Episoder
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In this episode of CultureClub, we interact with Varun Vijaykumar - Head of HR at Upstox who talks in detail about personalization as the go-to tool that modern managers have in engaging employees.
About Varun
Varun Vijayakumar brings with him 13+ years of experience in human resource management. Over the years, he has managed a variety of functions within HR and Talent Management, including but not limited to HR business partnering, total rewards, talent acquisition, talent engagement, payroll, and HR operations.
Prior to Upstox, Varun also worked with brands like Directi, Microsoft, Zinnov Management Consulting, and Hireworks Consulting. He is an alumnus of XLRI - Jamshedpur and IBMR Bangalore.
In this videocast, Varun highlights how engagement has transformed over the years. In the past, engagement was mainly about celebrating birthdays, organizing ethnic day contests, etc. but today it is much more customized and personal; it is possible to build one-to-one connections with employees using technology.
Here’s a gist of what Varun speaks about in this video:
Why the role of a manager is not limited to administration but is also about mentoring and caring for employees
How employee engagement is not an HR or manager’s problem alone but a business problem that needs to be solved
How compassion shown towards employees can impact their commitment to work
Why employee engagement will constantly keep evolving and how personalization will be the future of engagementListen to the entire episode right here and don’t forget to leave your views in the comments below.
And if you’re an employee engagement enthusiast, do check out our community for HR professionals, the CultureClub.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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Yet another new episode of CultureClub is here! And this time, we have with us Sunitha Lal, CHRO - Ather Energy who discusses the day-to-day roles and responsibilities of managers in engaging employees.
Sunitha emphasizes how important it is for managers to invest heavily in the growth and wellbeing of their teams, to not only engage or retain the employees but also build an A-team that can enable the organization to meet its goals.
Sunitha draws an interesting parallel between a kanjeevaram saree and an organization’s culture. She points out that the culture of any organization has to be carefully woven just like a kanjeevaram saree - with a keen eye for the intricate details, and a focused and slow approach to create a sustainable culture.
About Sunitha Lal
Sunitha is a seasoned Human Resource professional and an expert in organizational culture whose work focuses on the unconscious processes in individuals, teams, and systems.
Prior to Ather Energy where she has been working for over 4 years now, Sunitha held instrumental roles at Matrimony.com, Mphasis, AIG Systems, Talentpro India, and others.
She is also a published author and speaker. Her book ‘Dotting the Blemish and Other Short Stories is a collection of short stories on inherent prejudices surrounding women in society.
Here’s a gist of what Sunitha speaks about in this podcast:
The secret recipe for ensuring top-notch business delivery by teams: Managers who disproportionately focus on personal development of each team member
Employee engagement by managers seen through a day-to-day lens: From listening to employees to capacity building, managers build employee engagement in small yet significant ways
Can managers rethink their hiring practices - hire people who are more talented and capable than oneself to grow the overall capability of the team.Catch all this and more with Sunitha Lal in Episode 6 of Season 2 of CultureClub and don’t forget to share your views in the comments below.
CultureClub is open to all employee engagement enthusiasts. Click here to join.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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Manglende episoder?
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In this episode of CultureClub, we are joined by Anil Monteiro – CHRO at Tecnotree Corporation, a telecom software company from Finland.
Tecnotree is listed as one of the top 80 companies for Diversity & Inclusivity by Financial Times in a study covering 15000 European companies and is also recognized as a Great Place to Work.
In this session, Anil discusses the criticality of autonomy for managers in driving effective employee engagement.
With more than two decades of experience in Strategic Human Resource Management, Anil has been instrumental in developing global HR strategies, leading organizational development and change management, innovating HR processes related to compensation management, performance management, learning & development, competency planning, employee engagement and more.
Prior to Tecnotree, he worked with Dell Services, Mahindra Engineering, CG Maersk, and Satyam Computers.
Anil is also a Gallup Strengths Coach and has worked across continents including Europe, Latin America, Asia, Middle East and Africa.
In our conversation with Anil, he drew a rather humorous yet on-point parallel between burgers and organizations to signify the importance of managers in a workplace. He said - "Managers are the patty in a burger which organizations cannot do without. While the roles and responsibilities of managers evolve with time, they are crucial to not only drive business delivery but also engage employees."
In this podcast, you’ll hear Anil share insights on:
- How Tecnotree built its culture bottom-up by actively engaging employees in the process of defining their culture
- How empowering managers can make them the game changers of employee engagement at organizations
- Why the role of a manager should be a balance between business delivery and people management
- How important autonomy in decision making is for managers to effectively engage their teams
- How the role of a manager is evolving with the changing workplace - digitization and new generation workforce
Listen to this episode to hear a CHRO’s perspective on all things people managers.
Do share your thoughts and feedback on the session in the comments below.
Listen to the entire conversation to know more about this insightful session.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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In this brand-new episode of CultureClub, we chat with Soniya Goel, Lead – Learning & Development (L&D) and Organizational Development (OD) at Emami Agrotech Limited. Soniya brings with her over a decade of experience in the HR space and in this discussion touches upon the various ways in which managers contribute to engagement and discusses means to bridge the manager-driven engagement gap in new-age organizational formats.
Prior to Emami, Soniya worked with Maple Consulting Services and Aditya Birla Group. She has, in the span of her career, been actively involved in talent management, recruitment, learning & development, and more.
In our 30-minute interaction with her, Soniya shed light on how everything in HR is subject to suitability to an organization. There is never a one-size-fits-all. And she emphasizes this by saying that even though organizations without managers is a reality across various sectors, this doesn’t mean that this is the new-age organizational format that every company needs to follow. She goes on to suggest that every organization, regardless of the trend, should be able to choose an organizational structure that works best for them.
Furthermore, she talks about the difference in physical and digital workspaces while pointing out the pros and cons in both setups. For instance, while water-cooler conversations may have gone redundant, the stringent personal and professional boundaries are blurring in the digital setup, which can be seen as a good thing. In the same context, she added that empathy from managers has become one of the top expected qualities in the COVID era, and rightly so. However, how much of these changes are here to stay and be the new normal, only time will tell.
To listen to the entire conversation with Soniya and the valuable insights she has to share, tune in to the episode right here. And for those of you who worry that they don’t have the time right away, just plug in and listen up whenever you are taking a much-deserved break from work!
Listen to the entire conversation to know more about this insightful session.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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In this episode of the second season of CultureClub, we were fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to chat with Sunil Naik, Director of Human Resources - India & South Asia for DHL Global Forwarding. Sunil who started his career on the business side says he stumbled upon Human Resources 15 years ago, and there has been no turning back ever since.
In this fun-filled, insightful chat, Sunil candidly talks about how the role of managers as we once knew it has transformed into a newer avatar that goes with the current needs of the workplace and the workforce.
Along with being a people leader, Sunil is also a coach and foodie. He completely believes in the magic that lies within each of us and works with individuals to help them discover “ridiculously good” versions of themselves.
In his overall career spanning across Sales and HR, he has been instrumental in building strong teams, setting up successful channel partners, developing people policies and HR practices, and making the organizations he has worked with great places to work for. Above all, Sunil cherishes the great stories of people, achievements, and initiatives that he has managed to collate along his journey.
In this interaction, Sunil speaks about the changing organizational structures, be it because of remote work or project-specific teams that are being formed, and how this change impacts the roles of managers. From a control-and-manage standpoint, managers are now expected to coach and mentor teams. He also goes on to add that the role of managers has clearly evolved beyond designations and tenure, and managers are no less than leaders now.
Further on, he talks about how a shift in perspective can change the way engagement is managed within an organization. He proposes that leaders see engagement as necessary for driving business results than as a mere KPI of the HR team. And for this to happen, he believes it is important for everyone from the top management to frontline managers to be in alignment, feedback taking to be a part of the organizational culture, and actions on the feedback to be communicated to employees.
Furthermore, he also shares his point of view on technology’s role in people management and how a changing workforce is impacting engagement.
So, if HR conversations around employee engagement, the evolving workforce, and the manager’s role in engagement are something that interests you, here’s a chat hosted by Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and moderated by Senthil (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey) that you will thoroughly enjoy. And who knows, you might just stumble upon some ideas to enhance engagement within your organization.
Listen to the entire conversation to know more about this insightful session.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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For the second episode of the second season of CultureClub, we have with us Manoj Sharma, Joint President and CHRO of Aarti Industries. Manoj brings with him over 25 years of experience in the field and very eloquently sums up for us the evolution of manager roles and expectations in the last 2.5 decades.
During his stint as a people leader, Manoj has held several leadership positions at the factory and corporate level of multi-billion and multi-geography based conglomerates including Grasim & Hindalco, Vedanta and Chemaf SRL. He has been instrumental in providing strategic direction to HR interventions around Rewards & Recognition, Performance Management, Job Analysis & Evaluation, HR Policies & System Standardization, online HR systems, and more.
Manoj believes that managers are key to employee engagement and points out that even though terms like engagement and employee experience are very new to the field, the effort to engage/motivate employees has always been around. He emphasizes thereafter that even when he began his career and up until this day, there is an irreplaceable role that managers play in how employees feel about their work. Quoting his own example, Manoj says that the feedback from his first manager who identified the leadership potential in him has played a crucial role in how his career has evolved.
He further goes on to touch upon how managers drive individualized engagement and talks about some very important ways in which managers can build team engagement. Mapping employee roles to a purpose, enabling people in career development, providing clarity in job roles, are a few to name.
So for everyone who wants to delve deeper into how much the role of a manager has or hasn’t changed, and want to know some hands-on ways in which managers can improve engagement, here’s an insightful videocast of Manoj with Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and Senthil (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey).
Listen to the entire conversation to know more about this insightful session.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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We’re happy to bring to you the first episode of Season 2 of CultureClub, where we catch up with Meena Kumari, Director of HR at Airmeet, a remote-first organization that offers virtual collaboration solutions. Coming from an organization that has been remote even before the pandemic hit, Meena has some valuable insights to share on how the roles of managers are evolving with the changing technological landscape, the advent of new work models, and the changing work population.
Meena brings with her over 13 years of experience in the field of HR and was awarded the Top #HRs100under40 by Jombay. She has a keen interest in Organizational Development, Employee Engagement, Learning & Development, Talent Management, and Talent Acquisition, and has been instrumental in helping start-ups scale from growth to expansion stage.
Meena has also translated her passion for the HR field by founding HR Folks Community where she takes a people-first approach while engaging in conversations around the HR field.
In this videocast, we capture her candid chat with Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo), and Senthil (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey) where she stresses the need to redefine the roles of managers in keeping with the evolving business landscape.
Meena starts the conversation and immediately grabs our attention by asking a very pertinent question: Are we hiring managers? Or, are we hiring subject experts and pushing them to be managers? Because she implies that the impact of both on employee engagement can be very different.
While HRs may own employee engagement as a function and enable the organization in the direction of engagement, employees look up to their managers for motivation, which makes it important for people in these positions to have people skills - either trained in or hired for these skills.
She further goes on to point out the changes that are happening within a workplace - a more hybrid work model is emerging, the workforce is now a combination of permanent, freelance, and gig workers, and millennials and Gen-Zs with very unique ideologies are part of the workforce. What does this mean for the role of a manager is a question that Meena throws light on, in this episode.
Don’t forget to fill your coffee mugs and enjoy this insightful conversation as you sip on that piping hot coffee.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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In episode 14 of CultureClub, we meet Tapas Acharya, Former - Sr. Vice President HR at Renew Power. Tapas has also worked in diverse sectors like telecommunication, retail, and the energy sector. He has more than twenty-five years of experience in human resources, and has also previously worked with companies like Spice Communications, Airtel, Aditya Birla Retail, MTS - Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, and ReNew Power.
Tapas has taken up coaching people for a long time, and his experience of spending a lot of time with the leaders has helped him coach people to set up great work culture in their respective organizations. Apart from that, he is also an avid biker and a photographer, who often likes to ride his Harley on the highway on almost all weekends.
In this episode of Culture Club videocast, Tapas, Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo), and Senthil (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey) discuss briefly how individual managers have stepped up in helping HR leaders in implementing employee engagement throughout the organization.
During this conversation, Tapas points out that managers across organizations have started getting involved in creating and carrying out HR initiatives, which has made the job of HR leaders easier. The very fact that the managers know better about their teams since they are handling them has helped HRs to resonate with them in framing policies for the organization.
He further explains how listening to employees is going to be very important in the present work scenario from a manager's perspective, suggests managers should coach/mentor their employees, connect with their teams and help them find solutions to their problems.
This conversation further touches on other vital aspects of the relationship between HR leaders and managers in establishing a great company culture. It also brings into focus the need for organizations to instill confidence in their employees that they’re being taken care of.
Listen to the entire conversation to know more about Tapas’s view on employee engagement and company culture.
View the videocast here.
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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In episode 13 of CultureClub, we meet Rajesh Srivastava, Chief Human Resources Officer at Capital Foods Private Limited. Rajesh has also worked in diverse sectors like finance, insurance, cement, etc., and has experience in HR for close to twenty years.
Rajesh believes in employee empowerment and dedicates his time to mentoring young HR professionals and organizational leaders, helping them hone their skills and become better at what they do and what they want to do. That is how Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) met Rajesh and continues to be his mentee after all these years.
Rajesh fondly calls Capital Foods a 25-year-old startup owing to its innovative approach; always looking to bring new flavors to the Indian Food and Beverages industry. An employee-friendly organization, Capital Foods understands the importance of organizational culture.
In this conversation with Ketan and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey), Rajesh brings in an interesting point— the importance of proactive organizational culture. Rajesh explains how the proactive attitude in Capital Foods helped them deal better with the pandemic and make the most of it. This not only helped curb any kind of confusion amongst the leaders at Capital Foods but also helped the middle and junior level employees find direction during a time of crisis and recognize their duty towards the organization.
Rajesh pointed out how their organization has always been dedicated to employee engagement and this has not changed even when the pandemic hit them, all thanks to their proactive organizational culture.
This episode is a great watch for anyone willing to see the silver lining in any dark situation. Rajesh’s conversation also sheds light on important issues like discipline while working from home and how leaders expect their employees to work around the clock because of a lack of empathy.
Listen to the entire session to gain insights from Rajesh’s practical knowledge and learn more about what it means to be a professional in the current situation.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e13-influence-of-company-culture-on-employee-wellness-and-organisational-success/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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Gitesh Karnik has been heading the Human Resource department at Nearby Technologies Private Limited for the past year. He has also worked with companies like Tata Capital, Deutsche Bank, GE Money, Magma Fincorp, Hicare, e-Nxt Financials, Integreon, and Cyquator Technologies.
Holding twenty years of experience in the field of Human Resources, Gitesh understands its nuances aptly. Apart from that, he is a technology evangelist and has also led multiple transformational and change management projects across companies.
In this episode of CultureClub’s videocast, Gitesh, Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo), and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey) talk about the current global situation from the perspective of company culture. During their conversation, Gitesh points out how trust and accountability have become crucial aspects in both the company's as well as the employee’s journey.
He also goes on to say these are reciprocal to each other—both employer and employee need and expect the other to trust them and be accountable for their actions.
Gitesh goes on to stress how communication is key to better company culture. During the conversation, he also brings up a very interesting point—the true success of remote working can be determined when people work from their homes without a pandemic, and to check how productive they can be then.
This conversation touches on other vital aspects of the relationship between employee engagement and company culture. It also brings into focus the significance of the HR fraternity leveraging technology and its implementation to create improved employee experience.
Listen to the full conversation to know more about Gitesh’s views on company culture and employee engagement.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e12-role-of-trust-and-accountability-in-influencing-employee-engagement/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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Rohit Dhody’s eighteen-year-old career has always revolved around adding value to those around him. It’s an everyday and continuous process that he believes adds value to him in turn. Rohit is the Senior Regional Director of Human Resources at Syniverse.
He has been working there for the past nine years and has previously worked with companies like Accenture, GE Money, RR Donnelley, NTT Data Corporation, HSBC, and Ma Foi Strategic Consultants.
Driven by the need to add value in everything he does, Rohit is also a champion when it comes to transforming talent and companies. In fact, his dedication to unlearning and relearning is so immense that his bucket list tops with the desire to report to someone who reported to him because he believes that’s the best way to reverse learn.
Episode 11 of CultureClub features Rohit talking about something close to his heart—the role of culture in increasing employee engagement. His conversation with Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey) is an in-depth discussion on the relevance of cultural alignment of an employee towards the company.
They also discuss how the pandemic has shed light on the importance of culture in companies now more than ever and forced the HR fraternity to raise their bar for empathy and human connection.
Listen to the full conversation to know more about Rohit's views on company culture and employee engagement.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e11-importance-of-culture-fitness-in-an-organization/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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The biggest change that the pandemic has brought in a lot of organizations is the hesitant but compulsory adoption of technology, and in some cases, using it in unplanned, creative ways. Organizations with no prior experience in remote working now have teams all over the country coordinating and collaborating over video calls or Slack messages.
This big shift in the area of work culture in organizations has been witnessed by experts like Bhavna Batra, a crusader of culture and transformation in the field of business and development.
Carrying more than 15 years of experience, Bhavna is the Executive Director of Management Consulting at PWC. She has also worked with brands like Genpact, SHL, and Project Leader in the past. An organization transformation and leadership development expert, Bhavna’s leadership philosophy is anchored in Charles Darwin’s theory - “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change.”
In this episode of CultureClub, Bhavna engages in an in-depth conversation with Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey) about eCulture and the transformations it has brought in its wake, especially that of employee engagement using technology and how this has led organizations to focus more on inclusion and diversity.
Dive into the details of their conversation by listening to this episode of the videocast here.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e10-inclusion-and-diversity-in-eculture/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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The latest episode of Culture Club is a masterclass with Homi Tarapore. He is the Chief Human Resources Officer at India’s leading full-service financial house, Trust Group. Currently based in Mumbai, Homi has an experience of about twenty years in the Human Resources field. He has worked in reputed organizations like Aditya Birla Retail Ltd., HDFC Securities, India Infoline Ltd., WNS, and more.
Ketan (Head of People Functions, Rentomojo) introduces Homi as someone who is an evangelist of people, human behavior, and technology coming together and solving larger problems. He’s one of the few people who have the rare combination of being both an ideator and taking action—a combination that not a lot of people have.
In his conversation with Ketan and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey), Homi shares his views on company culture and employee engagement, and how most leaders and CXOs face the challenge of integrating and bringing these two together.
Homi focuses on the change in work culture over the past few decades and how it has contributed to a multitude of changes in work patterns. He believes that every change leads to a set of patterns which in turn changes other elements.
The trio goes on to discuss connectivity, adaptability, the motivation of employees, and more, while also focusing on the need for HRs to evolve.
Listen to the entire session to gain insights into Homi’s ideologies and learn more about what it means to be an HR professional in the current situation.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e09-importance-of-human-connect-in-a-remote-environment/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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The latest episode of Culture Club features Ajay Pandey, Head - Business Human Resources at L&T Financial Services. With over 30 years of experience, Ajay is a celebrated HR leader in the Indian corporate sphere. He started his career with the Indian Air Force where he stayed for almost a decade. His work experience at the Indian Air Force helped him mold fundamental ideas of his professional journey. He then moved to the banking sector where he worked with giants like ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, and L&T. He has been an HR personnel for more than 21 years now.
Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) believes Ajay is a courageous leader who personifies all the ideal tenets of Human Resources. Having shared a part of his HR journey with Ajay, Ketan has witnessed how Ajay goes beyond his role to help people without expecting anything in return.
The eighth episode of Culture Club is a testimony to these facets of Ajay’s personality. In his conversation with Ketan and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey), Ajay helps viewers understand culture as a social and behavioral construct. His analogy of an iceberg to talk about culture is an apt example to understand how culture is a reflection of what is and what has been in an individual’s life.
This episode is just a peek into the vast knowledge that Ajay has accumulated over the years and an hour-long session is not enough to dig into everything he could share but has helped us understand how he views organizational culture and employee engagement in the current times.
Drawing a mythological analogy from the Mahabharata, Ajay tries to explain how culture shapes not only the mindsets of the individuals in an organization but also leads to its success and glory. Along with this unique viewpoint, Ajay also discussed the challenges CXOs faced during the recent transition and how the HR fraternity needs to evolve with the changing times and build mechanisms to suit a virtual world.
This episode is a must-watch for anyone interested in the recent cultural changes, especially those in HR or leadership roles.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e08-culture-as-a-leadership-tool-in-an-organizations-success/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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It is a well-known truth that social media plays a tremendous role in shaping our opinions. Most social media users tend to use #TheNewNormal to indicate any kind of change, be it big or small.
This is the same case for the pandemic. Although it is a time of great transition and changes, people have gone slightly overboard with this term. Most of us have started using the term more as a trending hashtag rather than have a real understanding of the situation. For example, #TheNewNormal is used with images posted of people washing their hands and wearing masks.
This sentiment is explored in this episode of Culture Club by Vinay Trivedi, Head of Human Resources at ToneTag, a disruptive fintech startup in Bangalore that transfers data over sound waves through encrypted technology.
Vinay, a post-graduate from XLRI Jamshedpur, has worked with prestigious brands like HP, Accenture, Axis Bank, Future Generali India Life Insurance before joining ToneTag in 2018. He is also a part of the Corporate Advisory Board of Poornima University, as well as a student mentor for the Pune Institute of Business Management (PIBM).
This conversation between Vinay, Ketan (Head of People Functions, Rentomojo), and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey) covers everything from #TheNewNormal, predicting future trends in employee engagement, to social learning and its effect on remote working.
Dive into the details of their conversation by listening to their conversation here.
View the videocast here - https://www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e07-influence-of-the-new-normal-in-employee-engagement/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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COVID-19 has indeed challenged the status quo of organizations and pushed industry leaders to rethink their employee engagement strategies. With the advent of this pandemic, HRs across organizations have been obligated to change their people strategies to match their remote culture. This scenario has not just led to technical or business challenges, but cultural challenges have emerged too.
In the pre-COVID era, remote working was always seen as a blessing for the selected few. But in a country like India, the challenge of implementing an organization-wide remote work was greater because Indian managers or team members have never really experienced complete remote working until recently.
In Episode 6 of Cultureclub featuring Saurabh Nigam, Vice President - Human Capital, Omidyar Network India, we explore the impact of COVID on company culture extensively. Saurabh, an engineer turned HR, is a thought leader who speaks in various forums and aims to create a lasting impact on people. Saurabh has always believed in setting up innovative people practices, and this has helped him face the challenges that COVID has brought along.
In this episode, Saurabh converses with Ketan Krishna (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and Senthil Kumar M. (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey) about the rise of micro-culture in remote working and the importance of creating mechanisms to stimulate a homogeneous environment as in physical offices.
Watch the videocast to listen to the entire conversation between Saurabh, Ketan, and Senthil.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/normalization-of-remote-work-across-organizations/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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In this episode of Culture Club, we interact with Pranav Prasoon, Head of Human Resources, Renault India Private Limited. Pranav is an IIM alumnus working in the industry for more than a decade. Fondly addressed as Captain, Pranav has served as a Captain in the Indian Army for six years. Apart from being a great HR leader, Pranav is also a writer and a motivational speaker who believes in facing challenges rather than hiding behind excuses.
In the discussion between Ketan (Head of People Functions, Rentomojo), Pranav, and Senthil (Founder and CEO, CultureMonkey) , they have a short and inspiring talk on innovation and resilience. They discussed the ongoing pandemic and how it influenced leaders and HRs to evolve more in their roles.
Being childhood friends, the conversation between Ketan and Pranav often took a nostalgic turn, that had the right amount of details to understand the context better. The highlight of the talk was how the pandemic has forced employees at every level, and not just leaders or CXOs, to evolve beyond their roles. There has been a surge of innovation and creativity that was perhaps triggered by the events where people struggled to make sales or close deals.
Pranav also speaks about how the HR fraternity has grown during this crisis and how a company’s culture plays an important role in sculpting committed employees.
Listen to this insightful conversation between Pranav, Ketan, and Senthil to get your daily dose of inspiration amidst the crisis.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e05-the-surge-of-innovation-and-creativity-during-a-crisis/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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It is said that humans need 21 days to turn any action into a habit. We have been working from home for the past few months — we must have incorporated the necessary skills needed to work remotely by now. Even so, almost all organizations still keep wondering whether work from home is going to become a permanent reality rather than a privilege like it was before.
In episode 4 of Culture Club, we host Mr. Nitin Nahata from Udaan. Nitin is the HR leader for Udaan, who Ketan(Head of People Functions, Rentomojo) defines as the "blue-eyed boy who is redefining the supply and distribution system in India." Nitin has over 15 years of experience working as an HR in multinational companies like Standard Chartered Bank, HSBC, Tata Global Beverages, and more.
This conversation between Nitin, Senthil, and Ketan is a discussion on the inevitable evolution of eCulture in professional lives across all sectors and industries. Nitin mentions that eCulture has already been playing an active role in our lives for the past few years. What COVID-19 did was to make it a necessity rather than an option.
One of the key takeaways of this discussion was Nitin's insightful observation on the importance of both physical and social infrastructure for productive remote work. Nitin pointed out that managers and other leaders must act as bridges between the organization and its employees. They must be better at articulation when working remotely while helping the organization establish a culture of trust instead of micromanaging.
Listen to the conversation between Nitin, Ketan, and Senthil in this episode to gain insights into the changing world of work and how to make the best of it.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/s01-e04-the-need-for-social-infrastructure-in-remote-working/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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As the months pass by, the COVID situation seems to be evolving. More and more people are now reconsidering their previous opinions in regards to working from home and eCulture. How MNCs or startups have been handling the situation is quite different from that of MSMEs. The response of MSMEs, especially in the case of essential services, has been unique.
In Episode 3 of Culture Club, we interact with Mr. Rishav Dev, where he shares how the management and the HR department of MSMEs responded to the pandemic while making sure their factories did not stop running.
Rishav, the Vice President Human Resources of Anmol Feeds Private Limited, is a veteran HR who believes relationship building is the core of any organization. With an experience of over 16 years, Rishav has led several companies towards revolutionary changes while also mentoring younger professionals in this arena. Rishav was awarded Sustainable HR Leader (India) in 2020 and 101 Top HR Minds (India) in 2019, by World HRD Congress and CHRO Asia respectively.
In this episode of Culture Club, Rishav talks about the challenges they had to face during the multiple lockdowns in the country and explains how they managed to keep the factories open, while a chunk of the workforce moved to their native lands.
During his conversation with Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and Senthil (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey), Rishav tells about his observations about how the tensions were high when they worked from home. However, according to him, these conflicts reduced to a great extent when people returned to their office. He notes that the absence of physical proximity disturbed most people in ways they had never imagined, and that impacted the relationships they had built over the years.
Rishav emphasizes the importance of the physical presence of people in any setting, be it workplace or otherwise. He understands that the physical presence of their team members empowers people in great ways, and people will no doubt look for ways to come back to the office while making the best of technological advancements during such a crisis.
Watch the video-cast to listen to the conversation between Rishav, Ketan, and Senthil.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/culture-club-s01-e03-importance-of-physical-presence-in-the-workplace/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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In the second episode of Culture Club, Ketan (Head of People Function, Rentomojo) and Senthil (Founder & CEO, CultureMonkey) e-meet Ramakrishna Vyamajala to engage in a lively and insightful conversation about work, life, and everything in between. Better known as RK, Ramakrishna is the Head of HR at HomeFirst Finance Company.
As a veteran HR professional, RK gives us a first-hand understanding of how organizations have struggled and soared in this time of crisis. One of the key discussions of the podcast revolves around the evolving role of managers in the new e-culture and how they have grown during these past few months. Where he talks about how the sudden call for remote working has decentralized most organizations — CxOs are now more busy battling crucial crises and have no time to engage with mid-level or lower-level managers to sort trivial matters as was the norm before.
Further, he expresses that - Managers were perhaps not as involved with their team members earlier as they are now. They can now understand their team members better having seen them in a new light. The domestic and personal setting, rather than a professional setting, have made managers more empathetic. Unlike before, they have been trying to help their teams whenever possible without any external intervention from the HR or upper-level delegates.
He believes that this change in managers’ perspective has led to increased engagement in teams throughout most organizations. The extended involvement from the manager’s part indicates the possibility of better transmission of company values in the future. RK remarks that if HRs aim to promote their company culture, they must focus on these managerial roles and convert them into the culture champions of their company and he feels that it is the best way to establish trust, empathy, and company values in the truest sense.
Watch the podcast to listen to the conversation between RK, Ketan, and Senthil.
View the videocast here - www.culturemonkey.io/cultureclub/episodes/culture-club-s01-e02-evolving-role-of-managers-in-the-e-culture-2/
CultureClub is a community initiative by CultureMonkey, for more information on CultureMonkey, visit www.culturemonkey.io
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