Indian companies need competent HR professionals

Any wonder what the acronym HR means in India --"Human Resource," "Human Recruitment," "Human Relations" or what an employee recently coined "Humiliation Resource."

Any discussion on organizations is perhaps incomplete without pondering on its HR practices and HR health. Inspite a booming economy Indian companies have always grappled with HR issues that never seem to end. For many the high attrition rates are a direct indicator of any organizations HR health. After all its the HR Deptt. that is responsible for the fundamental "organizational culture." And the system appears to be worsening by the day.

For experts high attrition rate symbolizes a heathy economy. Enormous opportunities, they say, are driving the youth to seek fatter salary packages. Companies, on the other hand, see attrition as the organization's inability to match the industry-standard salary packages. In essence both these perspectives are flawed at the very core.

The current issues of employee-retention is a fabulous creation of shabby HR practices -- a creation of ill-bred and half-baked HR professionals, most of whom owe their knowledge to C-grade run-of-the-mill institutes strewn across India. For most HR activity relates only to "Recruitments".

Rising attrition rates is a direct reflection of the HR incompetency. HR Departments, for one, are now endowed with the skills, competency and knowledge to map individual needs and organizational goals -- a prerequisite while recruiting resources. Today very few Indian HR professionals appreciate the immense potential of on-demand training and e-learning. For them these are jargons that typically signify nothing. No wonder that HR Departments in Indian companies (barring a few well-structured companies) has now come to be seen as a very low-end and low-dignity assignment in the management spectrum.

MAP YOUR ORGANIZATION'S HR HEALTH ...
To clearly understand how the HR is setting back your organization try answering the following questions:

1. Has your HR Department ever asked you to submit your training needs?

2. Did you ever meet a matured HR professional in your current company who has offered you matured and sensible personal advice?

3. Can your HR department put a box soliciting annonymous letters about the issues that concern employees?

4. How many HR professionals within your organization are employee-friendly?

5. Do you think that the HR department in your organization are spies of the senior management and cannot be trusted with personal information.

6. How many HR professionals in Indian companies have a good understanding of the company's line of business?

7. Can you approach your HR Deptt. in case any conflicting situation with your immediate superior?

DUCKS, RABBITS & LEARNING

I was immersed in the design of our organizational newsletter in this decrepit Advertising agency in South Delhi when I received a call on my mobile. The caller informed me about swimming ducks, a defiant pack of dogs, unruly pigeons, staring rabbits and colorful fishes. For a moment I tried to rationalize on what was more important for me – the saga of these creatures or my editing the newsletter. Surely the newsletter! But these tales too were not of lesser importance. They were from my 3 year old darling daughter who had just returned after her school trip to Bal Bhawan.

That day evening I perched comfortably with my dearie daughter and listened to her experience in Bal Bhawan – so honestly captured and relayed. All along as Pakhi stood trying to narrate me what she saw I could sense how interesting learning can become if we were to remove the artificial garb of formalism and protocol that we endeavour it to wear.

Learning about the way children learn offers us a great research opportunity. Few realize that the exact nature in which children learn, if captured and analyzed properly in the relevant cultural and socio-economic context, can be applied in various learning scenarios that are unique to India. The psychological inter-play of cognitive processing, the impact of the environment, the impact of language and the socio-cultural context is barely understood. In India, in the current format in which learning is being sold and bought, research often finds a backseat. The reasons for this abject rejection of research as foundation for the future can be seen as as an academic limitation or because such research is often considered tedious and not seen as providing overnight results.

I believe that today or tomorrow we may need to take a serious call on this callousness towards "learning research". Though institutions such as the CBSE and the NGO sector have initiated steps in this directio, a research-based analytical mindset is still a far-cry in most institutions that deal with learning. Till then, we all will continue to read about what learning research was undertaken in which part of the world with what impact. Isn't it time we stopped such blatant emulation and address learning issues as they are –- contextually?