The best HR practice: how to follow

[Noor E Alam]

Biplob Banerjee, an Indian consultant, boasts a career in various HR roles that gave him both national and international exposure. He worked for Pepsico, GE and Nokia Siemens Networks in areas of talent management, culture building, compensation and benefit, engagement and retention, and leadership development.A man with more than 18 years of experience in different fields, Banerjee also served Reuters as head of HR for Southeast Asia, Anandabazar Patrika Group as vice-president for HR and Dainik Bhaskar as chief human resources officer. He has a degree in mechanical engineering and specialised in human resources from XLRI, Jamshedpur in India. Currently, he is dealing with some Indian and multinational companies as a consultant. He is also associated with Indian Institute of Management. Banerjee is expected to take part in an international HR Summit in Dhaka as a keynote speaker next Saturday. He has recently shared his views with The Daily Star on the strategies of talent development, importance and challenges of best HR practice in media industry in an email interview.
What challenges do companies face in HR practices?
In my view, the main challenge is to have a clear understanding on how human resources can help build businesses successfully beyond the personnel and recruitment domain. In most cases of good HR practices, promoters or entrepreneurs are asked to show the Return on Investment (RoI).
After achieving some sort of moderate fame, entrepreneurs lose their focus on the employees. Plenty of such stories could be found in India where from medium to large conglomerates lose their achievements after reaching great heights due to ethical issues or to maintain the image of so-called "Lala Culture".
In Lala Culture, professionals avoid the process of human capital development. Only a certain kind of people thrive, and for which, in the long run, the participating companies start losing the edge in terms of ROI, profitability, brand and good governance.
If we go through the recent telecom scam, before that the Satyam scam, or the sheer vanishing of some great institutions in the early days such as GKW, Metal Box, all point out to two things: poor people and business leadership.
What's your observation on HR practices in Bangladesh?
I am yet to closely watch Bangladesh's HR practices to comment, but as far as evolution of HR practices is concerned I guess most countries undergo three phases: A) early entrepreneurial zeal and great early promise, B) difficult second phase of putting professionalism in place in terms of structure, culture, people practice and tools to reach a potential winning proposition, and C) the final phase of global presence in terms of a few practices and a niche market outside the immediate boundary.
What strategy a country like Bangladesh should pursue to develop its talent pool?
One significant requirement for appropriate talent development in any country is mixing the local cultural ethos with global best practices. For this, the challenge remains in the depth of entrepreneur's vision, experiment with outside talent and cultural and philosophical tolerance, and overall economic liberalisation. For example, Manmohan Singh's policies in 1991 opened a window of opportunities for many young entrepreneurs in India.
The economic liberalisation led the young entrepreneurs to create a number of successful business ventures such as 'Make My Trip', 'Subex' and 'PVR Multiplexes' in India. The Volvo Bus Service from Kolkata to Shiliguri alone attracted a couple of dozens of small entrepreneurs. These talents just grabbed the opportunity and played with utmost risk to groom other talents. So, a mix of government and environmental factors are critical for talent development.
What are the areas corporate Bangladesh needs to focus on to improve human resources?
I have seen a simple model that works wonderfully - PIE that is Performance, Image and Exposure. I guess all the three elements need to be pushed with a balance on local culture and complexities. So it means local promoters should allow expatriates to work for some time and drive some time-bound projects. They need to send own resources regularly to expatriate projects outside Bangladesh, and finally they should attend some events in and outside of Bangladesh to experience some great success stories. "I change because I have seen it works, and I believe it will work here also" should be the motto.
Describe the key issues of people management and capacity development in Bangladesh perspective.
The key issues in people management would be clarity of knowledge and perspective, taking risk with a long-term horizon, tolerance of pain and a vision to take the nation to next level. Bangladesh's history is a good teacher in this regard because the great freedom fighters of the country sacrificed their lives to give what today the young generation is enjoying.
Finally, values of entrepreneurs are keys to people management, as they especially balance greed with sacrifice. Many good organisations stumble because of greed and ego, not for money. Capacity development could be a little bit easier if the government and the private sector work together.
Why should the media industry focus on best HR practices?
I have seen here in India that all good media houses have some unique HR practices, which, I think, is the contribution of some chief editors or promoters with vast and magnanimous hearts. However, the challenge is the next generation as most of them neither believe in their parent's values nor follow a good acceptable alternative because of their foreign or some obscure education.
As a result, many second or third generation media promoters now suffer in a few specific areas like passion and some other core values. The Statesman is a live case. Another area where many media companies suffer is "keeping with times" in terms of presentation and choice of news.
Finally, the salaries that many media houses have been paying over the years range from sheer invisible exploitation to encouragement of unethical paid news practice.
What is the most challenging issue for managing media houses and their human capital?
The recent gruesome murder of J Dey, Mid Day's crime reporter in Mumbai, gives an indication, I guess, that creating "true journalists" who are fearless and committed to the bigger cause is the most challenging issue for media houses.
Today media have become so addictive that it is getting all kinds of talents, and many of them are slowly poisoning the media in one's own high. Who to recruit, how to groom, how to retain core values, how to fire, who to promote, and how to give a decent lifestyle to journalists are some of the real deep issues in my view. So multiple checks of greed in terms of fame, name and game is the real challenge. Of course, the top-notch journalists should be trained to help them protect their life from today's powerhouses.

Source:-  https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-190656