Report on the Webinar on “HR Analytics in a Digital Platform”

Organized by The Department of BBA, The Bhawanipur Education Society College

• Convener : Prof. (Dr.) Suman Kumar Mukerjee, Director General, The Bhawanipur Education Society College
• Platform : Video conferencing through Zoom
• Date : 25th July, 2020 – Saturday (4 PM to 5:30 PM)

“Nothing we do is more important than hiring people. At the end of the day you bet on people not on strategies.”  A very sagacious quote spoken by a well-established author and entrepreneur Lawrence Bossidy.

The Department of BBA of The Bhawanipur Education Society College, held a webinar on Human Resource Analytics in a Digital Platform on the 13th of August, 2020.

The first esteemed speaker for the webinar was Mr. Sujoy Banerjee, a Human Resource professional with 28 years of experience across industry sectors varying from automobiles to infrastructure & construction in diverse capacities in renowned organizations like Dunlop, Philips, ICI and many others. At present he holds the position of “Group Chief People Officer” at Gainwell Commosales Private Limited. Sir has also been a member of the interview panel of various management institutes as well as an orator at national and international conferences.

The second renowned speaker of the event is Mr. Sanjay Roy Chowdhury, is an entrepreneur with a zeal to build an organization that adds value to Human Resources function and the way employees are trained. He was formerly the manager HR at Arvind Mills, as well as the associate director of human capital at Ernst & Young, looking after the Eastern Region, the SAARC countries and Saudi Arabia. He is also a certified DISC professional and ran a syndicated column on career counselling for the The Telegraph.

The webinar was commenced by the moderator Dr. Suman Kumar Mukerjee, a fellow of All India Management Association, also a member of the Indo British Scholars’ Association, and a recipient of the Mother Teresa International Award for Excellence in Education. Formerly, he’s been a consultant and corporate trained to leading corporates such as ITC, just one of the name amongst a very long list also a member of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industries. Dr. Mukerjee believes that Human resource is the brain of a business that controls the other branches of the organization and drive it to success that is, it is at crossroads of the company’s growth. Sir mentioned that H.R. Analytics is the science of gathering, organizing and analyzing data. Dr. Mukherjee presented baffling question to the speakers like “what is your take on pulse theory?” , “how to proceed with work force planning and to identify potential within the organization” among a few others. The magnetic orating skill of Dr. Mukerjee lead to the speaker also taking notes on topics in which they were well versed.

Mr. Mukherjee believes that this pandemic has been a catalyst for the manifolds of change occurring in organizations as we speak, that is while the businessmen were acting on a pace similar to that of a tortoise to take most of their operations digital, the pandemic faced all over the world has caused them to take the path of a rabbit. Pre- pandemic the organizations were toying with the idea of H.R. Analytics, post – pandemic the approach has become more aggressive. Sir believes that HR. Analytics is the backbone, architecture of an organization and imperative for its occurrence as it helps the company to thrive and keep -up with its competitors. India’s slow data connectivity is the very reason that the development of the country is slow in comparison to others as rightly pointed out by sir. Sir also explained the four buckets or pillars that HR Analytics help solve or needs a progress in that is mobility, sourcing, talent acquisition and candidate experience. Lastly sir concluded by saying that the most important quality required for a person or company in today’s world is agility.

Mr. Chowdhury, the current managing director for Gray Matters Consulting Pvt. Ltd. with over 13 years of experience in the organization, had a more technical approach to the concept of HR Analytics. Sir described in layman’s language that human resource doesn’t only really on the “gut feeling” of the designated manager but can also be mathematical in nature. Sir believes that “HR should go from being on to the table to at the table”, in the earlier periods HR was considered as a repository of data, but to put the data to correct use is where HR Analytics come in and drive the organization to the correct path by decoding the data collected. Sir introduced the audience to the concept of “Big Data”, while some of the spectators were already familiar with the knowledge, sir went into depths of the concept and help us grasp the basic foundation to build further knowledge for the aspiring HR Managers. Sir explained in grave details the 4V’s of Big Data that is “Volume, Variety, Velocity and Veracity.” Lastly even though sir agreed with the later speaker about the need to implement change and requirement to be at par with technology in order to receive success in life or for an organization he believed that’s “it’s better to learn walking rather than running.”

The audience members were rendered speechless with the knowledge provided to them, while the seminar proved to be helpful for the people who chose HR as a career path.

The event was a huge success owing it to the organisers the teachers of the BBA Department, the Presidents of the BBA- Event Management committee Dikshya Jha and Suyash Somvanshi along with Prof. Kaushik Banerjee Event Management Teacher Coordinator played a pivotal role for the success of the event.