The two-day XLRI’s flagship Human Resources Conclave KRONOS -21, kicked off on Sunday on a virtual platform.
The theme for the conclave was "Re-defining the Role of Human Resources for the Future.”
The conclave was inaugurated with the Dean Academics of the B-school Ashish K. Panis delivering his speech.
The inaugural session of the conclave was also addressed by Anita Sarkar, chairperson, HRM Area, XLRI and chief guest Deepa Narayan, vice-president, Employee Success at Salesforce.
This was followed by a keynote address by Rajlakshmi Saikia, vice- president, Global Learning Operations, Genpact on “Next-Gen HRM”.
This was followed by a panel discussion on "Decoding Diversity and Inclusion" and the session was moderated by Shreyashi Chakraborty, chairperson, Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusive Leadership, XLRI.
There was an experience sharing session by Susan Mathew, HR Head India, LinkedIn - Human Resources Planning on the Covid-19 situation.
The first day of the conclave concluded with a session "Experts ki Pathshala" conducted by Anish Raj, director HR, Sentieo and Vipin Sharma, head HR Strategy, Analytics and HR Innovation Lab, Tata Steel.
The audience comprised an eclectic mix of professionals and students across various fields like IT, manufacturing, banking, finance, insurance, construction etc., faculty members, and guests.
On the first day, the conclave witnessed HR experts and leaders from various industries which include Sweta Mohapatra, associate director HR, Fortune 500; Shriya Dutt, director HR, Qualcomm; Monica Dhar, general manager HR, Reliance Industries and Puneet Rajput, HR head, Thermofisher Scientific.
In her welcome address Anita Sarkar, chairperson, HRM Area, XLRI said, ” The two-day conclave is a unique initiative by our Executive Post Graduate Diploma in Management ( Ex PGDM) students where industry and academia meet and together explore the role of HR, and employees and employer relationship. A very relevant theme has been chosen - Redefining the role of Human Resource for the future’. The pandemic has taught many lessons and has similarly posed many questions. I believe the two-day conclave will help us to seek answers to many such questions and even help us to generate a few more infringing questions.”
While speaking on Rethinking HRM Amidst Disruptions Deepa Narayan, vice- president, Employee Success at Salesforce said, “What happened to all of us a year and a half ago, Covid came like whiplash, it nudged all of us hard to think and it redefined our choices. We are talking about how we can be optimistic at the same time to be grounded with realities. The world going forward will require leaders that can blend courage and compassion together”.
The concluding day of the conclave tomorrow will start with a keynote session on Leadership Agility by Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director, Nestle India Ltd and How to be the best candidate for hiring? by Anurag Patnaik, Head of Human Resource, Nestle.
It will be followed by a plenary address by author-cum- management consultant Abhijit Bhaduri who will speak on the topic "Careers in a Hybrid Corporate World."
