HR Conclave 2021

The HR Conclave was organized by Prof. Sharad Gupta on the 23 of January 2021. The theme for the conclave was “HR in New Normal”. 

Darothi Jas, Sanaya Mathew, and Samantha D’Souza anchored the event and Prof. Shownu Withington as the moderator. As guests for the event, there were four prominent speakers: Mr Santanu Banerjee, Mr Majid Ali khan, Mr Frederick Correa, and Mr Vishal Thakur. The event commenced at 11.30 am with an introduction to the theme, i.e., “HR in New Normal.” Each speaker was then introduced to the audience, followed by the speakers addressing the students and a question and answers round. 

The first speaker for the day was Mr Santanu Banerjee, the CHRO of Bajaj Allianz. He spoke eloquently about giving prime focus to agility. In the context of the HR environment, he said, “It is time to be agile, and corporates should look at the policy in an agile manner to take care of the situation.” He also mentioned that there is a need for motivation to put the tech-enabled platform for recognition.

The second speaker was Mr Majid Ali Khan, Head of Offshore Strategic Resourcing Campus Program, and Mphasis. While addressing the students, threw light on how HR manages the new normal and navigates the problems. Mr Majid highlighted the issues that occurred in the pandemic; he said that big companies suffered, and so did small grocery shops. He also suggested primary goals giving importance to people, workable solutions at the workplace, and phases of time.

The third speaker was Mr Frederick Correa, Sr. Associate Vice President, DARSHAW. He talked about the changing mindset of the people and the retention of the employee in the pandemic situation. He said that we must take care of our employees and our employees would take care of the business.

The fourth speaker was Mr Vishal Thakur, Associate Vice President of TATA Capital. He spoke about how it is in the HR domain while handling the Covid situation. It was quite a challenging job as an HR executive to adapt to the changes and implement new strategies in the field. He explained how it is to adjust to a difference when it is entirely a new scenario that the whole business industry was facing. He was asked his take on the new normal. He explained that the change is recent to all, irrespective of the demographic. Mr Thakur stated an example of older people at home. It was quite a peaceful scene at home when there was silence when all the middle-aged people went to work, and there was no much buzz at home. It was relatively peaceful for them to spend their retirement life at home, but after the work from home situation, even home was a place of work, they had to see the pressure of work-life, and all buzz was taken to the house well. It intruded the peaceful atmosphere of old age people at home. Still, again it was a need of the time, and all families cooperated and adjusted to deal with it and coped with a positive approach and attitude. There are so many factors related to the new normal that we do not actually pay attention to but still pertain.

Like all events, the HR Conclave also had to come to an end; it was concluded at 1.00 pm with a vote of thanks by Prof. Sharad Gupta. He extended his gratitude towards the guest speakers for their valuable inputs and enthusiastic discussions with the students, Fr. Jossy, the teachers, and event organizers, and last but not the least the students for their participation.