CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) works to create and sustain an environment conductive to the growth of industry in India, partnering industry and government alike through advisory and consultative processes.
Chandigarh based CII-Avantha centre for competitiveness for SMEs is one stop shop for SME development with a pan India approach. This time CII-Avantha had organized a workshop on HR for SMEs at Chandigarh on 23rd March 2017.
Six students of MBA II Semester namely Ajit Bhura, Ashima Gupta, Darshana Ranka, Meghna Bagree, Nikunj Chandak and Yogesh Duggar attended this workshop, where they came to know about the HR practices and its importance. At the beginning of session, a small energizer in the form of an ice breaker exercise was done with all the participants. They formed concentric circles which made them familiar with the other participants through a brief introduction. The session began with the speech of the spokesperson Ms. Jasmeet Nagpal, Counsellor HRM remarking about the corporate truth “Drive slowly… Do not kill the employees… Leave them to us… We do it in a legal way… Regards HR.”
The participating students became aware of the contribution of SME and MSME’s towards GDP and their framework and other facts as follows:
- Economic Indicators and globally SMEs contribute over 90% of Business Enterprises and 50-60% of total Employment.
- There are about 3.2 million business enterprises in our country.
- Enterprises employing up to 99 persons constitute over 95% of business enterprises.
- SMEs contribute 30% to GDP and employ about 78% of the Non-Agrilabor force.
- The numbers of SME or SSI units in 2007 were estimated at 44 lakhs, which today has decreased to 40 lakhs.
- Familiarity with various HR functions like Administration Strategic Planning, Staff Benefits, Job evaluation, Employee relations, staffing budgets, Compensation, Payroll administration, performance appraisal, Training and Talent development, organization design, Team and Project Management and highlighted the importance of measuring these.
- Myths about HR such as - HR is for people who are good at interacting with others; HR is a women’s profession etc.
- Answers to various tricky questions which one generally asked in interviews were discussed there like – Tell me about yourself, Greatest Strength and Weakness, Why should I hire you, to mention a few.
- Difference between Traditional HR and New HR, particularly the changing role of HR as a strategic business partner.
- The difference between Personnel and Human Resource on 27 different parameters like on the basis of Contract, Rule, Guide to Management action, Behaviour referent, Key relations, Corporate plan, Speed of decision, Communication, Standard, condition, Pay, Selection, Job design, training and development.
- A case study discussion of the Dabbawala with a short film on this delving on the basic factors on which it was working, how it was working including the six sigma concept.
Thus the students became acquainted with the importance and functions of HR in SME’s. They understood that HR is fundamentally more important for SMEs as one employee can disrupt the entire business. They got practical insight into the application of major HR concepts being learnt in the class room.