Sign in to follow 's advice will appear in your account when you log in. Follow specific Community Members and never miss out on their views and insights. Build a group of Members who you want to listen to.

Email: Password:

Don't have SiliconIndia account? Sign up Forgot your password? Reset

Ask Jayakumar D.a for Advice

If your advice request is relevant to other Community members, our Editorial team may choose to send this request to all Experts to attract a wider range of answers and share them with the Community. Rest Assured, we will protect your privacy (unless you recommend otherwise).

Advice Request

Submit Cancel

Jayakumar D.a

Next Member >>

Jayakumar D.a

Head HR

Siemens & Technology Services

Jayakumar D.a is a member of:

- Expert

HR Strategies in Place in your Company

Siemens operates in the fields of industry, energy, healthcare, and also provides sustainable infrastructure solutions for cities. Siemens Corporate Technology (CT) works to secure the technological advantage of Siemens with innovations and supports development of an integrated technology company. The CT operations in India have about 3,500 employees. The Research & Technology Center team focuses on software technologies, embedded systems, energy systems, and sustainable infrastructure technologies. The Development Center in India, which is an in-house global competence center for product development assists Siemens businesses differentiate their solutions through software.

Our strategy is focused on making CT in India the employer of choice in the R&D space.
To achieve this goal, we have defined a unique approach for people management which we call the 4 C approach. This approach seeks to create an environment that excellence by balancing culture, career, (work) content, and compensation – the four Cs. In addition, we have introduced several employee-centric policies

Today trends seen in HR

IT and R&D operations are essentially people businesses. Consequently HR plays an important role in realizing business goals. HR has come a long way from being a service provider. HR is now seen as a business partner and strategic consultant within organizations. Today our strategies and contributions have a larger say in the long and short term goals of organizations. This is because HR teams engage closely with employees and are most accessible to them. To ensure credibility of the HR department is maintained at high levels, it is essential that HR teams strive to reduce the intention implementation gap, and do what is said.

Difficulties in Planning Human Resource in an ever changing business

The way organizations do business has changed considerably due to changes in the economy, and the global nature of operations. The main challenge for R&D centers is to attract and retain talent. This in turn requires clear plans for people development over the long term, and suitable compensation strategies. We have been effectively addressing these challenges with our 4 C approach. In addition, we use technology, tools and innovative measures to increase employee engagement.

HR Relationship with the CEO

As mentioned earlier, it is a partnership that is strategic in nature. This requires earning trust of the members of the CEO’s management team. HR can only earn this trust by defining plans and programs that are effective in motivating employees. It is well known that motivated employees are perhaps the most significant mainstays in the performance of the organization. HR is in a special position to advise the CEO about employee initiatives and programs.

Biggest Pain Point

Uncertainties in the market are definitely a cause of concern. Organizations are forced to re-work and re-assess their hiring and compensation strategies during such times.

Some of the leadership development programs being held & results obtained

We recently rolled-out a People Excellence Program within the Development Center. A key aspect of the People Excellence Program is that is allows an employee to actively shape a future within Siemens. We also have a career development strategy in place wherein our employees can choose to build a career in key expert, project management, or management depending on their personal preference. Being part of a global organization enables such programs to have greater impact.

HR Strategies in Place in your Company

Our 4 C approach covers this aspect as well. Our reward and recognition programs are transparent and effective. When it comes to recognizing our best performing employees we follow a rigorous, objective and transparent process. This allows us to identify and reward excellence. In addition, our best-in-class performance management system enables our employees to explore career opportunities across Siemens worldwide. At Siemens, employee development takes place through short-term and long-term assignments so that we can weave career aspirations of our talent with the needs of the organization. Moreover have employee-centric HR policies and processes. Our sabbatical policy, paternity policy, childcare policy and extension of flexi-time promote us as an organization that is flexible to employee needs and effective at the same time. These policies allow us motivate employees and create an environment conducive for them to develop their skills and competencies within the company.

Different Qualities looking while hiring people

We hire people who are open-minded and curious with a passion to shape the future. We look for people who can easily adapt to our culture and seek a long-term career with us. Naturally, technically competent individuals with an excellent career track record are preferred.

Identifying Leaders promoting them to the next level

Apart from our career landscape strategy, our robust performance management process requires assessing both the performance and capability of employees. This enables the management team to identify potential leaders in the organization, who undergo a series of development programs for career enhancement.

Engaging Gen Y - Leadership and Organization Culture

The trend is moving toward Gen Y and our HR strategies are tuned to connect with all the three generations – Gen X, Gen Y and Gen Z.

Attrition Management: Retaining vs. fresh hiring

The CT business in India has a low attrition rate largely due to the success of our 4 C approach. In the last year, we have grown by over 1,000 people. In addition to lateral hiring, we have re-introduced campus hiring. We are well engaged with education institutions with talent.

Promotional techniques work best & reason behind it

Like all organizations, we are keen on attracting and retaining talent. We communicate our unique ability to offer people the opportunity to shape the future, while addressing the most challenging questions facing humankind. We also stress our focus on work-life balance. We believe talent begets talent and have stressed on employee referrals to boost our recruitment efforts. We also work with reputed placement firms. Our top performing employees serve as brand ambassadors who are featured in our promotional initiatives. Our Campus Connect program has also been successful. We are also actively creating presence in the social networking space.

Keeping in line with Changing Workplace Culture

People expectations have changed in the past decade and so has the maturity of the IT industry. In the current situation the industry growth is tapered and not steep as before. Professionals need to understand the benefits of working with the same organization for a longer time and rising in the value chain. We need to acknowledge employees who have progressed from being individual contributors to managerial or expert levels .

Attract good people, retain the better people and advance the best people

Our 4 C approach has been very successful in doing this. That said, it is important to note that there is no single step to attract, retain, and develop people. It is a continuous process and all people practices in the organization should adapt to the culture.

Advice/ suggestions to fellow HRs

The Head of HR is treated on par with CFOs and CXOs of companies. When we are at this level, we need to make the best out of this position and become a highly-predictive function. The focus should be on creating a brand that fosters a high-performance culture which is conducive for excellence and leadership development.