Talent Acquisition Is An Opportunity To Build Brand, Believes Priyanka Anand Of Ericsson
Priyanka Anand, Head of Human Resources, South East Asia, Oceania and India at Ericsson talks about how the role of HR has evolved. She also talk about the company's hiring process and challenges in the HR industry.
How has the role of HR evolved in the past few years?
Factors such as emerging technologies, younger generation at work place and dynamic business-customer relationships have fundamentally changed the HR practitioners’ role. The workplace is becoming smarter and technologies are simplifying processes making them more efficient.
Millennials are driving a lot of change at the workplace. We are in the age of constant dialogue, regular feedback and open communication channels in a flatter organization. This is the environment HR is striving to create within organizations with more transparency and openness amongst the leaders and the employee workforce.
Our objective is to empower employees to achieve more in every role and project that they undertake, giving them the understanding, tools and guidance they need to take control of their career and progress in a direction – and at a pace – that suits them.
What has been the role of technology in HR practices?
New technologies has dramatically reshaped the workplaces of today and with millennials expected to occupy up to 75 percent of the workforce by 2020, HR will have to embrace and build on technological advancements to meet both employee expectations and business requirements.
From a hiring perspective, technology intervention allows us to conduct in depth research into the profiles of potential candidates - enabling companies to better assess whether a potential candidate is the right fit.
With mobile and web apps, HR gathers employee feedback about any specific instance or new development. This real-time capture enables them to do timely course-correction in case if required.
Annual feedbacks are giving way to six-monthly, quarterly or even monthly sessions with HR having complete insights into performance metrics.
How important is background checking during the hiring process?
Background checking goes a long way in promoting a safe and profitable workplace and can broadly save you from a bad hire. Beyond this, previous employment record and references can also bring in a perspective on cultural fitness and the overall outlook of a candidate, impacting the application positively. So it works both ways.
We require our candidates to think big as we tackle the big questions while introducing new communication technologies. A thorough background check is very important for us as it helps us understand the value set and outlook of the candidates.
Can you talk about the challenges in the HR industry?
The workplace is evolving and the organization design overall is going through a constant transformation. Skill sets are becoming obsolete faster than ever and in parallel, the demand for professionals with newer skill sets is on the rise. In such a scenario, the onus is on HR to build strategies and initiatives to have the best talent mix in their organizations.
Security of employee data and how you handle and store is becoming an important task for organizations and it is even more prominent for companies like ours who have a global workforce. Diversity & Inclusion is another critical focus area for HR leaders across industrial sectors on increasing the number of women managers and executives at every level.
In supporting our inclusive work environment, we focus on five key areas including gender, generations, sexual orientation, disability and nationality, culture and ethnicity.
What does a typical hiring process in Ericsson look like?
Our talent acquisition focuses on hiring great talent for great opportunities. Our process has 3 key steps:
1. Understanding the business plans
2. Drawing up current and futuristic hiring strategy based on markets, skill sets and our own workforce strategy
3. Executing a strong candidate and hiring manager experience.
Talent acquisition is an opportunity to build brand and to proactively build a strong workforce who will successful along with the organization.
What has been lacking in the job market; job creation or the skills in the job seekers?
The skill set requirement is evolving with the introduction of automation and other technologies. I think smartphones and wearables and everything around them including mobile apps, internet usage etc have changed our society. This has also had a major impact on the workforce and even the talent pool. From an individual’s perspective, individuals who can learn to learn and can reskill themselves with the emerging technological advancements will continue to be high on demand and stay relevant.
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