India Inc HR Heads are soon changing loyalties with movements and shifts happening across companies, the trend that we observe is they are moving toward newer greener pastures. This is other words means they are quitting jobs with established companies and looking for new companies to lead the HR division.

What is the reason behind this sudden shift in loyalties of HR heads to leave established companies and look for newer ones? To name some of the established companies wherein loyalty shift has been observed are – Pepsico, Reliance Industries, Philips, Adobe, Cipla, Vodafone, Accenture and Vedanta Group are some to name.

Unnamed spokesperson to this story opine, that since the relationship between CEO and the HR heads continue to unravel itself, there is a whole new galore of opportunities outside and lack of internal recognition within the company promotes this drift.

While for some this presents a scope for greater opportunities and more challenging roles, the others claim the workplace culture misfit is a reason to move on to newer firms. More so often, HR heads are under an impression that shifting to newer organisation would allow them the scope to make drastic changes in workplace culture, early on in the organisation.

Many HR heads do not realise that the company culture has been built over decades by the promoter family, and it is not easy to make overnight changes.

While companies need experienced and competent HR leaders to navigate through the complex talent-crisis scenario, they are not so receptive to changes. HR as a function though is getting alienated across many organisations; the offers are flooding the market – be it personal reasons, better career growth prospects or even those to cut down on the losses.

Demand for good HR leaders is increasing, this also stems from the fact that now HR leaders are strong strategic business partners of many CEOs, who help them set their workplace agenda, culture, talent, workforce competitiveness and lot more in place.

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A recent article published in the Harvard Business Review had Ram Charan, Dominic Barton and Dennis Carey suggesting that the most important triangle of leadership in any organisation is the CEO, CFO and the CHRO. It says that companies who have this competent trio are more likely to win in the marketplace as compared to others.

“Connected Leadership embodies the shift away from the old style of command and control leadership and hierarchical structures. It is about leading through influence rather than control, which relies on effective communication and connection across the organisation. For Connected Leadership to work effectively, a successful relationship between HR and the C-suite is critical,” says Simon Hayward, CEO of Cirrus.

Here are five points on which we as HR leaders, employees and key stakeholders of all companies should get firm grip on:

• Build true alliances: The companies that reach out to you in this hyper-networked truly mobile world would seek at developing alliances and they aren’t just looking for a new hire. Great HR leaders should be able to forge this connection and build great alliances with CEO as business partners to initiate long-term strategic growth plan in place.
• Re-instil trust in senior management and speak leadership, governance at the top: Transparency in workings helps build tangible trust and great HR leaders should help employees build their personal brands and empower their professional networks by participating in social employee engagement models of the company. This will make it clear that you trust them to work on their own career, while motivating them to innovate further for growth. This will keep the bonding efforts intact, supporting mutual beneficial interests.
• Create a workplace based on cross-empowerment: With age diversity and cultural unison in the workplace culture, the well-networked world offers multitude of opportunities to empower the other through mentoring and reverse mentoring.
• Recognise employee sovereignty: Strategic leadership is not just restricted to hiring the top talent, but retention plays a key role as well. It is required for great HR leaders to recognise employee sovereignty, provide equal growth opportunities for all and find ways to capitalise on their diversity.
• Do not hire workplace cultural misfits: In the new world of work, smart companies are attracting, recruiting, engaging and retaining candidates who match the cultural fit of an organisation. The HR leaders are clear about what they need, since there is enough negativity around employee disengagement and attrition, why add on to one more?

HR leaders should always see themselves as instrumental elements of change in a workplace to bring about positive radical changes that enhance employee engagement levels and boost productivity.

Source: EconomicTimes.com

Also read: Indian Start-Ups are betting big on Innovative HR Policies

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