Focus on employee at HR summit

The right work environment is crucial to bringing out the best in employees. A mantra organisations will do well to remember.

Experts talking at an HR summit, hosted jointly by the Business Line Club and the department of commerce, Stella Maris College, on Tuesday, stressed the need for strong values and a conducive work environment.

“Every organisation has to deal with the relentless pace and competition of the business world. But how well it does this depends on its employees. To make themselves count, businesses today need to build the right environment for the people who work for them,” said P. Jayakumar, head of human resources at L&T GeoStructure.

Latha Nambisan, senior vice-president of HR at Servion Global Solutions Ltd. and a career consultant on employee management, explained the importance of values and culture at work. She cited the accounting fraud at Enron and the more recent fall from grace of celebrated cyclist Lance Armstrong as results of values gone wrong.

In his keynote address, B. Akbaraly, zonal manager at Central Bank of India, said that the well-being of an organisation depends on the ease and rapidity with which human resource officials manage transitions.

He also emphasised ‘need-based training’ for employees. On the other hand, it is also important for professionals to change the approach to work as their careers progress, Mr. Jayakumar said.

Close to 500 students, including those from Vellore Institute of Technology, MOP Vaishnav College, Vel Tech CMS, Vel Tech Arts and Science, Velammal Engineering College and Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College attended the event. Dr. Sr. Jacintha Quadras, principal of Stella Maris College, was also present.

The summit was sponsored by Central Bank of India.