Jan 30, 2021

Recap of the panel on Digital HR at the Economic Times HR World Conference

 As I had stated earlier, I moderated a session on Digital HR yesterday. 








It went off quite well, and here's a recap of the discussion:

Priyanka Anand, VP and Head of HR, South East Asia, Oceania & India, Ericsson, said, “When the pandemic happened, 85,000 employees overnight started working from home in Ericsson across 180 countries. It was an overnight decision to prioritise employee safety over anything else.”


Vishpala Reddy, Head - HR, Indian Subcontinent, Philips, described the use of technological tools as non-negotiable in the present times, as the push to go digital for curriculum happened in 2020. On being asked how these tools would be useful, she said, “As an HR practitioner, the three buckets would be Business Continuity, Learning and Engagement.”

Talking about the data collected through surveys and employee engagement programmes, the experts acknowledged that ‘data is the king’. Adding to this, Anand said, “Analytics is the eye of the fish and that's how we run the HR function.”

Rajiv Kumar, VP and Country Leader - India, SumTotal Systems, talked about the uncertainties when the pandemic hit and how the HR played an important role in enabling the smooth functioning of organisations.