Recently attended the NHRDN HR Summit-2010 in Delhi. It was indeed a pleasure being the audience to the distinguished and accomplished panel of professionals. The discussion on 'Strategic role of HR - Linking HR to business strategy' was an indicator of the way HR practice and perception is changing in Indian context as well.
Though there is lot happening on the HR perspective globally (read in west) in India, we are still struggling to make the HR establish as a key organizational stakeholder rather than a side support function. The HR role is undergoing a lot of transition, good to see that there are people daring to set trends. It was visible when Saagarika Rai, Reliance Big Entertainment, shared her experience on how she implemented the practice of office timing at her end! In her own words
"I started with the simple practice that people need to leave for their home by 6:00 pm. This took me a lot of effort. I started plugging off the laptops of senior management and even told them that I will call their wives if they don't leave for home."
The fact was interesting but was indicative of the kind of strong will it takes to initiate a practice from the HR perspective. Even if you have all the data to support your initiative, the way Saagarika had, conviction in the initiative is something that created the actual magic. She added-
"After some time when I kept plugging the laptops of the senior management, I saw that the entire team started waiting for me to come and plug off the power!"
So it was not that everyday you have that much of work to do, most of the people stay because their boss stays, and this becomes a trend. When you have all the time in the world to complete a task, your mind starts planning for it in the same way.
The power of conviction is the key for the success of the HR practices. To know this that people should have a balance of work and family life and if they don't need to slog if not needed, you don't need to go for a survey by Hewitt! It is quite a common sense.
HR is more about people and for most of the thing that people like, a sensitive approach and power of conviction is needed, more than the theoretical consulting.
