Reorienting talent to biz development

MANAGING PEOPLE

Iwas meeting with the CEO of a large consumer company who was telling me what he didn’t want in his next head of marketing. Companies have been hard-pressed to deliver results in the past couple of years and that’s affected their people policies more than any legislation could have. More on that later. Let’s have a look at some of the trends that have been developing over the past few years and some of them seem to have now become full-blown, besides their impact on people policies of companies in India Inc.

Digitalisation

Frankly, this has been one major disruption in almost every industry segment: whether it’s a manufacturing company, one in chemical or retail. The fact is, technology has leapfrogged many times more than the productivity of firms. As established names struggle to play catch-up with more nimble footed adversaries, there is a scramble for talent that can understand and cope, nay, lead the business transformation. We see companies reorienting their workforce to newer areas of business development: digitisation of the supply chain is in full swing in many as an example.

Millennial is at ion

We are estimating that close to half of the workforce today started work in this century and their impact on how companies are treating people is beginning to take effect. A large consumer company has started counselling sessions for its senior managers on how to deal with the millennials: asking them to be patient and not to expect 18-hour work sessions. In fairness, they have also started to counsel the millennials joining the company that it’s okay to

wear shoes (not sandals) and collared shirts and everyone may not be as tech-savvy as they expect them to be.

However, the frustration at the millennials arriving without the requisite skill sets that makes them employment-ready still stands. Forget graduates and engineers, the head of HR of a reputable FMCG company wrung his hands at going to premier schools to hire MBAs who the company trained for a year only to have them leave in another six months. Softer skills are not taught at B-schools, and the sense of entitlement seems to be preventing students fresh off campus to be comfortable at jobs where they sweat behind their collars.

The flip side is that the innovation the younger task force brings to solving problems is fantastic and their attitude to work may not be palatable to the older lot, but it seems to be providing solutions that are at times closer to the consumers’ hearts and wallets. E-commerce is reflective of the millennial ability to think and execute out of the box. The difference between the successful and the not so successful start-up seems to be maturity and a learning agility to learn from past mistakes.

We are seeing diversity as a distinct strategy from corporates to dimensionalise their businesses

Diversity and inclusion

We are seeing diversity as a distinct strategy from corporates to dimensionalise their businesses. Those who started five-10 years ago have seen the advantage that a more representative workforce and management can bring to their business not just in financial results but employer branding and, most importantly, connecting with their customers and stakeholders.

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