Sapphire_Synapse 2014 | Page 30

SYNAPSE - 2014 SYNAPSE - 2014 quiz that tested both theoretical, didactic concepts, knowledge of the current world of HR and a logical bend through some guesstimate type questions. The second part of Body Shop was a simulation where all the teams represented consultants and HR managers from different multinational companies and were given a fixed starting amount and an equal number of employees of varying nationalities and values to start off with. The objective was to maximize your company’s employee value by trading employees with other companies in the market. The values of the employees were constantly changing based on the buying and selling happening in the market and these were visible to all the teams to base their buying/selling decisions on. There were also occasional news flashes about happenings in the labour markets of different countries that might have an impact on the values of the different employees. And just to make the game more interesting and complex, there were extra points to be garnered by making the company’s workforce more diverse. The event was absolute bedlam, with every team trying to snag the Human Resource Foundation Program by HUL With a firm belief in our motto – for the greater good – SAPPHIRE organized ‘Human Resource Foundation Programme’ facilitated by Hindustan Unilever Limited. The three day workshop (29th September – 1st October) saw experts in the field from HUL come down to campus to share a practitioner’s insights into some of the most pertinent topics from an organizational point of view. Breaking the proverbial shackles, the first session dealt with abandoning the silos into which the field of HR has long been in and involving it as an irrefutable strategic avenue. The session was conducted by Ms. Amrita Padda (General Manager HR – Marketing) on “HR Business Partnering”. Through a unique pedagogy of an out of the box case study Ms. Amrita a XLer of the batch of 2000 both generated a keen interest and kept the students thinking on their feet as statements and counterstatements flew across the hall making the session highly interactive and a great success. Perhaps the most important aspect of handling work force is to handle the compensation system well, as it lays the foundation for all other initiatives to be received. Ms. Aakriti Chandra, Head – Rewards (South Asia) for HUL, was the speaker for the second session on ‘Rewards’. Students were exposed to HUL’s benchmarking and rewards system as it became evident what made HUL rank at the top among the preferred employers in the country. Ms. Aakriti, a TISS alumnus of the batch of 2002 gladly took up any questions that the students posed and clarified the standpoint of the experts regarding employee compensation both in the present and the expected future context. The concluding session by Mr. Ganesh Subramanian (General Manager HR, Enterprise Support) delved into the burning topic of change management. A highly interactive session with several anecdotes and snippets from various movies, Mr. Subramanian (XLRI 1998) left no stone unturned in putting his point across when it came to Managing Change. The session was concluded with an in-depth case analysis where Mr. Subramanian shared his valuable insights gained through years of experience with the audience. Nearly three hours flew by as all enjoyed his unique method of tutelage. best deal for themselves and trying to buy big. The SAPPHIRE members were constantly inundated by purchase requests like scenes out of Wall Street and trades were so brisk it was almost impossible to track them all at one point. These sessions by HUL will be a regular feature in the years to come as XLRI and Hindustan Unilever Limited foster their ties to serve each other’s needs through a mutually beneficial relationship that is bound to favor the industry too as a whole.