The SHRM South Asia Blog

Language is the Key to Deal with Workplace Politics

by Birjendu GuptaOn March 11, 2019 0 comments

"It’s All Politics: Winning in a World Where Hard Work and Talent Aren’t Enough"-is the title of a book by Kathleen Kelly Reardon, PhD.

Whomever I have referred this book to has found it engaging, and the title itself has drawn a lot of "yays" due to its immense relevance at the workplace. The topic is indeed interesting and important enough to garner some compelling perspectives around it. So my objective of penning these thoughts was an attempt to simplify this complex phenomenon of “workplace politics” for a working manager.

First let us deal with...

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Trust and Influence in The Digital Age: Privacy, Data Protection, Fake News - What Is HR's Role and Responsibility?

by Archana JerathOn February 21, 2019 0 comments

The rapid advancements in the technology and communication have ushered in a digital age that is enabling businesses to revolutionize how they function, enhancing their product/ service to meet the needs of the customers, transform employee experiences and so on. One of the main enabling factors is the voluminous data that is allowing businesses to engage in analytics and derive deep, actionable insights.

Data in the digital era

As technology and digital communication continue to cement and augment their place strongly in our lives, our lives are becoming digitized and increasingly transpiring online. This...

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The Design Thinking Revolution In HR

by Dedu Ajith JohnOn February 21, 2019 0 comments

Business and its every facet have changed in leaps and bounds over the past decade or so. Business success was earlier tied only to product/ service optimization in the context of large investments, long timeframes and higher risk associated with investments. Changes (whether to improve the product or the process) could not be made suddenly, not without heavy losses and higher risks. Data from the past history and otherwise was limited and was only used for future predictions. Using such forecasts, businesses would plan years ahead to roll out changes so that they can achieve predictable results.

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How Big Is Too Big? Making Sense of Data Analytics to Drive Business Value

by SHRM IndiaOn February 21, 2019 0 comments

HR is a field that has always generated large volumes of data. For instance, candidate profiles, recruitment data, career progression data, personal development and review data, appraisal data, employee engagement data, etc. With the rapid advent of technology, it is even possible to analyze and leverage data from social media profiles, emails and so on too (apart from the traditional means) to understand employee sentiment and gather other such insights.

Earlier, businesses and HR teams would not leverage such data to gain deep insights to refine/ add value to their decision-making. Today, there is a growing...

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Budget 2019: An HR Perspective

by Swati ThakurOn February 20, 2019 0 comments

The recently announced interim budget was a highly anticipated one. Riding on the wave of the upcoming election, it was touted to be a populist budget giving in to the wishes of the Indian electorate. Media channels and publications predicted that the interim finance minister Piyush Goyal would give a budget speech with the flavour of an election speech.

The union budget did not fall short of those expectations and brought in budget-sops, tax changes and new schemes for many sections of the society. The important thing to note was that the budget laid the context...

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A quick guide to understanding Instructional Design

by Dedu Ajith JohnOn February 4, 2019 0 comments

One of the many terms that have gained importance in the past few decades in the area of learning and development is Instructional Design. In the simplest of terms it means development of training material and experiences that enable a person to learn. The creation is not a simple process of developing content. There are principles that have to be applied to ensure that the material is impactful, relevant and applicable. The end goal of learning has to be met, but within a certain time-frame. Therefore, the emphasis is on following a systematic methodology to do the same....

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Unconscious Bias at the Workplace

by Archana JerathOn November 19, 2018 0 comments

Biases are an integral part of human nature. At the workplace, human biases can become toxic or lead to discrimination, creating a stifle environment and impact productivity and profitability.

Biases work at two levels- conscious (those that we are aware of and can work towards overcoming) and unconscious ( those that are a part of our subconscious and surface from time to time). The latter often goes unnoticed and unchecked to the person displaying such biased behaviour.

Types of Unconscious Biases-

Unconscious bias might seem like a small element in the overall...

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HR as the Revenue Contributor in the Age of Technology

by Dedu Ajith JohnOn November 16, 2018 0 comments

Technology is advancing at an unprecedented rate today. This has led to a drastic evolution within organizations and their various functions. More companies are now expecting human resources function to contribute to revenue and profitability. A study at the University of Michigan concluded that while only 20% of the organizations are using their HR functions as active business solutions partners, nearly 60% organizations are starting to expect more out of HR by encouraging their partnership with core functions to improve business productivity. While this will indirectly contribute to the revenue, HR can also directly impact revenue by...

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Leadership Development - Strategy or Incentive

by Sameer MadanOn October 24, 2018 1 comment

I recently attended a breakfast round table conference of HR leaders organized by SHRM on the topic of ‘How investment in HR technology could impact the organization bottom line’. As interesting as the topic was, the discussion was equally engaging. The session was nicely moderated through a series of questions that kept the ideas flowing. One question in particular stuck a chord with most, the kind of mixed views it generated prompted me to write this post. The question was about ‘How does spend on people initiatives & technology get approved in each company - does it need a business case or are HR leaders able to decide without ROI considerations?’

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Freedom in the Workplace (A balance of Autonomy and Accountability)

by Archana JerathOn October 8, 2018 0 comments

India celebrated its Independence Day a few days ago. The joy of being an independent nation also brings a high degree of responsibility and accountability with it. When we superimpose the same thought process on organizations, most individuals wonder if the guidelines remain the same. Employees have a view on what freedom at the workplace means for them and so do organizations. But are the two perspectives aligned? Do they speak to each other and operate together?

That is the question we want to be able to answer today.

Let us try and understand...

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