HR Is A Critical Enabling Function For Business: Bhavya Misra
Bhavya, congratulations to you and your organisation for winning the Best HR Team of the Year at the BW People HR Excellence Awards 2023. In your view, what are the key elements that make up a successful HR department?
Thank you! It is indeed an honour to be recognised as the ‘Best HR Team of the Year’ by Business World. HR is a critical enabling function for business and one that is truly of strategic importance. One could have an endless list of what would make a successful department but here are the top 5 that come to my mind.
Would you please highlight the initiatives that have made a positive impact at Lenovo and have led to winning the award?
At Lenovo, our HR initiatives have made a remarkable impact, contributing to our success as "One Lenovo." Through a strategic focus on organizational transformation, talent development, and fostering a positive culture, our HR efforts have been recognized and awarded for their positive impact on the business.
Organizational Transformation:
Our HR team has been instrumental in driving organizational transformation, streamlining processes, and optimizing efficiency in close partnership with business. Lenovo is transforming from just being a products to a services and solutions organization. This implies work across areas of organization structure, capability building and culture where we are actively partnering with the leadership to drive the change.
Talent Development:
At Lenovo, we believe in nurturing our talent and providing them with opportunities for growth. We invest in targeted training for sales teams to enhance solution selling and cross-BU sales expertise, while also fostering seamless cross-functional collaboration. Additionally, we strategically hire for services skill sets, aligning human resource planning with business priorities to address skill gaps and meet customer demands effectively. Moreover, our succession planning efforts identify and nurture high-potential talent, ensuring a pipeline of future leaders to drive continued success and growth for the company.
Fostering a Positive Culture:
One of the key drivers of our success is our inclusive and supportive culture and our ‘People First’ approach. Our HR team has played a pivotal role in creating an environment where diversity is celebrated, and every individual is empowered to thrive. By promoting open communication, recognizing achievements, and encouraging feedback, we are fostering a sense of belonging and collaboration among our employees. Culture building is a journey and we are committed to it.
How does your HR team align HR strategies with overall business goals?
At Lenovo, we have a bold vision of “Smarter Technology for all”. We are on a mission to bring the best technology to our customers, partners, consumers and the community where we exist and do business.
As an HR team, we work towards enabling our teams and business to achieve this vision, working with the key pillars of being a global organization while acting locally, building a workplace that respects and trusts individuals, creating work that is exciting and rewarding work and finally ensuring that all of us grow through the transformation.
We keep reflecting and innovating to provide the best solutions to the current context of the organization. In a nutshell, business goals are at the centre of the HR strategy. From a process perspective, we have an annual planning process which starts with the business defining the must-win battles and from there flow the HR mandates for the year. We constantly ensure what we do is creating business impact by gathering stakeholder feedback and monitoring our performance against critical KPIs.
How does the HR team measure the effectiveness of its programs and initiatives?
We strategize and plan our work in HR both for the long term (3-5 years) as well as annually. Our annual plan is then further broken down into quarters execution for each of the priority projects. For the priority projects as well as the core processes, we have defined KPIs which we publish within HR and to the business teams. We hold ourselves very seriously accountable to our commitments.
We have a very interesting process for reflection which I believe works very well- its called Fu Pan. It basically encourages individuals and teams to think deeply on our actions- what went well, what could have been done better, from what didn’t go as expected what are the insights and from there what could be the next steps. We use this in every review to ensure that we are being honest in our own evaluation of our work.
At Lenovo we define our culture by these lines- ‘We do what we say. We own what we do. We WOW our customers. And this goes for internal customers as well!
Can you share any innovative approaches or technologies that your HR team has implemented to streamline HR processes and improve workflow efficiency?
At Lenovo, our HR team is committed to leveraging innovative approaches and cutting-edge technologies to streamline HR processes and enhance workflow efficiency. These initiatives have significantly transformed the way we handle various HR functions, empowering our employees and driving positive outcomes.
ASAP (Accelerated Solutions Adoption Program) on Axonify: our Learning Experience Platform (LXP) system offers a gamified and personalized learning journey to build solutions and cross-business group capability with gamification elements, through tailored content based on individual preferences and skill gaps, making learning relevant, engaging and on the go.
Robbie: HR Chatbot for Seamless Assistance:
Robbie, our HR Chatbot, serves as a virtual assistant to address all process and policy-related queries. With its advanced natural language processing capabilities, Robbie provides instant and accurate responses to employees, streamlining the information-seeking process and reducing response times.
Digital Chat Support for Round-the-Clock Assistance:
Our extended 24x7 digital chat support, dedicated to IT and HR processes, ensures that employees can seek assistance anytime, anywhere. This seamless support system caters to employees across different time zones, enhancing accessibility and user satisfaction.
Amber - Amber, our digital chat-based survey, enables us to understand employee engagement levels and identify attrition risks. By gathering real-time feedback and insights, we can proactively address concerns, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and employee-centric decision-making.
HR Dashboard - Data-driven Workplace Planning and Diversity Initiatives:
Our HR Dashboard, powered by Tableau, offers a comprehensive view of critical people metrics. It aids workplace planning, diversity initiatives, and hiring strategies by providing valuable data insights. This data-driven approach allows us to make informed decisions that align with our organizational goals.
MyHub -App-based system, serves as an integrated communication platform, providing employees with a centralized hub for accessing HR processes, policies, and communications. This user-friendly app streamlines information flow and enhances employee engagement.
The impact of these innovative approaches has been remarkable. Our Employee Engagement Score has surged to an impressive 89%, signifying a highly engaged and motivated workforce. With 75% of employees actively sharing feedback through Amber, we have been successful in maintaining a positive mood score of 4/5, showcasing our commitment to a supportive and transparent work environment.
How does your HR team stay updated with the latest trends and best practices in the field of HR to continuously improve its performance and contribute to organizational success?
I believe the spirit of innovation which is core to Lenovo, is at the centre of our own learning as well. We constantly think about new and better ways of doing things- it could be new projects or the same processes but looking at them differently. This itself puts us in a learning space – first to analyse what can be better, then to find out about what's happening externally around us in organizations or in research in that area and then to see how that could be applicable to our context.
Apart from this, we do meet as a team for learning together on topics of interest via sessions- these have been virtual / face-to-face and are usually followed by deep, passionate discussions.
At an individual level, we have development plans and specific training where we believe there is a need to build our own capability. As an example last year, many of the team members went through a coaching certification with ICF.
