Human Resource Club : Humanalaya

In the academic year of 2021-2022 Humanalaya- The HR club of Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Hyderabad conducted its guest lectures and events on virtual platforms. 7 guest lectures for the various human resources specialization subjects and human resources elective subject.

The club hosted 4 events, Academic Week 1.0, Colloquium, Academic Week 2.0, Potrify.

Guest Lecture

1. Speaker: Dr. Samapti Guha

Date: 5th June 2021

Topic: Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Women Micro Entrepreneurs in India.

On the 5th of June 2021, students of SIBM-H were pleased to be in the presence of Dr. Samapti Guha, as she addressed them in a webinar on “Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Women Micro Entrepreneurs in India”, organized by team Shakti in collaboration with Humanalaya, the HR Club of SIBM Hyderabad. Dr. Samapti Guha is a professor and Chair Person at the Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, School of Management and Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Dr. Samapti Guha enlightened the students with her vast knowledge and practical assessment on the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns had on women micro entrepreneurs in India.

2.Speaker: Mrs. Shruti Bose

Date: 16th August 2021

Topic: Role of HR in stakeholder and cross-culture management

As a part of our cross cultural management course, Mrs. Shruti Bose, gave us her valuable time to know about top three stakeholder to the organization that is the customers, employees and unit heads. She emphasized on the ways on how to handle and understand the stakeholders where the first step was to listen carefully followed by clear communication and being proactive in your approach. Moving forward she enunciated on how to deal with difficult stakeholders. Ms. Bose went forward with the cross-culture management where she discussed about the rebadging of people and HR professional is not only about management of people. She also highlighted on the fact that the feedback process is a very crucial and a difficult step which can be made easy through openness and change can be created by just being open. She then spoke about the policies in the UK as it is an employee driven market so therefore the policies are very stringent and any and every change should be made transparent and it requires necessary documentation as well as undertaking.

3.Speaker: Lt Col Alok Kumar Das

Date: 25th September 2021

Topic: Making the right choice – Journey towards success.
The guest started the session by pointing out the choices he made throughout his successful career by sharing his experiences and by narrating his real life incidents in order to convey as to how the choices can to be made how it had an impact in his life . These particular experiences which were pointed out by the speaker is a set as an example of how to make choices as future leaders and how those choices act as a guide on how one could be more rational on such choices.

The lecture started with the speaker connecting his life experiences with the important choices one has to makes when entering into the corporate starting with having a sense of pride be it a bigger or a smaller accomplishment one should have a sense of pride with themselves.

Moving on the second choice leading with a purpose. Being a leader in the corporate doesn’t just mean one is leading a group of people it means they must have her/his own style of leadership. Leading without a purpose was compared to having a life with no purpose. The third choice was come what may one should have a never giving up attitude in life.one must challenge herself, break the inertia and go forward to be more successful and never settle for anything lesser than that. The final choice being realizing one’s potential, utilizing every opportunity with the right attitude towards it. As humans everyone are gifted with different potentials, so one should identify their right flair and work towards it on order to be more successful. Next part of the lecture focused more on the qualities one must pursue in order to be a successful leader. Start with taking up responsibility , which the author convey via an experience that he had and how taking up ownership gives the drive to achieve more. Next determination, one should always be ready to break the inertia and move forward she/he must have sustained efforts to achieve the set goals. The courage to take up tasks is also an important aspect, never fear to fail. Being ready to take initiative. the initiative doesn’t stop at the first step alone but goes all the way until the goals are accomplished. Having the confidence that anything can be accomplished will not only give the drive to the leader but also the whole entire team itself. Thus one should be as confident one can be when making decisions. Some of the other points discussed were speed of decision, , social adaptability and effective intelligence

4.Speaker: Mr. Raju Ahluwalia

Date: 8th November 2020

Topic: Executive Coaching

Subject: Talent Management

The department of Human Resources in SIBM Hyderabad organized a guest lecture on the topic of “Executive Coaching”. The Guest Speaker for the session was Mr. Raju Ahluwalia, who is a veteran in the field of training, mentoring and coaching, a field on which he currently has a consultancy firm based out of Delhi. Mr. Ahluwalia has 35 years of experience and has worked across various sectors such as IT, Manufacuring, FMCG and Energy.

Mr. Ahluwalia began the session by stressing the importance of mentoring and how it helps individuals in the corporate world. He put forward the concept that even if someone has the intent of helping another person, he or she needs to have the correct skillset and knowhows on how to best approach that person for help. He signified the importance of acquiring the correct expertise and gave a detailed explanation on how the students can go about their way in achieving that.

Mr. Ahluwalia also shared a quote from Gautam Buddha which was very relatable within the area of his expertise which went “Nobody is inferior, nobody is superior, but nobody is equal either. People are simply unique, incomparable. You are you, I am I.”

He went on to explain the differences between mentoring, coaching and counselling and delved deep in to each of those topics while keeping things interesting and taking questions from the students as the session went on

5.Speaker: Dr. Jagan Mohan Reddy

Date: 14th December 2021

Topic: Strategic human resource management and digitalization

Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy, a faculty alumnus of our institution SIBM-H who is currently a LinkedIn activist who posts his thoughts and opinions continuously by sharing his wisdom to the future generation as he believes that information when not passed over is loses its legacy. 

 Mr. Jagan started the session by explaining why SHRM and how it provides a connection between HR and business. He also emphasized the fact that SHRM aims to provide flexibility, competitiveness where innovation is the key and the pitfalls that are faced by strategic management is caused due to lack of coordination and gap analysis which is a result of not clearing understanding and communicating the vision and mission of the company. 

The session enunciated on the matters into how the organization can learn and grow where the organization should not worry to train their individuals believing that they will leave, remember to care for them and they will be loyal. The refreshing approaches towards HR’s were also explained was investing in offering a meaningful and valuable experience is important and employee coupled with satisfaction should be done faster than a real-time. 

The session was completely enlightening and Mr. Jagan gave us a broader spectrum on how future leaders can make a difference through the use of SHRM and create a premium value to the organization and employees.

6.Speaker: Mr.Deepak Gupta

Date: 10th & 11 th January 2022

Topic: Designing pay structure and salary income tax implication

Humanalaya, The HR Club of SIBM Hyderabad organized a guest lecture on the topic of “Compensation and Benefits”. The Guest Speaker for the session was Mr. Deepak Gupta. Sir Graduated from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management, and has been in varied roles working for leading companies like Reliance Industries, RPG Group, CRISIL (Standard & Poor), ENAM and Bajaj FinServ Lending. He is currently engaged as Group Head & Chief of Human Resources in a diversified and spread-out financial services Company. The session began with the understanding of ‘What is a Strategy?’ Mr. Deepak Gupta put forward that Compensation and Benefit does not come under direct business strategy. He started with stressing on the importance of Compensation and how compensation consists of retention strategy also. The discussion then went on how compensation can be a USP for an organization and by creating great value, how strategic elements can be balanced. Later on he went on to discuss the key Strategic decisions taken by HR such as talent retention, talent management and how talent management can be done through great training and organisational development. He made sure to communicate with the students and address their questions as he went about describing how different roles are maintained by various teams and departments in the organizations. He also made sure that the students understand the value and significance of the subject. Mr. Gupta stated that Compensation and Benefits as a function is available only in big organizations as of now and it can become an important part of employee engagement. 

Later on, Mr. Gupta explained about Compensation Philosophy and how it is practiced mostly without documentation. Compensation Philosophy shows the company’s positioning to its people about their compensation approach. He states that compensation philosophy has to be documented and practiced because it relates to the vision, mission of an organization in some sense.
On the second day, the session began with the question of ‘How do you fix compensation for an individual?’ There was a discussion about various factors such as market data, knowing all critical roles in an organization, targeting yourself, and many others which affect individual compensation. Mr. Deepak Gupta went on to explain Hay's methodology of Job evaluation and how levels are created in an organization. 

Mr. Gupta shared an interesting point that increase in salary of an individual is not a promotion, but change in position and responsibility along with increase in salary together is considered as promotion. Later on he discussed about types of compensation, components of total compensation, types of pay programs, Individual compensation structure etc.

7.Speaker: Ram Mohan Kota

Date: 17th & 18 th January 2022

Topic: Talent Management and workforce planning Techniques and the role of data

The Department of Human Resources of SIBM Hyderabad organized two guest sessions on the topic of “Talent Management and Workforce Planning Techniques” on 17th-18th January 2022 for HR-specialization students. The guest speaker for the sessions were Mr. Ram Mohan Kota. Mr. Ram Mohan is a management professional with certification from Indian Society for Training & Development (ISTD); and Indian Society for Applied Behavioral Sciences (ISABS). He is Chief Mentor at EPITOME Mentors. His experience spreads over two decades with 4 years of experience in Sales and Consultation and 18 years of expertise in Corporate Training.

The session began with thoughts on Cultivating a Growth Culture. Parallelism between nurturing a plant and an employee were drawn and the necessary steps involved in the process were discussed. Learnings from Mr. Jack Welch and Mr. Steve Jobs were touched upon. The session threw light on "Who can be addressed as Talented?". 

The two major types of Talent - Undimensional and Multidimensional were elaborated, followed by discussion on the 5 major situational challenges during Human Capital Planning. Students gained insights on the critical building block of Talent Management, i.e., Competencies, Performance Management, Evaluating Employee Potential, and Recruiting Super keepers. 

A diagrammatic explanation of integration of Business Strategy and Competency Model in every aspect of HR management provided a deep understanding of the topic. The Universal Framework of great 8 factors and 20 competency dimensions were discussed with active inputs from the students. The session closed with discussion on the HR tools in market and Leadership Framework. 

On Day 2, the session began with discussion on Outcomes of Talent Management. From Mr. Ram Mohan's experience, he had come up with 12 stages of Talent Management process beginning with Identification of Goals and ending with Succession Planning. Each stage was elaborated and sir had provided constructive examples from his experience. 

A detailed discussion on Talent Management in employee life-cycle highlighted the significance of the process. Future of Talent Management eventually lead to topic of Workforce Planning. Beginning with definition, the session touched upon aspects of analyzing the workforce, forecasting and assessing gaps. Pictorial teaching of art of balancing between resources available and task to be accomplished provided a clarity to students.

EVENTS:

• Club Event: L.E.A.P

The participants were divided into a group of four members, and each group were directed to a breakout room. Each team was allotted a POC in order solve any doubts throughout the entire process. 

ROUND 1:

The teams were provided with two documents one of which had of the company profile and the other being the profile of the candidates. The candidates were asked to select the suitable candidates from the company profile and candidate profile which was shared. The first round was allotted 30 minutes. Once the given tasks for round one were completed the groups were asked to mail the documents with their answers. 

ROUND 2:

The teams were asked to give a presentation in front of 2 judges for 5 mins reasoning out their choices.

Winners:-

Annie Garg

Ramya Annem 

Shivam Kumar

Prateek Kumar Nanda 

Runners:- 

Karnendu Sengupta

Vasu Vashisht 

Swapnil Dahiwale 

Harsh Chahal 

• Colloquium: Focused Group Discussion

Date: 29 th December 2021

Colloquium: Focus group discussion on "creating a flexible and magnetic workforce in the era of disruption"

The Human Resources Club in SIBM Hyderabad under the event Colloquium organized a focused group discussion on “creating a flexible and magnetic workforce in the era of disruption”. The participants for the group discussion were HR students from 2nd year of the MBA program of SIBM-Hyderabad. The session began with the discussion on how the pandemic has changed the entire workplace -workforce dynamic and has been posing new challenges for the HR professional. This led the discussion to an important aspect of today's uncertain times- satellite workstations that has become a necessary requirement in the hybrid work structure to ensure convenience for a company’s remote employees, cut down on busy commutes and also decrease the number of employees in the main office at any given time (social distancing). 

The discussion also stressed on the need for not just flexible but also agile employee and work policies. Flexible not just in terms of cost cutting but also to attract new talent thereby expanding the talent pool. The panel went on to discuss the importance of creating a systematic view of every function in the workplace considering the ambiguity that surrounds us now. The discussion went on to the topic of AI incorporation in HR which made the session even more engaging as the panel further started discussing how rapidly HR has been evolving over the years despite many saying that there would be no future for HR and it would end by 2020. 

The panel stated that while creating a flexible workforce, it is necessary to have a rigorous onboarding process and manage talent as the job roles and the complexity of those roles are changing with time. Adding to that, the panel suggested that psychometric tests can be done to check the emotional intelligence of candidates as mental health is another challenge the HR department has to combat especially post pandemic. The panel went on to explain the need for strong employee engagement and compensation strategies to attract and retain talent when the work from home culture is taking a toll on the work life balance. Other relevant topics that were discussed and which hold immense importance were - Focus on the evolving role of HR, learning opportunities provided by the company apart from compensation, customised learning and 'Asynchronous Communication'. Various challenges like comprehension strategy, no distinction between personal and professional life, compensation of various factors, parameters to measure the employee’s efficiency, strategic compensation and there should be such a culture that is conducive for all the backgrounds were discussed.

 The panelists also emphasized on the job roles that were affected by the pandemic namely, Performance manager and recruitment manager as the workplace has transformed to online/hybrid that makes it difficult to recruit, assess and manage employees. The interesting discussion ended with the panel concluding that the flexible and magnetic force can have tremendous impact on employees especially when they get to choose where and when to work as it enhances engagement, reduces stress ensuring optimum productivity. It was an enriching session with smooth exchange of opinions and knowledge and the audience mainly comprising the 1st year HR students got to learn and expand their knowledge regarding the HR roles and functions in the industry. The session concluded with all the members taking a group picture.

• Academic Week 2.0

Date: 31 th January 2022

The HR club of SIBM-H organised the event "POTRIFY" wherein participants had an opportunity to explore their ideas about HR through the lens of creativity. Students from both the batches were welcomed as a team of two. A total of 16 teams (32 participants) nominated themselves to be a part of this exciting event.The event consisted of two rounds.

ROUND 1:

Teams were provided with around 10-12 characters from TV series to movies. They were required to choose one character out of the given list and create a video resume for 2-4 minutes. To name a few, Phoebe Buffay (friends), Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter), Farhan Qureshi (Three idiots) and Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of Caribbean) were among the interesting characters provided. The submissions reflected ingenuity of the students, where they had highlighted the HR relevant characteristics of the character and had presented it as either animated character speaking, or had enacted it themselves, or had created a video with running content. Each of the submissions were unique in their own ways. After shortlisting, the top 5 teams proceeded to the final round which was conducted on the 14th of January 2022.

ROUND 2:

This round consisted of activities in continuation to round 1 which was announced on spot. The team members were given a particular Job role for the character they had presented in Round 1, and were asked to pitch in on why the character was suitable for the role. The team members had to enact as the character themselves. Post this, questions were raised by audience, HR faculty member, academic coordinator and moderator and the participants were expected to justify their answers. The QnA round provided with insights on various HR aspects including the responsibilities of a particular designation, the compensation plans and startegies of conflict management. Students thouroughly enjoyed participating in the evnt and had great takeaways.

The winners and runners of the event are: -

Winners: - TEAM HEAD HUNTERS

Pranali Mastud and Karnendu Sengupta

Runners:TEAMOATMEAL
Sai Pavithra.S and Md Abdul Sami Choudhury 

1. POTRIFY: Firande 6.0

The HR club of SIBM-H organized the event "POTRIFY" as a part of FIRANDE 6.0 the Management and Cultural fest of SIBM-H. This event was held on 10th February 2022 at 5:15pm. 

Here the participants had an opportunity to explore their ideas about HR through the lens of creativity. Students from various fields were welcomed. A total of 30 participants from colleges across the country nominated themselves to be a part of this exciting event. Notably XLRI Jamshedpur, K J Somaiya Institute of Management, IIFT New Delhi, SIBM Pune among others.

Humanalaya took immense pleasure in collaborating with the Alumni Coordination Team (ACOORD) of SIBM-H to invite its very own alumni and the chief guest for the event, Ms. Shalini Sharma from the Batch of 2019-21, Vice President-Student Council, SIBM-H and currently a Talent Analyst at Deloitte.

The event consisted of two rounds.

ROUND 1:

Participants were provided with around 10-12 characters from TV series to movies. They were required to choose one character out of the given list and create a video resume for 2-4 minutes. To name a few, Phoebe Buffay (Friends), Neville Longbottom (Harry Potter), Farhan Qureshi (Three idiots) and Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of Caribbean) were among the interesting characters provided. The submissions reflected ingenuity of the students, where they had highlighted the HR relevant characteristics of the character and had presented it by enacting it themselves. Each of the submissions were unique in their own ways. 

After shortlisting, the top 8 participants proceeded to the final round which was conducted on the 10th of February, 2022.

ROUND 2:

Round 2 was conducted through the ZOOM platform. This round consisted of activities in continuation to round 1 which was announced on spot. The participants were given a particular Job role for the character they had presented in Round 1, and were asked to pitch in on why the character was suitable for the role. They had to enact the character themselves. Post this, questions were raised by the chief guest, audience, HR faculty member, academic coordinator and the participants were expected to justify their answers. The Q&A round provided with insights on various HR aspects including the responsibilities of a particular designation, the compensation plans and strategies of conflict management. Students thoroughly enjoyed participating in the event and had great takeaways. 

The winner and runner up of the event are: -

Winner: - JYOTI RAI

SIBM Nagpur

Runner Up: - PRAGYANAND CHANDRA BHAN

IIM Indore