India, Inc. applies a 'human touch'

NEW DELHI: India Inc is giving a ‘human touch’ to its boards. As human resources and talent gains importance in the knowledge economy, scores of companies are bringing in HR heavyweights to participate in board-level deliberations.

Videocon, Max New York Life, Infosys, Murugappa Group and industry bodies such as Ficci are some of the companies that have recently inducted their HR heads into their boards. Rajendra Sinh, who joined Videocon from Ranbaxy a month back, came on the board as HR director.

Murugappa Group roped in V Ramachandran as director HR with a position on its board while Max New York Life got Rajat Mehta as an HR director on board a few months back. For Ficci too, D K Sinha, sr director, HRD was the first person to be hired on board as director HR.

Infosys also elevated the HR head position to the board level when T V Mohandas Pai took over as director, HR, three months back. According to Arun Maira, chairman, Boston Consulting Group, companies are increasingly realising how critical HR is to the business. “HR is in focus because the effectiveness of any function depends on how capable are the people in the company,” he says.

“Getting HR directors on board brings in clarity in understanding people’s behaviour, but it all depends on how interested the CEO of the company is in bringing innovation in HR function.” According to Ronesh Puri, MD Executive Access, 15% of the HR guys in Fortune 500 companies abroad have become CEOs of companies while for India the figure could be a meagre 1% till now.

“But the scenario is set to change in the coming years as the role of HR becomes critical to organistions,” he says. With the constraint on capital as a resource being no longer visible and the percentage of white collar workers increasing in the total workforce, those who manage the HR function now need a different treatment.

Consequently, HR as a function among companies is being elevated to a director level and HR directors are being inducted on the boards. HR directors are now devising strategies to take the companies to a higher growth trajectory. “As the size of the businesses get bigger, the role and scope of HR function is changing, says K Sudarshan, managing partner, EMA Partners International.

“You have to now deal with an educated workforce and all this needs to be addressed at a strategic level. Companies are heeding to it by hiring HR directors on board.” Adds Rajendra Sinh, Director — HR, Videocon, “It’s important to create synergies across levels and create a professional team at the top that understands the nuances of managing human resources.”

Also, it depends a lot on the stature of the individual to be a director HR on board, the kind of ideas he brings to the table that can have a huge impact on the business. The emergence of future business leaders from this function also depends on how much importance it is attached.