This recession will make everyone run to the HR Head for solutions

With over 20 years of experience in the services sector spanning Hospitality, Aviation and Business Process Outsourcing, Ajit Menon is currently the President for Organizational Development of the Mudra Group.

He is responsible for the growth and development of the Group’s talent. With a current strength of about 3000 people, the task by itself is not easy.

Mudra recently won the prestigious award for ‘Continuous Innovation in HR strategy at work’ at the World HRD Congress.

Ajit is a Bachelor in Physics from Calicut University and a Masters in Business Management from Washington University.

He loves to play guitar, watch spy movies and is a world history buff. Based in Mumbai, Ajit lives with his wife Geetha and daughter Anushka.

What made you give up a ‘C’ suite position in the BPO industry and move to advertising?
I started my career in aviation because my parents wanted me to do engineering, I did my hotel management and my M B A and worked in 5 star super deluxe hotels because I wanted to be with people and work for them, I got carried away with the money, fame and power and climbed up the corporate ladder as Sr. VP, COO etc of BPO companies. When I finally sat down and did some introspection I realized that I was doing all these for others or other reasons and not for myself. Deep down I wanted to make a difference in people’s lives and I knew I can achieve it only by being in an industry which has the reputation of “zero” HR and people practices and build it from there.

You are Head of HR but your designation says President – OD can you explain what is the difference?
HR (human resources or in human resources) to me was always a laid back support department which documented the MD’s policies, recruited people as per instructions, gossiped during those long break fast, lunch, tea breaks with other support departments, did a 9-6 job and went home.

Mudra has a people department called LLC- Leadership,Learning and Change. We are not a support department. We are strategic partners to the business head and are equally responsible for the business success or failure. Our salaries depend on the success of the organization. Just as how a business head is responsible for delivering top line for his company, we are responsible for delivering the bottom line with him/her by ensuring that we have the right human capital for the job in right numbers with the right leadership, knowledge and business acumen. In short the business head invests money for the business and we invest people.

How have you interpreted your role in Mudra? Can you talk to us about some of the key initiatives that the LLC Group has taken?
My role is to partner the MD. I sit on the Mudra board and am also the director on board five other companies affiliated to Mudra . I assist the MD in meeting the vision of the organization by driving the people to deliver on the company mission. This covers a huge span of work and is not just limited to HR hygiene (which is 0.5% of the LLC work).

The key initiatives are.

• To make all (people related) routine hygiene jobs automated through Technology. In short, employees do not have to approach LLC for salary issues, leave issues, PF, Gratuity, Superannuation issues, reimbursement issues, transport issues, confirmations, joining formalities, bank issues, income tax issues, growth chart issues etc. All these are automated and available on the employees desk tops. With a click of the button all their queries are attended to either immediately or latest within 24 hours.
• LLC concentrates purely on business planning and strategy with the unit head. They plan the breed of people needed for specific jobs with the unit head, source them internally or externally, train them and deliver them as high productive resources.
• LLC ensures that the business wage cost % ages do not rise beyond prescribed bench marks (bench marks are decided by LLC and unit head based on profitability).
• LLC will help the unit deliver through its people by creating leadership and training them to thrive in change.

The common belief is that HR has never really succeeded in advertising and that it is only about recruitments and pushing paper. Your comments.
It is this belief that has led HR to remain an underdog all these years. I refused to accept this belief and we are living our dream right now. We got awarded the best in “continuous innovation in HR strategy” by the world HRD Congress last year. Now people are waking up to the reality that if not for people and a people department they would not be in business in the first place. This recession will make everyone run to the HR heads for solutions.

Pratap Bose was the CEO of Ogilvy. How has his recruitment fitted into the overall scheme of Mudra’s strategy?
The Mudra vision is to be the best “media plural communications group” in the country and our mission is to “give creative solutions to our clients – be it internal or external”. This requires complete integration of all services within Mudra , be it main line or specialized services like digital, DM, media etc. As this was the overall plan, the LLC strategy was to have a specific breed of people at the senior level who would make drive the mission. Hence we identified a couple of Eds from within and also acquired a few seniors from outside to complete the loop. Now that the talent acquisition strategy is done with, the strategy to integrate operations is well on its way.

The market is abuzz with talk about fantastic increments and how Mudra paid the lost incentives to the group that joined from Ogilvy. At a time when businesses are looking at cutting costs can you explain why you have gone in the opposite direction?
Mudra does not have the term “cost cutting” in its vocabulary. Since Mudra is not planning for “one year at a time”, but for a minimum of five years at any given point of time, our business approach does not demand knee jerk reactions like cutting costs in situations like the present market conditions. Our aim is to acquire good talent at affordable costs, groom them and retain them. If our performing employees are not happy personally, then it affects their delivery. We ensure (whether they are from within or if we are acquiring) that all employees have a good personal life so that they concentrate on their work when they are at work. Bad times are not permanent- just like good times. Our job is to ensure that our performers do not get affect with the market upheavals.

This is the time to remove excess flab & additional bench strengths, encourage people to go on study leaves where in they know that when they come back they have a secure job. Basically improving the effectiveness of delivery.

Mudra has some internal captions

1. Do not cut costs – Control them
2. Do not be just efficient – Be effective.
3. Practice makes permanent.
4. Work life balance is a must – Work first to build your life.