By Ishtiak Taher, SHRM-SCP
With more than 320,000 members across 165 countries, SHRM is the world’s largest association for human resources professionals and HR certification body across the world. This year, Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is celebrating its 75th anniversary as an organization. SHRM is based in USA.
SHRM India is the Indian edition of SHRM. This year SHRM India hosted the 12th edition of its signature annual conference titled “SHRM India Annual Conference & Exposition 2023” (SHRMIAC23). This 2-day grand event took place at Hotel Taj Palace in New Delhi on 12 – 13 October 2023.
As the representative of WorkSMART Consulting, the partner of SHRM in Bangladesh, I had the pleasure to attend this grand event of global standard. My dear friend AZM Saif, the CEO of Paper Rhyme Advertising was the other participant from Bangladesh. The conference was a confluence of more than 4,500 delegates, 900+ CXOs, 150+ Global Speakers involved in 70+ highly engaging sessions. In addition, there was also an exposition in the conference venue where some of the leading HR solutions provider displayed a multitude of innovative and state of the art HR Tech products and services.
Ms. Achal Khanna, the CEO of SHRM India, APAC & MENA inaugurated this 2-day conference and the overall conference was chaired by Mr. D Shivkumar, Group Executive President, Corporate Strategy at Aditya Birla Group and former Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo in India.
This year, the central theme of the conference was “Employee Experience,”. Employee experience, often abbreviated as EX, encompasses an employee’s perception of their organization throughout their entire tenure. This holistic perspective covers the entire employee lifecycle, from the initial job application to their departure from the company. Key factors contributing to the employee experience include the physical workspace, organizational culture, and technology utilization.
And talking about technology, Generative AI (or GenAI) and how it is going to impact the future of work and particularly the HR functions, was one of the key topics in this year’s conference. Speakers talked about the opportunities that GenAI is likely to bring in; for example, automating transactional tasks, improved speed and quality of decisions due to data driven insights, improved customer experience due to enhanced ability to personalized interactions and an increase in productivity in general. On the other hand, speakers also talked about the challenges or disruption that GenAI may bring along. For example, the trustworthiness of GenAI was questioned, also questioned was the need for mass upskilling or reskilling of the workforce that are currently engaged in transactional tasks (e.g. BPOs), regulatory compliance (e.g. copyright) was another area of concern with GenAI. But all the speakers agreed on one theme; i.e. the lightning speed at which the GenAI (or AI in general) technology is progressing today, it may be really challenging for us to accurately predict what is coming next!
While DEI&B (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) has always been an important topic in SHRM conferences, speakers and panelists were more focused on the inclusion element of the DEI&B this year. Speakers reinforced the fact that without inclusion, organizations will struggle to rip the full benefits of any diversity initiative. One speaker spoke about how 33% sit reservation for women at Panchayat level enhanced women empowerment in rural India. One CHRO gave a real-life example of employing hearing and speech impaired workers in the quality control function of a manufacturing plant. These special workers were hired not out of mere generosity, rather with a specific purpose. And with great delight, it was found that productivity in that function significantly improved as these workers were found to be more focused than a typical worker who may be otherwise distracted by unintended use of those sensors of our human body.
Another important area that was highlighted by the speakers was the need for diversification or personalization of total rewards for the workforce. Gone are the days of “one-size-fit-all” benefit package for all employees. Due to a multi-generational workforce that we have today that includes Gen X, millennials and Gen Zs, organizations need to make the additional effort to personalize the reward packages catering to the specific needs of the different groups of employees. One speaker categorically said, “There is an opportunity for us to transform Total Rewards from a ‘hygiene factor’ to a ‘differentiator’ if you want to win in the market place”.
Among other topics, leadership and strategy in business, importance of culture in the workplace, change management, closing the skill gap, increasing importance of employee experience particularly for the younger talent market, need for flexibility in workplace, shifting paradigm in employee performance management, need for reinforcing the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and employer brand to enhance organizations’ talent acquisition capability, importance of wellness for employees etc. were discussed and debated in different sessions.
HR Excellence Award ceremony was another very exciting event that was hosted in the evening of day-one. A two-layered jury board that included eminent HR professionals, industry leaders and civil society leaders went through a very objective, impartial and methodical process to select the award winners in different award categories. Awards were given in nine specific categories that included Excellence in HR Analytics, Leveraging HR Technology, Talent Acquisition, Managing the Hybrid Workplace, Community Impact, Health & Wellness Initiatives, Diversity & Inclusion, Developing Leaders of Tomorrow, Learning & Development. Awards were also given in above categories separately for the PSUs (Public Service Undertaking). Some prominent employers like Lenovo, Siemens, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, NTPC etc. were the winners in different categories. The award ceremony was followed by a gala night full of music and cultural performance.
As a media and event specialist himself, my friend Saif was highly impressed by the high quality and professionalism that were displayed by SHRM India in organizing this grand event. Overall, it was great event with two very memorable days full of learning, fun, networking and great food for the participating delegates. I look forward to seeing an increased participation of professionals and entrepreneurs from Bangladesh in future editions of this conference.