VyavaHR Selection Task

IITR MBA Batch of 2021 – 2023

Case Study

Problem Statement
Alok is an MBA graduate, recently hired as an HR Manager. The moment he joined the organization, he
was assigned to lead orientation programs, onboarding processes for the whole organization. Since it has
been only one month from when he joined, he was still learning the organization practices. Raghav,
Software Engineer by profession, recently joined the organization. On Raghav's first day of work, Alok
brought him around the organization for an introduction with other team members as part of his
orientation. Unfortunately, Raghav's assigned mentor was not around; hence, Alok was unable to make
an official introduction for Raghav to meet up with his mentor. In the afternoon, during the HR briefing,
Alok mentioned to Raghav that there is a buddy system in organization, but it is only on an opt-in basis.

Raghav requested to opt for a buddy. Alok was somewhat surprised by Raghav's request as, according to
Alok's manager-Jessica, no one in the organization has asked for a buddy. Hence, Alok checked with Jessica
on the criteria in getting a buddy for Raghav, and according to her, Alok found out that it needed to be
someone preferably from Raghav's department. Having clarified the criteria, Alok was supposed to get a
buddy for Raghav. Unfortunately, this issue was forgotten by Alok due to his extremely occupied schedule
as he was associated with other HR matters as well, and he did not follow up with Raghav's request
promptly. One week later, Alok met Raghav in a lunch gathering. Alok greeted Raghav and asked him
casually how is it going and if he has adapted well to his job. Raghav asked Alok blatantly and angrily,
where is his buddy that he had requested. At that moment, Alok recalled the existence of this request and
unwittingly told Raghav that he thought Raghav was joking with him on the request for a buddy as he did
not want to admit to Raghav that he had clearly forgotten about the whole issue. Raghav was immensely
angered by Alok's response and told him off that he was very serious in getting a buddy and that its Alok's
responsibility to do so. Alok, clearly embarrassed and guilty about his mistake, apologized immediately
and promised to get him a buddy. On the very day, a buddy- Sarthak, was found for Raghav. Raghav was
very unhappy with Alok and confronted Alok and his buddy when he was able to have an official meeting
session with his mentor. Alok explained to Raghav that the organization has no current practice in place
for meeting sessions to be arranged between mentors and mentees. It’s a practice for mentees to take
self-initiative to do so in scheduling for such meetings if required with their mentors and also that his
mentor is currently out of town and will only be back the next day. Alok, himself being a new staff, was at
that moment in time speaking on personal experience and also based on what Jessica had told him.
Sarthak, who was present, agreed and helped to explain to Raghav on the practice. Raghav kept quiet,
and Alok unknowingly thought that Raghav had understood the organization practice. Hence, Alok did not
continue to check with Raghav on this aspect. The following day, Raghav had a feedback session with his
manager, and Alok was called too to join in as part of the orientation program. Raghav brought up the
issue on Alok's failure to get him a buddy straight away. Also, that he was not introduced to his mentor at
all. He complained about the poor management of the HR mentor and buddy system and that it was not
effective at all. He expressed that he is utterly disappointed with Alok, as he felt that he was neglecting
his job and not doing it at all. Alok tried to explain to Raghav and his manager about what happened and
also reassured Raghav that he would take his suggestions of improving on the system and was apologetic
about the issue. He told Raghav's manager that he would take Raghav to meet his mentor after the session
ends as his mentor is back in the office after being on leave for the past week. Raghav was still very
unhappy with Alok and continued telling Alok off in front of his manager.

Questions:

1. From an HR manager's point of view, what should Alok do to resolve the issue?

2. Raghav is very unhappy with Alok and holds it against him even though all has been done and followed
up. What should Alok as HR do to resolve this, and should Jessica as Alok's manager, do something?

3. What role does Raghav's manager play in this issue, and should he be implicated?

Your Task
Prepare a creative solution demonstrating the steps you you would take to solve this issue. Present your
solution in a ppt of Maximum 8 slides.

Note: Convert the PPT to a PDF and then send it.