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Tessi Ravishankar

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Tessi Ravishankar

Head – HR

Vivimed Labs

Tessi Ravishankar is a member of:

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HR Strategies in Place in your Company

Vivimed Labs is a Pharma and Specialty Chemical Company headquartered at Hyderabad, India but having a wide presence across 3 continents and 60 countries through our products, manufacturing sites, R & D centres as well as marketing and distribution offices. Our HR strategies are based to deliver fundamental outcomes that most organizations aspire for; namely to ensure that we have stable, well trained, and reasonably content human resources who can also gear up to support and sustain the future growth plans of the company.

Today trends seen in HR

Some of the visible changes that we are seeing on the HR front today are largely due to the economic upheavals that the world has witnessed in recent times. There is a perceptible shift in employees and potentials towards job security and stability of the company, vis-vis monetary incentives, particularly amongst the middle management cadres. Another trend which we are seeing is the specialization of job functions within industries, even amongst the so called common functions. This can be attributed to easy availability of highly qualified workforce across all levels and industries.

When organizations hire people what are they essentially looking for?

My years of experience in recruitment and seeing how these employees fit into and grow into an organization have, I believe given me some key insight into 'qualities' that we need to look for in potential candidates. Too often, time and energy is lost looking for the 'perfect' candidate rather than the most suitable one. Recruiters and hiring managers have to keep the organizational culture, values and most critical aspects of the job in mind before finalizing the hire. Realistically speaking, out of 8 competencies listed for a particular job, identify the 5 crucial ones and source your candidates based on them.

Difficulties in Planning Human Resource in an ever changing business

I think you partly answered your own question. Effective planning and implementation is technically possible only in a fairly stable environment. Having said that, it is indeed true that the business scenario is getting increasingly competitive and ensuring that you have the right people to support the process is a key mandate for the HR Department. This means timely talent acquisition, which involves identifying, selecting and of course on boarding all of which can take between 3 to 10 months, precious time that can well cost the business. Alternatives may be grooming internal resources for taking on strategic projects, which may have limited success.

Recruiting & retaining the diverse and ambitious Generation Y. Are they really ambitious

Recruitment of Gen Y today is not an issue, thanks to the plethora of talent available and the ever mushrooming educational institutes. Retaining them, on the other hand has always been a problem, and will continue to be. Retention strategies could range from frequent reviews and feedback, recognizing and rewarding exceptional talent and offering continuous challenges. If there is one thing about Gen Y, it is that they will not be resting on past laurels. Having said all this, it is safe to presume that you will have fair amount of attrition and it is always sensible to recruit and train year on year based on the company's growth and expansion plans.

Keeping in line with Changing Workplace Culture

You are certainly right about changes at the workplace and employee perceptions. For one, the ratio of women at middle to senior positions have changed over the last decade and will continue to do so. In some industries, traditional male bastions being eroded and organizations have to prepare their employees to understand and accept such changes. Workplace environment too has moved from a conventional 9 to 5, to goal and project driven timelines. Fierce competition and uncertain business and economic scenarios compounded by unhealthy lifestyle has also led to stress related health concerns. Today’s employees need to prioritize, work on their strengths and strive to achieve a practical amount of work life balance within their immediate personal and professional spheres.