More Than HR Global (MTHRG) in its 4th year presents a unique experience yet again for the representatives of the HR industry in India. Their offerings are known to be productive and free-of-cost filled with an experience of learning and development addressing to problems and solutions related to the sector

MTHRG (More Than Human Resources Global) in their 4th retreat gather the top representatives and consultants of the Human Resources industry belonging to India in order to create stronger bonds over a cheerful conference and retreat. The venue in Pune, Sunny’s World hosted the 2-day event and indulged into team building activities, trust improvement and conversations on taking MTHRG a notch higher. 

“There is a need for a group with a difference and by that I mean all other groups tend to be extremely formal about the learnings, events, gatherings, and exchanges which I think is not something the HR sector always looks for. We formed this back in the year 2002 and we looked at the groups existing in HR coming up to a conclusion that, they only tend to look within their community than knowing what is happening in the world outside. We are part of the marketplace & the industry which eventually led to us forming More Than Human Resources Global and we are true to this in everything that we do. In our approach, we bring a little bit of informality and having fun. We are the only group in India and probably also the world that is organizing gatherings without taking a single cost from the participants. We want to be a value-add for the HR professionals beyond the job and in every possible way. Which can happen physically where we conduct around 250 events and virtually as well," said Rajesh Kamath, Co-founder, MTHRG while shedding light on the purpose of the retreat. 

On strengthening employee relations with the company, Sunil Somarajan, CHRO, Reliance Capital Ltd. discussed about the millennials in the workforce and Reliance’s companies are now termed as ‘Baby Companies’ simply because the age group ranging from 21-25 years are dominating the employee strengths in the companies while being an important part of the organization’s decision making. He discussed the practices at Reliance Capital and their new youth-friendly company policies. 

“Life has changed in the last few years with new technologies coming in and the kind of intervention we are having today related to engagements are totally different from 5-10 years back. At Reliance, we have an increasing number of millennials who are at the inception of their professional careers. Hence, the behavioural pattern of the HRs has evolved and interventions have differed and the engagements are totally informal. At Reliance Capital, we have eliminated formal dressing with casual outfits 5 days a week and provided Saturdays and Sundays as holidays for everyone. We now have to hand hold these millennials on the basics of skilling because they are intellectual but not sharpened. We have started programs that can help sharpen their skills and don’t expect them to stay long with us. We have shortened our employee targets and ensured that they are involved in decision-making processes. In order to strengthen employee relations with the organization we have understood their young workforce and provide them with facilities like gaming as well. There are challenges in managing the environment but as a focus point for us, we keep the engagements at work as relevant to these kids”, said Sunil Somrajan. 

A key issue that was talked about at the retreat discussed the involvement of CHROs in the company’s decision making processes. It is important for organizations to align their business models with their HR domain in order to gain crucial insights for their betterment. 

“The involvement of the CHROs along with business heads is essential from a strategic perspective because at the end of the day, businesses are run by people and their strategies need to be aligned. With the lack of CHRO’s presence at the table could lead to the alignment falling to a lower percentage. It is typically in the CEO’s interest that HRs have a seat at the table. That brings along a lot of different perspectives because they are connected to the market across sectors and in the bargain, they contribute to knowledge sharing. It is important for the CHROs to be present and it is also important for them to be well educated in the sector to add value to the business verticals along with bringing the right talent to the organisation," said Nihal Kotak, Executive Director, Head of Human Resources and Administration, Knight Frank.

While the gathering delved into topics discussing the evolution and the next phase of HR, Bhavesh Chandaria, African Head, Learning & Development, Safal Group opined on the Human Resource sector of India in contrast with Africa. 

“In Africa, the human resource representatives have to scale up because most businesses are entrepreneur driven and they have to provide strategic support or strategic scaling up to their promoters which are not required in India. But in Africa, if you need to scale up, you are also required to scale down to a couple of roles below in ensuring the execution happens. Unlike India, there is not much competent workforce in the continent even at the junior and middle levels and secondly the culture differs from country to country and there could be a different level of ownership as well. The HR industry of the country is seasoning, the softer aspects in terms of organizational culture and the experience of the employees and the training and developing space has matured over a period of time. The only thing India lacks is; the transactions are driven to monolithic paper-driven procedures which need to automate. The Human Resource wing still dominates in terms of decision making and we need to make the line managers more accountable than they are today for the ownership of the issues of employees which I see will evolve quickly here first and then in that continent”, said Bhavesh.

The MTHRG Retreat created an environment where learning was more fun and had a very informal approach. It was an opportunity to know one another outside their professional and office spaces with a huge amount of knowledge sharing.