Page 24 - SightsIn Plus, Nov 20

Interview Kaustubh Sonalkar

time to develop a skill that’s going to
benefit her/him in the long run. Also,
we understand that mental well-being
is a function of upskilling - the more
opportunities for learning you provide
employees, the more valued they are
bound to feel, and the more productive
they will be.

Q. Essar Group? What are your
What is the hiring strategy at
plans to onboard new employees?

A. a talent pool that’s
Essar believes in attracting

entrepreneurial, progressive, and
synergistic of our ethos of ‘Creating
Value’. The pandemic did impact
business but Essar has quickly adjusted
and adapted to ensure the business
continuance which in turn ensured
that talent-hiring continued despite
wellness roadmap that reassures, pandemic, our L&D and HR-IT teams the constrains. In 2020, Essar has
motivates and builds trust with the have strived towards making our hired at both leadership levels, mid-
organisation’s workforce. Employee workforce future-ready by providing management levels, and developed
wellbeing is going to grab the spotlight a plethora of e-learning opportunities. talent through its cadre building
in the upcoming HR Budget. The pandemic has ushered in new programmes like the Executive
business models and new ways of
Leadership Programme, the Business
Q. priorities for HR people in the working that urge an employee to take Leadership Programme, Management
How do you see the top HR
Traineeship, & College Internships.
on tasks that s/he may not specialise
new age work world? in but could do with training. With
cross-functionality being the need of In fact, amid the pandemic, we have
A. management, and leadership the hour, the mid-senior management renewed our focus on corporate
Organisational design, change
governance, compliance, and risk
understands that upskilling is an
diversity have always been important, absolute necessity, and is supportive management processes with the
but have become top HR priorities of letting employees allocate training appointment of experienced and
since the pandemic. As HR operations talented senior leaders. , Essar plans
transition from a reactive to a proactive to continue going that extra mile in
under the new normal, all HRs need to grooming and onboarding new talent
address the workforce’s response and through benchmarked talent practices,
adaptability to unprecedented change. Organizations need gamified L&D workshops, mentoring
Resilience building, skill advancement, to increasingly programmes, and effective employee
competency development, as well as engagement channels especially
talent redeployment will be game- follow the design focusing on mental wellbeing.
changers in the corporate world ahead
of us. thinking approach Q. Any concluding remarks.

Q. upskilling for employees by keeping the A. set of values that determine the
How are you prioritizing
Every successful company has a
customer at the
to help them keep up in a rapidly center of any behaviour of its business and people. In
changing environment? solution that such unprecedented times, these values
may waver. In my view, the onus lies
A. has always taken upskilling is created by on HR leaders to steer the organisation
Pandemic or no pandemic, Essar
such that the very values inherent to
seriously by providing an enriched developing the organisation determines its success.
career experience, customised for its deep empathy.
varied talent pools. Even amid the Thank you, Kaustubh!

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