XLRI has been known as a pioneer in the field of Human Resources and Industrial Relations in India, since its inception in 1949. Continuing its legacy, XLRI- Xavier School of Management recently organised the 9th National HR Conference. The theme for this year’s conference was: “HR Personalisation: One size doesn’t fit all”. The annual event aims to provide a platform for heads of various industries, academicians and legal practitioners to discuss and debate the various challenges in India’s HR landscape.
The theme focused on the diverse and complex business environment and the unknown challenges that business leaders are facing currently and how they’re finding ways to compete in this new world of work. It also provides an opportunity to HR leaders and future HR managers to shape the organisation’s strategic direction, and to create an agile vision of the future.
Industry stalwarts, academicians, government officials, researchers and students from the top B-schools toook part in the meet. The conference was inaugurated by Abhijit Bhaduri, a renowned industry expert, author and XL alumnus, who gave the keynote speech. He touched upon the theme from different perspectives and brought significant insights from his experience. Talking about the impact of digitalisation on organisations, he remarked: “Anything that has rules and is repetitive will eventually get automated”.
The two panel discussions highlighted the latest industry themes: ‘Gig Economy: the formless organisation and the new organisational form’ and ‘HR in Industry 4.0’. The other panellists of the day included Suresh Tripathi (VP HR at Tata Steel), Vishal Badshah (Head of Jamshedpur plant at Tata Motors), Gautam Ghosh (Speaker, Blogger, Writer and HR Influencer), Arvind Subramanian (VP-HR at Reliance Industries Ltd.), Shamita Chatterjee(Senior VP HRD and Global Head- C&B at Infosys), Amitav Mukherji (Head- Corporate HR at ITC ltd.), Raj Narayan (Senior VP & CHRO at Titan Industries Ltd.) Amrut Aiyamma (VP HR at Diageo) , Kashyap Thorve (VP L&D at Ultratech cement) Shraddhanjali Rao (VP HR at SAP India), Shivaditya Banerjee (Head HR at Piramal), and Sahil Nayar (Senior Director at KPMG).
There was a workshop on Talent Management by Raj Narayan, CHRO of Titan, and by TR Kashyap (VP L&D at UltraTech Cement) on Energizing Performance Management System. Various competitions were conducted for students who represented the best B-schools of the country on the XLRI Campus. These events included Battle HRoyale, Triathlon, National Level Paper Presentation Seminar, Case-a-thon, and Employee Auction.