ERA conference-Is Partnering a challenge?

Here is a gist of what the Business Leaders  expressed during their presentations.

IT/ITES : B Krishna Murthy, VP - Global Delivery & Centre Head,Hyderabad, Wipro was highly appreciative about ERA's  3C model and came out very strongly that the need of the hour is the 3C model.He also mentioned  that the academia has to revamp their curriculum based on industry requirements and hence academia has to work very closely with industries

Services: Vikas Shah, MD , Water Health India while touching about the tools that help/affect Talent Acquisition & Retention mentioned that culture,PMS & compensation structure are more to do with the Vision & Mission of the organisation, though consultants should play a large role in Branding, Training & the entire recruitment process.

CEO Forum:Subbaraman Iyer, COO, Idea Cellular openly admitted that the CEOs & HR Heads have not given enough importance to  selection process of the right consultant(s) and that should be looked into closely & corrective measures taken

Matthew Fairless, COO, UBS India stressed on the need for consultants to counsel candidates to stick through with a company for a long time, both through the good times & the bad times. That, he said, will will help build strong leaders and not just 'senior-ish' teams.

Abhijit Roy,Director & COO, Totem Infrastructure pointed out that the infrastructure is on a growth phase , consultants & industry has to expand their horizon in the search process for hiring .

V.Balaji, CEO, Avon Organics made a cause for exit interview to be handled by outside consultants as it will be more objective and could not stress enough that if partnership is to work, one should walk the talk, particularly the CEOs.

Infrastructure  : Chandersheel Bansal, President,Maytas was highlighting to the ERA consultants on the importance of long term experience in candidates with particular reference to the infrastructure industry. In the light of the importance of infrastructure in relation to  the growth of the country, it is very key to the projects that Project Managers come in with sound experience and they have stayed in the same company & projects for long duration to understand the dynamics. He was saying no person can be a good Project Manager unless he has put in at least 3-4 yrs in the same company. Here again, ERA consultants can deter people from quickly moving out of one assignment to another.

 

HR panel : Lekha Sishta, VP - HR, Sum Total Systems : She endorsed ERA's 3C approach very strongly and in her candid manner she is known for also was vociferous that we should weed out integrity issues. She said that the corporates & their HR leadership team have a moral responsibility to take the first step in the 3c approach. She was also mentioning that shades of grey in the hiring process be removed.

Ramanand P, Lead Partner HR, EMRI  totally agreed with Lekha and added that they are ready to look at working exclusively with ERA members if that means it is working with consultants following ethical code of conduct & professionalism. 

Arun D Rao, VP - HR, Applabs said that he'd surely look at ERA member firms as their preferred recruitment consultants.He also encouraged ERA members to study & imbibe the best recruitment practices which are prevalent worldwide. ERA should also look at extending effective outplacement services to corporates.

Srinivas R Vudumala, VP - HR,Maytas Infra declared that  he'd be the 1st person to collaborate within the industry if the HR fraternity takes the step in this direction & he was categorical that 2nd C of ERA's 3C approach, ie. Collaboration between Corporates was surely the way forward while importance cannot be stressed enough on the partnership between client & consultant.

K.S.R.K Prasad, VP & Head HR, Sai Advantium Pharma requested that ERA consultants look at having psychometric tests  mandatory in the shortlisting process. He also mentioned that nowadays many HR Leaders look at their consultants as an extension of their HR team.

Valedictory: 

Mr SJ Amalan, Regional Director ( Kar, AP & Orissa) RDAT-DGE&T ,Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India spoke on how the corporates and recruitment fraternity can explore "Partnering Government for Workforce Development'. Specially focusing on the impact of skills development, he highlighted that there would be a need for 470 million skilled personnel in the age of 16-40 yr globally in the next 25yrs and only India could fulfill the need-and explained the various initiatives launched by the Govt. of India-and exhorted the private sector to leverage on the same.