spirit and health. While we are running this mad race, sometimes work is considered most valuable. But work to me is like a rubber ball – it falls and it will bounce back. Others are actually balls of glass – if they fall they will never be the same again. So I tell my people, come to work, be focused and work hard; and go home and enjoy time with your family.”

Bhuvaneswar Naik
Vice President- HR, SAP Labs India
“As people, we all have the ability to innovate, some organizations are able to tap on that and become successful, while some just stifle it and HR is often responsible for stifling innovation.”

V. Kovi Chelvan
Senior Vice President-HR, TVS Motor Company Limited
“Poaching and attrition needs to be addressed at a holistic level including national, industry, enterprise, management, and employee level. At the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) Human Capital Group, we are talking about the shift from fishing, referring to poaching talent, to forming, which is to growing talent from within.”

A. Krishna
Senior Vice President-HR, Bosch India
“Commitment is actually an attitude, something that people can choose. It is having an innate sense of working for a purpose which is beyond the pay check.”

Ravi Dasgupta
Group Head- HR, Biocon Limited
“If HR wants be strategic, it must understand its industry and its company. You are then in a position to look at how HR can work within the existing processes and systems in order to contribute to business at a strategic level.”

Srikanth Karra
Director-HR, Hewlett-Packard India
“We need a paradigm shift in what we expect from our leaders. Looking ahead, there will be no singular leadership; there will be a need for collective leadership in all institutions.”