Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Nagpur had the privilege of hosting Mr. Sanjeeb Lahiri - Chief Human Resource Officer at GRP Ltd., for a guest lecture on December 5, 2020. He delivered an insightful lecture on the topic - ‘Evolving Dynamics of HR and Workplace Practices’.

The following is an excerpt from the interview with him-

Q1) How important do you feel is the concept of emotional intelligence in this pandemic?

Ans. Emotional Intelligence is no rocket science. If we look back into the ancient Indian wisdom, our ancestors have always talked about it. It did not take Daniel Goleman to come up and device an emotional quotient because that’s how a trained, logical mind will understand it, but we must become aware of our feelings. It is just the way of life and is going to drive human beings considering the multiple roles they juggle.

Q2) The pandemic witnessed the HR's playing a vital role as they were in the frontline of communicating the layoffs. How do you think their role is going to pan out in the future?

Ans. Unfortunately, organisations or the industries think that the HR’s role is always to be the communicator of the bad news, to go and do a handyman’s job. HR’s lost the whole opportunity of creating a mark on the planet, by being people in front of the business and because of that they ended up becoming the spokesperson of the organisation, more importantly when it comes to bad news. But one function which has the most important role to play is being that conduit for people to come and be that shoulder in an organisation for people to come and speak.

Q3) What is the biggest revolution that the field of human resource has witnessed in the 21st century?

Ans. The biggest revolution that the field of human resource has witnessed in the 21st century would be the availability of data. Every bit of information related to a person is easily available on the internet. This availability of data has made it easy for the HR, as now they don’t have to run behind a person for his information and can also select a person beforehand, if the applicant meets the requirement or not.

Q4) Since everything these days has moved online, so have our seminars. So how was your experience of briefing the student managers at IMT Nagpur?

Ans. The overall experience was great. It was a great session. The process of communication and rehearsal was smooth.