A Day of Qualitative Engagement
The last meeting of the Indo-German HR Partner Forum for the year 2018 was hosted by the leading quality certification company, TUV India Pvt. Ltd. on 7th November 2017. It was attended by the HR professionals from the following organizations: BASF, Bayer, Bosch, Brose Automotive Systems, Covestro, Evonik, FEV India, Hӓfele, Kion, KSB Pumps, Lanxess India, MAN Trucks, Mercedes-Benz, Siemens, Volkswagen, Wacker Metroark Chemicals and Wacker Chemie. Anjali Joshi, Senior General Manager – Human Resources played the perfect host for the day along with her entire team.
The day commenced with a brief introduction to TUV India. Anjali hosted a candid conversation with Manish Bhuptani, Managing Director, TUV India on his ascend to the C-Suite. He attributed his internal growth story to his steadfast determination along with having a clear target and strategy, which has helped TUV attain highest growth profits in the year 2016-2017. His dialogue was a natural demonstration of his total involvement, passion and pride for the organization.
The HR partners were then given an interactive walk-through the key HR initiatives undertaken at TUV India for their employees in the field of L&D, employee connect and culture building. However, the eye-opener for the day was the extremely fascinating visit to the TUV product and food testing laboratory, which is one of its kind in Asia. Here, the HR partners were given a detailed explanation about the various testing techniques that are undertaken before products are certified with a stamp of quality by TUV India.
Post lunch, the forum continued its series of interviewing a senior HR Partner. The chosen speaker for the day was someone who has always been recognized by the entire forum as a ‘Gem of a Gentleman’ – Suhas Kadlaskar, Vice President Corporate Affairs and HR, Mercedes- Benz India Pvt., Ltd. This special tête-à-tête was interestingly hosted by his friend, Kamlakar Takavade, Vice President- HR & Admin, Volkswagen India Pvt. Ltd. It was truly a pleasure to hear Mr. Kadlaskar speak about his inspiring journey – from being the first employee of the prestigious ‘Star’ brand to his post retirement plans.
Following this, a core team of four partners – Kavery Thammappa from BASF, Ricky Kumar from Covestro, Rosettee Silveria from Wacker Chemie and Rupesh Basu from Siemens – anchored a presentation on ‘HR Capability Building’ as an integral project to be undertaken by the forum. They presented the model that will be essential for all HR Partners in the future. The forum proposes to build these competencies through joint programmes. The project was very well received and appreciated by all the partners.
After the presentation, a brief discussion on HR interventions was a breath of fresh air as the topic revolved around ‘How does HR maintain the human touch in today’s world of digitalization?’ Some of the topics discussed were around learning and development, employee engagement, strengthening the relation between employee and manager, managing teams of young talent, programmes to improve performance, role of HR to simplify policies for employees and role of HR as a change champion.
The day ended on an optimistic note with a promise to work closer and collaborate deeper in the coming year 2018.
