1. have been doled out this year What kind of salary hikes against last year? 

This year we have pegged our hikes slightly higher than the market. I would not say salary hikes have shrunk, rather I would say that it has stabilized. The “artificial” boom that we had witnessed has disappeared and in my view, this is good for the industry in the long run.

  2. What are the hiring plans for the year ahead? Do you think market sentiments are positive enough to invest in additional human resources? 

Hiring has taken a different meaning in today’s corporate environment. Skill Sets which can be game changers is what a company like Amway would like to invest in. Definitely we in Amway see positivity in market sentiments and we are acquiring talent which will take our business to the next level. In fact we are looking at building our leadership bench strength for which we have hired fresh MBA graduates from premier B-Schools.  

   3. Being a foreign company, what kind of talent export and import happens? Does Indian candidates get enough opportunities to work at other offices abroad? 

While Amway is a global company, however our philosophy is to look at talent to cater to our India needs first and the same principle applies to other geographies within the Amway world. Having said that we identify top talent and there have been a few Indians who have moved to overseas Amway locations.   

 4. What has been your effort in creating innovative HR policies at your organisation? 

With each passing day, technology is changing the way we think, work and interact. Innovation has become a clichéd term, with new means to handle everyday problems in a better, more efficient way being invented every other day. The traditional methods of handling challenges in every domain are being replaced by processes that are newer and better. With countless processes and actions coming under the helm of HR, technology is strategically positioned to extract more value through each of these processes. Simply put, today the need of the business is real time solutions, real time connect, collaboration and communication with everybody. All the so called disruptive practices would revolve around this need to settle the disrupted world.  

 5. How do you see the role of HR managers evolving in last a few years? 

HR has progressed significantly as a business partner in the last 5 years or so. It is certainly far more closer to business and is truly impacting business results. In any CEO’s scheme of things, people front has taken incredible importance. The retention and engagement of critical talent and the overall talent management are viewed as game changer for any company. In this context, HR manager’s success indicators have evolved over the past few years – they are expected to be more agile, understand business in a greater depth and add value to the business, higher OD skills and bring in “HR specialist” expertise.

I am aware of several HR Heads with whom I have worked and they went on to become as CEOs.

 6. We are talking about work-life balance these days. What importance does it have for HR managers? 

Work-Life balance is a much talked about subject, however in my view, this depends solely on the individual and relatively differs from individual to individual. While in Amway, we do have women centric benefits which serves beneficial to the female employees for a balancing work-life, however in my view, HR should leave it to the individuals to determine their work life balance rather than prescribing policies. We should create a conducive environment for employees to maintain a healthy balance however not through a set of prescribed rules.   

 7. Lot of effort is going on training employees. What about training of HR managers? 

I believe in training and developing my HR team first. For them to be able to understand and manage the ever changing business dynamics – for them to be able to value add to business, they have to be continuously focused on learning and development. Ensuring my team is part of the critical business projects, getting multicultural and geographical experience along with strengthening functional domain knowledge helps my team being in charge of the game. Learning agility is one of the biggest strength and competencies for HR. 

 8. Government is running various skilling program. Lot of questions have risen over the quality of school education and employable skills. What is your view? 

We get the talent that we want. Hence, personally I don’t see any talent crunch. However in order that we get the right talent at the right time, that at times may become a challenge but that is not an attribute of talent shortage, it is more to follow the process diligently in order that we don’t compromise on the quality. Our training budget is adequate and besides our own India budget, we have online training programmes, programmes that are run by the region and the global head quarter. Hence there is no dearth of training opportunities for employees. Every year, we do enhance our traning budgets. Even when business warrants cost optimisations, training budget is not impacted. 

9.       What kind of efforts are paid towards the emerging topic of gender diversity at work place? What is your men to women ratio and what are the targets? 

We are one of the few very business models which encourage women to be an integral part of our business. Infact, most of the Amway Business Owners (ABOs) are women folks who are doing exceedingly well. And they hail from all stratas of society. And for our own female employees, we have extended benefits which makes it truly meaningful for them and not merely an act of fad. Diversity is defined as recognizing and valuing the various ways we are unique and inclusion brings together these unique attributes in a way that is beneficial for the company, employees, partners and the business community. 

10.   The debate is on which says that latest maternity bill will increase the cost of hiring woman. How Amway weighs the bill? 

Maternity Bill is a progressive thinking by the government and in my view will further enhance diversity in the work place. I don’t personally think this amendment will increase the cost of hiring women.