This event is free for SHRM members. There is an INR 500 fee applicable for all non-members who wish to attend. This fee can be paid at the venue before the forum begins.

Bill Parsons

  
Bill is currently the Executive Vice President of Human Resources at ARM Holdings plc where he is responsible for all aspects of Human Resources. He has held this role for the past 12 years. Prior to this, he has held HR Directorships at Saga Group Ltd., Hussmann (Europe) Ltd., and Murex Biotech Ltd. In each case he has developed leading edge people management policies that have had a considerable positive impact business success as well as on employee retention, development and motivation. He has previously worked in management consultancy and HR at Lucas Industries, as a research scientist in the Nuclear industry and a design engineer of storage systems. He is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) and Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. Since the start of 2012, he has become a Vice President of the CIPD for Learning, Training and Talent Development.

In the year 1985, the concept of having a common platform for HR Professionals working in various cities in India was first mooted and under the able guidance of Dr. TV Rao, Founder President of NHRDN, Late Dr. Uday Pareek and HR professionals from L&T, Bank of Baroda, TVS, SAIL and academicians from IIMA and XLRI, National Human Resource Development Network (NHRDN) was formed on 6th December 1986. NHRDN has completed its 25 years in December 2011 leading the movement of transition from personnel management to Human Resource Development.

Context

While the western economy is experiencing a trying phase, India`s and China`s rise offers reassurance, especially India`s belief in democracy with renewed focus on market forces. For the right reasons, India Inc. today is poised to take the centre stage. One of the critical enablers to the growth of our nation is our people. Indian corporate houses need to leverage on the human resource and nurture managers with global mindsets as well as create sustainable Inclusive businesses. India Inc. today needs to sketch an inclusive growth path and make the bottom of the pyramid a part of the success story.
The NHRDN has been focusing on topical initiatives from time to time. Keeping the above imperatives in mind, NHRDN is presenting its Silver Jubilee Conference on the theme building india inc – the eo le agenda on the 25th and 26th of May, 2012 at Hotel Hyatt Regency, Kolkata

Invited Speakers

NHRDN conferences have always seen an influx of great speakers over the years. For the silver jubilee celebration, eminent dignitaries, leading business leaders, prominent media personalities and HR thought leaders have been invited to share their thoughts.Few speakers who have confirmed their presence are:

• Mr SY Siddiqui, MEO- Admn (HR, IT, Finance & COSL), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd,
• Mr Peter Wilson, President, AHRI,
• Dr TV Rao, Founder President, NHRDN,
• Dr Arvind Agarwal, President, Corporate Development & HR, RPG Enterprises,
• Mr Rajeev Dubey, President (HR, After Market & Corporate Services) & Member of the GMC, M&M,
• Mr P Dwarakanath, Director, Group Human Capital, Max India,
• Mr Aquil Busrai, CEO, Aquil Busrai Consulting,
• Dr Santrupt Misra, CEO, Carbon Black Business & Director – Group HR, Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt Ltd,
• Dr Sanjeev Chowdhury, President & CEO, SRL Religare and Swami Sarwapriyananda of Ramakrishna Mission

Focus Area & Key Takeaways

The two day conference will have panel discussions on various relevant HR topics like:

• The journey and evolution of HR in India
• Leveraging India`s human capital in current global economic scenario
• Building sustainable & inclusive businesses
• Understanding the framework for enabling India growth story
• Understanding the paradigm shift in developing talent
• Understanding the role of skilling youth and aligning with inclusive growth in Indian multinational corporations
• Developing the global Indian managers

This unique Conclave focuses on the futuristic and existing trends and patterns emerging rapidly worldwide and the shifts in approach needed in Indian business context .The focus throughout the day would be to explore in depth the understanding in the emerging trends in the various sub domains of HR Outsourcing be it the existing Transactional and the emerging Transformational HR Outsourcing services.

Some of India Inc’s well knowing entrepreneurs along with HR Leaders will be engaging with the audience in an experiential learning format. Some names of speakers are mentioned below:

• Sanjeev Bikhchandani- Vice Chairman, Naukri.com
• Indrajit Sen – Founder, Mosaik Global
• Mamta Wasan – Sr. Vice President – HR, FIS Global
• Pankaj Bansal – Co – Founder & CEO, People Strong
• Amit Khurana – Executive Vice President – Human Capital Management, Yes Bank
• Subrat Chakraborty – VP and Head HR, Business Service Division, HCL Technologies
• Yogesh Sood – CMD, Blanchard Research & Training India LLP
• Vivek Tripathi – Chief Human Resource Officer, Lava International
• Rajesh Loomba – MD, Eco Rent a Car
• Sanjay Dutt – Vice President & Head-Capability Development, EXL Services
• Debashish Das – Founder & CEO, ElenchusHR Solutions
• Ajit Singh Vig – Executive Vice President – HR, Network 18
• Meena Kapoor – Co-Founder & CEO, Astro Yogi.com
• Rajendra Vaidya – MD, Remunance Systems
• Rohit Sarin – Founder Partner, Client Associates

Peter Bregman is a strategic advisor to CEOs and their leadership teams. His latest book is 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction, and Get the Right Things Done.

I was late for my meeting with the CEO of a technology company and I was emailing him from my iPhone as I walked onto the elevator in his company’s office building. I stayed focused on the screen as I rode to the sixth floor. I was still typing with my thumbs when the elevator doors opened and I walked out without looking up. Then I heard a voice behind me, “Wrong floor.” I looked back at the man who was holding the door open for me to get back in; it was the CEO, a big smile on his face. He had been in the elevator with me the whole time. “Busted,” he said.

The world is moving fast and it’s only getting faster. So much technology. So much information. So much to understand, to think about, to react to. A friend of mine recently took a new job as the head of learning and development at a mid-sized investment bank. When she came to work her first day on the job she turned on her computer, logged in with the password they had given her, and found 385 messages already waiting for her.

So we try to speed up to match the pace of the action around us. We stay up until 3 am trying to answer all our emails. We twitter, we facebook, and we link-in. We scan news websites wanting to make sure we stay up to date on the latest updates. And we salivate each time we hear the beep or vibration of a new text message.

But that’s a mistake. The speed with which information hurtles towards us is unavoidable (and it’s getting worse). But trying to catch it all is counterproductive. The faster the waves come, the more deliberately we need to navigate. Otherwise we’ll get tossed around like so many particles of sand, scattered to oblivion. Never before has it been so important to be grounded and intentional and to know what’s important.

Never before has it been so important to say “No.” No, I’m not going to read that article. No, I’m not going to read that email. No, I’m not going to take that phone call. No, I’m not going to sit through that meeting.

It’s hard to do because maybe, just maybe, that next piece of information will be the key to our success. But our success actually hinges on the opposite: on our willingness to risk missing some information. Because trying to focus on it all is a risk in itself. We’ll exhaust ourselves. We’ll get confused, nervous, and irritable. And we’ll miss the CEO standing next to us in the elevator.

A study of car accidents by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute put cameras in cars to see what happens right before an accident. They found that in 80% of crashes the driver was distracted during the three seconds preceding the incident. In other words, they lost focus — dialed their cell phones, changed the station on the radio, took a bite of a sandwich, maybe checked a text — and didn’t notice that something changed in the world around them. Then they crashed.

The world is changing fast and if we don’t stay focused on the road ahead, resisting the distractions that, while tempting, are, well, distracting, then we increase the chances of a crash.

Now is a good time to pause, prioritize, and focus. Make two lists:

List 1: Your Focus List (the road ahead)

What are you trying to achieve? What makes you happy? What’s important to you? Design your time around those things. Because time is your one limited resource and no matter how hard you try you can’t work 25/8.

List 2: Your Ignore List (the distractions)

To succeed in using your time wisely, you have to ask the equally important but often avoided complementary questions: what are you willing not to achieve? What doesn’t make you happy? What’s not important to you? What gets in the way?

Some people already have the first list. Very few have the second. But given how easily we get distracted and how many distractions we have these days, the second is more important than ever. The leaders who will continue to thrive in the future know the answers to these questions and each time there’s a demand on their attention they ask whether it will further their focus or dilute it.

Which means you shouldn’t create these lists once and then put them in a drawer. These two lists are your map for each day. Review them each morning, along with your calendar, and ask: what’s the plan for today? Where will I spend my time? How will it further my focus? How might I get distracted? Then find the courage to follow through, make choices, and maybe disappoint a few people.

After the CEO busted me in the elevator, he told me about the meeting he had just come from. It was a gathering of all the finalists, of which he was one, for the title of Entrepreneur of the Year. This was an important meeting for him — as it was for everyone who aspired to the title (the judges were all in attendance) — and before he entered he had made two explicit decisions: 1. To focus on the meeting itself and 2. Not to check his BlackBerry.

What amazed him was that he was the only one not glued to a mobile device. Were all the other CEOs not interested in the title? Were their businesses so dependent on them that they couldn’t be away for one hour? Is either of those a smart thing to communicate to the judges?

There was only one thing that was most important in that hour and there was only one CEO whose behavior reflected that importance, who knew where to focus and what to ignore. Whether or not he eventually wins the title, he’s already winning the game!

It’s a known fact that the impact of social media on brands and organizations is immense! The need has moved to integrating social into the core HR strategy of the organization. Social media can be useful across the employee lifecycle, from recruitment to engagement and exit.

This program will focus on how HR professionals can leverage social media by addressing the following key issues:

•     Selecting appropriate Social Media tools.
•     Understanding the key benefits and pitfalls of social media for organizations.
•     Leveraging social media for effective recruitment, branding and collaboration.
•     Measuring the return on investment.

Speakers

• Mr. C Rajagopalan, CEO, Pragmatic Learning
• Mr. Akur Sethi, Program Head, Corporate Resource Centre, G.D. Goenka World Institute, Lancaster University and Founder & Volunteer at Chitrakaar
• Mr. Ajay Chowdhury, Associate Vice President – CHR and People Development, SRF Limited (Moderator)

Why Participate?  
Join us to learn how organizations are tapping into the power of social media for innovation, learning, knowledge sharing, talent management and engagement. You will also learn how to manage risks associated with this important communication channel.

Who Should Participate?
HR Managers, Recruitment Managers, Employer Brand Managers, HR Heads, Social Media Managers

Program Details
Date: March 28th, 2012 (Wednesday)
Time: 5:30PM – 8:00PM (Networking during 5:30 – 6:00PM)
Venue: PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry, PHD House, 4/2 Siri Institutional Area, August Kranti Marg, New Delhi – 110016

You know the truth. You’re simply not yourself online. As TV journalist Lisa Ling said recently, “Facebook is the life that we want people to believe we lead.”

On social networks we commonly present ourselves to the world with our best faces forward, whether it’s through photos of ourselves smiling atop Machu Pichu on Facebook or being endlessly clever on Twitter. And since we all know we’re guilty ourselves, we commonly cut each other some slack when someone’s vocabulary, say, isn’t as extensive in real life as it is online.

But all social networks are not created equal. There is one where misrepresentation is a far greater sin, where the smallest fib might cost you your career. Yep. LinkedIn. With over 150 million people leveraging the site for job hunting, networking and business connections, it’s the one place online where honesty really is the best policy, from your photo to your college to your sorority affiliation.

1. No photo

LinkedIn profiles with photos are viewed seven times more often than profiles with a blank box, meaning the decision to add a photo should be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, many people still chose to keep their faces off the social graph. This, agree all three experts, is a really bad call. “When there isn’t a picture, there’s an immediate element of mistrust,” says Waldman, and Williams agrees. “It’s a lot like when you’re selling a house,” she says. “If there’s no photo, it’s like ‘there must be something wrong with this property.’” Even though recruiters would never admit to hiring based on looks, she says that when they see nothing at all, they fear the worst.

2. An old photo or a glamour shot

While having a photo is important, having the wrong photo is a much more common mistake. “I see it especially in women,” says Williams. “It’s easy to choose a photo of ourselves at our best so it makes sense that a woman might use a photo of herself ten years younger.” You look great, and it might get you an interview, but when you walk in the door it can appear to employers like a deceptive bait-and-switch. Even if you’re not looking for a new job, Waldman says, it’s disconcerting to meet someone in real life that looks vastly different from their online gravatar—think of a Match.com blind date gone way wrong. Bottom line: if you’re bald in real life, you should also be bald in LinkedIn.

3. Education

This isn’t a common one, the experts agree, but it can definitely be problematic. If you bluff on your education information on LinkedIn, be prepared to be outed. You have no way of knowing whether your interviewer’s little sister just to happened to graduate Gettysburg in 2004. If you lied, he will ask and she will know about it. Rule of thumb in professional social networking: it may seem like a vast network of strangers, but the world is truly much smaller than you think.

4. Saying you’re open to job opportunities

“Scroll down to the very bottom of your profile page,” says Waldman. Under contact preferences, what does it say? “People so often set these preferences when they first sign up for a LinkedIn account and then never think to change them,” says Canfield. Maybe you were unemployed and clicked “looking for job opportunities,” like so many do. But now you’re getting requests for contact from strangers. You’re rejecting strangers left and right. You’re frustrated and you want to know why. Unfortunately, those strangers just might be job recruiters, responding to your years old call for employment. Maybe the opposite is true and that box isn’t checked. Take a look every few months and refresh your settings.

5. Calling yourself an “account manager”

Waldman says the headline on a LinkedIn account is key. “People usually go one of two ways in making a mistake with the headline,” he says. “Either they leave it as their job title, so it’s just ‘account manager’ or ‘sales associate’ or they verr off in the other direction and the language is so flowery and descriptive that it’s hard to understand.” The best bet, he says, is to find a middle ground. How about “Dynamic sales manager and risk-taking skydive enthusiast?” “You have 120 characters,” Waldman says, “Make the most of them.” If you can Tweet, you can write a creative headline that gets to the point.

6. Fudging your skill-set

When I spoke to Canfield early this week she told me that recruiters are starting to get hip to the different searching capabilities on LinkedIn but that users have been a bit slower at getting the hang of it. “The settings allow users to search by keywords and skills, years in an industry and all manner of criteria,” she says. As a result, employers and recruiters often sort by skills. If your profile lists Ruby On Rails but you’re less than comfortable with the programming language, you might want to re-edit. An employer looking for a specific skill-set might be sadly disappointed when they put you to the test.

7. Saying you’ve worked with someone you haven’t

Everyone hates getting unsolicited LinkedIn requests. But worse than the general request is a lie. “I worked with Meghan Casserly at Forbes” is simply not true if you’re a publicist who wants to pitch me. Williams says that it’s much better to be honest. “Don’t just make a connection using the generic connection request though,” she warns. “Use a personalized request, and write a note that gives a frame of reference.” Even if it is just “I’d like to pitch you a story.”

8. Asking for recommendations

Recommendations are one of the most powerful tools on LinkedIn, says Williams, but both she and Canfield agree that it’s poor form to make a request for recommendation immediately upon making a connection online. In fact, Williams says it’s a bad decision to simply ask at all. “Instead, draft up what you’re hoping they’ll say about you,” she says. It may seem nefarious, but it might be your best shot at a positive (and useful) recommendation.“Tell them the position you’re hoping to get and what qualities you’d like for them to highlight.” The more of the upfront work you can do, the better, she says. “Remember that you’re asking for their time and attention, so make it easy.”

9. Thinking too small

Williams shares the story of a young HP employee she recently met at an event. “I asked her if she could connect with one person on LinkedIn, who would it be?” Not surprisingly, the young woman answered Meg Whitman, CEO of her company, but said she knew there was no chance Whitman would accept her request. Williams, though, was undeterred and helped her to craft a request that introduced herself as an employee and an admirer of Whitman who was hoping to learn from her career. A few days later, Meg Whitman made the young HP employee one of fewer than 300 connections. The lesson? Don’t think too small. “If you make [your request] personal and indicate a frame of reference, even big wigs might be more apt to accept you,” Williams says. “Then someone’s looking at your profile and see you’re connected with Meg Whitman? Woah. Game changer.” True story.

10. Be desperate

If you lost your job today, after commiserating with pals tonight it might seem enticing to update your social networks with the news. Canfield warns that a blast to Facebook that you’re unemployed and in need of a job can seem desperate and off-putting to both personal friends and potential business contacts. Waldman, on the other hand, has more positive news. In an experiment conducted for his 2011 title Job Searching With Social Media For Dummies, he asked a friend to do exactly that. “He had been out of work for about three months and was getting nowhere,” Waldman recalls. “So he updated his status and made himself vulnerable; he told his entire LinkedIn network he was looking for help.”

Within the next seven days he received nearly 20 messages, and, surprisingly, the only negative comments were from friends who were concerned he might “look desperate.” The other half? Legitimate job leads. “If you’re willing to put yourself on the line,” he says, “It might be worth bucking the status quo and making yourself a little more vulnerable.” This just might be a mistake that pays off.

If your brand isn’t on Pinterest, you could be missing out on a growing stream of potential customers.

While shaping your brand’s image on Pinterest, remember to take into account the specifics of the site’s userbase. A recent study showed that home, arts and crafts,  style/fashion and food are the most popular categories on Pinterest.  The food category is the fastest growing segment of Pinterest.

Knowing he couldn’t live on his pension, he took his chicken recipe in hand, got behind the wheel of his van, and set out to make his fortune. His first plan was to sell his chicken recipe to restaurant owners, who would in turn give him a residual for every piece of chicken they sold–5 cents per chicken. The first restaurateur he called on turned him down.

So did the second.

So did the third.

In fact, the first 1008 sales calls Colonel Sanders made ended in rejection. Still, he continued to call on owners as he traveled across the USA, sleeping in his car to save money. Prospect number 1009 gave him his first “yes.”

After two years of making daily sales he had signed up a total of five restaurants. Still the Colonel pressed on, knowing that he had a great chicken recipe and that someday the idea would catch on.

Of course, you know how the story ends. The idea DID catch on. By 1963 the Colonel had 600 restaurants across the country selling his secret recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken (with 11 herbs and spices).

In 1964 he was bought out by future Kentucky governor John Brown. Even though the sale made him a multi-millionaire, he continued to represent and promote KFC until his death in 1990.

Colonel Sanders’ story teaches an important lesson: its never too late to decide to never give up.

Earlier in his life the Colonel was involved in other business ventures–but they weren’t successful. He had a gas station in the 30′s, a restaurant in the 40′s, and he gave up on both of them. At the age of 65, however, Harland Sanders decided his chicken idea was the right idea, and he refused to give up, even in spite of repeated rejection.

He knew that if he kept on knocking on doors, eventually someone would say “yes.” This is how Jesus has commanded to approach life. He said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9) This verse follows a story Jesus told emphasizing the importance of a “never-give-up” attitude in prayer. Jesus is saying, “Ask–not just once, but as many times as is necessary. Keep on knocking till the door is opened.” If you have made half-hearted attempts at doing God’s will in your life…if you have given up too easily in the past…remember: It’s never too late to become persistent. It’s never too late to decide to never give up. Keep on knocking. Keep on asking. Keep on seeking.

Origially posted at HBR Blog Network

Why is it that between 25 and 50 per cent of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?

It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.

What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It’s like an itch we can’t resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you’re taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you’re driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn’t?

The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. In part, that’s a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you’re partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it’s because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you’re increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.

But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.

I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.

If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:

1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what’s been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it’s urgent, you can call them — but that won’t happen very often.

3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. Consider these three behaviors for yourself:

1. Do the most important thing first in the morning, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time. If possible, work in a private space during this period, or with sound-reducing earphones. Finally, resist every impulse to distraction, knowing that you have a designated stopping point. The more absorbed you can get, the more productive you’ll be. When you’re done, take at least a few minutes to renew.

2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don’t, you’ll constantly succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Also, find a different environment in which to do this activity — preferably one that’s relaxed and conducive to open-ended thinking.

3. Take real and regular vacations. Real means that when you’re off, you’re truly disconnecting from work. Regular means several times a year if possible, even if some are only two or three days added to a weekend. The research strongly suggests that you’ll be far healthier if you take all of your vacation time, and more productive overall.

A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you’re engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you’re renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.