“The Confluence was organised at IIM Raipur on 25thAugust 2012 at its campus for students to gain an industry interface as well as understand the applicability of management principles to real life. This was also a step in joining hands with the Corporates here, their HR and all HR Professionals.”,said the Confluence Convener Prof. Shubhra Hajela.
The confluence was graced by the presence of HR veterans from prominent corporates such as SAIL, TVS, Renault Nissan, Deloitte, L&T, Essar Oil Ltd.,Balco and Carwale.com. The issues of talent management is an issue which needs much deliberation was agreed by all the panelists especially in the world of today where economic and social changes are happening at a rampant pace. The confluence took place in three phases addressing the most important aspects of talent management such as Talent Spotting, Talent Retention and Talent Development.
The session began with the Director of IIM Raipur, Prof. Sahay addressing the gathering on functioning of an organization and the vital role played by HR in it. The keynote speaker Mr Bhagirathi Dhal, Executive Director, SAIL in his speechstressed on how people centric the business is, and also cited interesting stories from Mahabharata to explain the concept of employee engagement.His speech threw light on the fact that talent management is not an isolated entity; instead it is interwoven all along the fabric of the organization and influences its functionality to a great extent.
Mr ShashikanthJayaraman, Head HR, TVS highlighted the trend of modern era where ‘jobs are after people’, which is in stark contrast to the past when ‘people were after jobs’, since the mantra has changed from job security to value addition. He strongly advocated that the corporate should recruit individuals based on the principles they carry and value they hold, and not merely based on skills alone.
Speech by Mr. Arokia Sagayaraj, HR Head, Renault Nissan revolved around the talent expectations in the core automotive industry and the importance of shifting the focus from the retention of top 10% to 30-40%. The inference from his speech was that in order to have high level of employee engagement the management should be more concerned in the mannerism in which a strategy is rolled out for it has a significant impact than the strategy by itself. Mr Vikas Gupta,VP Talent, Deloitte connected the HR activities to India’s most favourite sport cricket; this led to an easy understanding of complex issues in talent management. Ms Priya Singh, Carwale spoke of the importance in developing friendly work culture for employee involvement.She emphasized that the retention and work culture begins right from the hiring process.
The three panels Talent Spotting, Talent Retention and Talent Development had student panellists who were inquisitive about the theoretical manifestations of the real-time business scenarios.The industry experts were more than happy to provide the practitioner’s perspective on the questions raised and broaden the students’ views.The confluence served the purpose of not only gaining an understanding on employee behaviour and retention, but also gave a new dimension about the role of HRs and hopes pinned on them by the organizations for their success. As a whole this kindled the spirits of aspiring HR managers of IIM Raipur to learn more on this field and carve a niche for them.
The success of the confluence can be attributed to the student core committee members Arindam Mandal, Dhileeban Rajakumaran and Anshu Katiyar under the guidance of Confluence Convener Prof. Shubhra Hajela.