Talent Management: Staying in-tune with the changing times

September 30, 2016 | Posted by Great Lakes << back to blog

As part of the recently held Human Capital Management Conference at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, two panel discussions were held to capture the essence of what’s actually happening vis-à-vis Human Resources in leading organizations. This blog post is about Panel 1 which comprised the following three eminent leaders from diverse backgrounds of IT, electronics and banking industries:

Panelist 1: Mr. Sandeep Tyagi, Director, HR, Samsung India.

Panelist 2: Ms. VlastaDushil, HR-head, SAP India

Panelist 3:Mr. B. Nedumaran,Senior Vice President Human Resources, Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

To bring out the rich nuances of talent management today, the discussion was initiated by Ms. Vlasta Dushilby emphasizing the need for organizations to utilize technology disruption to their advantage in order to stay relevant.Although the economic and climatic challenges that follow with rapidly changing technology act as downsides, organizations must focus on the upsides and create opportunities in the light of the same. Flexibility and agility are enormously important for individuals as well as the organizations to evolve over time.

Keeping the Workforce engaged

Mr. Sandeep Tyagi expressed the significance of development or assessment centers in organizations. In the course of the leadership development journey, it is crucial to hold the attention of Gen Y. He cited examples of approaches that are practiced in his organization Samsung, and explained that the approaches must be innovative as the present generation is glued to innovative things. He expressed that the instructor led classroom trainings for learning and knowledge sharing is a thing of the past. At his organization knowledge is shared in nuggets through software on leadership development. These nuggets are broadcasted to everyone within the organization for ease of learning as digital is going to be the future. Mr. B. Nedumaran gave an analytical perspective by saying that humans tend to be less proactive and more reactive which is inefficacious in many situations. Change management is already becoming the norm in the banking industry; leaders must be ready to embrace change. His jovial remark succinctly captured the general attitude of employees:

‘Graduated yesterday, Stops learning today, Becomes uneducated tomorrow’ If individuals stop learning, they become inert and fail to contribute to the organization. Continuous learning and proactive attitude are the key factors for the success of an effective leader.

Mr. Sandeep Tyagi, Director, HR, Samsung India

Managing Performance

Ms. Vlasta Dushil from SAP argued that the performance ratings approach must be eliminated in organizations as it has been given away in their organization. At SAP it’s more about having a regular open dialogue, open feedback and open discussions with employees. It’s not possible to have process in place for everything. At Samsung, the duration of performance evaluations have got shorter than a quarter. On the other hand, evaluation begins from day 1 at Lakshmi Vilas Bank. However it is termed as performance development rather than performance review. Mr. B. Nedumaran also shared that at Lakshmi Vilas bank, the evaluations are designed in a way to identify gaps and put the employees on a coach based training. Performance management plan is being improvised to track and help the employees through the evaluation process. They categorize the employees as performers and improvers. This system enables the organization to bring everyone on the same track at the end of the year and contribute positively.

Vlasta Dushil HR-head, India, SAP

Rewarding the Performers

In Ms. VlastaDushil’s words ‘It’s all about the more dots you connect to be creative’. She further talked about the mini-stretch assignments that they have at SAP. At Samsung, the reward system has evolved dramatically over the years and now they reward their employees on a monthly basis rather than on an annual/semi-annual basis, revealed Mr. Sandeep Tyagi. They have moved away from the fixed compensation model and have increased the variable pay which has resulted in a better incentive to work, amongst employees.

Developing the Workforce

The panelists emphasized the pivotal role of employee development in all organizations. At SAP, employees are expected to be updated with everything to stay ahead of the cutthroat competition. At Samsung, culture building, vertical integration and initiatives such as ‘Annual leaders’ forum’ have emerged in imparting developmental and leadership skills in employees.

Mr. B. Nedumaran spoke about the beautiful 4E’s approach which is about Engaging, Energizing, having a winning Edge and Executing.

Mr. Nedumaran,Senior Vice President Human Resources, Lakshmi Vilas Bank.

Best Practices

Ms. Vlasta Dushil advised future leaders the following things:

Do not think linearly
Look for opportunities across different areas
Embrace change with an open mind for Leaders

Mr. B. Nedumaran quoted a beautiful example and closed the discussion by suggesting to try and look out for gaps when students move from campus to corporate by having an open mind. Reinventing oneself at all stages of professional and personal growth can take one farther in life.

The session concluded with an interesting Q&A session between the audience and the panelists.

This article has been written by Rashmita Reddy, PGPM 2017.

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