Show Notes – Episode 16: Neeti Chauhan
Neeti Chauhan works as the COO for MindCo Consulting Group. MindCo is an HR Services company providing support to the client on HR strategy, Talent Pool mapping and workforce analysis.
Neeti is passionate about human resource management. She has been in this professional space for more than ten years. The role of HR has evolved significantly in that period. It is an exciting time to be in HR. There is a tremendous amount of transformation occurring across various sectors around the nature of work—new ways of working, technology transformation and new ways to manage and lead people.
It is an exciting space to be in because the impact that can be made on the lives of employees and leaders is material. Leaders and employees are struggling at the moment and the support she can give to clients is making an impact.
No matter how much investment in technology, the outcomes and the effectiveness relies on how well the humans are using and leveraging the solutions.
There is an overload of information on the best practices in human resources but making it tangible and achievable remains the challenge. The goal is simple: keep employees engaged, happy while achieving business goals and strategic objectives.
Planning for skills requirements in an organization requires putting a plan in place for the next 6 to 12 months. There are many skills and capabilities in the organization, but they can often not be seen. Therefore, an essential part of future skills planning is to map the existing skills and competencies and overlay these with the emerging requirements. Typically there is a lot of overlapping skills and competencies found, and this enables the organization to be more agile in using available talent. Each person loves a variety of tasks and roles. It keeps people motivated and stimulated at work.
Upskilling and training is a part of this talent and competency planning. The trend is not keeping individuals into boxes. The trend is competency and skill mapping. Individuals can be given new roles and functions that are more fulfilling. They can utilize existing skills while upskilling and taking on new responsibilities. In general, people are capable of a lot more (volume and variety of work) than they are doing.
Talent should be hired for what is needed in the future rather than what was required. Future skills can be catered for by upskilling and talent pooling. In the past, talent polling was possible by sourcing talent overseas. Recently the ability to get talent from overseas has become restricted.
For young people entering the workforce, Neeti suggests not to get confused by the available overload of information. There is much advice around, and it can be daunting, however, if each person focuses on purpose and making progress each day. There is no substitute for experience, and it will come to each person. However, focus on the now and making a degree of progress each day.
Be prepared to take risks. Making mistakes and having some setbacks is part of the learning process. Ignore the noise and focus on what you do well.
Summary:
There is a plethora of technology and new systems coming online.
How can people position themselves so they can leverage these technologies and opportunities?
Work hard at making big ideas tangible and able to be used in the workplace.
Look at the skills that exist in the organization; some are being underutilized. In general, people have more to contribute.
Transferability of skills – opening up new opportunities for a set of competencies is motivating for people.
Transferability of roles provides Fulfillment and flexibility.
Proactivity about future talent needs – look for talent pools and ready to go talent.
Focus on each day and the small steps that need to be taken to move forward.
Take risks and be prepared to make mistakes and experience some failures.