In an exclusive interaction with SCIKEY, Ranjit speaks about how the role of HR is changing, mantra to engage employees, tech/innovation that will transform HR & much more.
1. The Pandemic has brought in many new trends. What trends do you think will have significant implications for retail industry in a long time?
The retail industry depends on customer connection and repeats to keep the cash registers ringing. Pandemic has impacted the core of its business model and created new trends with severe implications. The first trend is to protect employees and then utilize the talent pool through the fluctuating demand cycles. Retailers must plan contingencies to ensure employee and customer safety while maintaining target-oriented business activities to sustain operability. Additionally, they have to enhance agility in workforce planning, skilling, and deployment. It is critical in responding to rapid changes in customer segments, business model, sourcing, and distribution channel to product/service mix. With social distancing and physical lockdowns/ restrictions, another trend that impacts retail is customer communication. Retooling of customer communication and relationship is another trend to maintain trust in the brand, products, and services while meeting customer’s experience expectations. Pandemic gloom and govt restrictions influenced the customer walk-ins in traditional stores and shifted some of the demand to online channels. Even the product mix has seen variations in short periods. Retailers should be able to predict and manage this new trend of demand fluctuations which will be critical for cash rotation to stay in business.
2. Having been in the function for so long, how do you keep things exciting and fresh?
I keep scanning for opportunities to expand my horizon while aspiring for new and audacious goals in higher orbits. Having an outside-in lens to define a larger purpose excites me to take a transformational approach to achieve this aim. Then the entire effort is exciting and effortless, like entering a flow state. This approach also energizes my team to be part of the challenges. I want to share last year's example of aiming for a path-breaking talent strategy to meet business requirements in the pandemic storm. This strategy enabled overachievement of the business objectives, and this year organisation has identified it as the crucial business lever to accomplish predictable and sustainable results.
3. How is the role of HR changing?
HR is evolving in tandem with the industrialization pace, and the speed has only increased in the last couple of decades. From the earlier days of taking direction from business, HR has lately evolved to earn a seat at the strategy table in partnering with the stakeholders to co-create business and talent approaches. At the same time, it has also dawned employee advocacy role. Like the external customer servicing measurement of NPS/CSI, HR now proactively measures the effectiveness of the employee experience and aims to use varied and exciting levers to keep the employees engaged. Riding on the tech evolution, HR is optimizing the latest AI/ML tools to enhance the effectiveness, efficiency, reach, and periodicity of people processes. On the whole, HR’s role is transforming from traditional process compliance to value generation for the organization and employees.
4. What is your mantra to engage your employees?
While an engaged customer may not enhance engagement of an employee, an engaged employee will bring in loads of loyal customers today as well as tomorrow. So, the mantra to engage our employees is to treat them as good, if not better than the external customers. This principle should become the basis for an integrated employee engagement approach. In addition to supporting conceptualization and communication of the Employee Value Proposition, it will provide the framework for designing policies and total rewards while finetuning onboarding and touchpoint processes. Measurement of Lead and Lag indicators will enable the Leadership to check engaged employee experience implementation on the ground.
5. What strategies can the company leverage to identify best-fit candidates as quickly as possible?
Strategies to identify and get the best talent onboard start much earlier than the actual time to fill the position. Let’s start with the most difficult one. By investing time and money to work on their ‘Employer brand’ to create respect and desirability for the targeted talent. Next is the bring the entire recruitment machinery to speed well in advance of the job opening. Data-based improvement of the hiring process and innovation in the recruitment steps can spring up the machinery to be ready for the speed expected by the organization. Using updated and accurate job posts to reach out to past employees and passive job seekers in advance and keeping them warm through focussed engagement ensures them being immediately available when the talent is needed. Lastly, convert the talent acquisition and hiring managers into human jewellers to see through the talent’s competencies and pick up only the diamonds from all the shining pieces of glass.
6. Which best practices would you recommend to develop the organisation culture?
In addition to driving culture change using the usual steps, leaders could use the following three strategies for faster development of desired organizational culture. The first is to secure CXO's commitment to the new culture reflected in their communication, demonstration, and periodic review of progress. The second is to integrate the behavioural promises and matrices in the performance review process, as well as in hiring and promotion practices. It will attract the A-list players sharing the same cultural values to join the organization. Hiring, rewarding, and recognizing people for embracing and embodying your cultural values is essential to sustaining your desired culture. Lastly, the design & execution of a conscious approach to managing the brilliant naysayers will help mop up the tail end in driving the culture change.
7. One tech/innovation that will transform HR?
It enables continuous business transformation resulting in improved productivity, better strategic planning, ROI-focused decision making, and driving business culture producing innovation. It also exposes skill gaps and growth opportunities to identify struggling individuals or teams and provides tools to facilitate required behavioural change. With technology managing the repetitive transactional tasks, the HR and finance teams can invest more resources in strategic initiatives, higher-value initiatives, individual contributors, and management. Flexible working modelling enables ongoing resolution of problems and collaboration to handle any disruptions in the workplace or the markets. All this will provide rapid scalability to meet fluctuating business and economic growth needs of the organization.
8. What will be the trend that will define the future of work post-covid?
‘New Normal’ in every aspect of business will be the trend that will define the future of work and at the same time, no one knows what’s the New Normal going to be. With so many COVID variants springing up worldwide, I am not sure when we can say that post-covid period has arrived. At the same time, no one knows what’s the New Normal. With shifting markets, customer behavior, supply chains, and in-turn revenue streams, getting predictable outcomes will have to be the objective of the workforce. They will have to balance hybrid working models, re-visualize operations support to complete their goals, and optimize to operate with changing demands and business levers. HR will have to build empathetic policies while being objective on performance. Leadership will have to balance their focus of guiding the team to capitalize on today’s avenues with opportunities arising in continuously shifting markets. Overall, it’s going to be an exciting New Normal of work for everyone.
9. What will be your advice for aspiring HR Professionals, What skills will be most important to HR professionals in the future?
Industry 4.0 is driving technology to automate repetitive and transactional processes. In this era of change, HR professionals can value add to the organization by building four competencies for the future. Being Data-driven will enhance the ability to read, apply, create, and communicate data into valuable information to influence decision-making processes. Increased Business Acumen will enable the translation of organization's goals and business context into talent strategy and repositioning the HR policies and activities. Understanding Digital Integration will empower leveraging tech to increase efficiency and to drive HR value. Finally, as a People’s Advocate, it will provide the platform to build strong internal culture, communicate skillfully, get the best out of the people and act as a trusted people champion while balancing with business needs.
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