Employee Recognition & Engagement - Two Sides of the Same Coin

With an agenda so compelling, the entire HR fraternity joined hands at the #SHRM India Annual Conference 2022 ‘titled ‘Cause the Effect’, that was aimed at inculcating engagement and building a positive impact on the workplace. 

Each one of us can create a wave, and together these waves can collectively become a Tsunami of change!

The Summit brought together industry stalwarts, cultural leaders and Reward professionals, who need to work together as a leadership team to build a stronger and meaningful company culture in today’s time. 

Each day, leaders actively look for ways to use their employees’ capabilities; but as they do this, there is a tendency for a bulk of organizational talent to go untapped. A large part of leadership success is understanding how to reimagine the role of leaders with a focus on the organization’s biggest priorities. 

On these lines, addressing the first keynote session Ram Charan , Business Consultant, Author, CEO Advisor said, “Communication in the workplace has always been important. It should be as clear as it can be. There is no communication until the information is received, read and understood by the employee in the same sense and in the same meaning at the other end. Therefore, communication is what the receiver understands, but not what the sender conveys.”

As Dr. Charan rightly depicts, communication is the key to motivate and engage employees and as we all return to the workplace, effective interaction has suddenly been raised in importance by the new working patterns. 

To explain it further, AdvantageClub.ai ’s Co-Founder & COO, Smiti Bhatt Deorah , laid the emphasis on effective and memorable recognition that serves a sense of purpose for employees to contribute in the workplace. 

Deorah said, “Employees today are looking for an experience that is meaningful and fulfilling. As long as you have a sense of purpose, it will give a meaning to your work and likewise will motivate you to stick to the organization. Also, it is not just about work, but rather being fulfilled beyond work.” 

Without a doubt, platforms that can better understand the unique needs of individual employees are critical to success. Effective and memorable recognition will experience that align with an individual’s sense of purpose and are also authentic and personalized. Know more about creating those effective experiences is a skill that will need to be developed among leaders and across entire workforces as part of this session.

“Understanding your workforce is critical in today’s time. It will help in bridging the gap between entry level employees and managers which will further eliminate all the barriers of communication at workplace”, Deorah further adds. 

Creating an employee experience that fosters engagement, job satisfaction, collaboration and productivity is among the main goals for any organization. This is the culture Raj T. , Chief Strategy Officer, AdvantageClub.ai swears by. “

“A pat on the back goes a long way in achieving desired business objectives. From just a pat to employees demanding more benefits, the employee reward strategy has grown and risen to heights like never before”, Tanwar further explains.

Today's turnover crisis has almost mandated a comprehensive and creative total rewards strategy-one that focuses on more than compensation alone. Understanding that total rewards start with deep insight into the employee experience is crucial to succeed. 

The session addressed by Tanwar & other dignitaries, Naveen Narayanan CHRO, Biocon , Dr. Vishwanath Joshi, Chief People Officer, Hexaware Technologies , Rabeen Singh , CHRO, TATA Advanced Systems Limited & Aditya Kohli CHRO, Orient Electric , stressed on finding the perfect balance between supporting employees' needs and wants in an affordable, competitive and attractive way as part of this session.

“Making the culture of recognition visible is pivotal in today’s time. The entire mindset comes down to recognition and who actually cares to recognize within the organization. Peer recognition will make a huge difference in the workplace”, Joshi adds. 

Another engaging discussion was witnessed on ‘Talent Transcending Borders: Future of Work’ which was addressed by Varun Aggarwal , General Manger Alliances, AdvantageClub.ai . 

Addressing about the various aspects of expanding businesses across borders “While hiring talent from across borders can solve several organizational woes, the practical aspects can be challenging. When we enter new geographies, there are political and cultural barriers which needs to be addressed to ensure that productivity is not hampered in the process”, Aggarwal said. 

The following ‘Power Shift Panel’ was addressed some of the well renowned faces in the HR sphere. The session was moderated by Gaurav Lahiri , Partner - Leader, Human Capital Consulting, Deloitte . 

Praveen Someshwar & CEO, HT Media Ltd stressed upon how the narrative has changed post the pandemic. “Before the pandemic, employees were on the driving seat and knew exactly when to stop the car. The narrative has completely changed today. Today, organisations are sacking employees irrespective of a culture driven organization”, he said. 

On the other hand, Vivek Bhatia, MD & CEO & Member of the Board, thyssenkrupp spoke about the importance of connected leadership. 

“We are not working with an army of robots but characters. Everybody is unique with their strengths and weaknesses. It is the HR’s responsibility to make the leadership team understand the importance of working together and ignore the weaknesses and rather focus on the strengths of the employees. Connected Leadership is the way forward”, adds Bhatia. 

Apart from insightful keynote addressed by renowned thought leaders and engaging conversations, it was inspiring to hear famous TV Presenter & Actress Mandira Bedi in her masterclass - Mind over Matter, where she shared her personal growth story and spoke about multi-dimensional wellness and how it has transformed her lives over the years. 

Stay tuned to know more about what power to unleash as leaders, and what capabilities to nurture in others to create winning organizations of the future.