Managing diversity key to organisational growth

Hyderabad: A day-long AICTE-sponsored seminar on ‘Managing Workforce Diversity’ was organised at Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management on Saturday. Eminent personalities spoke on the managing workforce diversity. Inaugurating the seminar, the chief guest, Anand Pillai, Executive Vice-President, Reliance Industries, Mumbai , dwelt upon the contemporary scenario and the role of diversity management for economic growth of the nation.

He said the industry was looking out for people with talent. The problem is not of gender but of talent, we recruit individuals but not based on gender, he said. “When it comes to diversity in employment in India, women employees contribute 23 per cent in human resources sector. It is very much above the employability of women in USA in this sector.

The challenges the present-day women employees facing in industry is discrimination, harassment, exclusion,” he said. Keynote speaker S V Nathan, Director (Talent Acquisition- US India, Deloitte, dwelt on the contribution of managing diversity in the growth and development of Deloitte as an organization throughout the world.

The diversity is more pronounced in today’s workforce because of global clients. More women in India aspire to hold top jobs than the US. It is 36 per cent in USA whereas it is 86 per cent in India, he says. But at the same time India has less women in jobs, he observed. The inaugural session was followed by two discussions. The first panel consisted of Padma R Tata, Head (Learning and Development), Dr Reddy’s Labs, Yogesh Upadhyay, Head (HR), ARAI, Pune, and Sukanya Patwardan, Practice Leader, TMTC, Pune.

They deliberated on the challenges and issues of diversity management in different workplaces and nature and characteristics of problems arising there from. The second panel consisting of Sudhakar, CLO, Tata Projects, Dr Srinagesh Chatarajupalli, Principal (Education and Research), Infosys, and BSS Srinivas, HR Lead for Global Analytics, Hewlett Packard, have shared their experiences and stressed the criticality of diversity management for organisational success and the need for it in line with the diversity of our country.

Delivering the valedictory speech, Dr Mallikarjuna Rao, Mylan Laboratories, Hyderabad, stressed the inevitability of managing diversity in a globalised environment. Dr Rao emphasized the need for managers to be ready for effective in this direction. The Director, Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management, Dr. Kamal Ghosh Ray, welcomed the dignitaries. Dr G Manchala, Dean, VJIM, the Joint Secretary of Vignana Jyothi, K Harishchandra Prasad, also participated in the seminar.