The Hindu Business Line : ‘HR should interact with CEOs, line managers’

In these tough and competitive times, what qualities should a seasoned HR professional possess? What is it that the next generation HR practitioner can give the organisation, not just in terms of talent management, but also in helping make strategic business decisions? What kind of insight should an HR manager have into the employer-organisation’s business model, the market conditions and the competition it faces, to take it to the next level of success?

These were among the queries raised at a discussion on ‘Next Generation HR Leadership,’ involving industry veterans including Pranesh Anthapur, COO, Yahoo! India Research and Development, C. Mahalingam, Executive Vice-President and Chief People Officer, Symphony Services, Binu Mathews, Vice-President and General Manager, SoftBrands India and Renee Conklin, Vice-President, Human Resources, SoftBrands Inc.

Murali Santhanam, Vice-President, SHRM India, and Consulting with Walchand PeopleFirst, said that HR should spend 80 per cent if its time with CEOs and line managers understanding the business and creating HR strategies that enable business to achieve its objectives.

Giridhar Boray, Country Manager, Kodiak Network Solutions, felt that every line manager has to be an HR manager. “We live in ambiguous times and HR should build capacity necessary for this transformation,” said Mahalingam of Symphony Services.

Market talk of Microsoft taking over Yahoo has kept HR on its toes, agreed Pranesh Anthapur. “We’re talking to all the stakeholders – employees, advertisers, publishers – and telling them that if Microsoft buys us, it’s because we’re a great brand.”

Mathews agreed that in SoftBrands too, HR has helped the company communicate to its employees during some tough times.

Mahalingam pointed out that the current education system too misleads young managers into believing that recruitment and payroll job roles are not strategic to business.

“Young HR managers want fancy designations and job roles without growing in the HR department.” Mahalingam, who’s a faculty in several B-schools in Bangalore, advises young HR managers not to get carried away by titles.

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