<div>An entrant into Human Resources function by chance, Suhas Kadlaskar, director, corporate affairs, HR and IT, Mercedes Benz India, believes HR policies and procedures should be different for different demographies within an organisation so that Gen X, Y and Z employees can be treated according to their needs.<br /><br />In our series on HR practitioners, Kadlaskar is the third HR head to share with us what makes HR leaders tick.<br /><em><br />Excerpts from the conversation</em><br /><br /><strong>What made you choose HR as a profession?<br /></strong>In fact I did not choose HR as a profession at the first instance; I am a Charter Accountant & was handling accounting, finance & taxation for our company. However, in 2009 an opportunity came up and I was asked if I had an interest to head human resources (HR) function. I was thrilled with the opportunity as I like to deal with people. HR function is a totally people-orientated function where one has to understand the feeling of the human beings. I am always fascinated by dynamics of human mind and hence I grabbed the opportunity of heading Human Resources function.<br /><br /><br /><strong>What has been the biggest achievement of your career?</strong><br />One of the achievements of my career is cutting the attrition rate of our organisation to less than 10 per cent in a fiercely competitive market. In an emerging market like India, retaining talent is a big challenge. With innovative HR policies, we could ensure very high employee motivation ultimately resulting in to employee retention.<br /><br /><strong><br />What have been the primary traits/qualities that have helped you attain your present position?</strong> <br />I believe that one of the quality/trait a person should have to attend leadership position is to have feeling for human beings. He/she has to understand the aspiration & expectations of people across the management ladder in the organisation.<br /><br /><strong>What are the challenges you are facing in your organisation?<br /></strong>While at present we do not have any major challenge, I would like to focus on learning and development which would be the key for success in our growth phase.<br /><br /><strong>What are the steps a company should take to develop and motivate future leaders?<br /></strong>In my opinion, a company should follow clearly defined Leadership Pipeline Model. For those from junior management who are supposed to manage their own function up to the executives who are supposed to manage the whole function, differential training should be imparted. The employee <br />should be exposed to change management & the growth management trainings. While technical leadership is given, they should be exposed to people management.<br /><br /><strong>What is your rate of attrition? How do you prevent it?</strong><br />Our rate of attrition is 6-8 per cent. We could achieve this by employee oriented HR policies, which includes not only attractive compensation & benefits but also very good attractive growth opportunities which is the important factor for the retention. We continuously monitor the status through Employee Satisfaction Survey & take corrective actions for various parameters where we see the opportunity for improvements.<br /><br /><strong>How do you retain talent in your company?<br /></strong>The retention of talent is achieved by offering challenging jobs, a conducive work environment, attractive benefits, full empowerment, and international exposure to potential candidates etc. <br /><br /><br /><strong>What sets your company apart from other companies as far as work culture is concerned?<br /></strong>We strongly believe that we have highly professionals and excellence- oriented work approach, we encourage our employees to take additional responsibilities with proper delegation and empowerment. International exposure to technology and processes also add to our excellence based work culture.<br /><br /><strong>What is the biggest challenge you face when selecting people?<br /></strong>Although our country produces more than 3 lakhs engineers per year, only a certain percentage are employable. This is a challenge which we tackle through training.<br /> <br /><strong>How do you track employees’ satisfaction or dissatisfaction in your company?<br /></strong>We conduct different surveys such as Employee Satisfaction Survey on regular intervals where employees are welcome to comment on policies, process and work culture of the organisation. The results of such surveys are analysed at the level of board of management and necessary corrective steps are taken.<br /><br /><strong>How important is HR to the bottom line of a company?</strong><br />We treat HR as a business partner, and it is thus one of the most important functions in the organisation. We believe that people drive the strategy and its implementation and from this point of view, HR plays very important role in the success of the company.<br /><br /><strong>How has the downturn affected HR?</strong><br />The present downturn has affected HR to some extent in as much as we are optimistically cautious on recruitment. While training & learning continues, we are using this time of downturn for sharpening our HR strategy for short & mid term. This will make us fit for future challenges.<br /><br /><strong>How should HR be integrated with the core line of business?<br /></strong>HR should be integrated as a business partner. HR should be linked with all important functions so that it gets business perspective of all issues which will help HR to serve the business more effectively.<br /><br /><strong>A recent survey has questioned HR’s actual contribution in an organisation. Would you like to comment on it with particular reference to your organisation?</strong><br />HR’s contribution in any organisation is as important as from any other functions like sales and marketing, production etc. We believe that people drive the strategy and its implementations and for this purpose HR plays very vital role to attract & retain good talent, without which the success of the company can not be ensured. <br /><br /><strong>If you could change three things about HR practices, what would they be?</strong></div><ul><li>All HR employees should be made to work in business functions like sales, finance etc. It will change the perspective of HR completely.<br /> </li><li>HR policies & procedures should be different for the different demography within the organisation. This is to ensure that Gen X, Gen Y & Gen Z employees are treated differently as per their own needs e.g.: flexi pay & learning needs etc.<br /> </li><li>More and more flexibility in employee related work practices e.g.: flexible timing, mobile work places, flexi pay etc.</li></ul><div><br />(As told to <strong>Poonam Singh)<br /></strong></div>
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