Firms now focus on redesigning jobs, organising work to attract, retain talent: Experts

Mumbai: With attracting and retaining talent becoming difficult, companies are now focusing on redesigning jobs and organising work while planning for future growth, industry experts said on Tuesday. “The ability to attract and retain critical talent in today’s changing dynamics is the most difficult thing to manage. The emerging open talent economy is reshaping the future workforce, driving many organisations to reconsider how they design jobs, organise work and plan for future growth,” Godrej Consumer Products Managing Director and CEO Vivek Gambhir said at the 10th CII National HR Excellence Award Confluence 2019-20 here. He said that top-performing 16 percent workforce drives the success of top companies in the country scarcity of talent is the biggest challenge companies are facing today. Gambhir emphasised on the three pillars - Time, Talent and Energy, for the practitioners of HR in India. “Time leakages through behaviour are one of the gnawing predicaments facing the companies currently. An average company HR spends around 21 percent of the productive time in time-wasting exercises,” he added. [caption id=“attachment_4409175” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Thinkstock[/caption] Millennials, he said, are a restless lot who seek much more than job satisfaction and career growth at the workplace. “The companies need to reinvent the ways they engage the employees as these souls are more driven by ‘purpose’ of being than mere satisfaction and monetary compensation. Purpose drives profit in organisation,” he added. Welspun Group Director and Group CHRO Rajesh Padmanabhan said that capabilities versus employee’s aspirations is of significance as ‘people’ are on the curve which is ascending. “The coming decade is a decade of opportunities for people who dream big,” he added. The role of technology is second to none in today’s AI and robotics-driven world, Tata Consultancy Services Head–Business HR D P Nambiar opined. Technology has worked in favour of managing 4,50,000 strong global workforce at TCS, he said adding that “people are the only resource that we have and we make sure that they reinvent and engage at different levels throughout their work-life”. “We managed to keep the attrition rate at TCS extremely low almost to the single-digit for decades is our ability to leverage technology to upgrade and connect our workforce at any given point, thereby creating an ecosystem of psychological well-being and connect,” he added.