Mahesh Joshi, CHRO, Honeywell Automation India Ltd, in an exclusive interview with Industry Outlook, shares his views on the HR strategies to drive organizational change in hybrid environments, how HR leaders balance technology adoption with fostering a strong organizational culture, strategies to ensure tech-driven skill development and more. He has experience managing overall HR and C&B Functions, Strengths in HR policy design, New business startups, Mergers & Acquisitions and more.
Ideally, the hybrid work environment was there for a long time. Since COVID came to light, hybrids have started surfacing, and all organizations that have never been a part of this have experienced the hybrid piece of it. The hybrid piece is very interesting as it is a dual-edged sword. The reason is that it has a lot of advantages, but it has a lot of disadvantages, which are hidden. However, it would be challenging for the organization and the employees if we do not address those in time. Hybrid is more flexible as employees work from anywhere; they are not accountable to sit in one place but still deliver their numbers, or organizations save a lot of money from the infrastructure cost standpoint, from a fixed cost standpoint, which is the good side of it. However, the most important challenge is coming together, building that culture of belongingness and having a culture of the company. From the company's standpoint, how it operates in the environment, how people behave, and its culture are critical, but they are deteriorating over time.
The second aspect is innovation and collaboration. For instance, it will be challenging for people to come up with new ideas, processes, and systems, not only to create a product every time, but even process improvement will take time and will not be easy if we sit and keep sitting in the remote. From an organization point of view, they need to understand what type of organization they are in and considering this long-term impact, most of the organizations have started asking people to come back as they wanted to have a fair amount of flexibility, but then also think about the more significant, longer organizational goal.
The world is changing due to digitization, as survival becomes very difficult without digital applications. More importantly, digitization has changed the conscious and unconscious behavior of the individual. Individuals need to think that their ecosystem and the companies that provide it are also changing. However, the changes are all in diverse directions. The organization focuses on teaching or equipping employees for all future challenges. Most companies are working on three agendas: digitization, sustainability, and transformation, aiming to adopt a sustainable mode. To get into the first two agendas, it is crucial to have a transformation, and that is how the changes are driven.
As we embrace new methods across all areas, why should skilling be any different? Skilling is critical for personal development and staying more relevant in the marketplace or the organization. Nowadays, every organization is partnering with easily accessible online platforms that offer many customized courses. Skill development through a digital platform helps in four ways: it is cost-effective, quick, economical, and easy to reach numerous people. Hence, these key factors contribute to your success in this area.
Technology adoption is changing from organization to organization, and innovation will be necessary for every organization in the future, regardless of the products, services, or operational excellence. To be productive, it is essential to have continuous self-innovation. The world is such that if we don't adapt to changes, we will always lag in the market. Even productivity and quality will go down compared to others. The organization should leverage technologies, which are merely the various learning platforms, and they should be a part of their culture.
Innovating organizations should invest in learning, varying from 15 days to one month. Some innovative companies invest only 30 days, around 240 hours a year, in teaching and understanding employees. They grow up with this, and they are outstanding when it comes to various innovative options. Hence, a strong organizational culture fostering innovation and technology adoption is crucial.
Transparency is an interesting aspect. If we have a lot of things that are not documented, then a lot of vagueness keeps coming into it. For instance, if any policies are available on the intranet, every employee can see it's a transparent policy. However, suppose there is a process or practice that is verbal or in practice. In that case, there is a lot of transparency. Also, biases should keep coming in. Hence, digital platforms for employee trust and transparency are fair, giving a consistent message across the group.
Nowadays, multiple forms of data are readily available at the fingertips. We have to give the command and make the proper selection to make the data available. That is where more and more data utilization started coming in. As the data cannot be kept for long, the speed has already increased, and even the accuracy of the data is high. These aspects help to put the KPIs into perspective and monitor them. For instance, if I give my team the data, I often explain that what I’m seeing and what they are communicating might be in a different language. This prompts them to examine the data, identify the errors, and determine what needs to be addressed. So, very laser-focused action is possible and very laser-focused KPI moderation, management, and measurement. That also helps increase accountability and decision speed.
In the case of any attrition issue, then it will be owned by someone. However, if the RCA shows something else, that individual is responsible. So, it's either business or HR who is accountable for it and is also very clear with that particular piece. These data-driven strategies in the future will be something not only for Indian organizations but also for every organization that exists on the earth, which will have to be used over time, as it is now possible to fetch that information so quickly.
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