Kshitij 2019, the HR Conclave of Institute of Management, Nirma University, was organized by the HR Club of IMNU Imprintz. The Conclave commenced at 5:00 PM on November 15, 2019 with the theme, Fallacy in Perception: Debunking the popular misconceptions about Human Resources. The industry is undergoing numerous changes and with this, the role of managers across domains is also changing. As potential managers, the students must be well versed with changes and are well equipped to tackle any of the challenges that they might face in their corporate careers. Thus, the conclave sought to provide some of the insights based on experiences of the speakers and talked about how the modern Human Resources has evolved over the years.
The first address was given by Mr. Dinesh Kapoor, Associate Vice President, Vinitec-HR consultants. He began the session by talking about how the present Strategic Human Resource Management has evolved from the Personnel Management which existed around two decades ago. This change, he said, took place almost simultaneously with the emergence of artificial intelligence. He then went on to talk about how HR practitioners need to record not just employee performance but also their perception of the organization to effectively help manage their careers. He concluded by advising the students on how the facilities provided to employees and the treatment of other employees by HR managers are imperative for any employee before joining an organisation.
The next speaker was Mr. Ashish Gakrey, Program Manager- HR, Capgemini Technology Services Ltd. He started the session by showing the students a video on misconceptions about HRs job roles. He spoke about different functions of HR and how it played an important role in coordinating Management and Union. He also talked about how HR technology is transforming the HR department. Continuing on the technology front he spoke about how with the rise of the gig economy and the culture of work from home HRs nature of work has been changed. This change in the work environment has led to an increase in HR tech and has increased the debate on the privacy of employees because of increased monitoring of their work and movement. Lastly, he added that ?Digitalisation is transforming every business and management role.?
The third session was addressed by Ms. Garima Devpura, Talent Acquisition Manager, SOPHOS. She commenced the session by tracing the contradictions that defined her career path to becoming a Talent Acquisition Manager. She mentioned that HR is not a desk job rather its one filled with movement, especially talent acquisition- which requires the person to travel extensively across campuses. She spoke about the importance of staying relevant, authentic and adaptable in any organization. Further, she said HR is a strategic value partner and their major role is bringing talent, training talent, retaining talent, letting go talent- basically the whole ?life cycle of an employee in an organization?. She concluded by saying that HR managers should enrich organizational culture while encouraging, empowering and providing a platform for growth to employees.
The last address was by Mr. Harshit Bhavsar, Chairman Universal Hunt. He talked about his organization and their work in talent acquisition- both domestic and international. He spoke about how even in the face of changing technology the basic role of HR remains and shall always remain the same, only the tools at the disposal of the HR manager changes. Above everything else, it is important for managers to remain humane in their work.
The conclave was concluded by a panel discussion and interactive session on changing roles of HR skills into the era of transformation.