Interview of the day: ‘HR is moving from being transaction focused to a strategic business partner’

Rajeev Dubey, President – Group HR, Corporate Services, and Aftermarket Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra and National President, NHRDN.

1. As the National President of India’s largest and most influential HR network (NHRDN), what would be your top 3 priorities?

My top 3 priorities would be:

• Creating and enabling those human capital skills which would make India competitive, fair and inclusive

• Establishing thought leadership and public advocacy in matters pertaining to the HR profession

• To develop a greater connect with the society, with special emphasis on youth.

To enable this to happen, we need to focus on the following internal organisational priorities in NHRDN:

• Make NHRDN a vibrant networking and interactive platform for sharing cutting-edge / best practices in the HR space

• In addition to chapter activities catering to local needs, drive some common national initiatives across regions and chapters

• Harness the power of IT in achieving the above

2. Would you say that the role of the human resource function has evolved in the past few years? How so?

Yes, definitely. As mentioned above, HR is moving from being largely transaction focused to becoming a strategic business partner/process. This requires HR professionals to understand and seamlessly integrate with both operational and strategic business processes so that the HR levers and organisational culture become powerful platforms for achieving sustained business outperformance. The focus of HR should be totally on unleashing the full potential of human capital and systems in achieving business goals. My experience is that this new avatar of HR is becoming a reality and is acknowledged to be so by business leaders.

3. In view of the sluggish global economy, what should be an organisation’s survival strategy with respect to talent and skills?

Business strategy should drive the HR agenda, not only for creation of talent and skills but also for using all the HR levers to create a culture which results in the following three things simultaneously:

1. Sustained business out-performance

2. Extreme care for all stakeholders, starting with customers and employees but embracing community as well, while creating value for shareholders

3. Do the first two things, while nurturing and nourishing the core values of the organisation. And, the culture is nothing but the way people behave in everyday life in pursuit of organisational goals. The HR levers are the performance management system, the talent management system including recruitment and on-boarding, learning and development, reward and recognition, organisation/work design and communication. There is a paradigm shift occurring where HR is evolving from being largely transaction focused to becoming a strategic business partner/ process.

4. We have been discussing that it is essential to skill our workforce. What are the specific initiatives taken have been taken by NHRDN on this front?

In addition, to regular programs across chapters/regions where specific HR skills/issues are addressed the following major initiatives are being rolled out:

1. The HR Compass which helps creates cutting edge skills and competencies for HR professionals.

2. The National Professor Scheme where we connect and engage with HR students of category B and C business schools and train them in specialised skills, provide them learning on how to do things and work towards their up-skilling via various skills programs.

3. Webinars/detailed workshops focussed on various HR issues such as performance management, interviewing and assessment skills, compensation and benefit strategies, appraisal feedback and change management.

4. The CEO Conclave

5. The quarterly NHRDN Journal which provides in-depth analysis of chosen subjects by experts and the monthly NHRDN Newsletter which shares best HR practices

6. Study missions/visits

7. Research projects, in collaboration with the Academy of HRD, various Business Schools and professional HR Organisations in India and abroad

8. Working with the Employers’ Federation of India and other National Associations on the long term initiative for creating a workplace which will not only make India globally competitive but would also be fair and inclusive

9. Imparting relevant HR skills to NGOs.

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