Giving that personal touch

Picture this. A $9.7-billion conglomerate with 88,000 employees, and a global presence with businesses in sectors as diverse as metals, textiles, software, finance and telecom. Add 25 nationalities — and 20,000 non-Indians — and the sheer span of employee profiles, ranging from a factory worker in Muri, Jharkhand, to a young call centre associate in Mumbai, to this mix. Now imagine the scale and complexity that HR needs to grapple with.

No one understands and lives this challenge every day, better than Santrupt Misra, director, group HR &IT, AV Birla Group. “We ask ourselves: How can we adequately integrate this diversity, how do we respond to the multiple needs of employees, how do we ensure employee engagement at all levels?”

More importantly, there is the bigger issue of deeper integration with the group’s business. Companies often like to talk about their HR departments’ changing role and how it’s turning into a strategic partner. But few really are able to walk the talk. The key, explains Misra, is not just to meet requirements of business managers but to truly anticipate, plan for, and address future needs. “As business starts anticipating customer & service needs, if HR supports by anticipating people needs and plans & prepares the organisation, then it’s truly a strategic business partner.”

This extends to every aspect of the organisation’s operations. Take acquisitions and driving international growth. Some of HR’s primary roles in this context would be to understand the compensation norms, taxation laws and cost of living levels in those countries, and training people to be internationally mobile. For instance, when the AV Birla group began looking at China as a possible destination for acquisitions, HR developed an e-learning module on China and doing business there, for managers who were likely to be involved.

Facilitation isn’t the only thing, though. Ensuring that integration with acquired companies goes off smoothly is also an area where HR has played a crucial role. When Grasim acquired L&T’s cement business three years ago, the AV Birla HR team planned a series of town-hall meetings with L&T managers, called ‘Sammelan’. As part of the exercise, managers were asked to draw an animal that best represented L&T and the AV Birla group, respectively. The HR team then made a presentation on Grasim’s organisational culture, and its plans for the new entity.

Post-presentation, the same set of managers were asked to redraw an animal that best expressed their perceptions about the group. This time, there was a huge difference in the responses. So from, say, a more predatory and agressive image of a cheetah, the new image of the group was now being seen as more humane and professional.

Then there are situations when HR has hand-held line managers on matters of employee relations. This is true especially in plants where line managers often have to deal with irate workers threatening to strike work. In such cases, HR prepares them to deal with the situation and even provide them with written scripts while directly talking to employees. “We are a source of choices and ideas for them,” says Misra.

At its best, HR can and should bring in the ‘human moment’ to business transactions. So that would mean moving from merely supporting a restructuring and downsizing exercise to helping business sensitively manage the impact at an individual level. And this personal touch is what Misra believes organisations will increasingly embrace in their quest to become best employers.