Creating Mutual Respect & Trust Is A Critical Task For Leaders: Rajnarayan

How do you look at the evolution in HR industry in contemporary scenario and specifically in Titan HR management?

The function has really evolved positively over the years. Today, at Titan, it is seen as an equal contributor to the business and its success and not as an enabling function. The deep domain expertise on the various aspects about people and getting them to do their best is valued by our leaders and managers. The big change I have seen in last five years is emerging technology.

How much do you personally love doing your job, how satisfied do you find yourself in doing your work?

I absolutely love what I do. I look forward to coming to work each day. I have the opportunity to contribute & make a difference, learn & evolve and have fun & enjoy what I do. As long as these aspects are there I am happy and know that positive results will follow. We work in an environment that inspires performance. It is a delight to be and work in such an environment.

We usually talk about employee wellness, do you think is it really important for an organization or does it come out effective?

Focusing on employee wellness is absolutely critical for an organisation. This focus has to be comprehensive. At Titan, we run a program - 'Wellness@Titan - Will it Well it's where there are multiple initiatives and activities that focus on the 4 aspects of wellness - Physical, Mental, Emotional and Financial. This ranges from healthy food options in our canteens to counselling help to financial planning and investment advise and much more. All this is powered by an easy to use MobileApp. Focussing comprehensively on Wellness certainly bolsters employee engagement, increases productivity, reduces healthcare costs and very importantly, helps meet needs of employees across generations.

As a giant company, many young people aspire to work with you. What is that one thing that you would look at while hiring talents.

Depending on the potential role there are multiple skills, knowledge and behavioural elements that are evaluated. If everything were to be equal and we had to choose one person, we would look at her attitude - attitude to life, to work, towards fellow human beings. A person with a can do approach, on a foundation of integrity.

What are the major Focus points for development for this year 2020?

The major focus for development this year are:

1. Enhancing the Digital Quotient of our employees

2. Being more innovative in what we do

3. Continuing to exceed our Customers' expectations

4. Developing our Leaders and Managers to enhance the experience of the people in their team and enabling them to look forward to coming to work every day and do their best

5. Deep domain category and functional skills as we continue to work towards our collective ambition. Some of it is back to basics, but a lot is future focused.

Being a leading company, would love to hear from you that how welcoming are you in hiring fresh talent and young graduates?

Our philosophy and practice over many, many years has been to grow our own timber. Most of our senior leaders have grown from within. A majority of our recruitment every year is at the front line and at Trainee positions. We have a multitude of Trainee programs - Diploma Engineer Trainees, Graduate Trainees, Designer Trainees, Retail Executive Trainees, Management Trainees, Graduate Engineer Trainee - which are backed up by strong development programs.

What are the big complexities do you face?

Managing changing expectations is the first thing that comes to mind. It is important for us as leaders, managers and as organizations as a whole to understand the expectations of the youngsters joining us, get them to understand organisation expectations and help them build strong connections and bridges with the rest of the organisation. We have a multi-generation workforce with varied capabilities, needs and expectations. Creating mutual respect & trust is a critical task for leaders.