Senior HR professionals Harish Devarajan and Ganesh Chella want to evangelise contemporary HR practices early in the day for B-schoolers so that they are well clued in when they enter corporate life; rather than learn about it during their induction process.
“B-schoolers are still exposed to books, modules and cases which are written 20 years ago, and not contemporary cases. Only when they get to their summer internships do they get exposed to the latest in the field. What we want to do is to expose them even in the classrooms to different kind of practices in the learning, talent, compensation and other fields and get them more ready for the business world,” says Harish, a former HR head for Unilever India, who now runs his own leadership coaching and consulting outfit, People Unlimited.
Adds Chella: “Given the emerging complexities of doing business, the HR profession more than any other and more than ever before has had to innovate, change and adapt. Be it hiring, rewards, development, performance, compliance and so on, a lot has changed. Yet, the text books used on campus do not reflect that changed reality.”
Harish and Ganesh are alumni of XLRI, the latter an executive coach who runs consulting firm Totus, are in discussion with their alma mater in Jamshedpur to offer a six module course over three days this coming October. “We would be happy to invite faculty as well to take part in this and give them a first-hand experience on the latest in the corporate world,” adds Harish.
Huge savings
Elaborating on contemporary HR practices, Harish says one discernible trend is in the way companies recruit. With social media and outsourcing catching up, companies are finding the need for head-hunters is waning.They are developing capabilities in-house and in outsourcing centres to find the right kind of talent for an organisation’s needs. These innovative practices also mean a huge saving for companies. “But, it calls for systemic discipline for it to work. If people in outsourcing centres have to source candidates, the way you capture the specs of the jobs, the kind of profile of candidate you need, have to be tightly defined.” These are newer practices which are emerging and will change the way HR is practised.
Tech in learning
Elaborating on the e-learning space, where organisations need to refresh their work force on contemporary practices, Harish says HR heads are struggling to make them popular within an organisation. “Modules are available, but employees in brick and mortar companies are not taking to it as much as organisations like them to, unlike in IT companies where e-learning is a way of life. HR needs to do a lot of follow-up, through mails, social media, Whats App, instructions on blogs where people are able to share their experiences. “The electronic forum is used to make learning continuous. It’s a good adaptation of tech in learning,” adds Harish.