Online Discussion on Managing Hybrid Teams

World Trade Center Chennai in association with National Institute of Personnel Management, Madras Chapter organized an online discussion as titled above.

The panelists were:

Mr. Prasad B.V., Head – HR, Tata Marcopolo Motors
Ms. Sabeena Shaji, Dy. Vice President & Head – Learning, Federal Bank
Mr. Rajendra B.N., Vice President, Jeeves Information Systems Pvt Ltd
Mr. Anish Aravind, Strategy Professional and Co-Founder, S S Consult

Mr. M P Sriram, Founding Partner, Aventus Partners moderated the session.

Discussions were revolved around topics like – impact on productivity in the industry/organizational context; view on the future with respect to customers, business and work; experiments and works in the last 9 months; learnings and policies through which they can be embedded; challenges predicted with the new normal. With speakers from diverse sectors, the panel was able to present some interesting practices and innovative ideas that helped their respective companies to survive the lockdown period without compromising on the quality.

Mr. Prasad B.V. shared his experiences and observations. His organization have lost certain segments like manufacturing of commercial buses. He mentioned that focus should be on new specialized segments. They had worked in collaboration with the Government to overcome challenges. Employee health and security was the topmost priority at this time.

Ms. Sabeena Shaji spoke about the bank’s policy “Digital at the fore, human at the core”. She added that, their organisation embraced technology during the lockdown. Fully digitized recruitment training, automations, MIS reporting, WFH sticking to regulations using secure VPNs had made their operations much smoother. At the time of pandemic, their operating profit did not suffer, they were actively recruiting and stuck to annual increments, promotion cycles etc.

Mr. Rajendra B. N. mentioned that the IT industry seems to be least impacted by pandemic. He observed that the productivity has improved with certain employees being more comfortable in the new environment and putting in additional hours. But at the same time, there are less face to face interactions now and also less innovative solutions to current tasks.

Mr. Anish Aravind opined that productivity may have suffered due to lack of communication. Leaders should make use of the available technology to reach out and communicate with employees. Frequent reviews can also help to overcome this situation.

Dr. Bose K. Nair, VP, World Trade Center and Mr. M. H. Raja Chairman, NIPM Madras Chapter also spoke at the programme.