In our guide, we will demystify the distinction between talent acquisition and talent management, and HR’s role in ensuring both recruitment and management of talent is always aligned to company’s growth strategy.��

What is Talent Acquisition?

Talent acquisition is essentially a systematic process that a company carries out to identify and acquire those skilled employees who meet its professional requirements.��

The stages in talent acquisition:

• ����𲹳پ��Բ���Awareness��about Employee Branding value proposition��
• ���ܾ����徱�Բ�����DzԲ����������پ��Dz���for the brand
• Interest��where employees start to send applications
• Selection��of the right candidate who fits the job requirement and company values/culture��
• Hire��of the right candidate after closing on compensation

This recruitment funnel combines the key steps HR uses towards talent acquisition for filling the job roles of a company to achieve short term or long-term goals. The core responsibilities of talent acquisition include future resource planning, diversifying the employment force and employer branding in the market.

There are two ways through which a talent acquisition team operates within an organization. Either it is a part of the human resources department, or it is a separate entity. At times, this important process is outsourced to a third-party agency.

What is Talent Management?

Talent management, on the other hand, is a constant process with the key objective of ensuring highly motivated employees. It focuses on management of employees that includes developing their skill sets and engaging them continuously to improve their performance. When done right, can help companies to have very productive and engaged employees.��

What is Recruitment?

Recruitment is a process carried out by a company to identify the potential candidates for a job profile and select them for the role. It is done by attracting potential candidates and screening their suitability through interviews. The span and scale of the recruitment process depends on the size of the company and the number of existing employees.����While large companies have a team of recruiters to carry out the job, in small companies, the entire work is the responsibility of just one person, the HR manager. The recruitment is conducted through different media, like printed or digital advertisements, social media links and job boards.

Differences between Talent Acquisition and Talent Management

Talent acquisition and talent management cannot be used interchangeably but are two phases of ‘before’ and ‘after’ of a candidate joining the company. Of the two processes, talent acquisition focuses on hiring the right candidates based on their potential and skills, while talent management takes over after a candidate joins the company. keeps track of the training and development of the new employees. Programs are designed to improve performance through constant upskilling which also keeps them engaged. It is this factor which differentiates it from the process of recruitment as well. However, the talent management team requires a lot of involvement of HR, either directly or indirectly.

Differences between Talent Acquisition and Recruitment

Many people might perceive the term ‘talent acquisition’ to be a new and fancier way of calling the conventional process of recruitment of a company. It is because the essence of both still lies in hiring new people for the organization. While the overall objective of talent acquisition is more or less the same as recruitment, there are a few crucial differences in their processes and approaches.

While recruitment is all about fulfilling the momentary purpose of filling a particular vacancy and is a short-term goal, talent acquisition is a much longer and strategic process. It’s long term and involves:

• Planning and strategy

Compared to recruitment, talent acquisition uses a comprehensive strategy that seeks to understand nature of business, current and future workplace, and workforce requirements.��

• Workforce distribution

Understanding the pulse of different departments and workforce teams within a company is important for talent acquisition teams. Parameters like skills, experiences and competencies required for a position are analyzed better when a proper plan is in place, one of the key aspects of talent acquisition.

• Employer branding

In today’s digital world, brands are using newer ways to interact and connect with consumers and even talent (think LinkedIn, Glassdoor, etc.). Talent acquisition takes a broader approach to creating a positive image of the company and its work environment and goals. The end-goal: inspire trust in potential candidates and new hires.

• Talent scoping

Quality content comes from more detailed research. This is possible through data collected from talent management software. Having a talent acquisition team enables organizations to source talent from diverse locations and map them to the right job role.

• Analytics

Using key metrics for proper tracking and analysis, the talent acquisition team can fill existing vacancies. They can also have a database of potential candidates to connect with for the future.

The Common Skills Required for Talent Acquisition and Talent Management

While talent acquisition and talent management are entirely different processes, certain skills are common for both.��

• Communication skills

Given the people-centric nature of these job roles, the ability to communicate well, both speaking and writing, is important. It’s also important that professionals in these two functions (talent management and acquisition) can negotiate and mediate between a job seeker and the company. Of course, new modes of digital modes – social media recruiting, gamified assessments, and mobile-centric processes – have redefined the communication processes too.

• Active listening skills

Unlike before, millennials and Gen Z have the advantage of having more platforms and media to express an opinion. This has made active listening an important skill, that needs to go beyond a simple telephonic or first-level interview. A talent acquisition specialist or a talent management specialist should assess the potential candidate’s diversified presence in the online world and collect information from their social media accounts using dedicated talent management software. Active listening is beneficial for generating an assumption of perspectives of a candidate, thereby easing the decision-making process.

• Planning skills

Information gathered through communication and active listening will help both talent acquisition and talent management professionals to be more effective and plan smarter. For a talent acquisition specialist, overall planning needs to be more strategic that aligns with business needs of various stakeholders. Hence, the objective would be to fill the immediate vacancies and build an active pipeline of potential candidates for future hires.

• Learning skills

Both talent acquisition and talent management professionals should be willing to learn new technologies and have a natural curiosity that will help them acquire new skills. These traits will ensure that both the professional and organization are open to new ways of working and can more easily drive transformational processes. Open cultures are generally synonymous with innovation and hence are easily able to attract millennials.��

• Relationship building skills

To ensure long-term associations, both talent acquisition and talent management specialists should prioritize candidate experience and qualities. Both these aspects can form a basis to build a relationship. It is also instrumental in the establishment and promotion of a brand as an employee-friendly company and creating a sustainable engagement between all the employees of the company. The focus should be more on networking and relationship management, which is possible using recent developments in artificial intelligence.

• Social skills

These days, organizations are looking for professionals who display both IQ and EQ in equal measure. Such individuals can drive a balanced and harmonious work environment conducive to employee wellbeing and productivity. These nuanced skills are important as they enable talent acquisition and talent management specialists to empathize and take the right steps to solve employee challenges.

• Analytical skills

Leveraging data through analysis and derived insights can help talent acquisition professionals to find gaps in the hiring process, tweak it and save time and costs, making the process itself more effective. Being able to understand granular data and correlate it to the bigger hiring picture will help streamline the hiring process.����

• Tech skills

Digital transformation is a part of organizational strategy, and in recent times the pace of digitalization has been faster than ever before. In such circumstances, it’s critical for talent acquisition and talent management professionals to be comfortable with technology, use the right talent management software and tools such as applicant tracking systems and performance management platforms.

• Social media skills

Social media has become an important part of the hiring process considering that today’s digital native generation spend a significant amount of time online. From posting job ads on LinkedIn and other online platforms, companies are now focused on digital media to ensure they reach a wider pool of potential hires. A talent acquisition specialist and a talent management specialist need to be well-versed in using social media to connect with millennials and Gen Z while amplifying company vision, mission, and culture to build an attractive employee value proposition using social platforms.

• Multitasking skills

Unlike earlier, where human resource processes were transactional and functional, today it is strategic. Talent acquisition and talent management professionals need to be well-versed in juggling their job roles, prioritizing tasks and being part of the larger ecosystem when it comes to driving business objectives. Essentially, this means both these specialists need to be able to multitask and become achievers, instead of being doers alone. Whether it’s helping the organization to achieve business goals through hiring the right resources or ensuring these resources are productive and engaged by constantly providing new learning and development (L&D) opportunities, both talent acquisition and talent management professionals need to have strong multitasking skills.����

Role of HR

HR has a significant role in both talent acquisition and talent management, though the processes that are followed for each vary. For talent acquisition, HR carries out several tasks, such as assessing the available talent and discussing the required talents. The other tasks in talent acquisition performed by HR are analyzing the gap between availability and requirement of talent and building strategies and measuring the success rate of the plans created to bridge the skills gap.

For talent management, it’s a different process. It includes analyzing skills gap in the existing talent pool and mapping it against the ‘ideal’ profile, creating L&D plans that nurture and manages this talent. HR also analyses the talent strategy and succession planning; creation of a talent plan for the long run; reviewing of talent available in the organization and L&D plans which also includes team-building exercises, workshops, and benchmarking activities.

Which is more productive – talent acquisition or talent management?

Though talent acquisition and talent management use different processes they are interlinked. Organizations need to invest in hiring the right professionals for the talent acquisition and management teams. Considering that there’s a talent deficit for certain job roles and in certain industries, it’s imperative to have both these teams in place. Having dedicated talent acquisition and talent management teams, especially in large enterprises, makes the hiring process (recruitment and retention) more effective and impactful.

In today’s business environment where inclusion and diversity are an integral part of organizational culture and values, having a well-knit team of talent acquisition and management professionals will ensure policies are well thought out and implemented. It also means that these teams collaborate to constantly refine processes and systems, a must in an ever-evolving world.��

As Workplace 4.0 becomes more pervasive, talent acquisition and talent management teams need to work together to keep attrition levels in check and minimize impact on the organization. What the new working models (hybrid working and work from anywhere) are also doing: making organizations question whether talent acquisition and talent management should continue to work as two different functions, or should they be combined under one. It’s an ongoing debate and one that will evolve over the next couple of years.

And what does this mean for talent acquisition and ����𳦾����������ٲ�?��

Perhaps, it’s the right time to develop transferable skillsets and explore new learning opportunities to be prepared when the great shift occurs!

The post Talent Acquisition vs Talent Management vs HR appeared first on 51����India News Center.

The event brought together talent leaders for a Power Panel Discussion to shine the spotlight on the ongoing shift from HCM to in the vaccine economy. Moderated by Cindy Scholts, Virtual Learning and Development Manager, People Matters, the panel included – Shuchika Sahay, Global Chief Human Resources Officer, Firstsource; Nitinchandra Shende, Head – People Operations and Corporate Initiatives and Ashish Mittal, Head of People Function, Aviva India.

While reflecting on the current work scenario, the panel answered some critical questions on how human experience management principles will occupy center stage as tools to engage employees and how they are redefining EX to align business outcomes for a hybrid world.

The shift from HCM to HXM

Amit Mittal: The shift was already happening, especially in Indian organizations. What these last 18 months have done is put this shift on steroids and fast-rolled it across sectors. Identifying employee needs and managing them is an essential part of staying competitive in the market.

It is said, “people share a good experience with a friend, but a bad one with the whole world”. As an organization, this has driven us to focus on people who are leaving to ensure that they have a good experience because we see them as our employee champions.

Another shift that has happened within organizations is – instead of thinking of our employees as a captive population, we have started looking at our employees like our customers. Previously, we used segmentation sparsely, e.g., as part of the dashboard building process, but now we are refocusing on segmentation to find different ways to improve employee experiences.

It’s become abundantly clear that one size doesn’t fit all. And it is essential to get in touch with the ground reality for each employee to understand their needs and take up initiatives and interventions that support them individually.

Nitinchandra Shende: From an HCM point of view, during the pre-pandemic era, we all had standard operating procedures (SOP’s) in place for processes and, everything was documented in a pre-determined manner. The pandemic shattered all boundaries within which we previously operated, creating chaos in terms of how we live through each of these events/experiences.

When the first lockdown was announced, the primary priority was to ensure the safety of every employee and enable their contributions. As the scenario evolved, we experienced more and more life events that we could not have imagined in the past. None of these events/experiences were a part of our SOP’s till March 2020. But we had to start looking at them from an organizational perspective. This brought about the shift from procedural to experience-focused aspects and made it essential for us to start looking for solutions and processes that are more individualistic and relevant to the current needs.

Shuchika Sahay: There are a lot of interesting shifts that have been accelerated – not just because of the pandemic but due to a lot of other aspects as well. Technology, for example, has been accelerating a lot of things in the societal space. Digitization has simplified even the most basic of processes. So now, when it comes to organizational processes, we look for the same kind of convenience.

Another critical shift has been the “rise of the state”. To control the pandemic’s spread and manage its wide-ranging impacts the state has demonstrated a critical role in shaping responses, strategies, and approaches in tackling problems at a more individual level. When states act on account of employees, we see a shift in terms of employee behavior itself. And this brings with it some level of pressure on HR and company leaders to take a closer look at the nuances and need for personalization.

Thirdly, the pandemic has also exposed some glaring gaps in organizational offerings. E.g., DNI has been a critical aspect of the organizational construct for the past two decades. But it is only during the pandemic, that organizations have realized that most of their female employees are the primary caregivers, and they hardly have any infrastructure in place to support them or their needs. Organizations are slowly but surely making an effort to step back and find new ways to tackle problems that previously flew under the radar.

HR is no longer an internal function. Social media has given everyone an outlet for a new kind of employee activism and feedback. Adding to the pressure on HR to shift focus on creating better employee experiences. They no longer have the luxury to design processes from a single perspective and should take into account the end-user perspective.

Key areas of focus for redesigning EX

Nitin: In the pre-pandemic world, we could generalize a lot of things and could easily divide employee lifecycles into various phases – recruitment, onboarding, etc. And simply build experiences around these certain events. As we live through the pandemic things have changed. From an HR perspective there are 3 things that we need to look at in particular:

• Listening to our employees – Every employee is going through a different life experience and the more we listen, the more we will understand what this experience means to them.
• Creating a culture of trust – With the current “work-from-anywhere” scenario, it is all about written communication. This causes a certain level of limitation in understanding expectations. We need a culture of trust so we don’t end up creating perception-driven behaviors but work together as a team.
• Making HR processes agile – While we have little to no experience and SOP’s for most scenarios we are experiencing today. We need to have 1 rule book that guides our response to every scenario in an unbiased manner while recognizing the need for agility in work processes.

Amit: ��While we all talk about change, but as companies, we are the worst at making changes when we have a set of processes in place for each experience. While trying to redesign for the last 18 months we focused on listening to the needs of our people and quickly adapting initiatives that help them. E.g., to help our employees through the grief and chaos of the second wave, we quickly put together what we called a “Happiness Campaign”. Instead of focusing on productivity and sales, this campaign brought to employees practical scientific ways to address their state of mind, helping them bring back their happier selves to work.

Listening without action does not help anyone. It is the actions taken with the right intent that truly bring about the shift needed in the organization and its people.

Technology’s role in redesigning EX

Shuchika: To think about it we can’t even imagine a life without technology anymore. Technology today holds the key to creating a global workforce, to human interactions and connections. Technology has proved to be a very capable enabler for every process you need to design to scale, hyper-personalize, and deliver on time.

Our organization has defined its cloud strategy, and one of the things HR is doing is leading by embracing that’s cloud-led. It is important to access well-defined, benchmarked processes that you can drive within, to help your organization move forward and be more people-centric. The biggest benefit of technology has been its ability to define experiences and scale them across the organization.

Another key benefit has to be the kind of data analytics that is now possible due to technology. Today it is possible to analyze data and get answers from it almost immediately. This is a great boon to CEOs and decision-makers and gives organizations a competitive edge they didn’t have before.

The pandemic has also increased our digital muscle like never before and pushed our talent strategy beyond physical boundaries. Today we are no longer wedded to a location, we can hire talent from anywhere in the world.

Leveraging EX to thrive in a vaccine economy

Nitin: Even before the vaccine economy, HR’s focus on business outcomes never entirely shifted and it never will. On the contrary, HR’s role in enabling business outcomes has become even more important than it ever was. E.g., during the first wave through March 2020, we had a lot of new joinees in a dilemma about the validity of their joining contract and if they will even be honored. We resolved this by revamping our complete onboarding process. What was traditionally a once-a-week event has now turned into an anytime-anywhere onboarding system that simplifies and eases these anxieties.

As an HR function in the vaccine economy, we should not get mixed up in whether our actions should focus on ‘customers-first or employees first. Within our organization, we use a phrase – “customers first, but employees always”. We use this frequently to navigate any ambiguity we have during any type of conflict resolution and while aligning all processes and practices around it.

1 best tip to thrive in the vaccine economy

Amit: Be empathetic to people and understand what they are saying.

Shuchika: Co-create! HR longer has the luxury to be a function that designs alone. Instead, we need to build communities across the organization to deliver experiences.

Nitin: Empathy is the key to surviving and thriving in these uncertain times.

Check out more posts:

Evolving Employee Experience from HCM to HXM in Hybrid 2.0 – 51����India News Center

CEO’s Perspectives on the Changing People Paradigm���� – 51����India News Center

Meeting Business Priorities in a Hybrid World – 51����India News Center

The post Thriving in the Vaccine Economy Through Human Experience appeared first on 51����India News Center.

2020 ushered us into a new way of working. Organizations are now moving to investing and setting up infrastructures to provide a superior work experience to their people– Hybrid 2.0. 51����organized the 51����HR Connect 2021 to throw some much-needed light on how we can design employee experiences for the hybrid 2.0 world that are holistic, progressive, agile, technology-driven, and most importantly, more human!��

Jason Averbook, CEO & Co-Founder, Leapgen, conducted a workshop��delving��into the ideal way��of carving a winning employee experience strategy. Where he provided a step-by-step guide to��planning a pandemic-proof EX strategy that��transforms��employees into growth partners��as we transition to newer work models��for our brave, evolving hybrid world of work.��

The last couple of years has changed the world of work, forever.��HR has had to greatly accelerate its pace of developing and implementing experience strategies and tools��for employee experiences��that have��become critical to driving impact for organizations.����

Getting to Hybrid 2.0��

Transformation is a word that people bring up a lot, but not many truly understand what it means. The word “trans” means radical change and “formation” means how we do things, in this case, ‘how we work’. In��the world where we have lived in��there are 2 types of “trans” – there is technology transition and there is true transformation. True transformation comes only by following three��key��steps –��Strategy, Deployment & ROI (Run, Optimize, Innovate).��

The��concept of Hybrid 2.0 needs to be attacked in a very systemic way. And that starts with developing the right Digital People Strategy. Deploying the strategy is the next step and requires a very large effort that includes programs, change, adaptation, unlearning, organizational��model��and it may also at some point involve the implementation of technology.����

Implementation is a part of the deployment. A lot of organizations are great at implementation but not deployment and that’s where a lot of strategies fall apart.����

Once the strategy has been deployed, the third step is to think about how to sustain the value we get from it. This is where ROI or RUN, OPTIMIZE, INNOVATE comes into play.����

The World��of Work��in��2021��

In the world we live in today, building strategies is��really hard.��Previously, there was a point in time where we could make 5 –��3 year��strategies/plans. But in today’s day��and age of��uncertainty, there is a much higher need for agile strategies – one’s that can shift, flex, contract based on the things happening around us.����

We are human inside of work as much as we are outside of it. In the world of HXM, this means that we need to be��listening at all times��to the signals and the people and react with our strategies intact.������

We need to respond by going to our core –��one that makes us all��human, and��think about recovery��by focusing on��being human-centered.��Because people are our most important assets and how we make them feel is what is going to allow us to get through these changing times.����

Some of the impacts we��are seeing on the NOW of work:��

• Human-centered recovery strategy��

• Need for systems and tools to drive efficacy��
• Hybrid work is not a fad and will be here forever��
• HR��to act��with agility and response-ability��
• Digital & distributed models of work��
• Concerted policy efforts��to drive systemic change��

• Optimism��and��uncertainty��at the same time��
• Attracting and retaining labor now looks vastly different��

Right now, HR has the largest opportunity that it has ever had – to shape the NOW of work.����

Digital��Equation for Success��

Remarking on the pandemic’s effect on every aspect of work and life, Satya Nadella, CEO��of, Microsoft said, “We saw two years of digital transformation in two months”. The question that now remains is if this is also the case with the HR function?��

Digital transformation is meant to touch everything from marketing to sales to everything done in Human Resources. The shift from HCM to HXM is essentially about transformation and the need for every HR organization in the world to digitally transform.��Most people think that digital��is all about��technology, but that’s not true. Digital is not��just technology, rather��it��is a component of��it.����

It is time we rethink how to better design and deliver services. This��starts��by bringing back��the focus on understanding the purpose of our organization and how we want to serve with it.��HR leaders have put this purpose into action by digitally transforming their functions. They can do this by focusing on 4 key areas:��

1. 35% of digital success comes from ensuring��you have a clear, concise, understood��mindset��that is��aligned to the purpose��and has strong measures of success.��

1. 30%��is��designing for the audience��of NOW.��This comes from truly��knowing��your people- not just skills and qualifications but��what allows them to bring their best selves to work.��

1. 25%��comes from��designing��journeys.��Processes generate data, but journeys create feelings and connections��between people and their purpose.��

1. 10% of success comes from the technology��deployed (not just implemented) to support the people and processes.��Essentially acting��as��the��fuel needed to create journeys.��

Digital transformation is made up of each of these components. Leaving out even one of these reduces the effectiveness��of��the overall transformation.��

Ultimately when we think about HXM, what we need to do is LISTEN & ACT. Listen to the people and act on it immediately – not once a year on an engagement survey, but NOW! As organizations and HR leaders we need to do a better job at listening, to truly understand the human side of our workforce.����

Experience Needs to��be:��Shift to B to Me��

The��real goal of HXM and true transformation is the shift from a B2B focus (where the tools��used��are in place to make��the��HR��function��more efficient) to a B2Me focus. This shift will enable employees and managers with tools that make them successful – not the HR but the organization.����

B2Me means personalization, the kind that can only be achieved by truly knowing our people. We need to build workforce tools that not only connect people but build connections between the people. And we need to do this with a concept called –��Hands, Heads & Hearts.��

��

The formula that defines experience is simple:��

Transaction + Interaction = Experience��

Adding��interaction to transactions enriches it to create an experience. The interaction is where the trust is built. The Hands, Heads & Hearts concept is a simple way to think about how we need to shift work as part of the digital transformation.����

Machines are exceptional at hands work, or what is called RAD (Repeatable, Auditable & Documented) work and that is where we should leverage technology. People, on the other hand, are good at the heart’s work – at building connections. It is time we start building functions in a way where the machines are doing the transactional work, while people focus on building stories around the data provided by the machines.����

The True Value of Digital��

Digital is not about eliminating the human element, rather it enhances it.����Work no longer looks the way it used to 2 years ago, and that’s why HR can’t act the same way it did previously.��HR��needs��to become��agile in these fragile times.����

In a recent survey, Future Workforce found that if HR could double its budget, HR leaders from most organizations would like to allocate these additional funds to improve the employee experience (44%) and existing technology (37%).����

Before the pandemic, we used to have 2 types of experiences – Physical & Digital/Technical. Today, we have only one��–��the “Workforce or Human Experience”.����To achieve��this experience��to the fullest, we��have to��stop implementing technology and move to deploying human capabilities.����

Adding technology doesn’t change the HR function or its interaction with the workforce – but it��definitely helps��with it. However, we��have to��remember that technology without change is nothing.��And for people to adopt transformation, organizations will have to adapt.����

Human-Centered Design Leverages Personas��

You cannot talk about HXM, without talking about humans, and the voice of the employees/customers.��Deploying technology was��previously��done as a single spread. This��approach��doesn’t work anymore. We need to meet people where they are with an empathetic��lens to the work they do and how they do it.����

We need to create personas by listening to people who seem like the persona and study them more carefully to understand- the best ways to communicate with them, their needs and expectations, roadblocks, etc. When we understand a persona at that level, we can deploy messages in a way that meets the persona where they are and with what they need.����

Benefits of personas:��

• Companywide understanding of your workforce��

• Encourages empathy-driven design����
• Digestible workforce segments��
• Uncover workforce needs/common frustrations��
• Test, refine, and improve experiences��
• Anticipate future opportunities��

When we have this kind of insight into our workforce, we can take the “Whole Person Approach”. This approach looks at every aspect of the employee – Physical, Emotional, Social, Spiritual, and Intellectual to��design solutions that��attack��every��problem from all angles.����

COVID has given HR the passport to reset, rethink, reimagine, and realize that the next normal is probably going to be no normal that we are used��to��and that growth is coming at a very large scale. We need to plan and prepare for this by shifting focus from using technology for transition to using it for transformation.�� And embrace the fact that everything about the digital workforce & HXM is now HR’s responsibility.��

HR needs to now deliver experiences, not technology – solutions, not toolkits; enable not monitor; people capabilities, not technology features! And all of this��has to��be done while considering the measurable outcomes of the business.����

One of the most magical things about the shift from HCM to HXM is realizing that technology is the fuel that will allow us to drive to what the NOW of work is.����

Check out more posts:

CEO’s Perspectives on the Changing People Paradigm����

Meeting Business Priorities in a Hybrid World

The post Evolving Employee Experience from HCM to HXM in Hybrid 2.0 appeared first on 51����India News Center.

To get a CEO’s perspective on the evolving paradigm of the talent agenda the event held an exclusive CEO Dialogue. Chaired by Ester Martinez, CEO & Editor – in – Chief, People Matters, this esteemed panel included thought leaders from leading organizations –��Kulmeet��Bawa, President & Managing Director, 51����Indian Subcontinent,��Dilip��Shanghvi, Managing Director, Sun Pharma, and C. P.��Gurnani, CEO, Tech Mahindra.����

While discussing the COVID situation, the power-packed panel revisited the talent transformation agenda and reflected on how it has once again become the center of board room concern. They acknowledged the role of technology in helping businesses reinvent themselves to continuously realize value��as they��inch from recovery to growth.��

Following are the key��highlights of this insightful discussion:��

Revisiting��The��Talent��Agenda��Through��The��Pandemic��Lens��

Kicking off the discussion with his thoughts on COVID, C.P.��Gurnani��termed it the accelerator for one of the greatest workforce transformations of our lifetimes.��Emphasizing��the��lasting impact of recent��changes to the ways we work, exercise, shop, learn, communicate, or where we work, he stated��“HR��today means how it affects me as an individual and my 13,000 associates.��“��

Reflecting on the��initial phase of the lockdown, he mentioned “The first few months were about arranging chairs, tables, renting out hotels near workplaces and creating a secure environment.��It��was��like��mechanically responding to an emergency��–��creating war rooms to provide essentials.��But very soon we realized that transformation is essential as much for��customers, for managers��to manage a remote workforce, and as much for the workforce to balance their personal & business lives.��Technology has provided the fabric and the��answer, but��knowing what the challenges are and being able to address them is the need of the hour.”����������

Kulmeet��shared, “The world has��changed��and we are grappling with certain issues. While we miss the coffee corners, office huddles, personal connections, and travel, we��have��witnessed��a prominent��silver lining in the form of much higher levels of productivity��and a lot more time with our customers and teams, which is phenomenal to me.”����

Commenting with his perspective of the future of talent agenda, he added��“There��has been a clear emergence of a��brand-new��culture, that demands a��lot more agility and nimbleness. From a talent perspective, this means employees need to possess a lot more digital dexterity and mental resilience.��We as leaders & HR as an organization will need to be a lot more conscious of how we bring in this new talent and hone them to be successful. Secondly,��the changes we are��seeing today require a whole new paradigm in terms of leadership. We need to break away from the traditional hierarchical chain-of-command model��to cater��to the huge millennial and Gen Z workforce��that we are bringing on board��and balance their need for instant gratification.”��������

Speaking on the challenges faced by employees,��Dilip��Sanghvi added, “Another important challenge we faced was – because we have people working across different time zones, the boundaries between personal and professional time were blurry. We had to set clear expectations, otherwise, people are left with no time to work, guide recharge or relax.”����

����𲹳پ��Բ���Positive��Employee��Experiences��That��Enable��Productivity����

The more employers focus on what’s best for their people, the greater each employee’s experience will be. This means actively catering to your people’s needs and, more importantly, actually caring for them.����

On SAP’s and his personal experience��as an “on-screen leader”��over the last 13 months,��Kulmeet��said,��“Employees��today truly trust organizations that care for them.��At��51����our topmost priority has��always��been the health and safety of our employees and the broader community.��I am touched by the spirit today, where I see every 51����India employee��is��going beyond their charter by miles to deliver on the shared vision that we set up for ourselves as teams.��“����

Commenting on the need to create moments of truth that holistically support employees, C.P.��Gurnani��added, “This war has been imposed on us and has meant that��we��need to get into a wartime General mode. But you can’t be a��General who��is not concerned about an employee’s spiritual, emotional, physical, and mental health.��Today more than ever, the future of work is the future of worker well-being.”����

��

In an effort to help employees manage the stresses of��work-life integration,��Tech Mahindra��has��appointed “Wellness Officers”. Clearly communicating the company’s intention address its people’s emotional and physical requirements.��He added,��“COVID��has been a method of redefining business. My business is executed by people, they are my flag bearers and if I��can help them to redefine themselves, I will automatically be redefining my business and winning the hearts of my customers.��“��

Echoing the sentiment across the panel,��Dilip��said, “The last few quarters have been some of our best. This is the result of the significant contributions of our employees��and��helps us to look at business very differently, and��learn continuously.”����

The Role of Technology��as a Strategic Enabler����

Technology is rewriting the rules. In the hybrid workplace, it��is no longer playing a supporting role.��Instead,��it has proven itself to be the��critical��driving force enabling employees to achieve��overall operational��success.����

On technology’s increasingly important role,��Dilip��Sanghvi��said,��“The��greatest contribution��of technology in improving processes has been its ability to remove subjectivity from evaluating performances. Making it a transparent process��that rewards people based on their contributions and success in an unbiased manner.��The speed with which technology has enabled us to work in this changing environment is only going to accelerate.”����

Reflecting on��its critical role��in underpinning the talent strategic changes seen in the past year, C.P.��Gurnani��pointed out,��“The shift towards digitalization has been accelerated by a minimum of 5 -7 years.��I’m convinced that if��employees��had��not��embraced technology the way they did, some of the results we are seeing would never have been possible.��It is employees that grew, learned, and used the tools that were made available.”����

“As employers and company leaders��we��will have to continue to invest in our people��and��give them a learning environment, where they can��create a��significant��impact��not only in the short-term but also in the medium and long-term.”����

Talking about the emergence of a new mindset and its importance in the experience era,��Kulmeet��added, “While we talk about digital-first, I have witnessed that the digital-only strategy is coming up rather quickly. The questions we get asked today are no longer about the “Why”, but about the “How?” – How do we do this faster? Or holistically? How do we do this cloud-first so that we are more agile?”��

In the “experience era” of ubiquitous, personalized experiences in the online world, technology is facilitating a real-time merger between science and art, between content and data. Commenting on��the need��for a renewed focus on fostering human connection, he explained,��“While��most leadership tenets remain the same, some like the need for communication, enhanced need for empathy, and authenticity from leaders has gone up from a technology standpoint. We must humanize ourselves through various technological channels and forge the kind of bonds that��help us grow closer as people.”��

Fostering Human Connections��in��a Changing��Workplace��

“We need to nurture a culture of trust within our organizations, by rolling out trust-based models. At SAP, we are in the process of implementing an initiative called “Pledge2Flex”.�� We hope it will help us dive deep into a flexible workplace model, agnostic of geographic boundaries and time zones.��It is time we ensure that the amount of flexibility should move at the same pace as what the world is demanding.”��

Discussing the needs of a changing workforce,��Dilip��mentioned, “Managing the new millennials needs a new mindset. A transparent model that gives them freedom, respects their abilities, trusts their judgments while rewarding contributions, and gives honest feedback can be the best way��into the future of work.”��

Concluding the session with some advice on��creating��a high-performing workplace, C.P.��Gurnani��suggested, “Managers need to adopt a parental style of leadership, where you understand your employee will need some help to uphold values, his/her contributions and his/her relationship to their own family. I believe it is our job to keep the workplace happy and��I can only do this by communicating and listening.��All my advice��boils down to 3 words – Listen. Understand. Act.����

Also read about the keynote address at HR Connect 2021��

The post CEO’s Perspectives on the Changing People Paradigm���� appeared first on 51����India News Center.

As part of the opening keynote, Prashanth Tripathy, Managing Director & CEO, Max Life Insurance Pvt. Ltd.,��shared some critical insights into trends that are creating lasting��impacts on��the workforce and workplace. And the importance of building��progressive employee experiences��that expand the definitions of productivity, collaboration, and employee well-being in the post-pandemic world.��

The unfolding events of the COVID-19 outbreak have undoubtedly impacted the way the workforce is interacting and working with each other.��Organizations��are looking for creative solutions to��maintain balance between their 2 main objectives of sustaining rapid growth and creating a positive employee experience.��

Explaining how Max Life Insurance experienced its best 18 months since its inception 20 years ago, Prashanth pointed out some key trends. And shared how his organization tackled these ups and downs to achieve business goals of hyper-productivity, agility, and flexibility through a progressive employee experience tailored for a hybrid world.����

Key Trends��Transforming Employee Experiences��

Rise of True Digitization��

Before the disruptions caused by the pandemic and the consequent lockdowns, the digital journey was simply a fad that every CEO seemed to be on. The current work scenario has created a paradigm shift.����To deliver on business outcomes more efficiently, while remaining a great place to work��organizations across the globe��are��re-evaluating��and doing��more to support their��move towards digitization.����

Global Talent Competitiveness��

The shift to remote work also means that we are now competing for talent at a global level. People today can work from any market, serving any company. The entry-exit barriers created by geography have slowly but surely dissolved, leaving us with a new challenge��to find creative ways to retain our position as great employers, among almost the whole world.����

The “Phygital” Workspace��

As a critical enabler of business and economic continuity, remote working has shown us that physical presence for work is out of the window. It’s a new world and��organizations need to differentiate themselves based on flexibility to meet employee needs. Creating a��“Phygital”��world – that brings in digital and interfaces it with the physical set-up to perfectly fit in the new normal��which��seems to be the way ahead.����

No One Solution to Fit All��

Organizations will have to strike the optimal balance between the physical and digital, that works best for them.��Solutions cannot��be generic for industries or the world at large, as every company and its employee needs will differ depending on their��work models and business goals. All companies will have to strike their own balance.��

Importance of Company Culture��

The culture of an organization, its purpose, and values are some of the most important things that anchor and bind the workforce. At a time when departments within organizations are physically divided across geographies, the consequent flexibility can impede creating strategies that align the workforce and is a challenge that needs much thought.��

Supervision is Passe��

The last 18 months have made it clear that most organizations do not need supervisors. It has been observed time and again that if we are not careful this supervisory layer can create havoc by shifting the balance from discussions, creativity, or brainstorming to mere reviews. Instead, organizations need to divert efforts to engage and create deeper connections with employees, so they feel heard and appreciated.����

Work-life Balance Matters��

We have all experienced the slow deterioration of the quality of work-life balance since the beginning of the work-from-home era. A direct result of the reduced productivities��as compared to��how well we used to work cross-functionally in a physical set-up.��It is not as simple as just walking up to someone’s desk anymore. Collaborations of any kind today, require setting up calls and setting aside time from our already busy schedules.��

How Max Life Insurance Re-invented its Employee��Experiences��for Hybrid 2.0��

As soon as the lockdown was in place the team came together to outline a purpose and path to differentiate themselves in the market.��Keeping a close watch on trends and tirelessly working toward creating a unified purpose,��helped��Max Life Insurance��to��realize and outdo its business goals, despite the challenging times.��

Prashanth detailed��some of the actions��his organization��adopted to maintain��the��equilibrium required between employee centricity, morale, motivation, and��the��business outcomes that were expected.����

• Launching a special program called ‘Mission Possible’ with a focus on surviving against the adversity of the pandemic. This was done via different reward and recognition mechanisms, listening forums, engagement avenues, as well as presenting a simplified way to operate in a digital setup.��Successfully mirroring, replicating, and creating��an optimum way��of work resulting in a steep increase in��market share, rather quickly.��

• Secondly, they always listened. The need to listen has multiplied many times over the last 18 months. While earlier listening avenues were restricted by hierarchy, the team now spent at least a couple of hours were spent talking to people, to identify��problems. Pulse surveys were also conducted every 2 months to understand the ground reality and quickly finding solutions to the reported problems.����
• As the workforce shifted from the physical workspace, the organization made huge investments to enable teams with tools, training, WFH infrastructures, and designing a world-class hybrid workplace.��This new adaptable workspace will be welcoming its head office staff of over 2000 employees, to a hot-desking setup, where people can come in anytime they feel like.����
• People communication and cutting down on meeting time is another area of focus.��In the era of zoom and teams, meetings can eat into a lot of productive time. To combat this, “Do-Not-Disturb” time has been scheduled between 1-2 pm every day. No meetings are to be scheduled, and people are discouraged from calling their peers during this time. The company is also contemplating declaring a couple of days a month as “Off-Meeting Days”. This will give people time to prioritize work deliveries, rather than attending meetings.����
• As a workforce predominantly consisting of the sales team, 85% to be exact, Max Life Insurance acknowledges that is never going to be a 100% digital company. It believes that to maintain a great culture and value system, human face-to-face interactions are foundational and is working towards bringing back its people to the office slowly. At the same time, they are committed to being mindful of the personal needs of each employee.����

In closing, as an organization run by people, we need to recognize the importance of the human touch, but what is required more than that is to continue inspiring people to deliver on the expected business outcomes by aligning our people with our strategies. Ensuring that there is a common thread that ties the entire workforce together can help in this endeavor. ��

The post Meeting Business Priorities in a Hybrid World appeared first on 51����India News Center.

A recent Oxford Economics report, “,” revealed that 47% of medium-sized companies that reported strong revenue growth over the past year prioritize the employee experience. The research suggests that creating employee experiences based on what people need to stay inspired and do their best ultimately supports the workforce agility and business resiliency needed to weather hard times.

Creating an engaged and highly productive workforce that enhances business continuity requires a profound shift in HR focus – one that moves away from simply facilitating HR-driven processes and toward delivering meaningful experiences that focus on the human factor. And it’s the practice of human experience management (HXM) that empowers such a move.

What is human experience management?

Employees are more than just assets to be managed. Employees are individuals with specific and ever-changing needs, motivations, challenges, and goals that they expect to be understood. This mindset takes shape as early as the first interaction a candidate has with an organization and continues to evolve every day after that.

The practice of HXM acknowledges this incredibly human aspect of people and work. It enables HR leaders and their teams to adopt a more agile approach by listening to employees, embracing their feedback and sentiments, and delivering programs in an iterative manner to continue to improve results.

Take, for example, the recruitment of top talent. All too often, recruiters are stuck with tasks that are highly manual, paper-intensive, and slow. Whenever they think the perfect candidate is found, a competing employer may have already hired that person with a competitive salary and benefits package.

How do recruiters effectively nurture and engage candidates in ways that build strong connections and relationships from day one? This task can be especially challenging when working tirelessly to fill 30 job openings needed to strategically move the business forward. Furthermore, they must continue to revamp their candidate experience by understanding perceptions of what’s working and what’s not.

To deliver HXM, HR leaders need to understand that they must provide intuitive tools that are more accessible and user friendly to make things more efficient, to automate tasks that were cumbersome and time-consuming in the past, and to help drive the behavioral changes and agility that businesses need today.

Why legacy HR systems cannot support HXM

If you think about it, traditional HR systems were designed for HR leaders engaged in human capital management (HCM) and responsible for acquiring, developing, and retaining top talent. This focus has led to a range of must-have capabilities that support top-down, HR-led activities, such as hiring, onboarding, development, compensation, benefits, payroll, and succession planning.

Traditional HR systems weren’t designed with the end user in mind – the employee, manager, candidate or new hire – and the capabilities needed to boost their confidence, productivity, and engagement. Since they are fundamentally transaction-focused, the technology was never optimized to capture, evaluate, or act on employee experiences or expectations.

In contrast, HXM is a different way to approach HR – where creating great experiences for people is at the center of everything.

Which technologies drive the benefits of HXM

The practice of HXM requires a dramatic shift in the design of HR software with a focus on engaging people in entirely new ways. Experiences should be redesigned to make work simpler and more seamless, as well as highly personalized and relevant.

For example, reimagined learning and development can create opportunities for every employee’s growth. Employees may be supported by conversational chatbots and machine learning-based recommendations that deliver contextual insights, suggestions, and guidance toward the right actions. By providing the tools to continuously listen to employees, medium-sized businesses can base their workforce decisions on real-time insight into where gaps exist and which steps should be taken to improve everyday employee experiences.

Technologies that enable this level of agility are transformational for medium-sized companies. Barriers that typically impede employee experience improvements – such as generational differences, difficulty scaling for growth, and obstacles hindering the evolution of organizational culture – can be removed. Doing so allows HR leaders to become more flexible as they adapt policies and programs to meet the ever-evolving needs of the workforce and the overall business.

Let’s come back to my earlier example of the recruiter with an extraordinary caseload. The entire process of posting job openings, searching for applicants, and finding, interviewing, and hiring the right candidate can be shortened to 45 days, instead of the expected 95 days. The reason is simple: technology is designed to increase recruiter efficiency by eliminating complexity while making it easy for recruiters to deliver meaningful candidates experiences at scale.

The changing role of HR and how it must continue to evolve

In recent years, HR��has undergone dynamic shifts in its��roles, functions, and overall impact in shaping organizations. Now more than ever with the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s clear that the future of HR has arrived and the time to embrace the practice of HXM is now.

Today, HR leaders are in a unique position to pave the way for a new world of work as the reigning innovator and champion of the employee experience. Just imagine the possibilities when HXM redefines employee experiences from every angle to improve adaptability, embrace change, and address human factors genuinely. Suddenly, HR technology has a new purpose: to make life at work better – for everyone.

To learn more about how to transform your operations around new technologies and human experiences that are critical to your business resilience and growth, download the Oxford Economics report, ““.

This article was original featured on , Forbes.

The post New Research Suggests Human Experience Management Is Critical To Weather Hard Times appeared first on 51����India News Center.