HRNV-Mar-2020

HR NEWS & VIEWS
MAR | 2020

LEADERSHIP

SKILL BUILDING REMOTE WORKING
HIRING EFFECTIVENESS COMPANY UPDATES
HR INTERNATIONAL

TRUE LEADERS

are not POWER HUNGRY ...

People very often, misunderstand the
meaning of a Leader. The first and

foremost thing that comes to mind when
we think about a Leader is "POWER".

Unfortunately a TRUE LEADER never
believes in holding on to the Power,
instead create a platform to make others
powerful in leading to the larger vision.

What defines Leader...

A visionary individual who inspires not
influence

An individual who can imbibe
collective energy in a group of people

An individual who can embrace
difficult challenges with highest order
of ease

An individual who truly believes in
holistic growth and development of it's
people

Someone who identifies and nurtures
the strengths instead focusing on the
team's weakness

Leadership Myth's...

Servant Leadership...

This is the new evolving concept imbibing great
and true leaders. They do not believe and focus
in getting serviced, instead feel that they are
responsible to serve others.

"I" is immaterial for such leader's as they
demonstrate a high level of selflessness.

Impact on Corporate...

Creates a strong vision for corporate goals

Exercise highest level of empowerment
leading to highly successful teams

Are not concentrated on skills and
education, instead focus revolves around
inspired deliverables

Believes in teams wisdom and open to
generate ideas from teams and respects
them

Collectively achieves much beyond
expected

Provides an environment of creating an
overall wellbeing

True Leaders...

are willing to loose power
- companies choose
professional CEO's and plan
self retirement

are not worried about
individual
benefits - grow themselves
beyond what they earn
individually, willing to
sacrifice for larger goals

take risk's with
accountability - are open to
explore new shores and take
accountability for failures

invest in people - are true
well wisher of their people
and put them before
themselves

People who believe in holding to
information / data / secrets, believing they

make them powerful, are the most
vulnerable and insecure people on earth.

a TRUE LEADER
defies this very principal of management.

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Paul Strange HR
HR Consultant
INTERNATIONAL

EUROPE HR

SPANISH REGION MOVES TOWARDS Now one entire region of Spain is
A FOUR-DAY WEEK
proposing to move to a four-day
The debate about a shorter working
week is an old one now. The regular working week. The regional
working week or five or six days is
being challenged in this century with government of Valencia in eastern
proposals to move to a four-day week
without any change to wages. This Spain have committed to a 32-hour
idea is that output and productivity
will be the same or improved. Some week without reducing wages. The
whole employers are trying it, and
some employment sites are too. region president believes it will

increase productivity and improve

well-being. The proposal would see

working time cut across the local

economy, but without any reduction

in pay. The Valencia regional

government will subsidise companies

that adopt the four-day week.

The move to a shorter working week will begin in Valencia's state sector
employers such as city administration.

Both Germany and France have made similar policies in the past. In Germany, they
have encouraged a shorter working week in collective bargaining with workers
that is often at a national level. In France, the government imposed 35 hours
working week. It is unproven that productivity is improved with this change. In
France, there was an assumption that many more jobs would be created to absorb
the work that was displaced by the reduction of working hours. However, in many
cases, the change to working hours did not negatively impact productivity. It may
depend on how employers are able to adapt and manage their working patterns.
So not many more jobs are created. In Valencia, the actual subsidies are not yet
established, but reports state that the government wants to help pay the
difference in the salary cost it would have for companies to reduce the working
day. For example, by reducing hours while maintaining wages, the cost per hour
worked would grow by about 308 euros per worker and month, in an average
company. This subsidy would be maintained for three years to give the employer
time to adapt the new working hours to productivity targets. It seems to me that
governments and trade unions will support this idea, as it will please employees if
it works, and it will create more jobs if it does not work so well. Employers will be
wary of this change if they cannot sustain productivity levels.

ACCIDENTAL MANAGERS

This term – accidental manager – was created a few years ago in the UK.
It is a term used by the UK’s Chartered Management Institute, a professional body,
which is concerned that some workers are promoted to managerial roles with little
or no preparation. Too frequently, the CMI argues, people are asked to step up
only because they are good at their existing job. It believes some 2.4m of 3.4m UK
managers fall into this category.

This is a criticism of UK management style, but the above term can also be applied
to other countries. Worse than this was the observation that, once promoted, the
managers were reluctant to change because they do not see the need. Accidental
managers are promoted with a halo of good performance and no expectation that
they would need more development as a manager. They get to the management
strata by accident, rather than by a planned route that develops them for this
important role. Other countries – notably Germany and the USA - are better in
developing management talent.

This reminds me of a statement from one management theorist. “The most
dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born – that there is a genetic factor
to leadership,” he said “This myth asserts that people simply either have certain
charismatic qualities or not. That is nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders
are made rather than born.”

The UK’s lasting problem with weak productivity could be connected to this
concept of the ‘accidental manager’.

So, what are ways in which this work phenomena is corrected. The first is to
develop management skills in the level of staff below management but who have
potential to step up. An employer must try to give these people management
responsibility through delegation or special tasks and watch their response to
these challenges. Stretching them with challenging individual objectives and
upping the difficulty in competencies attached to their work are also vital.

The second approach is more difficult. How to persuade the established manager
that they need development as a manager. After all, the new appointed manager,
with new responsibilities to master, is unlikely to have time for robust training.

One way is to use the process of making individual objectives inclusive of
demonstrating better management skills. Or to include specific personal
development goals, which may be met through training or mentoring or
delegation upward or downwards. Make sure that the job-holder ‘let’s go’ of old
responsibilities to give time to new ones. Another way is to tie bonus outcomes
to specific management achievements. Make sure they are new challenges. An
old saying should be recalled here. It is that a manager does not have ten years’
experience but one year repeated ten times. Through setting challenging new
objectives, you can push the new manager forward in their career and avoid the
stagnancy of this old phrase and of the new phrase as an accidental manager.

NOTES ON THE CORONAVIRUS CRISIS

At the time of writing this in early March, this has become a crisis as more
countries report citizens who have caught the virus.

I have accidentally been advising a client of mine about how to respond to the
crisis. I state accidentally, because this London based company with overseas
offices had asked me to help them with other matters. Coronavirus arrived after I
began the other work.

Firstly, I advised the company to consider a response to their stakeholders, their
customers, their suppliers, their employees and other workers, and to visitors to
their workplaces. All these groups will need a different response. It was proven a
little later when one of their main customers made a formal request for a
business continuity (BC) plan should the crisis affect the company’s operations.
Their BC plans did not anticipate a virus epidemic, so changes had to be made.
It was very noticeable that no senior manager saw this crisis as their
responsibility. It was contextual matter that had no precedence. Many routine
questions were escalated to the managing director for no other reason that no
one was responsible for Coronavirus.

HR has many policies for different types of paid and unpaid leave, but
Coronavirus did not fit in to one or another. If you have the virus, you are clearly
sick, but employees might only have to isolate themselves as a precaution. I
suggested that they work from home, if possible. Otherwise, they should have
paid leave. We created a Coronavirus Leave policy to handle questions – crazy but
necessary. This policy had to consider working from home. working in another
workplace, defining sickness leave and Coronavirus leave. Also paying employees
and other workers if not able to work. I also said that they should collect as many
facts about each request for leave before agreeing to it. Create a triage approach
to answering employee enquiries and find the facts. Also respond with facts
where you can find them, such as how many virus cases have been found in a
location in the question.

The next phase might be more challenging for employers. Schools are being
closed which challenges employers whose employees have now to find time to
care for their children. Ohers will be put into positions as carers for other family
members at short notice. What does the employer do? Organisations will have
more work because of the crisis; some less as customers disappear from the high
street, and other organisations may fail.

The fear of the virus may exceed the actual spread of the virus, and this will bring
unusual HR challenges. Good luck to everyone in the coming months.

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UPDATES

Covid-19 and slowdown bug India Inc's hiring speed

India Inc is going slow on fresh recruitment, opting to fill up only necessary and
critical positions, with the Covid-19 bug turning into a pandemic and the Indian
economy caught in a prolonged slowdown.

HR heads of various corporates ET spoke with said overall recruitment levels are
very likely to drop with business slowing down globally on account of Covid-19
and restrictions on travel even as companies are monitoring the situation closely.
Also, companies are innovating their recruitment process, using technology, like
holding interviews over videoconferencing, and checking travel history of
candidates, to minimise Covid-19 risk, they said.

Rajeshwar Tripathi, chief human resources officer at Mahindra & Mahindra, said
hiring has become highly conservative though a blanket freeze on hiring has not
yet been announced.

“In areas where we have to downsize due to technology or improving
productivity, we are not replacing people who are resigning,” he said. Tripathi
said the number of recruits at Mahindra from B-schools last year was almost half
of what it hired two years back and this year it’s likely to be even lesser by around
50%.

Prabir Jha, founder and CEO of HR advisory Prabir Jha People Advisory, said
companies are likely to revisit their hiring numbers and delay the hiring process a
little. “The slowing down of the business could ease the pressure on back fills or
fresh scaling up in the near term,” he said. “Pre-placement offer conversions will
intensify this year and virtual hiring processes could see an increase." Source: ET

HR head of a consumer durables company said companies could anytime declare
a full ban on hiring. Hiring is already extremely prudent and need based, with
only critical positions being filled, the person said on condition of anonymity.
“Existing employees are being asked to multitask and take up dual roles in a
situation where the company is not filling up vacant positions,” the official said.
Companies are monitoring the situation continuously, and executives fear that
they may start laying off people in the coming months as supply chains get
affected and people stay home and spend less with service industry being the
worst hit.

Hospitality and travel industries are among the sectors feeling the brunt of the
Covid-19 outbreak, with largescale cancellations and low occupancies.

We have not put a blanket ban on hiring, though it is moving slower than
otherwise,” said Urvi Aradhya, CHRO at K Raheja Corp that has interest in real
estate, hospitality and retail among others. “External hiring is only being sought
for when positions cannot be filled through internal talent.” Source : ET

A new trend is taking shape in India Inc's HR domain

Indian corporates are seeing an emerging trend of non-HR professionals slowly
taking over HR leadership roles. Companies are actively hiring ‘non-traditional’
personnel to head human resource roles of conglomerates.

Human resource experts maintain that the non-HR leaders are coming in actively
from functions such as marketing, sales, manufacturing operations, strategy and
even information technology. Take the case of Mahindra’s Ruzbeh Irani who
takes over as the group’s HR head from April this year. Irani, a former strategy
head at Hindustan Lever is the Chief Ethics Officer at Mahindra and has handled
various portfolios in the group including that of being a Brand Head as well as
heading the international operations of the automotive and farm sector.

This movement of people from Business to HR Head is a reflection of the fact
that HR has truly became a strategic business partner for the success of an
organization. HR Heads need to understand business well and Business Heads
need to be very strong in their people management for an organization to show
sustained business outperformance in the ``New Normal,” said Rajeev Dubey,
the current HR head of Mahindra Group. Interestingly Dubey has also held
various business roles within the Tata group prior to joining Mahindra. This is
not to say that one can discount the importance of HR, the incumbent still needs
a lot of domain expertise, says Dubey. Source: ET

Hilton appoints Sabu Raghavan as vice president, HR for India

Hilton announced on Tuesday that it has appointed Sabu Raghavan as vice
president, human resources, India. Raghavan joined Hilton in 2011 and was most
recently based in Singapore where he oversaw human resources for Southeast
Asia and India. Hilton said Raghavan's new role will see him focusing exclusively
on India, working closely with Hilton’s leadership team to drive culture and
talent development among Hilton's team members in the country.
“At Hilton, we are in a people-serving-people business and our Team Members
are at the heart of what we do,” said Navjit Ahluwalia, country head and senior
vice president, Hilton, India. “We are thrilled to have Sabu take on the human
resources reigns in India to further our commitment to strengthening our
purpose-led talent strategy and cultivating a diverse work environment for our
team members as we continue to grow," he added. Hilton has appointed more
than 10 senior leaders from across industries in the last two years to lead
different functions and roles in India. Based in the Gurugram office in India,
Raghavan will report to Lara Hernandez, senior vice president, human resources,
Asia Pacific. Source : ET

Bill Gates is stepping down from Microsoft board

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, instrumental for making the company one of
the world's most valuable technology firms, has stepped down from the
company’s board to focus on philanthropic works related to global health,
education and climate change.

The billionaire and his wife Melinda run one of the world's largest charities, the
Gates Foundation, which has channelled billions towards global health programs
to combat disease and eradicate poverty. Gates quit his full-time executive role
at Microsoft in 2008 and remained as chairman of the board till 2014. Since then
he has been a board member. But from now on, though he will remain a
technology advisor to CEO Satya Nadella, his involvement with the company will
be the lowest it has ever been. With Bill stepping down, the board of Microsoft
will now consist of 12 members, the company said. In addition, Gates also
stepped down from the board of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, where
he has served since 2004. Bill stepping down from the board of one of the most
valued technology companies shows how a successful succession planning ought
to look like. As the world’s second-richest person takes a deeper dive into
philanthropy and his aim to solve global health and economic problems, one can
hope it will be as big as his first legacy. In this direction, the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation recently announced that it would commit $100 Mn to aid
global detection, isolation and treatment of the coronavirus as the pandemic
continues to wreak havoc globally. Source: peoplematters

Nissan Motor CIO to step down from his role

Tony Thomas, CIO of Nissan Motors is stepping down from his position. His last
working day is March 31, 2020. Yasunobu Matoba will be replacing Thomas as
the new CIO. The stepping down of Thomas is part of the change drive being
undertaken by the automaker. Thomas joined in 2017 and during his stint with
Nissan, he was responsible for managing all information systems, information
technology, data & analytics and cybersecurity for all of Nissan brands of Nissan,
Infiniti, and Datsun across the globe. Prior to joining Nissan, he was the Group
CIO at GE Global. Thomas has also worked with firms like Vodafone Idea, Citi,
and EY. A bachelor of technology, Thomas has close to 27 years of experience in
IT and digital transformation. Tony was one of the key forces behind bringing the
Global Digital Hub of the Nissan to Thiruvananthapuram. Following in the heels
of Nissan, companies such as Tech Mahindra, Fujitsu, and Hitachi also made
inroads into Kerala.

The automaker has been in the midst of senior management appointments after
it has found itself in a downward spiral since the arrest of former Chairman
Carlos Ghosn last year. In December, it roped in Makoto Uchida as its new
chief. In addition, former Mitsubishi Motors Corp. COO Ashwani Gupta was
appointed COO, and Jun Seki, who was Senior Vice-president at Nissan, was
elevated to vice COO. Last month, the automaker posted its first quarterly net
loss in nearly a decade and slashed its annual profit forecast. The challenges
before the new management remain aplenty. Source : Peoplematters

IndiaFirst Life Insurance names its new CEO & MD

Vishakha is a veteran in the BFSI space with over 30 years of experience. She
first took on the responsibility as the IndiaFirst Life MD and CEO in 2015. She
was instrumental in the Warburg Pincus acquisition of Legal and General’s 26%
stake in 2018 as well as for higher distribution possibilities and extension of the
company’s distinctive specialization in the area of bancassurance when its
parent bank – Bank of Baroda, merged with Dena and Vijaya banks, Under her
leadership, IndiaFirst Life’s AUM grew to Rs. 15,000 Cr as of March 31, 2019 and
has strengthened its customer base to over 7 lakhs from 93 thousand. In the last
five years, the company has also moved from 20th rank to 12th rank in the retail
business. It is this progress which the company hopes to continue under
Vishakha’s leadership for the next five years as well. Source : Peoplematters

























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