How to develop future leaders and keep employees engaged

An increasingly difficult economic environment is forcing companies to look at ways to ensure they not only perform consistently but also sustain their human capital. A company's growth, after all, depends to some extent on employee development and attrition.

Key aspects of how human resource divisions of companies contribute to this sustaining effort were examined at the second Business Today Knowledge Forum on Human Resources (HR) held at the ITC Grand Central, Mumbai, on February 26. (The first was in Bangalore on February 17. See www.businesstoday.in/btknowledge-blore2014.) The examination consisted of two panel discussions, the first on Does HR in India have any role in developing future leaders? and the second on How to keep employees engaged with the company's goals and objectives. Both were moderated by Shamni Pande, BT's Senior Editor.

The panellists for the first discussion were K. Ramkumar, Executive Director, HR, Customer Service & Operations, ICICI Bank; Prabir Jha, President - HR, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL); Anjali Bansal, Managing Director, Spencer Stuart; and Prince Augustin, Executive Vice President, Group Human Capital & Leadership Development, Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M).

Initiating the discussion, Ramkumar said an organisation should not put too much of emphasis on CEO succession. "There is succession to be worked out at levels next to the CEO, which is equally crucial. HR plays a very important role at these levels," he said. Bansal of Spencer Stuart agreed, adding that CEO succession should be left to the board. "A good company will consider the HR person's point of view, but will not put him in the awkward situation of having to make the selection as well," she said.

For RIL's Jha, HR was not a process, but depended primarily on the people engaged in it. "The caveat is the issue of the promoter and the HR leadership. They must trust each other," he said. "The operating principles are calibre, principle and trust, because these are sensitive things and you cannot force any family or organising committee to take HR counsel." On the amount of power an HR person holds in the selection process, Ramkumar said: "A good HR person is someone who understands he has to put all relevant information on the table, but he should not play an advocacy role. The moment he does that, he is not a good HR person."

Augustin of M&M said HR could not take on the hiring manager's role. The company should seek an independent consultant or internally put together candidates and then seek HR counsel in terms of the cultural fit the person would have, how he would further the values of the organisation and build the brand. "HR considers the behavioural fit, in terms of how the company would gain from that leadership," he said.

Participants in the second panel were Yogi Sriram, Senior Vice President, (Corporate-HR), Larsen & Toubro (L&T); Adil Malia, Group President, HR, Essar Group; K. Sudarshan, Regional Managing Partner - Asia, EMA Partners International; Sumit Mitra, Executive Vice President, HR, Godrej Industries; and Arvind Agrawal, President, Corporate Development & HR, RPG Enterprises.

Malia of Essar Group said it was imperative an organisation ensures its engagement activity stands out as compared to other corporates. "You will find 75 to 85 per cent of engagement programmes of all companies are practically similar," he said, emphasising the importance of customisation of engagement in an organisation.

As far as company goals went, it was important to have at least the medium-term goal in place, felt L&T's Sriram, adding that innovative organisations have  much more engagement with employees. He also said goals and missions of a company should have a shelf life since too much change, too fast, could be detrimental. "If goals and missions keep changing, any amount of communication mechanisms will not be enough. You will have a confused company."

"Shifting sands (in terms of goals and missions) are very difficult to relate to and even with a huge amount of engagement, you will find a demotivated bunch of people," added Sriram. Said Mitra of Godrej Industries: "If we look at it from the lens of creating value for the company, it is important to see whether or not the objective (to create value) is similarly understood by the employee and the organisation."

Mitra was of the view that a large part of engagement is driven by the manager, and is not just an HR mandate. Agrawal of RPG Enterprises, however, had a different opinion. Employee engagement was not connected to either the short-term or long-term goals of a company, he felt, but to moments of truth. "It is about how the person is treated by the management. A company's broader goals boil down to everyday, transactional experiences," he added.

EMA Partners International's Sudarshan pointed out that the end game of engagement was getting better output from people. "Growth is a very important catalyst for engaging and retaining talent. If that isn't happening, it is difficult to engage and retain," he said. SRM University was the presenting sponsor of the event.