Passionate about mentoring talent and developing empowered teams to deliver extraordinary results, Manoj Gupta, VP-HR, Columbia Asia Hospitals, is a senior human resource professional having two decades of rich, hands-on global level experience of working in various fields from startups to large Indian and MNC companies. A versatile leader, Manoj speaks to Corporate Citizen, on what it takes to leading, developing and executing human resource strategies and related subjects like talent management, change management, learning and development
I belong to Madhya Pradesh (MP) state my father was in government service and would get transferred frequently within MP and newly formed Chhattisgarh state. I did my schooling in probably all the major cities in MP and Chhattisgarh. My growing years actually helped me in learning one of the most important aspects of meeting different people, connecting with them, and being yourself when you are with the strangers. Every two-three years when I was in a different school, I had to start all over again—making me realize the fact that you are going to lose some of your friends. That was basically one of the good learning process, as I grew—I faced different people and different social settings. It was critical for me to connect with everybody I came across my life. I have travelled across, have interacted with people from diverse background and culture and mixed with people from different walks of like. It has helped me in becoming a passionate people leader, who can interact and deal with humans across culture and regions.
After my schooling, I did my graduation from Bhopal, followed by an MBA. I always had this inclination towards the HR field, as I was always fascinated by meeting different people and understanding them. It is interesting to know and understand, how human beings behave and react to different situations. HR function is diverse and challenging, as you will be integral in creating a positive and motivating work environment, where staff morale is high and production is optimal-balancing the needs of employees and your organization. Which means that as an HR professional, you’re in a position to make a real, palpable difference. But finally, it is about people, which always attracted me.
After completing my MBA, I started my career as a management trainee. I was asked to set up a new branch in Indore (my hometown), as a branch manager. So, my career journey started with setting up something entirely new, right from going out and doing the recruitment and training. Basically, the role was more of a branch head, but my major work started with the HR function. Later, I was fortunate to work with various organizations and leaders, who helped me learn and grow. The journey of my career has been exciting and rewarding. I've gained from rich and varied HR experiences in regional and corporate HR setting with taut employee engagement and productivity focus. Like, setting up business-focused People Systems from scratch in a corporate environment and partnering with functional leaders with multi-locational employee segments in a Branch/Business Unit stint and firing up the imaginations and energies in a startup.
In one of my previous organizations, we were implementing a software for HR and there I experienced the magic of IT and HR amalgamation, which can do wonders for the function. I realized that it seems to be an interesting space. That time the internet was just finding its feet in India, and we had to figure it out how to get into digital space. When we were implementing the software, I realized that I had a quality of being a consultant and why not use my knowledge and look into something called SAP. First time I heard the word SAP and through the help of my friends, I learnt about SAP and moved into SAP HR consulting. That’s how I got into the IT space. I was basically a business consultant for SAP-HR and my role was more to understand business, see how processes can be automated and make them more efficient and effective. These stints and assignments helped me, in various facets of management and delivery.
I spent a few years into IT space doing lot of consulting for companies like L&T Infotech, Atos Origin, Birla Technologies and then Mahindra Consulting, between 2001 to 2004. I worked with various good assignments, understanding the various HR processes and it was actually one of the best learning curve for me. It was when I got the opportunity to talk to the heads of HR and various HR Minds. While in Birla Group, I went to Thailand for SAP-HR implementation assignment, which helped me understand and learn, how an Indian company in the international market operates and how are the local HR cultures, policies and practices.
Before my IT consulting roles, I worked in HR roles for couple of organizations, where I learnt the HR processes. After my consulting roles, I got an opportunity to work with Colgate Palmolive, in 2004. Colgate Palmolive was setting up their IT captive center and I was asked to lead. My role was to set up the category-kind of build the whole practice. I not only built the team, but also lead the process. After that I moved into a different role—I was part of the Asia Division Team, in HR operations. I was fortunate to get the opportunity with this great organization and learnt about the best HR practices with some of best HR minds, where I learnt a lot. Very recently I joined Columbia Asia Hospitals, as Vice President-Human Resources. Columbia Asia, where I am working currently, is one of the best names in the healthcare space and I am proud to be part of this company. This organization, in a limited time frame, gave me opportunity to work on complex and interesting assignments, and also I am happy to make positive contributions towards employee engagement.
"It is not necessary that we say goodbye to traditional HR practices. HR function needs to be more proactive and agile, and needs to lay the path for business, and not merely fill the cracks after the business has gone ahead"
Whenever we move from one organization to another organization or one team to other team, it is always a change that we have to go through. In some cases it is a big cultural change, because each organization has their own culture and processes. But, I look back to my childhood days, when I had to move to different cities and be part of different schools and different friends. That actually helped me in being myself and ready to adopt to any kind of change acclimatizing myself with the changing environment. Most important is that you should be aware of who you are and your strengths. There are challenges but it is always better to understand the culture of the organization every individual is different so it sometimes takes time. We need to learn to unlearn and be open to learning things in new sector or organization. I guess, it is equally important for any organization to support and make a new employee, comfortable and allow him/her to settle down in new role. I am fortunate to have found this support in all organizations I worked with and it has helped me in my transition.
By virtue of working in IT space, it has helped me to be much more analytical in my approach and decision-making process. HR is about people who have aspiration and desire, who want to perform to their best and contribute to the success of the organization. The role of HR is to make them understand their strengths and how their strength can be can be utilized by organization. With an IT mind, you can make your tasks more structured and time-bound. We can have complex tasks broken down in simple and smaller tasks. HR is a challenging function—a decade back, HR was considered to be a job of recruiting and training people, but today it is very much part of the business. organizations are looking at the HR function to really contribute to the top line as well as to the bottom line. You have to help the organization get the best out of talent and make those talent deliver their best. IT experience helps you understand the data and its nuances, without losing the basic work of the HR function.
The nature of work has changed dramatically in the past decade, shaped by factors that include a brutal recession, technological advances and a new generation of workers with very different ideas of what employment should look like. A decade ago, the top future challenges were succession planning and providing leaders with the skills needed to be successful. Today, employers say that the increasing competition for skilled workers is a top concern. As a result, the workplace is much more employee-focused and individualized. That is pushing employers, among other things, to provide flexible schedules to people with family obligations or give tuition to help entry-level workers so that they can get a new job, somewhere else. It is not necessary that we have to say goodbye to traditional HR practices. However, HR function needs to be more proactive and agile. I passionately believe that HR needs to lay the path for business, and not merely fill the cracks after the business has gone ahead. We can’t lay the road if we’re not out there-finding out what’s happening in technology, what’s happening to people, and what is happening to jobs and employment. We need to be ahead of the curve, and see the trends that will affect the business and our people.
"HR function is diverse and challenging-you will be integral in creating a positive and motivating work environment, where staff morale is high and production is optimal- balancing the needs of employees and organization"
It might, but eventually you will still need HR people to run the show, because you are still dealing with human beings. It is not an easy thing to deal with human beings, because each individual come with their own aspirations and desire and HR needs to find balance with that aspiration and organization growth. Tomorrow’s generation will not only have to compete with colleagues and their own friends, but also with robots. Today, technology has taken over many things and has helped us in improving a lot of processes. It is going to be interesting because tomorrow’s generation needs to be much more agile and flexible, to adopt various changes and they have to be aware of what is happening around them. It is exactly becoming like an IT industry—technology you are using today is becoming redundant after a year or two. Today we are talking about AI, tomorrow we don’t know what it will change to. To proactively engage with the employees, one has to understand the kind of talent that you are going to get. When I say, it has become important for any HR person to be aware of the external world, I mean they have to be aware of what kind of courses are being created at the university level, to know the new talent demands that are going to come into the job market. Fortunately, today’s generation is smart, are knowledgeable and have access to lot of information—they are challenging traditional and old style of working standards followed by organizations. Understanding them and engaging them has become very critical for us.
On how technology will affect HR function, I would say the only thing important is how we are going to leverage technology in getting the work done in a faster and efficient way. HR needs to be more proactive than any other function, because of the kind of competition we are getting into, the way macroeconomics is changing the world, which is much more connected compared to what it was a decade back. We cannot ignore the fact that we are now in the world, which is very closely connected. My strong advice is to embrace technology, as it will not only help the function be more agile and effective, but it will help HR people, to help the organization, drive growth with better tools helping them take fact-based decisions.
Colgate Palmolive is one of the best companies to work for-it is a 200 hundred year old company in the world and around 80 years in India. I feel fortunate to be part of this organization for such a good part of my career, when I grew personally and professionally. I got many opportunities of working on challenging and complex assignments in global environment. The company had some of the finest minds in HR space, who guided and coached me. Lot of learnings came from working with those people and understanding how they handled and managed particular situation or particular challenge. They are the biggest learnings for me. It has also given me a great learning that you can run a business with integrity and ethics and still be number one in your industry. The focus on cross-functional trainings, movements, and allowing you to be innovative, helped me a lot.
It is important for young people to understand that there is always a chance that your aspirations and companies objectives may not match it is always better to do a detailed study before you jump into something. My advice has always been that you should give time to the organization to understand it and as well make the organization understand you and your work—one or two year time, I feel is too short. You need to weigh your options carefully before deciding to jump to another company, and know your objective and what is that you are looking for.
"The paradox of high unemployment and a war for talent continues. We don’t have a jobs crisis in the world, we have a skills crisis. I also tend to believe that worldwide educational institutions are out of sync with employer needs. Students don’t perceive that traditional education methods drive job skills"
Millennia’s are creating a change in how work gets done, as they work more in teams and use more technology. Their social mindset, however, is also a significant factor. One of the characteristics of Millennia’s, besides the fact that they are masters of digital communication, is that they are primed to do well by doing good. Almost 70 per cent say that giving back and being civically engaged are their highest priorities. Coupled with the socially minded millennial comes their desire to be creative. Millennia’s have grown up in a time where information has become available instantly. Through a Google or Wikipedia search, answers to even quite complicated questions can be found. As such, Millennia’s have developed into a group that wants to work on new and tough problems, and ones that require creative solutions.
The millennial employee is interested in feedback on his or her performance. But traditional semi-annual reviews are too infrequent for Millennia’s. They want to know that they’ve done a good job, and they want to know now.
Millennia’s, are in a hurry and want instant results, but then they have access to a lot of information, compared to a generation before. The only thing I feel missing is someone guiding them in knowing what is right and wrong information. Today there is whole lot of information at their fingertips. Millennia’s need a different kind of engagement, because they are the people who are pushing the envelope in the corporates—they are saying that you give us a task, give us a deadline and we will deliver it, but don’t sit on our head and monitor us on a day-to-day basis. There is no doubt HR has a significance challenge to tackle a different employee group. I think rather than changing your HR processes, it is good to engage millennia’s creatively and make them more inclusive in decision-making process. In my experience, I have seen millennia’s being a bit flexible and understanding what is required. Even, organizations have to get used to millennia’s style of working, because the organization also need young blood and innovative thoughts within the system. In my opinion, one has to ensure that their energy is channelized in the right direction, giving them the right objective, coaching and path.
We have many professional colleges in India, that are churning out huge number of employable youth every year, and as an HR person I have to find the best out of those huge numbers, to come and work for me. The more reasons they have to join an organization, probably organizations have much more desire to get the best on the board. Getting the right person and choosing the best amongst available talent is becoming a big challenge for HR people. Sometimes your decision might go wrong, but in terms of talent management, it is a simple philosophy—channelize their energy in the right direction. Give them the right coaching and make them understand what is required. Fostering a culture of continuous learning, creating a quality employee experience, equal opportunity for growth and reward, is equally important. Talent management comprises of many things—kind of work you are giving it to them, are they being mentored and coached and so on.
Lot of companies are getting into very specialized roles for HR. On one side you need specialists to handle your talent acquisition, compensation and be aware of what is required for that. HR generalist role cannot be ignored and we need them, to understand what people want. A specialized role is a very silo role for me. I believe that HR has to go out to the employees on a regular basis, understand what is happening and proactively engage with them. Hence the HR generalist role cannot fade away. Most of the companies are moving to a specialist role for HR and every HR functions will have a specialist role as well, but HR generalist role is critical. From career perspective, I think, it is better to start as generalist and than decide whether one would want to pursue a specialist role.
There are competencies one looks for like their functional requirement in terms of what is their knowledge and skills and then comes leadership qualities. Important is their attitude in acquiring knowledge and giving their best. No harm in standing up and saying I failed. Positive attitude is the mantra that most of the HR people look for. I can impart training and upgrade your skills, but if you don’t have the right attitude, if you don’t have the mindset and the energy to go out and deliver something, it can be a hindrance to your growth. Qualities, I look for are Passion, long term potential, putting skills into action, team player, and responsiveness.
The paradox of high unemployment and a war for talent continues. I think, we don't have a jobs crisis in the world, we have a skills crisis. I also tend to believe that worldwide educational institutions are out of sync with employer needs. Students don't perceive that traditional education methods drive job skills.
Sometimes, industries also become unrealistic in their expectation of getting ready made employee and don’t want to invest in talent development. I see some changes, because most of the institutes are updating on the future trends. Now there are many big institutes that have partnered with corporate, to understand what is required and they are developing curriculum with this partnership. It also boils down to every individual—what is that they have learnt and how they are gaining experience. Today’s generation with kind of access to knowledge and exposure to technology, are more ready to take on the corporate challenge.
Startup culture is good, but if you see around, there are more examples of failures than success stories. If you want to take the challenge of working in an unstructured environment, in timelines of your own—there is no doubt startup gives a very good exposure. In startup environment, you are working on everything and are not focused on only one aspect of business. Startup environment is surely pushing the envelop in the talent market. They are creating jobs roles, which are challenging and satisfying for bright talent.
To keep it simple, you have to decide, what are your priorities. There are certain moments when you know that family is the priority. I don’t make my life very complicated, I try to keep it very simple. For me, few mantras to maintain work-life balance is learn to priorities, stay organized, find “Me” time, get social with friends and families, learn to say ‘No’, develop a hobby, be active and stay healthy.
By Rajesh Rao
