IIFT National HR Symposium 2010 a grand success

The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade on Friday successfully conducted the National

HR Symposium at The Park, Kolkata. The famous Park Street was buzzing with excitement

as delegates from the corporate and academia touched down one after the other here at

The Park. The sponsors and the event partners had ensured that the Symposium was

well promoted. So IIFT was all set at 0900hrs to receive the delegates and begin with the

proceedings.

The HR Symposium and its theme –‘Re-engaging the Lost Talent’ assumed even

more significance coming close on the heels of one of the most devastating recessions of

human history. The recent past has seen such a phenomenal erosion of trust between the

employee and the employer that many a workplace were almost transformed into a place

that bred insecurity, fear, mistrust and hatred. The definitions of organisational challenges

have changed dramatically and dealing with this chasm between the employee and the

employer occupies the forefront of organisational strategy at present.

The eminent speakers highlighted this challenge again and again with various

examples from the industry, in general and their own organisations, in specific. They also

dealt with what strategies they adopted to tackle such organisational challenges, what

remains to be done in future and how the role of the HR Manager is evolving by the day.

The first session dealt with ‘Bridging the Trust Deficit’ in organisations and what it

meant for the HR managers. Inefficiency has been slowly creeping into organisations as

the employees feel victimised and believe that they’ve been treated unfairly and unethically.

On the other hand the employers feel that the employees are not performing their duties

with all their heart and keep personal interests before organisational interests. Also, as

the economy is stabilising and improving the employee demands much more than just

pay and perks. He wants to be respected, loved and cared for by the organisation s/he

works for. Now the wants of this ‘HR talent’ are not to be ignored, and preventing the loss

of this talent is primarily the responsibility of the HR Manager. Hence an open dialogue

between the concerned parties, without any hidden agenda is vital. The role of the HR

professionals isn’t just to recruit, train and appraise, but it is to “add value to business”, and

HR talent is an integral part of that value. Hence the approach towards the HR policy has

to be more strategic than ever. Talent needs to be actively reengaged and respected by

the management and it needs to be communicated to each other thorough small gestures

of mutual trust. Also innovation as the sole driver of organisational growth in the future was

discussed elaborately.

The second session’s topic was ‘Retention of Human Capital – Matching

Expectations with Incentives’. With attrition hitting hard below the belt, many organisations

have learnt it the hard way that the retention of quality HR is highly important and even more

challenging in today’s economic scenario. Research has shown that “Vitamin M” (Money)

on its own isn’t enough to match the expectations of the HR, there need to be a complete

overhauling and restructuring of the present incentive system so as to deliver value to the

employee, only then can the organisation dream of delivering value to its customers. Also, “if

you hire for money, then you also lose for money”, hence incentives need a comprehensive

relook.

The event concluded on the note that it is important to create an atmosphere of love

and respect within the organisation and hence generate a positive energy that’ll drive the

complete management functions in the most effective manner.