When we talk about a workplace or an office, the immediate picture which comes to mind is a virtual work environment. Therefore, all practices, right from hiring, onboarding, reskilling, communication and learning have moved to online domains. With this massive change where there is no geographical and physical limitation to a workplace, reinventing talent management practices is necessary for HR professionals to be in accordance with the new environment and help in driving business.
DigitalHR’s virtual event on ‘Reinventing Talent Management Practices to Drive Business’ on 19th May was an illuminating event with leading and experienced HR professionals from corporates who helped in shedding light on common problems at the virtual office space and how they can be averted in order to drive a positive employee experience.
The session was moderated by Runa Maitra, Founder & Director, People Talent Management and comprised of Sutanu Chowdhury, Chief HR Officer, Spencer Retails, Ruchita Sharma, Vice President HR, Guardian Life, Mohit Mathur, Executive Vice President-HR, Sterlite Power, Charandeep David, Corporate Vice President-HR, Max Life Insurance Company Limited and Sachin Mehra, Head HR- International Operations, Ashok Leyland.
The discussion was opened by the moderator of the session Runa Maitra, Founder & Director, People Talent Management who introduced the topic and said, “We are here to make the most of online learning. We have to think of talent management practices and talking about current trends is extremely important.”
Insightful inputs were given by Sutanu Chowdhury, Chief HR Officer, Spencer Retails. He said, “The core of Talent Management never changes. We have to re-learn and reskill, otherwise, we’ll be out of a job. The consumer has moved faster in the digital world. We adopted cloud technologies to adapt to business disruptions. Talent is critical. The strategy for talent management has to be in sync with the business strategy.”
Charandeep David, Corporate Vice President-HR, Max Life Insurance Company Limited opined, “It’s very important in all organizations to identify the right talent. Potential plays an important role in a VUCA environment. The journey and destination of talent for each individual is important. The journey can be in the form of education, exposure, experience, coaching, mentoring, shadowing and sponsoring.”
Talking about agility and flexibility in the virtual office environment, Mohit Mathur, Executive Vice President-HR, Sterlite Power said, “All HR processes are now through digital means. We are undergoing a transformation and talent management is now in a virtual world. We need to have a plan, objective and measurable parameters in place to track the progress and talent of the employees. Adaptability, flexibility and the ability to relate with people virtually are new skills to look for.”
Sachin Mehra, Head HR- International Operations, Ashok Leyland enlightened the panel by saying, “Driving better employee experiences is important now. We need to create and reinvent talent management strategies. Reskilling means letting employees learn within the organisation. Learning via courses, case studies and leaders is effective. In-house training for relevant skills helps in producing better results for employee engagement and experience.”
Ruchita Sharma, Vice President HR, Guardian Life gave a brief history of the different eras and talent management practices in the workplace. She said, “Your first instinct should be to understand the business narrative, then only you can come up with relevant strategies for talent management. We are going through logical growth and rushing things is not the solution. We are now in the era of work and everyone is coming along. System integration and automation at the workplace promote talent management.”
With this, the virtual event came to an end and it was concluded that systematic talent management practices should be created in accordance with the business strategies at the workplace. If innovation and talent management is done at a steady pace, nothing can cause hindrance in driving businesses.
