Xavier University Bhubaneswar organized second HR Symposium
Bhubaneswar: The second HR Symposium of Xavier School of Human Resource Management, Xavier University Bhubaneswar, was held on 15th July 2017 revolving around the themes: “Overview of contemporary HR practices” and “Pushing the boundaries of HR”.
The value of the human resource (HR) function elicits sharply contradictory views within organizations. Shattering HR’s boundaries is more than just an idea or an inspiration. In today’s competitive global markets, the “war for talent” is understood to be crucial to almost every business. Taking this into context, a plethora of eminent panelists gathered around to provide their valuable insights to the students.
The conference was inaugurated by Fr. Augustine, Registrar, Xavier University Bhubaneswar along with Prof. Snigdha Pattnaik, Dean of Xavier School of Human Resource Management (XAHR). Prof. Dr. Dipak Kumar Bhattacharya and Prof. Sasmit Patra, professors from Xavier University Bhubaneswar acted as the moderators of the event.
The first phase of the symposium on “Contemporary HR Practices” witnessed eminent panelists from various domains of HR engaging in discussions related to performance management, employee engagement, learning and development and work culture in the era of digitization and artificial intelligence. Ms. Arpita Sahu, Senior Manager- Talent and Development, Bharti Airtel
Services spoke about how performance management should not end with just a rating but a future plan as performance is past but potential is future. Mr. Ankush Arora, Head of OD and Business HR, at Havells India Ltd spoke about HR being a paramount driver for leadership and ethics. He stated, “It’s okay to unlearn something to learn something. Always think like a business head, and not only as an HR”. Mr. Gaurav Khandelwal, HR Leader, Honeywell Process Solutions spoke about driving innovation by having people in the organization who challenge the status quo.
The second phase of the symposium was on “Pushing the Boundaries of HR”. Prof. Jose Maria Aulotte, Director of Studies, Magellan Institute for International HR MBA program and also a visiting faculty of Xavier School of Human Resource Management stressed on HR being one of the key players of the business for pushing the existing soft boundaries. Mr. Abhishek Mohanty, Management Consulting professional, PwC India’s People & Organisation Advisory talked about “Audacious Rethink” that consisted of fierce catch up, significant leap and leapfrog resulting in creating quality as opposed to quantity. “Technology is driving this shift and it means that employees and customer experiences must converge”, he added. Mr. A B Chandrasekhar, Assistant Vice President, EXL Service, Kochi Area during the discussion questioned the concepts of employee engagement, leadership development, performance vis a vis potential and attrition. He said, “HR management is uniquely driven by client’s business goals”.
The symposium ended with the speakers being felicitated and a customary vote of thanks.