Decoding talent acquisition strategy for millennials
The 47th Hindustan Times Shine HR Conclave was based on the concept of decoding talent acquisition strategies for millennials. The need for work-life balance and flexible schedules were some of the topics discussed by leading industry veterans.
Dr. M.S. Balaji, President and Head HR of PA Software Development Pvt. Ltd., and the moderator for the panel discussion began the discussion by talking about the expectations of millennials from their job and organizations. The lack of official mentoring program in the companies to manage millennials was a point of concern.
Moving forward, Raghuvendra K, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Human Resource development at Infosys BPO Limited talked about the ‘KISS’ formula, i.e. keep it simple, stupid, to ensure that the things do not get complicated.
He said that amongst the five generations of workers in an organization, millennials comprise the maximum percentage. The discussion then turned towards employer branding with R. Raj Narayan, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer at Titan Company Limited. He said: “The companies have shifted their perspective of sharing information to sharing experiences.”
Millennials who get an opportunity to work with the organizations as a summer intern or on an project can build a meaningful experience, share values with the organization and can build a specific place for the brand in their minds. He concluded by saying that employee branding gets its real meaning when new joiners or common people experience the brand and that makes the employer value proposition quite clear.
What are the other things that an organization does to influence the millennials besides employee branding was one of the audience queries. To this, Raghuvendra replied: “Employee practices such as CSR activities, hobby promotions, and chances for further education can be add-on pillars for influencing a millennial.”
According to Balaji, 64% of employees feel that companies are not investing in their development and leadership skills. Then the panelists discussed the efforts the companies were making to communicate and track the career progression of the millennials. Next the panel discussed the expectations of millennials in terms of career progression and development.
According to Sanjukta Sarkar, Head HR, Madura Fashions and Lifestyle, and recipient of “100 most influential HR professionals globally awarded” by CHRO Asia and World HRD Congress in Feb 2016, said that linear career progression does not work as millennials look for experiences and employability. She said: “In Madura, we have ended up creating a lot of opportunities that help our employees to work in different areas and decide the best out of them.”
She promoted the idea of ‘tremendous cross functioning movements’ by saying that they provide opportunities to their employees to move from one function to another and learn about the functions that they have initially no idea at all. Reverse Mentoring is another pillar that she talked about, in which millennials would mentor folks from other generations.
However, for a HR department it is easier to hire a millennial but difficult to make sure that they are getting ample opportunities to develop in the organization. The discussion concluded by saying that firms should focus more on workplace environment, mentoring or development programmes and opportunities, and value matching. This blend of values and development will also be beneficial for the employer value proposition.