Experts speak on Human resources challenges

Welcome to Expert’s Speak, a column where we bring insights and knowledge from leading experts in various fields. Our experts are highly knowledgeable and experienced HR professionals who have dedicated their careers to advancing their fields.

We have Mr.Iniyan, an HR expert working with a leading IT Consulting Firm.

In a private conversation with Verifitech executives, he shared his insights on HR challenges in modern work place.

Verifitech: Organizations are trying to balance productivity levels with the remote/WFH culture. How has COVID-19 impacted the work culture of your organization?

The pandemic and the lockdown have given way to the work-from-home culture, and most people are not ready to work from the office after COVID. So while WFH doesn’t pose an issue with independent and individual contributors, it’s a challenge in cross-functional and collaborative tools. That said, we encourage hybrid work culture as far as possible.

As the economy is reeling under recession and there are widespread layoffs even by IT majors, how has the recession affected your organization?

Unlike other IT majors in the last 17 years, we have not grown exponentially, so we are not hit by the recession. In addition, we are not overstaffed and have proper workforce planning in place, making stakeholder management easy and recession-proof. Recession is not having any impact on our organization. Instead, we need help getting the right resources.

Moonlighting is a topic that generated a lot of controversies. What is your take on moonlighting? How does it impact the employee and the organization?

What is wrong with moonlighting? While many directors or senior management of the companies are on the boards of multiple organizations, why single out the employees? In fact, by moonlighting, they get a chance to upskill and enhance their knowledge in their domain or a related area, which is good for them and the organization. Moreover, in tough times like recession, their skillsets can help them to stay recession-proof while organizations can utilize their acquired skills from other domains. Those impacted by moonlighting are middle-classed employees who are either trying to make money or learn new things to climb the career ladder. Moonlighting is okay if someone is not defying any confidentiality clauses and agreements. Moonlighting enhances one’s knowledge.

The new-generation employees seem impatient and look to rise rapidly through the organization. Do you agree?

I can resonate very well with this! My dad worked only with one organization till his retirement. But I have moved from 6 to 7 organizations. I don’t want to waste my energy and time doing menial and routine jobs. I look for challenges and tell organizations that instead of looking at how many organizations I have worked with, I look at what I bring to the table. Stability doesn’t mean that you should do the donkey’s job. I feel redundant if I work for over two years in an organization. Especially with organizations that don’t upskill their employees or offer job rotation or enrichment, the chances of job losses are high. In the first job, a candidate should be exposed to more areas and challenges to come up as a winner. Job rotation and enrichment are critical in today’s world as we are dealing with a generation who are looking for gratification in anything and everything. Hence there is a vast difference between the hire-to-retire and new-gen job hoppers.

HR seems to be taking all the beating – the great resignation or the layoffs. As an HR strategist, what’s your take?

For an employee, the term HR often reminds of rangoli competitions, Christmas celebrations, and events. HR is also responsible for this. Most employees see HR as a department that communicates the least. But employees look for more communication, support, and guidance from HR. Today, employee wellness tops the list of employee engagement. But how many employees are aware of their organization’s insurance schemes? There need to be more regular updates.

From the management side, HR should be given a role in the boardroom. They need to know the organization’s business line and pulse to make strategic decisions. The organization’s life is at stake if the planning doesn’t go well. If they don’t take the time to upskill the employees, the organization’s health is in trouble. Instead of creating single-focussed employees, HR should be able to mentor people as all-rounders who can support the organizations in times of crisis.

Empathetic leadership in HR is the need of the hour. It can bring a lot of positive changes to the organization. If you look at the HR lifecycle, we will understand that earlier HR was welfare officers. But today, they are facing a blend of different generations.  While being the management spokesperson, HR today has many more significant roles. They have critical parts from risk management to organization design, change management, integrating different cultures and ethics, and nurturing inter-departmental collaboration.

Transition with job assistance is another critical area to look into. For that, there should be inter-departmental collaboration and inter-industry alliance. In case of layoffs by one company, similar organizations from the same industry should come forward to take them into their fold. If sectors in the same domain do not support each other, who else could extend a helping hand?

Thank you Mr.Iniyan for sharing your thoughts.

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