“CEOs, CXOs, CHROs and CFOs are the new-age HR drivers”: TV Rao

BW People, in association with BW Businessworld had organised a day-long conference, with the name of Learning and Development Excellence Summit & Awards 2020. The morning keynote was addressed by Father of HR fraternity of India, Mr. TV RAO, Chairman, TV Rao Learning Systems on the topic “What can New-age HR’s bring to the C-Suite and organisations?”                                                                                                                                                               

TV Rao began his keynote by reminiscing the times of eight months back, which according to him has disrupted the entire thought process on human resource development.                                         

“We have been struggling from last 40-50 years to shift HR from each department to each individual. I think COVID-19 has demonstrated that the time has come where every individual should take care of his/her own development,” claims Rao.

COVID-19 has truly given birth to a new world, where everyone has a responsibility of taking care of his/her family, health, employment, etc. So, when you ask as to “what is the new-age HR,” Rao explains that there are 2 types of HR; Negative & Positive HR; Resource-driven to Human-focussed HR, etc! And the post covid world has truly proven that now its non-negotiable to remain a NEGATIVE HR.

Actually, human is no more just a mere resource and even if it is, then its more of an ‘infinatory resource.’

“Dating back to 45 years ago when we started the first human resource development department in Larsen and Turbo, it clearly stated that its purpose was to create competencies; commitment and culture (3C’s),” explains Rao. But, its pretty evident to watch that from past 40 years the focus has been shifted and has been completely relayed upon HR department and as a matter of fact no single department alone can achieve all glorious goals of HR Development.

COVID has clearly demonstrated that if you don’t take care of yourself, then no one else can take care of you. It has given rise to a new HR segment which now has 4 broad category of players, namely; C-suite players, all other people apart from C-suite, investors and HR fraternity.

Talking about the most important segment, the C-suite players, Rao believes that the CEOs, CXOs, CHROs and CFOs are the main HR drivers and not the people in the HR department. He is of the firm belief that “every C-Suite player is a driver. If you are talk about L&D, it doesn’t anymore become the agenda of the HR department alone. Instead, now the HR agenda is to build continuous learning, the continuous building of competencies and none other than the C-Suite people who can do it.”

Lastly, Rao stated that its important for CHROs to produce technologies that can work with speed. Positive HRs can actually fight the visible as well as invisible viruses existing in our societies.

The recovery from COVID-19 pandemic, given the human dimension of urgent workforce challenges and uncertainties facing business leaders, requires workforce strategies that focus on both short-term recovery priority actions- Reflect, Recommit, Re-engage, rethink and Reboot, alongside integrating the attributes of Purpose, potential and Perspective.