Vitality Of Adaptability While Hiring Workforce

BW people celebrated their fourth anniversary by organising a day-long conclave named "CEO -CHRO conclave 2021". HR leaders from different sectors came together to discuss on the topic why is it vital to have an adaptable workforce while hiring.

On the panel we had Ms Joyeeta Chatterjee, CPO Future Consumers, Ms Ruchira Bharadwaj, Joint President and CHRO Kotak life, Ganesh Subramanian, CHRO More Retail and Ms Deepti Varma, HR-Leader Amazon India. 

Bhardwaj began the discussion by answering, who according to the firm will be the right fit as an employee in this difficult time.

"It is difficult preposition to find a right fit at this time. Skills are not becoming obsolete they just have to be upgraded and Re skilled." She also focused on the skills that are in need of the Hour digital dexterity and emotional intelligence.

Adding to her point Subramanian answered according to the retail industry. "We need our employee to be fungible. We need somebody to be able to move from working in a lifestyle section to be able to go and work in fruit and vegetable as well section. Therefore he has to be fungible."

Interestingly Ms Deepti Varma answered the question about the right fit from an employee’s perspective, showing how a candidate can become a right fit for a firm

"The first step as an employee is to make sure we are reskilling ourselves according to the need. We at Amazon have the policy to hire an employee who is high on curiosity." 

The panel then discussed about the effects of pandemic on the business and how the leaders are adapting through these hard times to find talent as well as to conserve the resources of the company. 

Chatterjee said, "A large part of a discussion goes into trying to loan resources from one team to another and also trying to convince people how this can be helpful for their career." She highlighted how being a HR person and keeping a tap on the employees and their well-being is taking lot of time, energy and resources, but hard times require hard measures. 

In a discussion about formation of adaptive workforce Ms Deepti Varma highlighted how the employers themselves are becoming adaptive in these stressful situations. " A lot of myths have been broken in this one and a half years. A lot of things that be earlier thought can be done physically are now done virtually very well. This has brought global forces much closer." 

On applying new measures in the administration to come closer to the employees sitting in their homes, the company themselves are taking creative and ‘never before used’ measures. "We need to be resilient. We started sharing our vulnerabilities to the employees, to give them a feeling that they are not alone," said Chatterjee.

Agreeing to Chatterjee, Subramanian sad, " I encourage my team by asking what are the going through. In this life of Zoom, where we get from one online interaction to another it is important to spare 10 minutes to talk about what is happening in our lives." 

Bhardwaj used Darwin’s theory to highlight the importance of adaptability for survival. " All leaders have brought the concept of disproportional flexibility. The ability to remain optimistic at the same time being realistic is enabling us to adapt at the right level and right pace." 

The panel very openly shared their experiences strategies they are adopting in these hard times.