Changing Workplace in India- Moral responsibility of HR!!

An article on "cause related branding"-written by a pal of mine,Kartikeya Kompella provoked me to try and reflect on the changing workplace in India.

I didnt have to look too far into the recent past to see the HR parallel in corporate India. While most of the headlines have been reserved for the Fortune 500 firms opening, and expanding their operations in India, there have been, albeit very few, instances of some companies changing tack-once they realise all isnt hunkey dorey.

Some of us in the fraternity have been providing career transition services to those handful employees, whose roles have become redundant (thru managed seperation) overnight- and help them acquire the resilience to bounce back from the setbacks.

I personally think-with the kind of dwindling ratios of succesful joint ventures, and the aftermath of mergers & acquisitions, there is a need to address the human side -more conciously. I think HR professionals have to pay more attention to the hiring processes, so that they can prevent the need later on for finetuning the cases for re-deployment, re-engagement, re-direction, and ofcourse premature retirement!

Is the HR fraternity -presently focussing on attracting and retaining talent- setting apart some time to pre-empt such occurances (of sudden discovery of redundancy) and increase retention? While we have accepted the Western values -are we oblivious to the fact that there could be some mishaps on the way-especially in this game of high reward-which should be followed by high risk?

Isnt it in the gambit of the business entity, or more specifically the HR professional, to ensure that the most valuable resources are alternately capable of adding value?

Would someone address the need for a better 'work-life balance' and the need for a less stressful working hours? We in India-seem to work across time zones to keep in sync-is it sustainable for long periods..year on year?

Kartikeya refers to a few situations where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has enabled an interesting way of creating a wonderful win-win situation wherein the brand gets business benefits from its CSR activities, thereby encouraging greater investment in CSR to get greater business benefits.

Do we see a day, soon in India, where HR firms would advocate good health, and sponsor NGOs that do pioneering work in health services??

Itsn't just about CSR and about brand building- the need of the hour is corporates moral responsibility.