The business world is a dynamic entity, it keeps evolving with time. While organizations themselves transform, they must also adapt to the rapidly changing business environment they inhabit. This is a lot easier said than done. External factors are changing at a far greater pace than ideal, and organizations must sail through uncharted waters to combat the waves of change. These issues were at the forefront of an engaging session conducted at the 21st NHRDN National Conference in Hyderabad, moderated by Vikas Gupta, Managing Director, Deloitte, Hyderabad. Corporate Citizen brings you the riveting discussion
"Robots and AI are set to take over the world. Jobs are under threat of automation. Contingent workers are on the rise. Diversity is on the rise, finally, data usage has exploded in India"
-VIKAS GUPTA
Left to right - Uma Devaguptapu, Director HR, Asia-Pac & MEA, Signode Industrial Group, (Moderator) Vikas Gupta, Managing Director, Deloitte, Hyderabad, Saurabh Das Pattanaik, CEO, Swach Environment Pvt. Ltd, and Prashant Sree, Talent Development Manager, L&T 
Vikas Gupta: The pressing issue to be addressed is changing environments. Where are we vis-a-vis the world today, and can we catch up? When I think about this topic, the first thing that comes to mind is the weather. There is a saying that everyone talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. Everybody tends to chance the channel when weather news comes on. That is because we know that weather predictions are about probabilities and not sure-shot facts. The weatherman says there is a 30% chance of rain, but when you step out, it is pouring. This topic is a lot like that. My job today was to bring together super-forecasters. We have three of them with us in this panel - Uma Devaguptapu, Director-HR, Asia-Pac & MEA, Signode Industrial Group, Saurabh Das Pattanaik, CEO, Swach Environment Pvt. Ltd., A Seri Venture, and a young HR leader from L&T, Prashant Sree. With such an expert panel with us, the forecasts they make may not be 100% correct, but they will be as close to accurate as it can get. If you think about the business environment, there are a lot of changes that are on the horizon. Robots and AI are set to take over the world. Jobs are under threat of automation. The second thing is the job hopping in becoming the norm than the exception. Contingent workers are on the rise. Diversity is on the rise, which is a good thing. And finally, data usage has exploded in India. These are the changes I perceive happening.
"Most of us like predicting things. We know what we are doing today, and we would like to know what we are doing tomorrow, and there is a need to prepare for the future"
-Uma Devaguptapu
Uma Devaguptapu: Most of us like predicting things. We know what we are doing today, and we would like to know what we are doing tomorrow, and there is a growing acceptance about the need to prepare for the future to the best of our abilities.
Everyone keeps talking about India and its demographic dividend. A question in my mind is whether we are experiencing demographic dividend in India or a demographic disaster? It is nobody but us who has to determine this. The first marker for demographic dividend is the rate of growth. We will be close to 1.5 billion people by 2050, making us larger than China. We are 1.3 billion people today, and we are on our way to supporting 19% of the world's population on just 2% of the landmass. I can't think of anything more momentous than that. This is going to have a huge implication on resources; it has huge implication for labor markets, and a huge impact on the environment. But if I look at it from a Human Resource perspective, the biggest impact is on the human. What we see in India is Resource Constraint Behavior. Indians have the frugal gene, as we have learnt to adapt with limited resources. While this adaptability helps us survive, it is far from ideal.
The good news is that we are in the third stage of demographic growth. This is characterized by a drop in the birth rate as well as a drop in the mortality rate. The fourth stage is where the death rate will fall more than the birth rate, is something India will not enter at least until 2050. Today, one crore people are joining the workforce every month.
The government is doing its bit but it is not possible to absorb so many people in the workforce. The shift from job security to wage security is happening for that reason. Even trade unions are shifting their stance understanding the gravity of the situation. The amount of labor we have displaced from agriculture can only be absorbed by the industry. Services will not be able to absorb the scale of labor that is being thrown out of agriculture. Unfortunately, industry too is not equipped to absorb this entire workforce. Due to automation, the amount of industrial hiring has reduced. Indian economy is the only economy which has seen a reduction in total employees in the last five years. While the IT & ITeS sector is doing well enough, they do not have the capacity to absorb so many people. Also, the question of eligibility also matters.
The second point I want to touch upon is gender inequality. Everyone knows that the female to male ratio is unfavorable in our country. What surprised me is that the life expectancy of women has increased compare to that of men in India. What this means is that a huge part of society is completely unprepared to support themselves because the male member has died earlier. The reality is that we have the lowest participation of women in the workforce in South East Asia, and we are lower than even some African countries. There are many jobs which have been done away in agriculture, but corresponding jobs have not been created in textiles or other industries for women. This is worrying.
Even if we can improve women participation by 10% in the economy, we can expect a 27% improvement in GDP. Every time anyone thinks of asking women to stay at home and take care of the kids, please think about this.
The last point I want to touch upon is literacy and education. In 1948, there was a declaration of human rights that said everybody has the right to education. I want to turn that concept on its head. We have so many graduates who are ready for jobs but are completely unemployable, or under-employed. I will say that we should try to get away with the least amount of education required to get into the industry. Whatever else you learn you can learn once you start earning, rather than spending to earn before working. Given all these trends we are looking at, I have two things to say to the people present here. One is, each one of us needs to find our voice. We cannot become rooted in our organizations or in our families without expressing our opinions. Vishwas kisme hai ye zaroori nahi, vishwas hai ye zaroori hai. Have belief, have passion, and participate in government initiatives. It is the government's job to serve the people and it is our job to influence the government. We need to get out of our cocoons and become activists. We must leave our comfort zones and make a difference.
We have to work on changing our immediate world. This is not about whether your organization of government is ready to change the environment; it is about whether you are ready to do it?
"India has a population of 1.3 billion. Very few of us know that India's water situation is actually worse than that of Africa. 42% of the population doesn't have access to good quality water"
-Saurabh Das Pattanaik
Saurabh Das Pattanaik: I am going to take the literal meaning of environment to make my point here. What is the role of an HR person going forward? There are many ecological challenges facing the world today. In the last 100 years, there has been indiscriminate ecological destruction and exploitation of the environment. The tragic flooding in Kerala is an example of the effects of such destructive human tendencies. What are the top environmental concerns? 41% of people in the world believe in climate change. Thirty eight per cent of people believe the most severe problem is air pollution. All of these concerns touch each one of us closely. India has a population of 1.3 billion. Very few of us know that India's water situation is actually worse than that of Africa. 42% of the population doesn't have access to good quality water and they have to struggle even to get access to any water at all. In Delhi, the air pollution is out of hand. This is the kind of air our children are going to breathe. We are expected to come to our offices fresh and ready to do work after breathing this kind of air. Plastic waste has choked up rivers. The quality of water is worse than many developed countries. In rural areas, the average time required to fetch water ranges from 1km to 5kms. Despite the efforts of the government to increase access to water, the problem is not being solved. By 2035, 50% of India's population will be in urban areas. How will we handle such a large influx? Excess nitrogen in our food leads to depression. Our food chain has large quantities of nitrogen. If depression is occurring due to food, how are we going to address these challenges?
HR has a unique role. It is essential that HRs address these issues seriously. HR has a large impact not just in the organization, but in the larger society. HR should inculcate environmental awareness in organizational culture. I think HRs need to ask themselves if they are adept at addressing these environmental situations. Are we equipped to handle large scale migrations of workforce to urban areas?
We have to work on changing our immediate world. This is not about whether your organization or government is ready to change the environment, it is about whether you are ready to do it?
There must be more discussion on the changing nature of HR responsibilities, and how we must all band together to tackle environmental challenges in order to achieve holistic well-being.
"Millennial and Gen Z people are very quick to adapt. In previous generations, employees never directly asked questions to their bosses. But this generation doesn’t hesitate to question their bosses"
-Prashant Sree
Prashant Shree: By 2025, 75% of the workforce will be millennials and I am happy to be a part of that 75%. Having said that, a lot of discussions are happening around the culture gaps between generations of employees in organizations. What I have noticed is that millennial and Gen Z people are very quick to adapt. In previous generations, employees never directly asked questions to their bosses. But this generation doesn’t hesitate to question their bosses if they don’t agree with what he or she said. They are passionate, hungry, and impatient. They want quicker promotions, quicker success and quicker growth. They are also strongly against hierarchy. It’s not as if they hate it, but if they need information, they want to access it themselves rather than go through bureaucratic channels. This is where I feel that technology can be a great enabler. The earlier mind-set was that you will get to know something only if you need to know it. The current mind-set is that I have a right to know it so let me know it. Earlier, you had to send mails for a query and HR would respond in due time. Now, we have WhatsApp groups where trainees type in a query and HR responds in real time.
Millennials have grown up with the feeling of instant gratification, and that applies to knowledge too. They are quick to learn and are skilled in self-learning. One way to get through them is to explain to them what you want rather than just giving orders. You explain the rationale behind a task and you put trust in them and give them space and they will perform.
Hierarchy doesn’t work with millennials, autonomy does.
By Neeraj Varty
