Emerging HR Trends in the Workplace Date:   Friday , June 26, 2015 Headquartered in Mumbai, Hexaware Technologies (BSE: HEXAWARE.BO); (NSE: HEXAWARE.NS), is a global provider of IT, BPO and consulting services. The company has a current market cap of Rs.81.35 billion. What are the major HR trends that you follow in your organization? At Hexaware we are exploring five major trends to find better ways to engage and empower the employees. Creating a brand for the HR department to attract, retain and motivate the best and the brightest talent. All HR initiatives are branded within the organization creating a brand value and identity of each activity that the HR group engages in. Branding improves credibility and strengthens the bond of trust between HR department and the employees. Use of Social Media to bring out the individuality of each employee and then engaging with them. Use of social media helps in communication, brand re-enforcement, sharing information, showcasing activities and events held in specific locations. Platforms to voice out and involve employee\'s tobe a part of a change for a better future. Employee engagement platforms help employees to connect with leaders, managers and peers. The various communication forums at Hexaware such as Open Houses, Happy Hours and Grow More Round Table Series, provide interactive platforms for sharing information, giving and receiving feedback and also ensures members of management are accessible at all times. An Effective Career Management System that would take care of their career aspirations so that employees can start looking within the organization for advancing their careers and create more competent leaders. Performance Management- As employees constantly demand a fair performance evaluation and also be rewarded for their efforts and hard work, it has become essential that organizations find innovative performance solutions. Managing, evaluating and rewarding people basis an effective and efficient Performance metric system has thus become a necessity. What role does a good work culture play in attracting and retaining good talents? The work culture of any organization is what gives an identity to an organization and differentiates itself from the competitors. It is hence imperative that an organization work towards creating an identity for itself that strikes a chord with the workforce within and create enough buzz outside to attract the right set of people who can identify themselves with the culture and the values of the company. Once the values of the organization and the individual are in sync with each other, it will go a long way to ensure greater loyalty and retention of the employee. Since we are now living in the Glassdoor era where an employee can get easy access to the culture and the way things work around is a company, an organizations culture becomes a key competitive advantage in hiring talent. While hiring a great talent is extremely important so is developing future leaders, engaging employees and deploying them effectively, this presents the HR teams to move up the value stream and retain the best of the people. What is it going to be in the coming days? Workforce Diversity: Workforce in any organization comprises of an eclectic blend of both Generation X and Generation Y employees identifying their similar and more importantly dissimilar needs and devising a developmental strategy while catering to both in an unbiased manner will be amongst the top trends this year. Gen Y breed of employees have aspirations which are different from the older lot, are savvier with technology, focused on merit than tenure and looking forward to be a part of a change for growth/development. Leverage on Technology: With the new age workplaces giving away for a fixed office location, more and more employees will be remotely connected hence HR teams should use technology to be connected with the workforce using social media, mobility and cloud technology to create innovation in a distributed environment where there is freedom to ideate, decide and act with everyone everywhere. Succession Planning: It will be crucial for HR across sectors and organization. Hence organization must formulate specific high potential plans to develop bench strength and also groom not only the current leaders but also the next in line for better continuity. Strategic Workforce Planning: Cos are still conducting workforce planning on a need basis, strategic workforce planning involves developing a workforce deployment model for a medium to a long term. It also involves thinking more fundamentally on a business delivery model. Workforce planning will be driven not merely by workforce cost considerations but also speed to market, nimbleness in responding to change and management bandwidth among other factors. Can you highlight on the importance of a healthy work-life balance? Time and again there has been great emphasis put on ensuring that employees are able to achieve work life balance while maintaining high levels of productivity. While employees have started spending more and more time in office to compete with the outside world to stay ahead and with their colleagues to stand apart. It is been increasingly giving rise to not only physical but also mental health issues. Work life balance is not a problem to be solved it is an issue to be managed because the right work life balance is different for every individual. As we deal with people we deal with their range of issues and problems so there cannot be one policy or process designed to solve the issues that people deal with. Each individual must do that for himself working with a boss who has the right mind set and skill set to do that as well. Tell us about the appraisal and recreational benefits The work life today is different than it was some years back. Today, the employees work more hours and are continuously connected to their jobs by technology. Hence, the demand for providing recreational benefits like play area, gym, recreational activities, medical zone have become an essential ingredient to help the employee achieve some work life balance and improve their quality of life. Stress has become a natural way of living for most, therefore promoting recreational activities for helping employees reduce stress, increase happiness, improve interactions with diverse people and management makes good business sense.