MBA Dept., CBSA organized the 6th HR Symposium where panel discussion was held on the theme of “Innovative HR Practices for New Normal and beyond” on 9th September, 2022.
The theme for panel discussion was relevant as the pandemic and its inherent effect on businesses has highlighted the need for adaptability and resilience in today’s workforce, accelerated the shift towards a new, digital economy and accentuated the importance of HR in the new normal.
The eminent panelists for the panel discussion were Dr Labh Singh, CEO of NEXTGEN FOSSCOM FOUNDATION, Mr. Prithi Singh Chandel, HR Head in Unichem Laboratories Ltd.,
Drishmeet Singh Buttar,Co-Chair ASSOCHAM Chandigarh UT Development Council and Managing Partner Healing Hospital, Mr Raman Angra, Lead Corporate Affairs,. Mr Rajesh Puri and Ms. Sumeet Kaur Kalra, SVP Sales& Marketing and HR, Institute of Professional Banking. The moderator for the panel discussion was Dr Stuti Pandit, Assistant Professor, MBA, CBSA, CGC Landran.
The panel discussion began with defining the ‘NEW NORMAL’ followed by the various dimensions of ‘NEW NORMAL’ including the questions like Why HR matters now more than ever post-pandemic?, How will the introduction of remote working affect organizational culture and day-to-day operations? , and Is there a need to redefine organizational culture towards a people-centric workplace? The entire panel discussed these burning questions and gave suggestions such as New Normal as the immediate shift from physical mode to online mode and the challenges faced by it. To make the discussion more specific they even quoted their real life examples of how HRs struggled to acquaint the employees with basic amenities like laptops, internet etc so that they could work from home. It was also concluded from the panel discussion that to maintain work life balance was the biggest challenge for all the employees irrespective of their gender. The new normal brought new training where suddenly employees had to adapt with the new change and up-skill themselves. The compensation set up was challenged as it was not clear how to justify the salaries being generated. In Pandemic exceptional contributions from the employees were even since from the Pharmaceutical and health industries. For the safety of their family members, they were made aware of the Covid protocols and were asked to abide by them. The HRs have actually added up to the Human touch while not only taking care of the employees but also taking care of their family situations, helping them to cope up with the stress and pressure.
To meet up the rapid change many new schemes have also been introduced to make a better organizational culture such as employee suggestion scheme, employee welfare schemes, employee feedback schemes, etc. HR is not only restricted to make salaries and make employees follow rules, their work has gone beyond it. The Panelist also gave tips to the students to be future ready and be flexible to always accept changes as change is the only constant.
The panel discussion concluded with the note that the HR Leadership took a step ahead in a challenging yet exciting and innovative, time. There is this open opportunity for HR to define their role in shaping the future of organizations. The Pandemic was a big challenge for the HRs and no doubt the HRs have contributed beyond their limits and have come up to be seen as business partners.
Lastly the vote of thanks was given by Drishmeet Singh Buttar,Co-Chair ASSOCHAM Chandigarh UT Development Council and Managing Partner Healing Hospital
