Bouquet Volume 8

Jan 2020—Mar 2020

For Members—Private
NIPM MADRAS CHAPTER Circulation Only

Chairman’s Message
Editorial Team
• M.H. Raja
• K Ganesan
• K.S. Chandru
• S. Bhanu Kumar

Dear Members, personally and professionally. It has Bhanu Kumar for the efforts in bring
We continue to look been such an honor to be a part of the this Newsletter in professional manner
on time. The upcoming News Letter is
Greetings and best wishes for the leadership team of NIPM, a well-
forward to your season. respected and highly-regarded covering the articles on Covid-19
Challenges and Industry 4.0 & HR
articles (not more I am sure that we are all experiencing a
association which has highly placed
professional members from various Challenges.
than 2 pages) for different situation which we never had. streams of industries and institutions.
Wish you all in a good health and stay NIPM’s reputation is enhanced by We might have heard the sudden
the Bouquet safe along with your family. I take the many of the practicing management demise of HR friends in their young
age and it calls for creating a Corpus
magazine privilege in requesting everyone to professionals who contributed their
Fund to support their family. We are
stay at home and keep social time and expertise for the
distancing, following Government advancement of this association and working with other HR Forums in
guidelines during this lockdown period the industry. I am fortunate that I have creating a Corpus Fund to support our
Theme: Covid 19 as our Health is more important than collaborated closely with such qualified HR Friends and do contribute when we
announce.
Impact and post anything else. members, Executive Committee
member, past Chairmen’s, a quality
Covid work culture We have experienced natural board and place my gratitude to all of As a responsible and reputed forum,
calamities due to floods or drought, them and appreciate all they’ve done NIPM is looked up for breakthrough
etc., and suffered with economic for NIPM during my term. initiatives, reaching out to the
Please send your slowdowns in our life. In all those millennials and contribution for
situations we could be able to analyze, Looking back the impressive knowledge transformation of its
submissions to understand and predict the reasons accomplishments over the past two members. That requires strong and a
vibrant team to lead the Chapter and I
nipmcc@yahoo.com and way forward. But the current
epidemic Covid-19, is strange and a
years, I truly recognize the team effort.
There have been so many noteworthy wish the team to take over and my
life threatening to all of us, spreading moments this team could be able to best wishes to them. Once again on
across globe and affecting personal execute and some are first-time new behalf of the Executive Committee I
thank all the members for your
Contents and professional life of us. The year
2020-21 is going to be a very
accomplishments. We were recognized
as “The Best 2nd Chapter Award”. We encouragement and trust to this team
challenging to us and the way we dealt have collaborated with MMA & XIME, a and my Chairmanship.
Chairman’s Message 01 business will not going to be the same. joint Certification Courses on HR
In various forums, discussions and “Advanced Certification Course on As there are so many more
analysis we were deliberating Strategic Talent Management” & outstanding activities/programs
How Industry 4.0 is 05 technology disruptions i.e. Artificial Courses on IR "Organizational planned for 2021 and beyond, I wish
Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Discipline - Core of Industrial your support and enthusiasm for the
disrupting Human new team and the leadership as well.
Industry 4.0, etc. till some time back, Relations" and first live-streamed
resources now we are forced to discuss on bring Monthly Meetings, etc. were carried
back the business, economy, GDP and out. Opened up many students’ forums Remember to stimulate the mind and
Driving Change towards 06 of course people’s health. and supported for their annual enhance your environment!
Effective HRM national level conferences. I truly
Economists predict that this year acknowledge that all these were the
07 India’s growth rate will drastically result of members collaboration, Warm Regards,
HR Challenges in slowdown and GDP will be around 2%. openness and transparency with
Industry 4.0 (Smart HR This will impact on business handling, members input, priority to members’
cost cutting, people buying power and expectations and commitment for M.H. Raja
more importantly on jobs and job delivering quality Programs. Chairman, Madras Chapter
Corona Virus— 10 market across levels. As HR
Emerging Business & Professionals, we have lot of My sincere thanks to all the
challenges to handle different Corporates, sponsors, Speakers, Faculty
situations which we might have never Members, Trainers, Education
Life or Livelihood? 11 come cross. As NIPM forum, we also Institutions, Students, Office Bearers of
have the responsibilities to support our MMA, NHRD, ISTD, CII, XIME, Chroma,
professionals with innovative Sharp, S2S, MCC, FICCI for their
programs, equipping best practices, continued support to NIPM activities.
Covid 19 and the 12 sharing of experts strategies in this Also my special thanks to National
Indian Economy: crises time. Let’s be prepared for the Office Team for their cooperation. I too
Impact of ‘People First’ same. sincerely recollect supports provided
by Mr. E. Ethirajan, Manager of our
Policy I also wish to state that as a Chairman, Chapter during this tenure.
my term (2018-20) is going to be Lot of people appreciated and
Industry 4.0 -> HR 13 completed and I take this opportunity encouraged last issue of Bouquet and I
4.0??? to thank all the Members for thank them and extend my gratitude
entrusting me to serve in this capacity. to those contributed to the last
It has been a valuable experience both Bouquet – News Letter. My special
thanks Mr. K.S. Chandru and Mr. S.
Bouquet
Page 2

Dr. C Jayakumar
CHRO—Larsen & Tourbo

Dr. C. Jayakumar, Vice President & Head of

Human Resources for L&T Construction has been
elevated as Group CHRO for Larsen & Toubro, an
engineering conglomerate, with global
Dr C Jayakumar operations.
was elevated as A home-grown talent, joined way back in 1988 with the Construction Division
CHRO for Larsen of L&T, risen through the ranks and was Head of HR for various business and
geographies within L&T Group including Middle East. A highly result oriented,
& Toubro and HR professional identified as a top talent established his mark by designing,

NIPM implementing and managing various Strategic HR Initiatives for the group.

congratulates He is Ph. D in the area of Leadership (Ph.D) from Madras School of Social
Work, University of Madras. After his postgraduation in Economics from
him on this Madras University, did his Personnel Management & IR from Madras School of

promotion Social Work, PG program in HRD, from XLRI – Jamshedpur, Law (LLB) from
Bangalore University & also has one more postgraduate degree in Labour
Studies & an M.Phil in Labour Studies to his credit.

He is an active member of various Academic and professional bodies:

• Member of the Academic Council of Madras School of Social Work, an

Autonomous Institution, affiliated to University of Madras
• Member of the Board of Studies of Department of Labour Studies, University
of Madras.
• Member of the Board of Studies of AIMA.
• Member of the Corporate Advisory Board of Chandigarh University.
• Member of the Board of ICC of Hindustan University.
• Member of 10-member Executive Committee formed by Tamil Nadu
Government to upgrade Tamil Nadu Institute of Labour Studies into a Centre
of Excellence
• Life Member of NHRD, ISTD & NIPM.
• Executive Committee member in FICCI, CII, NHRD & ISTD Chennai chapter.
 Volume 8
Page 3

NIPM partnering with other forums

On Feb 3, 2020, NIPM in association with All India

Manufacturers Organization conducted a Budget review session
with Dr. Soma Valliappan and Mr. K.E. Ragghunathan as the
speakers

The second batch of NIPM-MMA IR Course started on 29th Feb

2020 with Mr. A. Aravamudhan’s session

NIPM in association with XIME Chennai commenced the second

batch of the IR Course with Dr. M. Rama Krishnan as the faculty
for the day

We propose to
continue &
The NIPM Palakkad chapter was inaugurated on enhance
11th March 2020 and Mr. M.H.Raja, Chairman, partnering with
Chennai Chapter attended the event the other forums
to strengthen our
reach to the like
minded people
Bouquet
Page 4

Student Chapter Updates

Student chapter
members are
requested to
share their HR S A Engineering College Dept of Management Sciences during the Management Day 2020 event on
24th Feb 2020. Mr. M.H. Raja Chairman NIPM and Mr. S. Bhanu Kumar presided over the function
related events
and were accompanied by Mr. Chandru Hon, Treasurer of NIPM.
with photographs
for conducted Dr. G. Kerinab Beenu the Head of the Department along with her professors inaugurated the chapter in
events and the presence of the NIPM Representatives.
probable dates
for projected
events to
nipmcc@yahoo.c
om for publishing
here.

NIPM Madras chapter was the Knowledge partner for Women’s Christian College one day workshop on
Building HR Strategies for Harmonious People Management on 16th March 2020.. The workshop was
inaugurated by Mr. M.H.Raja, Chairman NIPM and Mr. Chandru was the Special Guest. Mr. Mathew
Gunaseelan spoke on the topic Innovative approach to build employee and Mr. S. Bhanu Kumar spoke
on the topic HR 4.0 for an Intelligent Organization

How Industry 4.0 is disrupting Human Resources
The Fourth Industrial revolution
is blurring the lines between
people and technology. This has
led to a paradigm shift into a
wholly new world and brought
about unprecedented change in
all functions, including HR.
Below are some examples of
how Industry 4.0 is disrupting
the world of Human Resources
and leading to HR 4.0.
Talent Acquisition Many IT
majors are moving from visiting
100+ campuses and recruiting
from there to creating an online
test on multiple topics which
students across the world can
take from any location and then
calling the top scorers for the
next round. This has enabled the
companies to get the best of
brains across India, disrupting
the whole concept of campus
hiring.
At SAP, Artificial Intelligence
plays a major role in enabling a
gender-balanced recruitment.
Says Shraddhanjali Rao, VP-HR,
SAP, “There are sixty words if
included in a job description
then women will not apply.
Today technology highlights
those words and gives you
options to replace those words.”
ICICI Prudential has designed a
game which a candidate has to
play as part of the application
process. This helps the
candidate to understand the
role better, leading to reduction
in infancy/ early attrition.
Training & Development
Training and Development has
received a huge boost due to
HR 4.0 through Personalized
learning pathways & eLearning
analytics. It enables the
instructor to obtain real-time
feedback on the students’
attention using facial
recognition of students to warn
when to give a break or engage
in a different way. Additionally,
giving the employees the option
of learning at their own pace at
any time through Learning
Management systems is
impacting L&D
Today even government schools
have moved into the HR 4.0
bandwagon. Andhra Pradesh
government partnered with
Microsoft to create an app
which predicts which students
are most likely to drop out of
school. The forecasts is done
through a complex algorithm
using inputs such as enrolment
details, academic performances,
gender, student’s economic
background, school
infrastructure and teacher
effectiveness. Based on early
warning from the app, teachers
can target the high-risk students
with counselling initiatives.
Performance Management
PMS Process has also been
impacted by HR 4.0. At Ola,
technology is used to enable
employees to rate managers in
addition to the usual
performance ratings by
managers. Also, it developed
intelligence to look at the
feedback given by manager
using an algorithm that
measures the number of
keywords being used. This
enables the manager to receive
real-time assessment on the
quality of his or her feedback.
Says Girish Venkataraman,
Director HR, Ola, “This resulted
in quality of feedback score as
per employees increase from
30% to 75%, thus leading to
increased positive experiences
of PMS process”.
At SAP, when a manager gives a
Volume 8
Page 5
rating to an employee, the
system alerts and asks – are you
sure of the rating when the
person hasn’t been with the
company for so long. While
managers can override it, the
system gives a check and
balance.
Employee Engagement &
Connect—Amazon uses an
internal system called Amazon
Connections to get a sense of
what's the mood on a daily
basis. The system collects daily
feedback from employees on
job satisfaction, leadership and K.R. Ramakrishnan
training opportunities. The
feedback gives the HR and
management to make daily
course corrections.
ICICI Prudential uses chatbots
for anonymous employee
surveys. Depending on the
rating given by employee, the Industry 4.0 is
chatbot asks the employee to blurring the lines
elaborate on the reason for the
score. Judhajit Das, CHRO, ICICI
between people &
Prudential says, “the chatbot technology
gives us a second-level or third-
level insights on the reasons for
Industry 4.0 is
the rating, thus enabling a quick
intervention.” disrupting HR
and it is
Conclusions
important to
While the scope, speed and realize that
impact of Industry 4.0 is
disrupting HR, it is important to HR.4.0 is not a
realize that HR 4.0 is not a solution but an
solution for HR. HR 4.0 is merely
an enabler and provides scale – enabler and
it is always the experience that provides the
HR provides to employees which
makes the difference. HR 4.0 is required scale
ultimately about Human
Resources, and it is important to
keep the employee at the heart
of all initiatives.
Bouquet
Page 6
Driving Change towards Effective HRM
Corporate success is not an event
management. It is a deep dive process
involving all stakeholders from
operations, managerial and conceptual
layers of the organization. To ensure
corporate success, change is inevitable.
Change – it can be for a short term
requirement or long term strategy. Each
organization has to face change based
on internal or external necessities, for
which business needs to have a well
thought strategy. This will lead to shape
a conducive environment to face change
in a positive way, bringing in cultural
ethos involving all stakeholders.
Dr. Santosh Bhave In management of any business there
will be few important supporting factors.
Director—HR & IR Effective Human Resource Management
Bharat Forge Ltd, Pune is one on the top. This has to be
percolated from top to bottom and
ensure smooth penetration of the H.R.
process. For any business, to start with,
management may engage some
consultant for bringing in effectivity in
HR Policies. These policies will be based
Leadership on consultant’s perception. The fact is,
development is not a that preparing policy will be business of
the consultant. However, he will not be
magic. Senior there when policies get executed, when
management needs to stakeholders will fill the pinch of such
consultant guided policies. The reason
focus on development is ,these initial policies are based on
of high potential consultants view based on with other
businesses. To ensure brining in
talent and nurture happiness about the HR policies, the
them for corporate best methodology would be to take
employees of the organization into
success confidence and invite their suggestions
for formulation of HR Policies. Once HR
Policies are in place ,the senior
management with the help other change
agents in the organization can ensure
execution of HRM policies to win the
confidence of employees.
Following few points will support driving
effective change for ensuring execution
of HRM practices:-
EXCELLENCE AS BUSINESS GOALS
This involves behavioural dynamics.
Understanding the real cultural change
requires curiosity about other successful
organizations and willingness to accept
best practices. This will help in rapidly
improving organization performance.
Participation in various competitive
awards can boost the motivation level of
employees. The reason is participation
in such competition would compel
stakeholders to think something better
than the best. This will surely encourage
enhancement in people productivity and
will support in bringing in total
productivity management culture, which
will lead towards excellence. Once
define excellence is achieved involving
people, organization can continuously
set for next target and this process
should be continued. It is said that
widening the distance of goal post will
compel employees to increase stamina
to help in sustenance of energy.
PROCESS – HR BUZZ WORD
Seasoned practitioners will understand
quickly inner dynamics and strengthen
the process roping in building blocks to
strengthen change which is aimed for
reinvesting towards HRM. Why it
happens that some specific companies
are considered as “Preferred Employer”?
And why is it that some employers are
not considered as “Not Preferred
Employer”? This is because present and
prospective employers they view and
review HR policies of companies from
close corner and always evaluate the
possible treatment they are likely to get
in such companies. Boss – Subordinate
relationship plays an important role in
this journey. Many a times we listen that
employees are leaving their previous job
due to ill treatment given to them by
their immediate superiors. Therefore, it
is said that people don’t leave the
company, they leave their bosses. It
speaks about the volume of HR process
and culture which is prevailing in such
organizations. Robust process will help
sustainability of organization.
DEVELOPING LEADERSHIP – A
CONTINUOUS PROCESS
Leadership development is not a magic.
Senior management needs to focus on
development of high potential talent
and nurture them for corporate success.
Leadership includes four important
factors - Energy, Energize, Edge and
Execution.
Energy speaks about having - drive and
willingness to drive the change. Energy
is considered as a source of power
whether mechanical, electrical or
otherwise. Person having high energy
binds together individuals with his
passion. Passion cannot be taught or
learnt. Passion can be considered as a
factor which can be taught in
management institutes - It come from
within.
Being energized speaks about the
capacity of an individual to
conceptualize and visioning it with a
view that other would get sparked from
it. Energizers inspire, mobilize people to
act and spark others to perform. They
do not prefer to work in silos and will
not tolerate others to work in silos.
Edge speaks about how strong one is, in
his core value, knowledge, exhibition of
positive attitude and how one consider
himself as a self-competitor. Edge also
includes willingness to make tough and
difficult decisions and take ownership
for success and failure. Individuals with
edge have a competitive spirit and know
the value of speed. They are confident.
They know where to display green light /
red light, and do not get paralyzed with
internal or external tension.
Execution speaks something about
driving results and being recognized as
consistent performer by all stakeholders
in the organization. Individual who have
a liking for execution will always produce
a positive result in organization are
always in demand.
The role of top management is to derive
effective HRM practices by developing
leadership and this should not be
considered as event but should but
taken as continuous process.
POSSIBLE HAZARDS TO THE
IMPLEMENTATION OF DRIVING
CHANGE FOR EFFECTIVE HRM
SYSTEMS
Corporate leaders need to focus on
sensitive issues within and outside
organization and attempt to develop
internal facilitator leading towards total
quality management, inclusive in
bringing in effectivity in performance
management systems. More the
objectivity you have in PMS, subjectivity
will get eliminated and will support in
focusing an eye on enhancement of five
important points of performance, i.e.
quality, quantity, cost, delivery and time.
Effective HR system if based on
openness and transparency will help in
longevity of employees in the
organization.
DEVELOP ABILITIES AMONGST
STAKEHOLDERS TO MEET FUTURE
BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS.
Business will experience change in
product profile and therefore change at
customer mix also. Stakeholders need
to focus on local and global
requirements encompassing changes
which may impact business dynamics.
Managing transition is the key issue for
such change. Meeting customer
requirements should not be the role and
responsibility of marketing personnel
only. However, each and every
individual working in the organization
needs to tighten the belt and make
highest level of attempt for developing
abilities to meet present and future
customer needs. In this process, human
resource working in the organization
should be motivated to take care of
existing and future process, observe the
change which is happening in required
competency level, evaluate commitment
of resource and bring in required
actions. This would help in overall
manner for bringing in effective HRM
systems within the organization with
minimum external interventions.
TALENT DEVELOPMENT
This will be the continuous process
equipping existing employees with
modern skills, attitude and knowledge.
Senior Management needs to involve
themselves in this process round the
clock to ensure acceptance of
management strategy. This will help in
getting the trust of stakeholders on this
process.
Talent development should be round the
clock agenda and senior management
within the organization must inculcate
habit of asking questions starting from
five “W’s” i.e. What, Why, When, Where,
Whom.
Talent development does mean only
deputing members only for external
programs. It involves development of
overall mindset of employees by making
them more focused , training them to
use five “W’s”, with positive thinking in
mind. A flavor or arrogance in using five
“W’s” may lead in vitiating the
organizational environment and may
impact possible cultural change.
Therefore, organization needs to
develop internal consultants and
facilitators with a view to enhance
positive cultural environment, which will
lead towards creating environment of
exploring the idea of commitment and
effectiveness.
Change is a continuous process. All
those who are involved in driving the
change are expected to have above
referred qualities in their personalities.
Effective Talent development and
nurturing high potential employees is
the need of time. With change in
business requirements and economic
pressures, human resource professionals
are expected to pay a key role in
ensuring business stability.

HR Challenges in Industry 4.0 (Smart HR 4.0)
Introduction:
Industry 4.0 refers 4th Industrial
Revolution - existing in today’s
practice. This small piece of article
speaks about a glimpse on
challenges facing by Human
Resource domain in Industry4.0
(Smart HR 4.0) and management
approaches to overcome the same.
Industrial Revolution 4.0
(Existing now)
Industrial Revolution in modern
history is the process of change
from an agriculture and handicraft
economy to one dominated by
Industry and Machine
manufacturing.
Here we are in fourth revolution is
unfolding before our eyes. It’s
millennium with the emergence of
the Internet. The Industry of today
and tomorrow aim to connect all
production means to enable their
interaction in real time.
The globalization and
competitiveness are forcing
companies to re-think and to
innovate their production
processes following the so called
Industry 4.0 paradigm. It represents
the integration of tools already
used in the past (big data, cloud,
robot, 3D Printing, simulation etc.)
that are now connected into a
global network by transmitting
digital data.
The Industry 4.0 is based on the
concept of Smart Factory where the
machines are integrated with men
through CPS – Cyber Physical
systems, IOT (Internet of Things)
connects machines and devises
with one another. IOT enables
Industries to become more efficient
more productive and more reliable.
Technology has become more
advance than before. Wireless
communication will play a key role
in enabling the Industry 4.0
systems and technologies.
Top Three HR Challenges
Traditionally, Human Resource
departments focused heavily on
administrative duties, including
managing records, processing
standard transactions and dealing
with compliance and legal issues.
Today’s HR professional plays
significant role in high-level
planning, consulting with top
executives to chart strategic
direction and shaping key policies.
HR departments really need to be
adding real Business value to their
Organizations. Companies started
recognizing that they will need to
take steps to retain their work
force. HR professionals must be
able to quantify their contributions,
if they are going to assist in setting
the strategic direction of the
business. The three most important
challenges of HR to attain smart
HR4.0 was;
Talent acquisition
Training and Development
Retention Management
The speed of technological change
brought by Industry 4.0 had
created a significant gap between
current capability of employees
and the rapidly evolving
requirements of their roles,
prompting a need to consider
new and more effective approaches
to face the above challenges.
Appropriate management
approaches leads to development
of dynamic capabilities, continuous
learning and innovation climate.
This situation draw an attention
towards the important role of
management practice of Smart
HR4.0 Talent Management is one
of the effective tool of Smart HR
4.0.
The most successful organizations
look for innovative ways to keep
and engage their talent,” said
Doulas J. Matthews. “Poor
management results in lower
morale, decreased productivity, and
employees who are disengaged
from their jobs,” said Doulas J.
Matthews.
Industry 4.0 equates to fighting a
war for talent that does not exist
Volume 8
Page 7
The most important steps to apply
Smart HR (Industry 4.0) are
1. Create awareness of the
importance of innovation
2. Educate the Innovation
Management
3. Identify potential
improvements
Advantages of application of
smart HR 4.0 Usha Santhanam
Efficiency - Saving of Raw Material
and energy
Productivity – Intelligent
technologies that are more
productive
Flexibility – Use of Cyber Physical
systems (CPS)
Individualization on demand –
Integration of customer through
Network (Cyber Physical system)
Decentralization – Faster and data
driven decision making.
Expected Threats
High cost need funding to start
planning at national or regional Industry 4.0 is the
level for the implementation of process of change
systems 4.0 from an agriculture
Threat of redundancy - Blue collar
jobs
and handicraft
Lack of regulation, standard and economy to one
forms of certification dominated by
Unclear legal issues and data
Industry & machine
security
manufacturing
Conclusion
An organization would require a
successful smart HR 4.0 strategy to
cope up with the challenges of
Industry 4.0 transformation.
Emerging Technologies such as
internet - of –Things, Big data,
artificial intelligence help us to
automate most of the HR processes
resulting in efficient and leaner HR
Teams. Effective Organisation
structure and leadership style is
required for smart HR 4.0
implementation of that would allow
the HR departments to play a more
strategic role in the overall
Organization growth.
Bouquet
Page 8

Monthly Meeting

January 2020 Monthly Meeting—Analysis of Current Economic

Climate—” India” - Speaker Prof. Dr. A Anantharaman

February 2020 Monthly Meeting—Story Telling a Tech Take by

Mr. Sidhartha Satpathy, AVP HR, FSS Tech
 Volume 8
Page 9

NIPM—MMA Monthly Video Meetings

January 2020 Monthly Video Meeting—Personal Goal

Setting Journey to Success by Mr. S. Magesh

February 2020 Monthly Video Meeting—Joy at Work Part 1 by

Mr. Vignesh Raja

March 2020 Monthly Video Meeting—Joy at Work Part 2 by

Mr. Vignesh Raja
Bouquet
Page 10
A. Aravamudhan
According to the economists
at the WTO the disruption
and the resultant impact to
Global Trade will be far
worse than the Economic
crisis of 2008
Corona Virus—Emerging Business & HR Issues
Introduction
In an Article published in The Hindu
English Daily, ,it was observed,
Pandemics in the past have had
great influence in shaping Human
Society. Though it is too early to Say
how Covid -19 would change the
world, now only certainty in this
Pandemic gripped. World is the all
enveloping Uncertainty and a sense
of Insecurity among Nations,
Governments , Corporates and People.
Every sector of the Economy is deeply
disturbed.
According to the Economists at the
WTO that the disruption and the
resultant impact to Global Trade will
be far worse than the Economic Crisis
Of 2008 .It u appears the present
Global Health and Economic Crisis will
trigger unprecedented. Social,
Economic and political Costs and usher
in a Wave of Change that will shape
the World for . Neoliberal Economic
Globalization will take a serious beating
and the Countries will be Self Seeking
and Inward Looking in the wake of the
Pandemic. India is a No Exception.
Issues Faced By the Business
As repeatedly now being articulated , It
is apprehended that the following
Pandemic triggered
issues certainly are and will
be derailing the Projections,,
Performance, Profits and even the
Sustainability Of the Organizations
Steep fall in the Consumer Sentiment
and subdued Demands. Decline in
Sales and Loss of Revenue. Lack
of adequate Credit to Manage the
Working Capital to Manage the
Shortfall in Revenue
Late and deferred Payments for the
Supplies made. Increase in the Finished
Stock inventory due to
poor Customers off take.
Cancellations of Future Orders Crunch
in Raw Material Supply, Disruption in
Supply Chain. MSMEs in
financial difficulties are worst
affected to resume work No option
but to Postpone New Projects and
Capex. Cash Flow problems and
difficultyin honouring even agreed
Commitments Painful Pay cuts and
Review Of Employee Benefits Potential
Labour Shortages .
The Economic Crisis needs a Demand
Side and Supply side Response and to
revive the Business Activity requires
Capital and Human Resources. The
main focus of this Article is to highlight
some of the Key Emerging HR issues
and the processes need to address
them. The World will not be the same
as it was during the Pre Corona Days.
People Issues
In this emerging scenario we need to
examine some of the key Macro &
Micro HR issues and find New thinking
and New Ways to address them The
Lethal Combination of Health and
Economic Issues are posing New
Challenge to HR Professionals. The
issues are:
• Job Losses and Cut in Employees
Earnings resulting in sagging
Morale and Motivation of the
Employees.
• Hiring Freeze and the consequent
increase in the Work Load for the
available Employees
• Shortages and Difficulties in
locating and Deployment of Flexi/
Contingent Labour Who would
have have migrated to their Home
town.
• Issues arising due to Management,
genuine difficulties in honoring
agreed commitments to the
Employees and the continued
expectations and Dependence of
the Employees on the Employers,
• In the Context of low morale
Challenges in sustaining the
Engagement and On going
Involvement Activities.
• Fall in Sales and steep Crunch in
the Cash flow with the Priorities
in ramping up and stabilizing.
Production to address Customer
issues There is every likelihood of
deferring all Training initiatives
• While Attrition among Executives
may come down due to all round
Recession, but there will be a
Compelling need to tackle their
Stress, disappointments and
Emotion .
• Disruptions in Business
Operations may end up in Lay off,
Retrenchment or Suspension of
Work leading to IR issues.
• Needless to mention that these
issues do normally crop up
whenever we confront any
Business down turn or Recession.
We in fact in a larger measure
had witnessed these developments
during 2008 Global Recession.
• But Today, Organizations are
grappling with an unprecedented
Crisis that is fundamentally
different from what they have ever
experienced. No one is able to
predict with certainty the
Post Covid 19 scenarios and to
What extent HR Function need to
be future ready.
According Ernest & Young ,HR
Function now needs to assert itself as a
Business. Partner to plan for the Future
HR Processes. HR Heads to recalibrate
their priorities relevant to the
Contemporary Business requirements.
Many Experts observe that CV
Pandemic has brought the greatest
Work place Transformation Of our Life
time. How we recruit.? How we carry
out Manning ? How we Deploy and
where to deploy ? How we Digitize HR
Processes ? How we Learn and Impart
Learning ? How we Assess and
Reward People ?
To be specific the Priority Issues now
are :;
• Ensure Multiple Approaches
to Communication on a Regular
Basis regarding
• Impact of the Virus on Business
and the responses expected from
the Employees
• Message to emphasize that
“Stability Of the Business is urgent
and more important than Assertion
of Rights “ to be constantly given.
• Culture of “ Concern and
Commitment to Society “ to be
reinforced
• Involve the Employees and their
Representatives for any immediate
Change Initiatives needed
• Plan for Labour
Shortages and possible High Rate
Of Absenteeism
• Intensifying the Multi Skilling to
meet the Shortages Of Skilled
Labour
• Engaging of GIG Workers to be
encouraged.
• Ramp up Training and Investment
in Remote working wherever
possible
• Design system to monitor the
Productivity and Assess the
Performance Of People Working
from Home.
• Cost Effectiveness to be ensured
in all People Related Costs.
• Develop a Short term Sick Leave
and Medical Benefit Policy tackle
any
• Possible Resurgence of Corona
Virus
• System to be on Board to
intensify Pre Employment Medical
Exam irrespective of the Category
Of Labour
• Few Guidelines for Shop Floor
Behaviour including Social
Distancing and Hygiene to be
institutionalized
• To overcome Budgetary
constraint E - Learning to
be made a Way Of Life.
• Digitalization of the HR - Processes
and make Employees Computer
Savy.
• Due Compliance of Statutes to
ensured to sustain the Confidence
level of the Employees.
• Efforts to be pursued to review and
Moderate some of the Monetary
Benefits through Mutual
Discussion to reduce Operating
Costs with an assurance to restore
the same once normalcy is
restored.
• To Emphasize the need to sustain
the Employee Engagement
Activities In practice in the Pre
Corona Days.
• Focus on Work Life Balance to
display the concern for the
Employees
• In all HR transactions ,a balance of
Empathy and Firmness to be
displayed.
Let me end this Article with a Note
that“when fear and uncertainty
abound , the HR is the right and
Competent Function to handle the
Responses and add Value to the
Management. Strategy to evolve a
New Business Model to tackle
the Crisis. Let us be Confident that
this also shall pass and the HR
Function will reinforce its Position at
the Centre Stage of the Business
Processes.”

Life or Livelihood?
Today the biggest debate in everyone’s
mind is which is important – Life or
Livelihood?. Those who have no issues
with Livelihood will say – Life is
important and those who have no
livelihood will say Livelihood is
important. Those who are in the middle
can swing on either this or that
depending on their predicament from
time to time.
Is there any learning from the last 21
days of curfew? If so what are they and
how can they be used to handle the
next 20 days, better.
Let us see analyse. Before doing so, I
would like to convey and reconfirm that
I am neutral, I have no political
affiliation and my expressions are both
keeping as an Individual and as an
Entrepreneur
Basic fundamentals in finding
solution to any issue
• Be Transparent and honest in
putting the problem on table
• First estimate the ‘needs’ and
then plan for the ‘means’
• Options to solutions - Either from
what you can spend or what is
required to be spent or based on
Urgency or emergency and based
on Bearable or unbearable pain
• Write down those who needs
support – this is like a pyramid.
The bottom most being those
below poverty line , then daily
wage earners , then informal
workers , then self- employed ,
then traders , then micro , small ,
medium enterprises , then
corporates , then state govts ,
then central governments.
• List down day to day needs,
weekly needs, monthly needs,
quarterly needs, annual needs
assess
• Identify those which needs to be
protected and time bound – like
perishables, seasonal Farming,
shelf life products , Food related
consumption and clearly assess
Tangible and intangible losses
Remember the old sayings—which
are like a ‘wise advice ‘when you find
solutions
• If you begin something wrong,
you are always wrong
• A Stitch in time saves nine
• You can paint on the only if wall
exists
• Nipp the issues at butt
• You should know your strength,
you can face and fight the world
• When the house is ON FIRE, do
not think about refurbishing
• Instead of giving fish allow/ teach
them to fish
• Arrest falling down factors first
than pulling up fallen ones
• When you get into a car in the
night – the headlight can show
light only up to what you can see
and NOT up to your destination
• Cross the bridge when it comes
Who can help you make the right
decision
• Trade bodies and associations
can offer early highlight or
detection of practical issues with
limited suggestions for right/
perfect solutions. Like a patient
coming up to say – Doctor I have
headache can I take Anacin.
Limited knowledge on solutions
but abundant knowledge on
problems
• Experts can offer solutions but
can not visualise issues. Like a
Doctor who can analyse the
patient and write prescription but
can not write unless patient says
his problem. Abundant Solutions
but limited reality issues
• The Decision makers need to
administer the right solution to
the right patients at the right
timings with right quantum.
• Remember a good Fire service
expert will First eliminate
spreading of fire areas and then
only addresses the place of fire
Facts to know before decision
• It is said that about Rs. 40000 cr is
a loss from Trade and Industry a
day according to FICCI President
and for 21 days we have lost
estimated about Rs. 7 – 8 lakhs
crores
• biggest debate. Those with
How do we engage all those
remining at home and keeping
them occupied
• How do we take care of the
migrant workers / road side living
families / abandoned old people
Learning from the first 21 days
• Contradictory, different policies
between – Districts / between
states / between center and
state / between different
ministries in center / between
ministries and PMO
• Half baked directions, Trial and
error implementations of issues
though it is not always possible
to make 100% perfect decisions.
• Doing first thing first and last
thing as last.
• Announcing Financial package for
3 months without addressing
most required to handle during
the 21 days of time
• Allowing Food and Essential
industry to function but not
specifying feeder units to also
function or opening up transport
operations.
• Short time given to safe guard
industry and work place, before
the beginning of the 21 days
curfew. Employers and self
employed and daily wage earners
were caught unaware with stock
in hand and finished jobs which
can not be encashed.
Volume 8
Page 11
• Permission to open certain
Industries without sales points
and consumption points
• We failed to engage people to
stay at home with certain
occupational engagements
• Announced Rs.1.7 lakhs cr
package but as on date spending
is only 31k cr as per information’s
available. What are the balances?
Avoid long term solutions now.
What should we do for next 20 days?
• Immediately assess the needs of
various sectors such as Farmers /
Nil income earners / Informal K.E. Raghunathan
workers/ Self earning persons /
MSME’s / Corporates – only for
the next 1 month and address Past National
them with solutions – not just
salary or cash alone. President, All India
• Different people have different Manufacturers
emergency and urgency
• Allow immediate opening of Organization
Essential shops including
hardware/ electrical shops /
service centers for appliances so
that daily wage earners like –
plumbers / electricians/
carpenters can work and that will
also keep the men folk at home
occupied during these times to
be inside their compound wall
• Center must concentrate on
sealing India From Oversees thro
AIR/SEA movements apart from
framing macro policy on imports
and exports , allocation of
Finance , compliance of statutory
regulations Life or Livelihood is the
• State must decide on Trade and
Industry functions, Sealing of no issues with livelihood
state borders, Transportation of
goods, Micro level policies for will say life is important
localised implementations,
Procurements for handling the and those with no
situation.
livelihood will say
• District administration must just
livelihood is important
take care of implementations.
They should not take any
individual policy decisions.
• On 20 th March Laxman Rekha
was drawn at the entry of each
home, then it went to entry of
India, then entry to every state
and then to entry of districts and
now it should be the border of
every police limits. All borders of
each police station must be
sealed and people can be allowed
movement within the area but
they should secure pass from the
border police to move away from
their area.
• Petrol bunks must stop supply to
all private vehicles – two wheeler
or four wheeler unless they have
essential service pass for
movement. This will prevent
unnecessary movement of people
in vehicles.
• Set up a task force war room, at
every disstrict level to address
any other needs on war footing
basis.
Bouquet
Page 12
Covid 19 and the Indian Economy: Impact of ‘People
First’ Policy
COVID-19 has posed an
unprecedented challenge on the
Indian economy. Never in its
history had an emergency arisen
such that the entire economy was
shut down for weeks or months
together. However, the pandemic
has necessitated such an
L Somasundaram unprecedented lockdown period.
Director—Research @
Akara Research & The most important outcome of
Technologies Pvt Ltd. this move is that India is now
known to put its people before
economy. At the level of people,
families and friends, Indian culture
has always put people before the
economic wellbeing. However, at
the international level somehow
the perception is that the “Indian
State” does not put the lives of its
citizens in the forefront. This
perception has taken a complete
change in the way both Central
and State Governments in India
have responded to COVID-19
pandemic. Indeed, governance has
put its people first and the
economy next.
The most important Such a strategic governance
response comes with immense
outcome is the India is
costs. Economic costs need to be
now known to put its measured and over time get
people before economy adequately compensated. Except
However at the the “work from home” category,
other economic activities have
international level
been shut down due to the
somehow the perception imposition of emergency. Various
that the Indian State does studies at the initial stages have
not put the lives of its estimated that the Indian
citizens in the forefront
economy’s growth could be hit by
at least 2 to 3 percentage points.
Before COVID outbreak, India was
expected to grow at about 7.5%
for the year 2020-21. With the
economic activities completely
shut down in April 2020, major
activities contributing to India’s
Gross Domestic Product (GDP),
namely agriculture, manufacturing,
construction and mining sectors
have taken a setback.
In agriculture, the major issue has
been the inability of produce to
reach markets on time. This has an
impact on successive cropping. In
manufacturing, the small and
medium enterprises which supply
important raw materials to larger
industries have been closed.
Moreover, industries exporting
commodities including leather,
textiles and chemicals have been
impacted. Given that both the
large industries in the domestic
economy as well as export
markets will take considerable
time – up to one quarter to
reorganize and place orders – the
recovery in these sectors could be
postponed by a good 6 month
period. One of the welfare
measures of the government is the
lowering of interest rates,
including to housing sector. The
impact is expected to be delayed,
as house purchase decisions will
be postponed by a few months
even in the organized sector.
On the positive side, it is to be
noted that Indian economy is still
largely depended on domestic
sector. As such even as the exports
sector takes time to recoup the
domestic sector can revive faster
based on the welfare measures
undertaken by the government
and also based on the local
economic cycles happening in
small and medium towns around
the rural economies. This may take
about 5 to 6 months. It is expected
that the government shall
continue to monitor the COVID-19
situation continuously even after
the lockdown is lifted. The areas
identified as hotspots may
continue to be under lockdown.
The following sectors shall see
some changes in the future:
Logistics: There has been a
number of direct-to-home
delivery disruptions happening in
the last one month. We may see
some consolidation among the
players, but the change is there to
stay. We would see governments
adopting this mode of delivery for
various goods that are delivered.
All these could transform logistics,
with more data science and
analytics coming to play.
E-commerce: A natural corollary to
logistics with larger digitization.
Already we have witnessed the
partnership between Facebook
and Reliance Jio. The specific focus
has been to impact the small and
medium kirana stores.
Pharmaceuticals: The COVID-19
has made a severe impact on
developed countries, where the
predominance was lifestyle
diseases and not contagions. The
risk perception of healthcare
industry has undergone a major
change as the developed
countries are largely impacted.
These countries would invest more
in basic pharma increasing the
capacity of drugs and vaccines
related to such contagion
diseases. India will emerge a large
player in future as it has already
established a large base.
On the human resources front,
companies have now seen the
possibilities of engaging resources
from remote in many sectors.
Firms may not be immediately
impacted by this. However, we
expect strategies to emerge that
could focus more on the human
capacity to add value, while
regular jobs are being taken over
by machines. Medium and smaller
firms may focus more on having a
larger part of the employees on
contractual payroll at least till the
recovery happens. On the other
hand, employees, particularly in
strategic positions need to be
entrepreneurial even being
employees. This shall help them
handle risks better for both the
firm as well as one’s self.

Industry 4.0 -> HR 4.0???
Industry 4.0 focuses on 3 distinct
aspects:
• Digitization of all value chains
• Digitization of Products &
Services
• Digitization of Customer needs
This is made possible with technologies
like
• Cloud computing
• Mobil computing
• Sensor based operations
• Artificial Intelligence / Machine
Learning
• Augmented & Virtual Reality
• Data enabled decisions—
Analytics
Concept of HR 4.0 is closely linked to
this Industry 4.0—HR 4.0 rhymes with
Industry 4.0 and hence the name.
What is the impact of Industry 4.0 on
HR? By and large focuses on the
implementation of technology in HR.
Traditional HR is evolving into HR 4.0.
The reasons are multifold. Let us look
at a few of them:
• Floating Teams—Teams are
spread across multiple locations
and are expected tow work in
unison
• World of Millennials—prefer
working from anywhere, anytime
using any device with focus on
deliverable than on the effort
spent
• HR role enhanced—expected to
multiply talent, (re) combine skills
using Technology to increase
Adaptability, Learnability,
Flexibility, Innovation and
Performance
A Global Practice Lead of Talent & HR
Operations indicated “I can envision a
future where HR Professionals are no
longer thinking that their job is to stay
on top of current HR Trends but to
reposition [themselves] to become
workforce advisors
So how to we gear up to face this. No
rocket science but need to be clear on
few aspects—critical ones are listed
below: - and ensure where possible
Technology is used as we are moving
towards that
• Tools enabling simple, fluid and
direct communication need to be
established. We can look at
implementing communication
platforms that are transparent
and easy to use
• Need to introduce automation
where possible—in one of the
organizations that I consult, they
have implemented chatbots in
the HR Intranet page and the
chatbot is intelligent enough to
handle basic HR questions and if
not able to handle, picks relevant
info from chat and shares with HR
people for response
• Gamify learning and
performing—Operationally we
are moving towards remote
working, remote management,
self learning for skilling and
upskilling. While performance
tag can always be added to
skilling and upskilling it is
important that we are able to
bring in some interest in the
employees trying to grow on
their own. The best way to
achieve this is gamification—this
by itself is a major initiative for
HR
• Brand Employee & Employer—
this can be achieved through
employee friendly policies and
more importantly with employees
being enabled to work from
anywhere, it is important that a
value proposition is created for a
happy employee who are the
actual brands
• Diversification—focus on experts
on contract available as plug and
play, see if Persons with Disability
(PwD) can be hired in certain
areas
• Analytics—This is a big ticket
item. If HR & Finance of an
organization does not have data,
no one has data. See how the
analytics can be established to
understand people better. Need
to build a scenario wherein we
ensure through data, HR is able
to make people fall in low with
the job and sustain that love
through their career. HR 360 is
what we are looking at—we need
to ensure HR understands the
nuances around how an
employee will perform and bring
about a change in culture to
achieve
Industry 4.0 is bringing HR 4.0
• Focus is changing towards
Automation, Exchange of Data,
Dependency on Data and
efficient decision making process
• People need to reassess
themselves and align to
technology
• Recruitment is more aligned and
less complicated—AI, NLP,
Historical performance view
through analytics….
• Responsibility is just not sourcing,
recruiting, onboarding but
personalizing too
So the key success factors include:
• Managing the integration of
Technology in workplace
• Enhancing employee experience
• Building an agile, personalized
learning culture
• Metrics valuing Human Capital—
Need to put data to use—look at
resignation rates, drivers and
segments, correlation between
pay increase performance and
promotion wait time are some
examples
• Automate! Automate!!
Automate!!! —Saving time and
being more effective is the norm
of the day. Typically pick areas
that could build a monotony or
are complicated in cases of error
corrections and / or complicated
to execute and see how the same
can be automated for better
operations
• AI—See how this can be leverage
in recruitment (IBM Watson
identified the best candidate for a
position without human
intervention_ - Candidate
screening is another example
Volume 8
Page 13
• VR / AR / MR—Leverage on this
technology to facilitate more
immersive learning experience—
may be a warehouse assistant
may be asked to execute tasks in
a virtual environment before
selection or during induction,
new recruits maybe provided a
virtual tour of the office, intro to
key people etc
In this new environment, it is important
for one to remember that millennials
are becoming the driving force of any
organization and it is important that
the new work & new leadership is
oriented around this. Some aspects
that needs a mention are:
• Holacracy—Provide freedom to
S. Bhanu Kumar
self-manage—Power is equally
distributed throughout the
organization Director
• Gig Economy—Short term
ARRA Associates
contracts and freelancing reign
supreme over permanent
contracts
• Teal Organization—Revolve
around self management,
wholeness and evolutionary
purpose—no hierarchies, people
are empowered to their true
selves—common goal and no
competition
In essence all this comes to the
following two aspects of a HR life in
ana organization
• Employee Experience.
Observations, perception,
employees have in their journey
within the organization. This
includes all phases from
attracting & hiring talent,
onboarding and engaging, the
new employees, steering
performance and development to
offboarding. The focus is to
improve retention
• Employee Engagement, enabling
employees to feel their
relationship with the company
that they work for. To ensure this
happens, they need to know
company goa, believe they can
fulfil it and be motivated to reach
it. They must feel listened to and
have access to right resources like
information, training etc
Thus while industry 4.0, technology
advancements are definitely making an
impact, the HR’s core business of
employee experience and engagement
being efficiently managed is not missed
out and that continues.
It is important that HR utilizes the
technology as an enabler to ensure
they are able to achieve what they need
to achieve in a deeper, accurate
manner facilitating better organization
culture in the technology oriented
lscenario
 Page 14

IMPORTANT & URGENT

The following are the steps to be followed to validate access:

a) Go to www.nipm.in
b) Click on Login
c) Give your eMail Id that was shared at the time of registration - even if the eMail ID has changed now,
please use the eMail ID registered with NIPM and change email ID after the login is confirmed
d) Give your member number (without the alphabet before the number) for password
e) Click Signin -you should go to the page that has your details
f) Should some information / Photo be changed, click on edit and make necessary changes and save

We Welcome your feedback & Suggestions

BOUQUET Published by:
National Institute of Personnel Management
Madras Chapter M.H.Raja, Chairman, NIPM Madras Chapter

3E, 3rd Floor, Kasturi Apartments, J P Avenue

Dr. R.K.Salai, 6th Street, Mylapore, Chennai 600 004
BOUQUET Designed by:
Phone: +91-44-2811 5599, / +91-96771-09053
Email ID: nipmcc@yahoo.com S, Bhanu Kumar & K.S. Chandru
Web:: https://www.nipmmadras.com