HR CONCLAVE 4.0

LLOYD BUSINESS SCHOOL successfully organized an “HR Conclave 4.0” themed “Into the Future: Change Management & Employee Engagement”. It was a Panel Discussion on “Management of Emotional & Psychological Well-Being of Employees: Experience & Engagement” on 9th of January, 2021. This was for the conclave organized with an aim to bridge the gap between industry and academia. The objective of this conclave was to assess the future course of HR as Covid-19 has pushed employees’ mental wellbeing to the forefront for employersmaking it critical for them to assess emotional and psychological well –being of an employee in order to increase their engagement and job satisfaction post Covid-19.

The event received over 500 registrations from 52 academic institutions and 15 corporates. It commenced with a welcome address by Prof. Vandana Arora Sethi(Group Director, Lloyd Group of Institutions). Dr. Vandana welcomed all the delegates and dignitaries. She shared her viewpoints on how important employee engagement is especially in the current era by quoting the case of Starbucks and sharing her own experiences. She believes that human resource is more of humane resource now as it needs more of emotions, empathy, trust and belongingness. Her definition of TEAM i.e. T: TRUST; E: Empowerment; A: Appreciation; M: Motivation received an accepting nod from everyone present on the virtual platform. She further stated that engagement is not a technical term rather it is an emotional commitment to complete work and attain objectives of organization. Dr. Vandana concluded with three points; connect with people who are unlike you; never complain or feel entitled and never get comfortable as it hinders the way to success.

Right after, Mr. Sumit Choudhuri, Managing Director Third Millennial, the moderator for the day, shared his views about the “change” and started the discussion that how change was easily acceptable earlier but due to speed it's becoming disruptive and the management of this change is a deciding factor for organizations’ success”. The essence of his words was “Every moment is a change moment. We develop and evolve over the years. Change management can be well learnt from Indian ethos”. He further expressed how the changes brought due to COVID were hyper disruptive and difficult to manage. Mr. Sumit, shared a brief on the expectation and aim of the discussion i.e. to understand how employees are reacting to hyper, what have been the management interventions with the employees, what have been the employees’ expectations from the management and how management is able to deliver, is it productive for the employees and organization.

The event proceeded towards panel discussion on “Management of Emotional & Psychological Well-Being of Employees: Experience & Engagement”. The panel commenced with first panelist Ms. Harpeet Kaur, AVP HR Zee Media. She made her opening statement with an agreement to the views shared. She also opined that leadership and communication played a vital role in times of challenges. She said “it's important for employers to stand with employees and the COVID-19 was a practical implementation time for all employers and it was a learning phase too for the organizations.”  Mr. Viney Kaushik, CHRO-Nuberg Engineering Ltd. opined that EQ and SQ got strengthened during this pandemic. Effective communication and extending job security was the key for employees' well-being during this challenging time. He concluded by saying that mental health is the next focus of HR and online medical consultancy, life coaching are few suggestive; Dr. AparnaSethi, Founder Protouch emphasized on the challenges of startup.  Her statement “when you have access, it is easy but when you have shortage, it is difficult” created a lasting impact. She shared that the pandemic changed 3Ws i.e. work, workplace and workforce. She further added, “The lesson learnt during the pandemic was that we need to save for rainy days.” She concluded by stating that the key to surviving the pandemic along with her team was PFA i.e. Physical Wellbeing, Financial Wellbeing and Actions. Dr. V .Kavitha , Chief Human Resource Officer, Jaypee Hospital Noida shared experience of challenges faced by the healthcare industry and apprised that every problem is an opportunity to learn and take corrective action. According to her, liberal policies, counselling sessions and extended support & understanding was the key to strive the pandemic with an assurance of well-being of employees. Her concluding statement was, “Only Healthy organisations can perform and be productive and result in a healthy nation.”Mr. Vinod Nair, CEO & Founder HumaLitix Solutions Pvt Ltd exclaimed that the engagement level varied on an individual basis. He apprised, “The learning was that one has to be open with vulnerability”. He opined that, “Digital overload was the biggest challenge during the pandemic for the employees”. He emphasizes that entitlement along with ownership and empathy needs to be a two way process i.e. from employer to employee and vice-versa. He concluded with the statement that the pandemic has taught everyone the relevance of human touch and that signifies the role of HR professionals. Ms. Soni Khanna, Principal Consultant-TC Global mentioned that the biggest challenge was financial insecurity amongst the employees. She claimed that transparency, informal communication and flexibility was the key to manage the well-being of employees. So, creating an environment which is not so different from the real environment helped the company to strive through the challenging times. 

After the intensive discussion, the session moved towards Q&A. Mr. Sumit Chaudhuri took up questions posted on the chat box one by one and the panel responded to questions with dynamic energy and passion. The questions revolved about techniques to judge performance, employee retention, workplace spirituality, use of SQ with EQ, Employee Satisfaction, HR Research and questions about startups.

The Conclave concluded with a formal vote of thanks by Dr. Bhupender Kumar Som, Director, Lloyd Business School. He extended gratitude to all the dignitaries and delegates. He apprised that platforms like this will definitely bridge the gap between industry and academia. Also, support of corporates will help academic institutions in developing the right skill sets of students. Last but not least he congratulated the whole organizing team for the success of the event. The event received overwhelming feedback from the participants. 58.8% participants responded that they are highly satisfied with the event and 37.1 % responded that they are satisfied with the panel discussion.