The HR Summit on Talent Strategies to Win the Great Reshuffle: Discover, Engage & Hire the Best Talent, presented by Sparsh Global Business School was held on 28th April 2023.
With 15 speakers and over 300 attendees, this exciting event brought together a spectacular gathering of thought leaders who discussed the phenomenon of the Great Reshuffle and the shift it has created in today’s workplace. The engaging panel discussions also provided valuable insights on how organisations can employ innovative strategies to stem this trend and hire and retain the best talent.
The event opened with inaugural sessions by Rahul Jain, Managing Director of InnoServ Group, Dr Sandeep Pachpande, Chairman of ASM Group of Institutes and Dr Ravi Kumar Jain, Director of Sparsh Global Business School, who set the stage for an evening of thought-provoking discussions.
Mr Rahul Jain believes the way various industries and stakeholders are tackling the Great Reshuffle is something from which we can learn, take inspiration, and ensure our innovations are known.
During his address, Dr Pachpande opines that the Great Reshuffle is a time of unprecedented change in the job market and it is crucial that HR leaders equip themselves with the right talent strategies to navigate this challenging landscape successfully.
He highlights, “To win the Great Reshuffle, we need to discover the best talent in the industry and that involves getting the right channels, accessing the right candidates effectively, and building a strong pipeline. As organisations, we must establish ourselves as an employer of choice by creating a positive employer brand that aligns with our organisation’s values and goals”.
Dr Ravi Kumar Jain believes that only education which brings meaning and promotes the welfare and wellbeing of society by creating wealth is worthy. He also emphasized that we must integrate business into business schools; make schools for business, not only business schools.
Keynote Speaker, Vineet Tandon, Director of Global Talent Marketing, HCL Tech, conducted a highly interactive session with the audience as he explored the topic, Who Moved My Talent – Discovering, Attracting and Engaging Talent in Unprecedented Times. He emphasized that “HR needs to collaborate with marketing partners to embrace the changing ways in which organisations discover and hire talent”.
The event also featured an insightful Industry Presentation by Ravi Pal Head – BMW-Infinity Cars.
The first-panel discussion brought together leaders from various sectors as they deliberated the topic, Talent Strategies to Win Great Reshuffle – Discover & Hire the Best Talent. This panel was moderated by Mr Ashish Gakrey, Founder & CEO – HR Shapers, and consisted of Gaurav Saini, GM – HR – HMD Mobile India (Nokia Phone), Rajiv Naithani, CVP & Chief People Officer – Infogain, and Megha Thapar, APAC Lead, DE&I – CBRE.
Delving into the trend of the Great Reshuffle, Rajiv Naithani, CVP & Chief People Officer – Infogain explained, “The reason why we have moved from the Great Resignation to the Great Reshuffle, is because of the slowness in the market. It indicates that in every stage in the industry context, we are evolving.” He adds, “In the technology industry, one thing that has always been talked about is the evolution of skills. The skills landscape has been changing all the time – the kind of people we were hiring in the past, the people we hired during the pandemic and now; the context has changed completely”.
Speaking about Employer Branding, Megha Thapar, APAC Lead, DE&I – CBRE says, “Before we brand ourselves, we must look at our own product and what we are trying to brand. We must get our culture right.” She emphasized, “It is extremely important to connect the purpose. This is where Employer Branding needs to be very smart and intuitive”.
Adding to the discussion, Gaurav Saini, GM – HR – HMD Mobile India Pvt Ltd (Nokia Phone) says “Employer Branding has always existed but now it has become more relevant. People are becoming more conscious about what they want – it is about the experience. Your experience is the outcome of your branding”.
Moderator Ashish Gakrey, Founder & CEO – HR Shaper, engaged the audience with a series of interesting questions and explored how technology is being leveraged in the recruitment process. He opined that there needs to be changes in organisations to take advantage of technology in recruitment.
The second panel on Talent Strategies to Win the Great Reshuffle: Engage the Best Talent was moderated by Amit Kataria, CHRO – Minfy, and comprised Mandeep Kaur, VP HR – CPWI, Vikram Jit Singh, Head HR – Fung Group, Dr Ravi Kumar Jain, Director of Sparsh Global Business School and Nitin Thakur, Head L&D – Jindal Stainless Limited.
Opening the discussion, moderator Amit Kataria, CHRO – Minfy remarked, “When we saw people voluntarily leaving their jobs for various reasons, the Great Reshuffle is about people solving the question of purpose – cultural alignment and career reshuffling. This is something very important because we have seen that in generations before us, they were in their jobs for 30 to 40 years without ever having to bother about their work changing but today this is not the scenario.”
He then posed a question to Mandeep Kaur, VP of HR – CPWI on why upskilling and reskilling in companies are important and how this should be done in an era of reshuffling.
Mandeep Kaur elucidates, “Upskilling and reskilling have a lot of impact on the overall internal mobility of staff and keeping that in mind from a retention perspective, various initiatives need to be taken”. She adds, “There are four aspects on which we need to upskill our talent – digital transformation, empathy, followed by social and emotional transformation so that we can support our employees/workforce”.
Adding his thoughts, Dr Ravi Kumar Jain, Director of Sparsh Global Business School said, “We are living in an era where the work and workplace are rapidly changing. You have to be updated with whatever skills are relevant”. He then emphasizes that not only is reskilling important, but multi-skilling and cross-skilling as well”.
Addressing the point about how companies can leverage technology, data and analytics to make informed decisions, Vikram Jit Singh, Head HR – Fung Group explains, “At any given point in time, when you are basing your decision on and leveraging data, essentially, your decision-making becomes more realistic”.
He also adds, “Of course, one size does not fit all; what might work for my company may not work for yours. It is not just about the sector difference but it also depends on the evolution and the life-cycle of the organisation and where it specifically is, because in each stage, the needs and the dynamics in engaging with the talent will change”.
Shedding light on the need to foster innovation when hiring and engaging talent, Nitin Thakur, Head L&D – Jindal Stainless Limited points out, “Firstly, there should be a culture of people giving ideas, experimenting and converting them. In our organisation, we work through cross-functional projects where we work on innovative ideas and initiatives, and we collect information from the HoDs, in terms of prioritising projects and the initiatives which will be necessary for the organisation”.
He adds, “When we create these cross-functional teams and get these ideas from the organisation through reward mechanisms or innovation idea challenges, as well as the HoDs pitching these ideas, then we are forced to prioritise”.
The panel was concluded with a felicitation of the speakers by Prof Bhimaraya Metri, Director – IIM, Nagpur. This was followed by the closing address by Nayaneesh Deshpande, Head of Communities & Events, Nextgeninnov8 Global Solutions, which brought this exciting event to a close.
