The Hindu Business Line : N.S. Sekar, Senior Director, SuccessFactors; Happy Valley Business School

Coimbatore, Oct. 11 If HR managers wanted to make a strategic impact in the organisations they worked, they need to be “not just a HR service person” providing HR service to those running the business but be a “strategic partner” in the business, according to Mr N.S. Sekar, Senior Director, SuccessFactors, Bangalore.

Speaking at a Business Line Club inaugural function at Happy Valley Business School near here, he advised job seekers looking out for career openings to use to the fullest extent sites such as Twitter or LinkedIn to link with those who may be looking for professionals with just the expertise they may have.

He said the HR professionals were today perceived globally to be as “a service to the main business”, those who would help the company to stick to some HR policies. But this was “really not true”, and for those who are taking HR as their specialisation, they should believe that they are a key part of the organisation to help it achieve and execute its strategy. Hence they need to know how to be a strategic HR manager and how to use human capital management in a strategic way to have an impact.

Highlighting the importance of human capital management, Mr Sekar said it was the workforce, and not the inventory or R&D expenses, that constituted 70 per cent of the operating expenses of a company. The only way many companies optimised workforce was to resort of lay-offs since they look at minimising employee cost rather than optimising it. But companies needed tools and technologies to optimise human capital and this cannot be achieved by by laying-off workers or effecting a salary cut.

Pointing out that the employees were the asset of any organisation, he said when anyone made an investment, he would like that asset to gain in value. But companies, after getting this (employee) asset, “really do not spend that much time” in increasing its value. One needed to treat people as assets and think of them as an investment so that their value increases and the company should consistently monitor it to manage the risk of attrition.

He said apart from good human capital management (HCM), the companies also required tools and technologies. He said surveys have shown that a staggering 95 per cent of employees did not understand their own companies’ strategic goals.

He said 50 per cent of employees spent time on non-productive work despite being sincere in their work, 71 per cent of employees felt that despite putting in good work they were not rewarded and 86 per cent of the workforce felt disengaged with the company, doing only what they were asked to do, since they did not want to court trouble by asking for specific work. But HR people should work towards making the staff passionate about their work. Even 84 per cent of global companies felt that they were not using their employees to their fullest potential.

Mr Sekar said that despite recession, over a long time frame there would be appetite for labour force, skilled and specialised people. If companies have to avoid getting into problems of labour shortage, they should keep three things in mind – bridging the gap between strategy and execution, cultivating top talent and optimise the work, for all of which technological tools were critical.

Dr C. Kanagaraj, Director of the school, said Business Line was a source of authentic information and a boon to management students.

Mr D. Rajkumar, Regional General Manager, The Hindu, Coimbatore, said the Business Line club served as a link between campuses and corporates.

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