‘Diversity is Not Just Inclusion of Women in Workforce but also LGBTQ+ Community,” XLRI Board Member

Diversity is not just inclusion of women in workforce but also the LGBTQ+ community,” Ranaveer Sinha, President Alumni Association and Board of Governors Member, XLRI Jamshedpur said during its CHRO Conclave — KRONOS — held on October 15 and 16. “He said that since the last few years HR innovation has been for white collar workers, but it is time to focus on blue collar jobs once again as manufacturing is growing in India,” he said.

The conclave aimed to provide a platform for sharing best industry practices and their views on what strategies the organizations can implement to navigate their organization through these turbulent times and make them future-ready, through a series of interactive panel discussions and keynote addresses by industry leaders .

Rajnish Kumar, Group President and Head – Compensation and Benefits and Business HR- YES BANK who attended the event said, “Every time tech evolves humans resist it. Currently, science fiction is becoming reality thanks to AI/ML. Consumer demand for convenience and services has increased with respect to technology. During Covid, most banking was done from home. Therefore, the risk of regulation went very high. Be transparent with your employees and advise them on best practices going forward.”

“Mobile phones and technology has made life easier and technology is fantastic for taking informed decisions. She also revealed two important things about Consulting. Consulting is Client facing role and Consulting thrives on connect (conviction is essential). At EY, they use AI Products and transform business for clients,” said Anshula Verma, HR Director and National Head Talent Acquisition- EY.

Chandra Mohan, Head Employee Relations- Delmonte Foods India, stressed on how people are initially resistive to changes. “They are emotionally connected to something to which they regularly interact. Workplace emotion is really vital. Implementing the mood score index is really important. Technology gives us the medium, but empathy comes from our inner emotions. If business needs to progress, then understand the basic. Retaining a right challenge is as important as getting a right challenge.”

The speaker Ritesh Agarwal, Sales Capability Head- Asia BU Region, PepsiCo, articulated that, he nostalgically remembered how he was part of the transformation from 12-hour working shifts in plants to 8-hour shifts and now to 4 days working in a week . He also clarified how the mandate is not only required for timing but also for the location, depending on how much you are exposed to risk and how hazardous the working conditions are.

“At the same time, remote working is still challenging in various work areas like sales and factories. Also, flexible working comes with different disadvantages too for employees and the organization as a whole. So, in conclusion, he reminded us that everything has to be balanced efficiently to gain more and lose less; the need for today is flexible timing and location, but still, context is as important for the implementation,” he added.

It was followed by, Amit Chincholikar, Global CHRO – Tata Consumer Products, stressing on the advent of availing any service from anywhere has changed drastically. Workplaces are coming up with their own right mix of flexibility, agility, and adaptability to thrive in these times. Coming up with this right combination requires patience on the part of the organizations as it may take them multiple iterations to find the balance and build a two-way street of trust with their customers.

It was followed by Roma Bindroo, CHRO, Zepto, stressing on that there is a need to devise better team work and collaboration during these tough times. At the same time, the opportunities to create that is much more. Each person is very unique. Their dynamic is very interesting. When they are bought under a team, then managing such a team is difficult. So, we have to do a deep analysis and find out the trigger for such a behaviour.”