Bouquet Volume 5

Apr 2019—Jun 2019

For Members—Private
Circulation Only
NIPM MADRAS CHAPTER

Chairman’s Message
Editorial Team
• M.H. Raja
• K. Ganesan
• K.S. Chandru
Our Next Issue will
focus on Dear Members,
My greetings and best wishes to you
Rewards & all.
Recognition It has been my privilege to lead the
NIPM-Madras Chapter as its Chair-
man over the year 2018-19. It was a
We look forward to remarkable year in many ways for
your articles (not the Chapter engaging all the mem-
bers with lot of activities internally
more than 2 pages) and with external institutions. We
for the Bouquet have successfully launched two
Certificate Courses in Industrial
magazine
Relations and HR strategies along
with MMA & XIME. We have also
Please send your inaugurated 5 Students Chapter in
reputed Business Schools in Chen-
submissions to nai.
nipmcc@yahoo.com Our Annual General Body Meeting
was carried out on 28th June’19
with larger number of members’
Contents
participation. I thank all the Mem-
bers for their participation and
sharing your appreciation towards
Chairman’s Message 01 the past year performance. Indeed it
was very motivational and encourag-
Talent Acquisition—A 02
ing to do better in the coming year.
There a great applause for the certi-
Talent Management— 03 fication course in HR “Advanced
Towards a higher orbit Certification Course on Strategic
Talent Management” which was
Talent Management— 08
partnered with MMA, and the Two
Transforming for the
batches of Certification coursed on
IR (Organisational Discipline)
Talent Management— 09
along with MMA and XIME. Due
From being important
to these successes, on requests, we
are planning to repeat both the
Talent Management of 12 courses during this year starting
Young Executives— from August 2019
Building I’m happy to share that NIPM Head
Competencies / Office has purchased a new premis-
es in New Delhi which will be an
AI in Talent 16
extension of the NIPM National
Management
office to carry out the liaison work
of NIPM at the national capital. It
Talent Management— 20 will coordinate with various Central
Dashboard View
Ministries like Human Resource
Development; Labour & Employ-
ment, Commerce and Industry to
orient them about NIPM and its
activities. Necessary steps would be
taken so that NIPM Members can
get the opportunity to work in
various committees of Central Gov-
ernment departments which are
related to HR functions. NIPM will
make close liaison with CII /
FCCI / ASOCHEM/ Institute of
CA / Institute of CS / Institute of
Cost Accountants of India located
in New Delhi for strengthen HR
fraternity. NIPM also coordinate
with Delhi based PSUs and other
organizations towards Sponsorship,
Advertisement and also other activi-
ties related to HR to strengthen
NIPM.
38th NIPM National Conference
(NATCON 2019) will be held at
Bengaluru from 25th to 27th Septem-
ber 2019. The Karnataka Chapter
of NIPM is hosting the conference
at International Convention Cen-
tre, GKVK, Jakkur (New Airport
Road), Bengaluru. A galaxy of well-
known leaders, National leaders,
Policy makers, Business Leaders,
Industry CEOs, CHROs, Heads of
various functions in Business /
Industry, Consultants, academia
share their expertise and propose
new thoughts and ideas for the
INDIA’s CHANGING PARA-
DIGM: SKILLS AND ENTER-
PRENEURSHIP FOR GLOBAL
COMPETITIVENESS. Delegates
from across the country and abroad
will attend this conference and
every member of NIPM are request-
ed to support the conference
through Delegates, Souvenir Adver-
tisements, Sponsorships and all
possible to make the event a memo-
rable one.
Southern Regional Conference
2019 (SRC 2019) which was pro-
posed to be held at Kochi on 14th
& 15th June 2019 has been post-
poned to 5th & 6th December’19
due Nipah Virus.
One of our target for this year is to
increase our Membership strength.
Hence, I request every Member to
suggest one Member to our Chap-
ter, so that we have new blood in
our Chapter.
We are taking steps to make the
coming year eventful and do extent
your wholehearted support by Vol-
unteering in leading the Chapter
Activities. Also we’re looking for-
ward your support in getting Spon-
sorship, as ours is a non-profile
organization and we manage our
cash flow through Sponsorship. Do
come forward in getting one spon-
sor for each monthly meeting and
impressive speakers so that the
programs we organize will be more
informative with speakers of their
respective domain.
Lot of people appreciated and en-
courages last issue of Bouquet and I
wish to thank them and extend my
gratitude to those contributed to
the last Bouquet – News Letter. The
upcoming News Letter is covering
the field of Talent Management and
the next edition will be focusing on
Rewards & Recognition. I request
the experienced HR members to
share your experiences, thoughts by
sublimating with your articles. This
will be a part of sharing the best
practices and will be useful to both
the young HR professionals and
those who wanted to adopt indus-
tries’ best experiences. We look
forward your contribution to our
forth coming Bouquet on “Rewards
& Recognition”.
அனைவருக்கும் வாழ்த்துக்கள்.
வாழ்க வளமுடன், நலமுடன்.
Warm Regards,
M.H. Raja
Chairman, Madras Chapter
Bouquet
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Dr. Viji R
Dy. Dean - Kalasilingam
Business School
drvijiprof@gmail.com
The talent acquisition
team faces a lot of
challenges not only in
identifying the specialists
and future executives/
leaders for the
organization but also in
retaining them
“Employer branding” has
become essential part of
talent acquisition.
Reinforcing the company’s
values, culture, providing
developmental
opportunities, mentorship
and giving autonomy will
definitely attract the
millennials who are
entering into the workforce
and gearing towards
leadership positions
Talent Acquisition—A millennial perspective
With constant technological ad-
vancement, the millennials are ex-
posed to the environment of con-
stant and rapid progress. Their
education system has reinforced
into them the belief that the pro-
gress has to be continuous, measura-
ble and often backed by frequent
feedback. This is very similar to the
video games culture the millennials
have grown up with where the envi-
ronment is clear, achievement pro-
gress in measureable in metrics and
progress are measured as leveling
up. They believe in accelerated
learning and progress . They want
be reassured that the quality work is
progressing in the right direction in
terms of clear and consistent ad-
vancement and continuous and
measurable feedback system. Em-
ployers can leverage these intrinsic
motivators by providing an environ-
ment that builds on these. Helping
people learn and develop continu-
ously is the number one thing a
company needs to focus to attract
new talent.
Development Opportunities and
Consistent advancement- A Gam-
ing Approach
With constant technological ad-
vancement, the millennials are ex-
posed to the environment of con-
stant and rapid progress. Their
education system has reinforced
into them the belief that the pro-
gress has to be continuous, measura-
ble and often backed by frequent
feedback. This is very similar to the
video games culture the millennials
have grown up with where the envi-
ronment is clear, achievement pro-
gress in measureable in metrics and
progress are measured as leveling
up. They believe in accelerated
learning and progress . They want
be reassured that the quality work is
progressing in the right direction in
terms of clear and consistent ad-
vancement and continuous and
measurable feedback system. Em-
ployers can leverage these intrinsic
motivators by providing an environ-
ment that builds on these. Helping
people learn and develop continu-
ously is the number one thing a
company needs to focus to attract
new talent.
Industry 4.0- Tech-savvy organiza-
tions
Industry 4.0 is in and corporate
branding that showcases the organi-
zation’s tech-savviness will definitely
attract the interest of the millenni-
als. Employers must consider how
prospective candidates perceive their
online presence and job postings.
The millennials expect organization
to have a connect with technology
and are comfortable to understand
the uniqueness of the organization
through the tech presence of the
organization.
Work and Life -Interwoven
Millennials see no difference be-
tween work and life. For them all
efforts in both are interwoven in a
greater purpose, mission or passion.
They need to relate to their work
and work environment and merge
that with their self-image. Their
contribution will be significant once
they understand how they are assist-
ing to the organizational goals. In
order for millennials to feel connect-
ed with their workplace, they need
to understand how their role and
work fits into the context of the
organization. For them the sense of
purpose is part of the reason they
choose to work for their employer.
Societal impact of organization
The millennials do not choose their
work only on the basis of the finan-
cial implications but they are also
bothered about the social impact
created by the product and services.
This can been reflected in the vision
and mission put forth by the organi-
zation, The reflection of this in the
website and social media platforms
would add value to attract the tal-
ent that fit into the organization
culture
Positive social atmosphere
Social networking has enabled the
millennials to be connected with
their peers and they feel the need to
bond with their coworkers, manag-
ers and workplace. Employers can
create these bonds by creating a
welcoming social environment for
their employees with a special focus
on mentorship.
Employee well-being
Caring about the well-being of your
employees is one of the most im-
portant ways to make your company
attractive to new talent. Salary and
health benefits of course are the
basics, albeit, companies are look-
ing to expand these benefits by
giving employees more freedom to
choose when and how they get their
work done. However, these work
arrangements require giving more
responsibility to employees over
their own agenda. Frequent conver-
sations between employees and
managers and a reinforcement of
company objectives would definitely
help.
Social Networking - Impact and
Expectations
The rise of social networks has ena-
bled millennials to be ever-more
connected with their peers. Millen-
nials now want to feel bonded to
their coworkers, managers, and
workplace. Employers can foster
these bonds by creating a welcoming
social environment for their employ-
ees, and also by placing more em-
phasis on employee development
and mentorship. A sense of value,
for millennials, comes from actively
being a part of a team, being appre-
ciated for their quality of work, and
having strong leaders guiding them.
Whether the organization is a tech-
company or a service oriented or-
ganization, strong company brand-
ing practices, development opportu-
nities and flexible work options are
what talented young millennials are
looking for today. Reinforcing the
company’s values, culture, providing
developmental opportunities, men-
torship and giving autonomy will
definitely attract the millennials
who are entering into the workforce
and gearing towards leadership
positions

Talent Management—Towards a Higher Orbit
Talent Management is critical in
today’s world, especially with mil-
lennial generation with expecta-
tions of faster rise through career
ladder, increased requirements of
regular feedback and wanting to
be involved in creating organiza-
tional directions. Many organiza-
tions have already implemented
multiple initiatives like identifying
critical talent, development cen-
tres, competency mapping,
launching individual development
plans etc.
A research by CEB, now Gartner,
conducted on 2177 High-
Potential (HIPO) employees re-
vealed that the most effective way
to increase HIPO engagement is
through growth opportunities and
experiences — more so than pro-
motions. HIPOs are 15% more
likely to leave than non-HIPO
employees when they are disap-
pointed with their future opportu-
nities. Hence it is critical to devel-
op new and innovative initiatives
and create the right environment
to give growth and broader experi-
ences to the High Potential em-
ployees. Some of the innovative
and pioneering initiatives in Tal-
ent Management as follows –
Shadow Boards
Many organizations including
Mahindra & Mahindra and RPG
Group have formed a Shadow
Board. Approximately 7-15 high
performing young individuals are
handpicked by the management
and asked to think of themselves
as a management committee. They
can take multiple topics critical to
the future direction of the compa-
ny and analyze on them for a year
and make proposal to the main
board. The members are also
informally integrated into manage-
ment and get an opportunity to
observe the Chairman’s Business
Review Board meetings.
For the young High Potentials, it
is an opportunity to gain an expo-
sure into the working of a board,
develop strategic perspective and
build confidence. The manage-
ment also gains fresh perspectives
from the front-line and a magni-
fied view of the Hi-Potentials of
the organization.
In PepsiCo, the shadow board
called YCom is actually elected by
other millennial in the organiza-
tion. This also implies that the
elected individuals have the good-
will of the entire workforce, lead-
ing to transparency and fairness.
Says Suchitra Rajendra, CHRO,
PepsiCo, “After they are elected,
we put them through a rigorous
mentoring program to be execu-
tive leaders. They propose ideas
on how to build an empowering
culture and include millennial in
decision making.”
Exposing young leaders to board
meetings can give new perspec-
tives to the management as well.
Kalpana Morparia, CEO JP Mor-
gan speaks about the time when
she was invited along with other
young leaders to be silent observ-
ers at a board meeting at ICICI
early in her career. The board had
a very spirited debate about the
interest rates and how to remain
competitive when some of the
competitors were under-pricing
the benchmark rate. Says Kalpana,
“As I sat and listened to the de-
bate, it suddenly struck me that
perhaps we should have multiple
interest-rate benchmarks in India.
Not allowed to speak, I quickly
scribbled the idea of multiple
prime-lending rates and passed the
note to Mr KV Kamath (former
MD–CEO, ICICI Bank), and he
shared it immediately with the
gathering. He also passed the note
back to me, after writing on it:
'Killer idea!' The multiple bench-
mark rates became a key competi-
tive strength for ICICI at that
time.”
Use of Analytics to drive Talent
Management strategy
Talent Analytics implies the use of
Talent Data for decision making.
Previously the performance ap-
praisal data over the course of
employee history was used as a
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parameter for promotions. Soon
HR Analytics was used as an indi-
cator organization health, e.g.
Engagement Survey results, attri-
tion numbers etc. HR Analytics
has now evolved to enable work-
force forecasts, talent model for-
mulation and drive HR strategy.
In the NASSCOM HR Summit
2018, Irfan Abdulla, Director,
Talent Solutions, LinkedIn shares
an interesting example. The global
Pharmaceutical giant Novartis
wanted to set up an office in India K.R. Ramakrishnan
and narrowed two locations –
Mumbai and Bangalore. A major
parameter to make the final deci-
sion was the availability of skilled
manpower from industries beyond
Pharma to enable future growth.
The data analysis from LinkedIn For the young High
revealed that Mumbai was most Potentials, it is an
viable for Novartis to expand the
talent into healthcare industry & opportunity to gain an
insurance industry among others. exposure into the working
Talent considerations played a of a board, develop
critical role in the decision to set
up India Office. strategic perspective and
Analytics also shaped the Talent build confidence. The
Decisions at a leading IT organiza-
tion which was suffering due to
management also gains
high attrition among its new engi- fresh perspectives from
neers. Data analysis revealed that the front-line and a
attrition of females was one-third
of the attrition of male engineers. magnified view of the Hi-
This led to the strategic intent Potentia ls of the
from the organization to hire organization.
more women at entry level. Soon,
attrition levels reduced compared
to industry average, leading to
higher customer satisfaction.
Mentoring The skill gap is a critical pain
Mentoring is a critical initiative point, impeding innovation and
which many companies use to prompting higher people costs.
develop the senior leaders and
younger employees. A study con-
ducted by Association of Talent
Development revealed that mana-
gerial productivity increased by 88
percent when mentoring was in-
volved versus only 24 percent
increase with training alone.
The V - Connect programme was
launched across Vedanta Group
to enable top employees to con-
nect with management in
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There are three critical aspects
that make a mentoring process
successful—What is in it for
mentor, Formal contract
between mentor & mentee and
no formal reporting relationship
between mentor and mentee
Addition to making a significant
contribution to organizational
growth. Under this program in
the first phase, around 1000 Tal-
ents (High Potential & Perform-
ers) were connected with a group
of 70 Anchors (Senior Leaders).
Each talent was mapped to an
Anchor and interacts on a regular
basis. The Talent can discuss ca-
reer aspirations, development
areas etc. and receive their guid-
ance. The Anchor also gains an
opportunity to develop younger
leaders, understand the expecta-
tions and thoughts of the younger
generation and visibility regarding
next generation leaders. For the
organization, it leads to increased
engagement levels and communi-
cation of business news to employ-
ees. The program was partnered
by the consulting partner, Aon
Hewitt. An app called ‘Aon Lead’
allowed both Talent and Anchors
to connect.
Many organizations have explored
other ways of mentoring. A lead-
ing IT organization uses the con-
cept of Speed Mentoring. The top
leaders of the company take 3
days dedicated to mentoring twice
a year. Most slots are scheduled
for meeting with top talent, but
other employees can also book up
to 1 hour slots depending on
availability. This gives the top
management visibility and con-
nects with the employees with
relatively lower investment.
Other versions of mentoring in-
cludes mentoring for women,
mentoring for returning mothers
and reverse mentoring – in which
the top management is mentored
by young employees on topics like
technology and social media.
In 2006, the data analysis of 1,000
Sun Microsystems employees over
a five-year period (analyzed by
Gartner, a research and advisory
firm, and Capital Analytics, a
software and services company)
revealed that corporate mentors
were promoted six times more
often than those not in the corpo-
rate mentorship program, while
mentees were promoted five times
more than their non-mentored
counterparts. While there cannot
be a doubt about the value of
mentoring, execution is critical.
There are three critical aspects
that make a mentoring process
successful, says Harini Sreeniva-
san, People Director-GDC, Wor-
ley India. First, it must be clear
what is in it for the mentor, else
there will be frequent postpone-
ment of discussion and lack of
importance from the mentor.
Second there must be a written
formal contract between the men-
tor and the mentee which in-
cludes details like frequency, ob-
jective, expectations from both
sides etc to ensure due importance
and maximum outcome. Third,
there must be no formal reporting
relationship between the mentor
and mentee, else it turns into a
situation where the mentor may
burden the mentee with addition-
al tasks related to work, and the
mentee is concerned of opening
up due to fear of his own future.
Conclusion
As per the 20th annual Global
CEO Survey by PriceWaterhouse-
Coopers which included 106
CEOs from India, the top CEO
concern was Availability of key
skills. The skill gap is a critical
pain point, impeding innovation
and prompting higher people
costs. To ensure sustainable pro-
gress of the organization, it is
critical to develop the available
talent within the organization and
have a plan of getting talent from
outside to fill the gaps. Talent
management is critical for the
organization to sustain and thrive
and move from Good to Great.
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Talent Management—Transforming for the workplace of the

Harini Sreenivasan
Surveys have shown that
typically organizations have
engagement policies that
typically address the entire
population irrespective of
the diversity in talent.
“As circumstances change,
leadership must change. A
certain set of skills, instincts
and personality traits may
be perfect today, but useless
tomorrow”.
future
Once upon a time, managing
talent at the workplace was black
and white, so to say. Goals were
set with a top-down approach and
measurement was by clearly writ-
ten objectives. Now, with the
advent of
an era of multi-generational work-
forces, the ‘black and white’ has
started to see more colours! Need-
less to say, the ‘how’s’ of attracting
talent, managing and retaining
them too should be re-visited.
Let’s do a quick scan of the expec-
tations of the new age
multi-generational workforce.
Surveys have shown that typically
organizations have engagement
policies that typically address the
entire population irrespective of
the diversity in talent. The older
generations grew up in an era of
large corporate hierarchies while
the youngsters expect flatter man-
agement structures and team-work
-based job roles. The millennials
skilled in technology are usually
very self-confident, can multi-task
and have abundance of energy.
They prefer to work in teams
rather than as individuals, seek
flexibility in managing work and
personal pursuits. All this and
more make this generation per-
ceived as a challenge by the older
generations.
On the other hand, the baby
boomers and the Gen-X who have
grown in hierarchical organiza-
tions look for tasks to be cascaded
top-down and are unable to relate
with flexibility in work hours.
They are most comfortable with
fixed working hours and several
rules and regulations that guide
them. The millennial employee is
interested in real time
feedback, while traditional semi-
annual reviews cater better to the
older folks.
Managing talent as diverse as this
and also deploying practices to
keep them engaged is indeed the
challenge of the new age CHRO.
Specific areas that need to be
tapped for managing multi-
generational talent is handling
performance measurements and
enabling career opportunities. The
diversity of talent is so wide that
organizations have to refrain form
imitating competitors. Even with-
in the same type
of business ‘one size fits all’ is a
great myth. Instead of a cookie
cutter approach, organizations
have to start putting their employ-
ees in the center and building
practices around them. Rather
than policing the employees, or-
ganizations will have to invest
heavily on trust that
runs top down, bottom up and
also at peer levels. Here is a 5-
point guidance for this effective
transition :
Start with ‘I don’t know’ and
quickly follow up with a ‘tell me
more’. This breaks down barriers
and immediately lays a foundation
of trust.
Listen sensitively and co-create
solutions. This builds a leadership must change. A certain set
participatory culture and everyone
across generations feel involved.
Replace rules and regulations with
flexible boundaries. Leave
employees to champion for their
requirements and spend their
resources effectively. Abolish all
unnecessary audits and checks
that slow down
processes.
Hire for depth of knowledge of
the role and not for length of
experience or breadth of qualifica-
tion. This third dimension is a key
to engagement of true talent.
Be inquisitive of hidden strengths.
Leverage these individual
strengths to achieve more as a
team
.The recipe to move from ‘Selfish
management’ to ‘Self Manage-
ment’ is loads of ‘conviction’ with
a dash of ‘courage’ to change on a
platter of unadulterated
‘commitment’.
Brazilian businessman and best
selling author of ‘The Maverick’
and ‘Seven Day weekend’, Ricardo
Semler has enough testimonies up
his sleeve that validate the philoso-
phy of self management. To quote
Ricardo, “As circumstances change,
of skills, instincts and personality
traits may be perfect today, but useless
tomorrow”.

Talent Management—From being important to becoming
Imperative
“Talent Management is the systemat-
ic process of creating and sustaining
individual competencies that will
help the business delivery strategy”
said Dave Ulrich. The more we talk
of AI, AR, VR, etc., the more is also
talked about human talent manage-
ment. Managing human talent has
become a key competitive advantage
for organizations to sustain and
grow.
Talent Management per se is a broad
term to include Talent Planning,
Talent Acquisition, Onboarding &
Engagement, Performance Manage-
ment, Talent Development, Success
Planning, etc.
While all these look very isolated
and independent, in the true spirit
of execution, all these are interrelat-
ed and interdependent. While a
robust Talent planning ensures a
responsive talent acquisition plan, a
scrupulous onboarding & engage-
ment plan glues the talent to the
organization in the long run. Once
the talent is retained in the organiza-
tion, it is important to ensure a fair
mechanism to measure and reward
performance and provide avenues
for development for the talent to
grow.
In their book “Talent Masters”,
Ram Charan and Bill Conaty write,
“If businesses managed their money as
carelessly as they manage their people,
most would be bankrupt”. They also
go on to remark, “The great majority
of companies that control their finances
masterfully don’t have any comparable
processes for developing their leaders or
even pinpointing which ones to develop.
No matter how much effort they put into
recruiting, training and assessing leaders,
their talent management remains hit-or-
miss ; governed by superficial criteria
and outdated concepts, dependent as
much on luck as on skill”.
This coming from a person (Bill
Conaty), who served his entire ca-
reer in GE and was heading HR for
the group for 14 years, should ring a
bell. GE has its own reputation for
building and maintaining a robust
talent pipeline system, thanks to
Jack Welch’s visionary leadership.
The process in which Jack Welch’s
successor Jeff Immelt was chosen in
2001 itself is a case-study-par-
excellence in talent management.
Not only planned successions, GE
has its own reputation of managing
unplanned senior level exits.
“Talent Masters” dedicates one
chapter for the topic “The Same
Day CEO succession”, where Bill
Conaty alongwith Jack Welch inter-
nally appointed a CEO for a $6
Billion business on the same day the
incumbent CEO announced resig-
nation. This selection was not one
man’s decision based on his guts,
but as they had already built a
strong pipeline of second rung lead-
ers, the CEO successor was identi-
fied, process initiated and the name
of the new CEO was announced the
same day evening.
But then why John Flannery fail to
meet the expectations of the Board
and got fired nearly one year after
he took over as Chairman and CEO
of GE in October 2018 ? Why did
the same system which provided a
rock-solid leadership of Jeff Immelt
for more than 15 years as Group
Chairman and CEO (succeeding
Jack Welch in 2001) and which gave
a CEO Successor in a day, fail to
produce results ? John Flannery is
no stranger to GE. Like his prede-
cessors Jack and Jeff, he too spent
his entire career of more than 30
years in GE and headed multi-
billion dollars businesses of GE
before he took over as Group Chair-
man and CEO. Being a home
grown successful business leader and
an off-shoot of meticulous Talent
Management system, John’s failure
came as a bolt-from-the-blue, not
only for GEians but for entire man-
agement community as a whole.
Lawrence Culp is now Chairman &
CEO of GE from October 2018 and
he is the first “outsider” to head GE
in the company’s 125-year histo-
ry.Another case in point is our own
“TATA”. Cyrus Mistry came
through a selection panel process,
which went into the credentials of
various people and finally zeroed in
on him after a meticulous process.
A family friend of TATAs and com-
ing from a family of successful busi-
ness men, Cyrus could hold on to
the forte only for 4 years. He is
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succeeded by N.Chandrasekharan,
another homegrown talent (but not
from the family acquaintances), who
is now successfully steering the busi-
ness conglomerate to newer heights
for the past 2 ½ years and still going
strong.
The case of INFOSYS, where
“outsider” Vishal Sikka also came
through a formal selection process
and was at the roughshod helm for
just over 3 years, is yet another ex- Ramesh Srinivasan
ample of scrupulous succession
planning going for a toss. Leadership Coach
P&G and Goodyear are good exam-
ples in the recent years for a well-
orchestrated internal CEO succes-
sion plan. Murugappa Group has a
well thought out plan to develop
and retain business leaders through
their various interventions.
What does all these indicate ? Tal-
ent Management is ever dynamic
and ever pervasive. The practices
which were successful in one compa-
ny, need not fetch the desired result
for another company. In fact, the
practice, which were fetching results
in the same eco-system need not
fetch the desired result with passage
of time. This puts a lot of pressure
on the organizations to re-visit their Human talent was, is and
talent management process and will be a key differentiator
make suitable changes to be respon- to business success
sive to business challenges.
Organizations are now embarking
on innovative and personalized
leadership development interven-
tions to put people before the num-
bers. Intimacy with leaders will
produce the necessary candor, mutu-
al trust and confidence that is essen-
tial to building organizational capa-
bility. Leadership Coaching is
emerging as a preferred intervention
for CEOs / CXOs to enhance their
effectiveness in their role and also to
prepare them to take on next higher
role in future.
All said and done, human talent
was, is and will be a key differentia-
tor to business success and with
more and more technology creeping,
the need to attract, retain and devel-
op human talent is becoming a
business imperative.
Bouquet
Page 10
Volume 5
Page 11
Bouquet
Page 12
Talent Management of Young Executives—Building
Competencies / Leadership
Youth represent the demographic
dividend for the society and na-
tion at large. For our country
which is endowed with large pop-
ulation of youth (65% of the pop-
N Muralidharan ulation below 35 years of age)
harnessing this advantage is im-
HR Consultant / perative for our national growth
Trainer and development. In fact 50% of
our population is below 25 years
Psychologies— of age. Leadership and motivation
Counsellor are the foundational pillars on
which individual development
and growth can be built which in
This article looks at HR turn will have a force multiplier
effect on the institutional, societal
challenges/contextual and national progress
issues and also captures a In organisations , talent manage-
ment of young executives acquires
case study in an
a critical dimension for its Success
and growth. The young talent
organization in the
pool will have to be groomed as
manufacturing sector, leaders of tomorrow and the older
which has two generations- generation have to hand over the
baton to them in a seamless man-
older and younger ner. For this the mindset/
cohabiting , and how attitudinal pre-disposition towards
work /workplace related issues,
synergy was achieved by
work life balance ,and inter-
addressing the aspirations generational differences, need to
be factored in, in any talent man-
of younger executives and
agement strategy. This under-
at the same time co-opting standing would unleash the poten-
tial of the young workforce which
experienced managers as
waits to be tapped in full measure.
stakeholders in this The organisations of today have
to restructure/realign their HR
Organisational
strategy /policies /practices in this
Intervention. context, inorderto effectively
manage younger talent for organi-
zational success.
This article looks at HR challeng-
es/contextual issues and also
captures a case study in an organ-
ization in the manufacturing
sector, which has two genera-
tions- older and younger cohabit-
ing , and how synergy was
achieved by addressing the aspi-
rations of younger executives and
at the same time co-opting expe-
rienced managers as stakeholders
in this Organisational Interven-
tion.
Young adults exhibit the following
behavioral characteristics:
1. Generally, independent in
thinking, would like to know the
WHY for each decision rather
than plain compliance. GEN Y
generally asks WHY ?.
2. Respect competence rather
than authority
3. For theme all work and no
play is not on. They need to work
hard and also enjoy hard and to
the fullest.
4. Have multiple interests apart
from work.
5. Willing to ask questions and
unless convinced don’t put their
heart and soul.
6. Look for quick results willing
to stretch if there is clarity in
terms of path to achieve the goal.
7. Willing to take risks
8. Rapid learners especially in
technology related areas/
applications irrespective of the
field of specialization.
Seminal work on Managing the
Generation Mix by Carolyn
A.Martin and Bruce Tulgan
brought out the following..
Youngsters have three ambitious
goals - to find meaningful jobs
within their professions of
choice ; to work side by side with
knowledgeable dedicated cowork-
ers ; and to earn high salaries by
the time they are 30.
The talented youngsters are inde-
pendent, entrepreneurial thinkers
who relish responsibility, demand
immediate feedback, and expect
to feel a sense of accomplishment
hourly. They thrive on challenging
work and creative expression.
Love freedom, and flexibility and
hate micro-management. “ We are
here. We’re energetic, smart, crea-
tive ,techno-savvy and vocal. We
are here to challenge old ideas ,
push forward new ideas, and use
our energy to turn things around.
We are team-ready and like to
collaborate. And watch out! We
have very high expectations of this
organization, our managers our co
-workers – and ourselves ‘.
They are looking for organisations
that have an obsession with train-
ing and development and that will
offer them opportunities to amass
all kinds of experience to make
them more valuable in the future.
They know jobs come and go and
that developing their career is
their responsibility. According to
them ‘Job Security ‘ means “ I
learn all I can learn here and as
soon as opportunities to keep on
learning disappear, I’ll look for a
better position with another or-
ganization. Of course. I’ll negoti-
ate the best deals for my expanded
skills, experiences, and knowledge.
I have the security of knowing I
can always find a job, and I don’t
have a rigid idea that means being
with one company’.
Finally, this generation demands
the immediate gratification of
making an immediate impact by
doing meaningful work.
Some Adult assumptions about
Younger generation :
1. Perceived as too young
to have any authority or know
very much about anything.
2. Assume that because
young people are techno-savvy
they are business
savy..Consequently initial expecta-
tions far exceed the realities of
teen’s experience.
The youngsters have been very
vocal in their responses – in fact,
they are often the most outspoken
of all the generations. They tell
their older colleagues they are
constantly looking for work-
arounds and often don’t know
the background history that makes
current policies and procedures
necessary. Without that
knowledge, their perception is
limited to ‘ These older people are
entrenched in the way of doing

things. They don’t want to
change’.
Older managers learn they can’t
assume that Youngsters know the
historical context of anything,, or
that they will do as they are told
without knowing why they should
do it. Rather than taking offence
managers have to realize that it
is ;possible to use those challenges
as an opportunity to re-examine
the way we do things around here
to make updates and to tap the
energy and innovative spirit of
young employees who may have
some fresh approach to old pro-
cesses.
Some effective interventions that
will facilitate their potential de-
velopment are :
• Development of their indi-
vidual capabilities,
• Showing genuine concern
about their success in organi-
zation and life
• Establishing coaching rela-
tionships
• Treating them as colleagues,
• Flexibility in schedules and
assignments
• Providing consistent con-
structive feedback,
• Linking rewards and incen-
tives closely to performance.
• Help them meet high expec-
tations of themselves
.Helping young employees see the
Big Picture is the job of manage-
ment. So is holding them account-
able for their actions.
This paper presents a case study
where an industrial organizational
organization of vintage, a reputed
player in the industry, has turned
the conventional wisdom on its
head by giving support to young
adults to excel in leadership as-
signments , by positive motiva-
tion/recognition schemes, and
changing the culture of the organi-
zation in favour of youth , to un-
Volume 5
Page 13
leash their motivation/leadership
surveyed and they responded to a
potential . This experiment has
structured questionnaire covering This generation demands the
also bridged the inter-generational
their expectations and aspirations
divide and fostered happy collab- immediate gratification of
and the key findings are summa-
oration of older and younger gen-
rized as under : making an immediate impact
erations within the organization,
1. They wanted freedom in
thus providing a success script by doing meaningful work.
executing their jobs .on day
worthy of emulation. This is based
to day basis.
on research using participant
2. They are looking for more
survey to identify their needs
opportunities learn more
(working adults of younger genera-
deeply in their own disci-
tion) and aspirations before
pline.
launch of appropriate initiatives
3. They are chafing at tight
and measuring their effectiveness
control over daily work and
after roll-out of initiatives. Older managers learn they
do not relish too much of
It all started with the CEO of the
directions//closer supervi- can’t assume that Youngsters
organization setting the agenda ‘If
sion in their jobs .
the organization has to change know the historical context of
4. They are keen on getting
itself to respond to the expecta-
general guidance and in areas anything,, or that they will do
tions/aspirations of the youth, so
where they need specific
be it’. This orgnisation is 70 years as they are told without
inputs rather than advice on
old and has two generations Gen
operational issues. knowing why they should do it
X and Y. In fact 65% of the em-
5. They wanted to take higher
ployees are below 35 years of age.
levels of exposure to organi-
A survey was done to understand
zational perspective and in
the aspirations of the youth . A
macro level issues
cross-section of population was
A. Chokkiah
Manimaran Mohanan
C Venkataramanan
Bouquet
Page 14
Helping young employees see
the Big Picture is the job of
management. So is holding
them accountable for their
actions.
Young adults are the beacon of
hope for the future and
unleashing their potential in
terms of positive motivational
attitude , goal orientation,
leadership will propel the
organisations forward in their
quest for growth
6. Clarity on career path is
desired by majority of the
participants
7. They want work to be filled
with fun, joy and excitement
STRATEGIC THINKING BE-
HIND THE APPROACH :
Some strategic thinking that guid-
ed the approach towards Young
Executives Mission ( these initia-
tives were branded under this
banner) was as follows :
• How effective is our current
orientation programme in
engaging the enthusiasm and
energy of our new recruits
from day one ? How can we
create a program that gets
them upto speed faster and
has them making important
contributions sooner ?
• Managers coaching younger
people
• Current star performers as
peer leaders who can help
with transition of new hires
• How to identify star coaches
for the younger genera-
tion / ? How do we com-
municate their availability
and areas of expertise to
youngsters ?
• How will we help young
adults meet their high expec-
tations of organization,
their managers, co-workers
and themselves ?
• How to manage young work-
ing population ?
Major Initiatives that flowed out
of the findings of the survey were :
• Greater involvement of
youth in structured pro-
grammes giving them expo-
sure to organsiational strate-
gy and plans. A major initia-
tive was to induct a team of
young executives to draft and
present corporate strategy
for the succeeding year. They
presented it to the Board and
their targets were more ambi-
tious than set by the compa- spective on organsiational
ny senior executive team. issues. They were able to link
They were monitored by their roles/functions to or-
senior person and men- gansiational growth and
tored /guided in drafting this goals.
plan. • Some of the other salient
• Financial budgets allocated findings of this survey (post
• Greater work life balance roll-out of initiatives )were:
programmes • -On autonomy they ex-
• Clarity on career growth and pressed moderate level of
plans satisfaction.
•
• Accelerated career growth -Specific career paths with
plans for good performers time frame received fair level
with enhanced learning op- of satisfaction. Social/ego
portunities satisfaction needs were the
underpinning factors pro-
• Informality and greater free-
moting this satisfaction
dom in work ambience. Al-
• -Liked the informal approach
lowed attire reflecting the
towards addressing bosses.
contemporary times on cer-
tain days of the week. • Direct communication chan-
• Senior persons roped in as nel to the top management
committing active listening
mentors in the development
by higher echelons of man-
of younger executives
• Job rotations/cross function- agement
• From a six day work week to
al exposure
five day work week for two
• Working as understudy to
senior persons for specific weeks in a month . Of course
this was without compromis-
period of time giving them
ing productivity
perspective on macro level
issues
To conclude young adults are the
• Weekly holiday changed
beacon of hope for the future and
from Monday to Sunday in a
unleashing their potential in
manufacturing plant based
terms of positive motivational
on the feedback form young-
attitude , goal orientation, leader-
er employees( Monday off
ship will propel the organisations
was in vogue for several years
forward in their quest for
before this change) who had
growth . This paper has focused
expressed their strong desire
from the perspective of work on sharing some ideas, experience
life balance.. sharing, and thoughts which
could act as triggers for further
• Post implementation : The
progress in this all important
executives surveyed after the
first roll-out of the initiatives
domain .
expressed high sense of satis-
faction with these initia-
tives .Corporate stratey plan-
ning received highest rating .
Everybody who participated
in it expressed highest degree
of satisfaction as it gave them
a sense of pride and the
recognition They got expo-
sure/knowledge ,wider per-
Volume 5
Page 15
Bouquet
Page 16
Bouquet
Page 17
Artificial Intelligence in Talent Management
In the current world scenario Talent Acquisition
has become an increasing challenge in the corpo-
rate space, and more to say Talent Management
is getting equalled with complications.
Indeed this dynamic challenge has to be bal-
Rathnakar anced with such a technology to ensure the rapid
demands are met on time and also enable pre-
Metaphysisist & dictability of situations well ahead of time. Expe-
Mentor riences are the explorers of solution in such situa-
tions.
Today, Artificial Intelligence has incarnated to
fill up gaps and taking the businesses from mere
Data Analysis to Predictive Analysis, a level
above. Thus empowering organisations to lead
the business in their own terms.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology that
can be used to perform certain tasks that requires
some level of intelligence that typically humans
perform. This is a tool or a system that can be
trained with data and can be used to take actions
and decisions through acquired intelligence. To
simplify, this tool is capable of taking actions like
humans. In other words, AI can augment/
enhance human decision making capability.
The key differentiation of the traditional soft-
ware systems and AI enabled is, to do a task that
its decision making ability improves as the data
and information processes. With the advent of
High-performance computing, Big-data technolo-
gies, sophisticated algorithms, AI systems’ accura-
cy of predictions, decision making has improved
significantly. These systems can be leveraged
along with the existing HR systems leveraging the
best of both the systems.
Artificial Intelligence in HR
The success of any organization depends on how
effectively it combines people, process and tech-
nology intelligently to deliver transformational
value at optimized cost. AI will help to efficiently
automate many back-office functions for reliable
HR transactions and service delivery.
The above diagram shows the important of im-
pact of HR in improving the productivity of the
organization.
Machine Learning (ML) and AI technologies
offer significant opportunities to HR and enable signif-
icant capabilities to HR industry in particular improv-
ing entire HR functions across like recruitment, per-
formance evaluation, payroll, policies and procedures
and employee engagement, which is considered as
critical for the success of the organization. Increasing-
ly, HR executives started relying on AI technologies
starting from doing auto-sorting and scoring of re-
sumes matching the profiles, assessing the psychologi-
cal health of employees, emotional balance etc. These
soft-skills are critical building high-performance work-
ing environment and has direct impact over Talent
Extraction and Management. We are living in an era
in which AI is entering every aspect of personal lives
and businesses and reaching new heights and have a
major impact on how we operate our business with no
exception to HR.The phase that todays business is
revolving needs quick acquisition of Talent and effi-
ciently manage them to intensify the focus on desired
results of the organisations. AI systems would lead in
providing more capacity, efficient time and budget
management, and accurate information for decisive
and effective people management.
Artificial Intelligence as a technology expounds the
means and modes of possibilities in quantifying and
enriching the experiences of candidates, employees,
hiring managers and HR generalists.
With Artificial Intelligence every experiences, be it of
an employee up to the management level can be as-
sessed and analysed from gross to subtle most level.
This would indicate the health of the organisation and
its road map ahead.
There is a gap between “ external knowledge and Inter-
nal experience” and vice versa gap between “ Internal
Knowledge and external experiences”, this acts as a
cause of most of non-productivity issues that not only
affects organisations but also create a negative impact
on employee’s personal and professional welfare. Here
lies the secret of Talent Management.
Visualise if Artificial Intelligence takes up the role
supportive of Talent Management, starting from Tal-
ent Acquisition, Talent enhancement and up to reten-
tion and gives the direction of yielding high productiv-
ity, then how much of time and energies would be
saved for the functional managers and HR generalists.
This gives higher bandwidth foe them to bring in
more values in totality.
Talent Management has to identify four common
traits in people that has a direct proportion in employ-
ee hiring and employee engagement process, they are
 Volume 5
Page 18

• “ some know what they know”

• “ some know what they don’t know”
• “ Some don’t know what they know”
• “some don’t know what they don’t know”

Artificial Intelligence can act as an enabler to bring the focus of Business Managers, HR managers, Internal
& external trainers and to the management so that they shall proactively take necessary steps to steadfast the
harmony in their organisations. Humans and learning machines (ML) are working together increasingly and
are producing an ever-increasing amount of HR data in the cloud, and the use of artificial intelligence anal-
yses offer better insight into how to execute and operate.

Artificial Intelligence Applicability in HR

Following diagram gives a jist of AI capabilities in HR domain.

AI is an enabler to bring focus
to bring in harmony in the
organization

Following are key functions of HR can be augmented with AI systems.

Machine Learning Process Applied to HR

Here is a simplest view to the ML flow in HR. The technologies shown here are indicative to pro-
vide the concept of the ML application in HR.
 Volume 5
Page 19

Pitfalls

While implementing the AI in HR, organizations have to look for the following pitfalls.

• Clarity on Outcomes – A clear set of requirements must to avoid any unexpected results. Hazy or im-
proper business requirements/outcomes would have high changes of limited outcomes of the initiatives.
• Availability of sufficient learning data sets - Real-life data, along with the quality and volume of data, is
extremely important for accurate decisions or recommendations for AI Platform. This should be free
from bias and representative of all possible scenarios. First, get the right set of data, then get the AI to
AI, Ml transform the way HR
provide the best output
acts—facilitates analysis,
• Right implementation approach and partner – Choosing the right technologies, process and AI vendor/ prediction and diagnosis for
partner is critical to the success of the AI adoption journey improvement
• Be aware of unintended consequences – Consider all the possible scenarios and document as many
possible scenarios as possible to avoid any unintended consequences
• Eliminate Bias – Due to biased input, AI systems can go wrong. Biased decisions to be avoided for a
positive change in the organization.

Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence unequivocally is a transformation driver for HR industry. AI-based HR applications

have strong potential to raise employee productivity and help HR professionals become knowledgeable con-
sultants that boost employee performance with enhanced Talent Management systems. HR applications em-
powered by AI have an ability to analyse, predict, diagnose and become more powerful and capable resources.
Determine what you would like to see and how it can fit within your corporate culture before adopting a
solution. Employees will be affected by the AI function in multiple ways, so it is important to understand
employee needs and organization goals.
Bouquet
Page 20
Talent Management —Dashboard view
Talent Management is one of the
most critical facets in the HR
world. Talent Management
though easily put covers a broad
spectrum of responsibilities as in
• Supplying right talent at the
right time
S. Bhanu Kumar • Managing the right mix of
talent to facilitate successful
Business Consultant, delivery
• Clarity in the onboarding
S.bhanu.kumar@hotmai
time—time when the individ-
l.com
ual can be 100% productive—
across various talents
• Planning retention of re-
Talent management is sources with the critical
the most critical facet of and / or niche talent
the HR function
Keeping all this in mind, it is
important that as HR Owning
Talent one is able to get a realistic
information when they need.
This is easier said than done in
the past, but with the Technology
advancement & the Analytics
taking the front seat, Organiza-
tions have started getting this
information at the click of a but-
ton
Industry 4.0 has enabled inter-
operability, transparency in infor-
mation, technical assistance, and
Skill alignment / decentralized decision making.
This necessitates availability of
enhancement makes a big
information at any points of time
impact in the overall to make “informed decisions”.
puzzle of Talent
Management As owner of Talent it is important
that the following are critically
measured / managed:
• Segregation of Niche talent
• Talents and the level of
knowledge required for each
of the roles
• Market information on the
readiness of the talent availa-
bility for a sudden ramp up
• Cost of talent
• Lead time for ramp up of a
talent
While all this information will
always be available with any sea-
soned HR professional, what is
important in this decentralized
environment is the availability of
more realistic and real time data
for all stakeholders. This is always
a challenge for any HR profession-
al for reasons like:
• Each stakeholder might need
information in a particular
format
• Collation of information
available to suit the need of
the stakeholder
• Slice the data to suit the
theme of the report
• A snapshot can be made
available but real time infor-
mation may not be available
at all times
Technology enables one to get the
information as envisaged by the
stakeholders at the time they
need.
Following are some of the aspects
that need to be considered for one
to achieve this:
• Availability of data—this
could be from multiple data
sources but the key is to have
them accessible
• Accuracy of Data—Data In-
tegrity is a critical need and it
is important that data provid-
ed helps in making decisions
appropriate
• KPI’s to measure the various
needs around Talent—This
typically is an ongoing pro-
cess wherein one reviews the
various metrics collected and
introduces or removes met-
rics that are required / not
required
• Single Source of Truth—All
reports for all stake holders
to be generated from one
single source
Once we know what we are col-
lecting and we have made the
same available as per need, we
need to see how this data can be
presented to the audience—
aesthetic look and feel of the data.
Images does make wonders but it
is important that as the owner of
data we project the data in a man-
ner that depicts the essence of the
information
Similar to the dashboard of a car,
the vital parameters of the Talent
related activities including skilling,
upskilling needs to be projected in
a manner that is easily absorbed
by the stake holders
Multiple data visualization tools—
free and paid ones—enable us to
achieve this
The dashboard must be customiza-
ble to the need of the user and
not to the need of the depart-
ment. At the same time, the dash-
board should not be recreated and
instead it should start from a high
level, say 10000 feet level and
facilitate drill down on each of the
metric upto the lowest level
Let us say we pick a role Depart-
ment Head, then we should have
information around:
• Skills required for the role
• Expertise / experience re-
quired for the role
• Names of folks who were in
that role
• Good, Bad Ugly of each of
the resource related to the
activities they conducted
• Details of the folks who per-
formed that role in terms of
whether they are in the or-
ganization, if so at what level
and what has been their
performance, prior and post
this role etc
A typical dashboard can look like
the one below
 Volume 5
Page 21

To understand this better, let us

take a scenario of Skill Upgrade
required in the Accounts Depart-
ment of an organization thanks to
GST introduction.
The typical process we follow to
achieve this would be:
Set the Table
Step 1: Set the goal—when should
we be ready with the skill
Step 2: Duration of training plus
any additional practices required
to be skilled
Step 3: Typical levels needed in
the department—Novice, Experi-
enced, Expert
Step 4: Statistics around Traina-
ble / Non-Trainable resources and
the time duration that the train-
alble resources can be away from
work
Push the ball to roll
Step 1: Identify the vendor
Step 2: Identify the participants
Step 3: Build a training plan—this
could be in a phased manner to
achieve the numbers as per the set
goals
Step 4: Initiate the training as per
plan
Reporting needs
Step 1: Identify stakeholders of
report
Step 2: Finalize the information
to be shared and the level to
which this need to be shared to
ensure transparency of infor-
mation.
Step 3: Build reports, finalize
period of reporting and start pub-
lishing
• Identify the data source for
the metrics to be published
• Ensure availability of data at
the right time to provide
periodic updates
• Create a look and feel tem-
plate and get concurrence
from stakeholders on the
data planned to be projected
• Build a sample report and
validate, make appropriate
modifications and create the
report
• Enable access for all stake-
holders to view report as
appropriate
Some of the advantages in this
automated reporting approach Automated dashboards
are:
• Single Source of Truth—data using any of the
for the report to all stake- visualization tools will
holders come from the same facilitate easier
set of tools
• Report available when need- publication of required
metrics for making
ed with scheduled data re-
fresh for current status informed decisions
• No manual intervention and
single focussed effort facili-
tates easy availability of sta-
tus.
Some sample reports related to
this could look like

This activity if it needs to be auto-

mated it can be done right from
setting the table all the way to
reports. The low hanging fruit
here is the Report.

Typically if it is not Technology

driven we will identify a resource
who would be responsible to exe-
cute this activity. If technology
driven, the following is done:
 Page 22

NIPM Southern Regional Conference

NIPM Madras Chapter—Advanced Certificate Course

 Page 23

NIPM National Conference 2019 held at Bangalore

We Welcome your feedback & Suggestions

National Institute of Personnel Management

Madras Chapter
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Dr. R.K.Salai, 6th Street, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004
Phone: +91-44-2811 5599,/ +91-96771-09053 BOUQUET Published by:
Email ID: nipmcc@yahoo.com
Web:: https://www.nipmmadras.com M.H.Raja, Chairman, NIPM Madras Chapter