Most organizationsare not ready for new generation employees

Speaking at a conference on "Communication & Interpersonal Relationship at Workplace” organized by Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, Ms. Debyani Sinha, Head HR of NEC Technologies Ltd. said, “Most organizations are yet to learn to cope up with the high aspiration levels, approachesand attitudes of today’s generation and are not ready to recruit them as they are not equipped to attract, engage, motivate and retain the new generation work force. Understanding this exciting new generation and aligning them with the existing work force and the organization, has been a challenge for one and all.”

With India emerging as one of the youngest work-force in the world, the new generation employees are bringing in drastic changes in work places across verticals particularly in IT/ ITES e-commerce sectors. The lifestyle of this new generationemployeesare different. Their way of communication is different, so are the motivating factors. According to Deloitte’s Millennial Survey, 41 percent of them prefer to communicate electronically than other forms of communication. And given an option 44 per cent would quit the present job within 2 years to join a new organization or to do something new, say the same report.

Speaking on the topic of Challenges of Interpersonal Relationship Ms. Debyani, who is also an alumni of Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow and presently heads global HR operations of NEC Technologies India, said, “This otherwise talented, tech savvy new generation also experts in multi-tasking,feels interpersonal relationship is something which can be developed instantly. They fail to understand and lack the patience which is necessary for developing interpersonal relationship and bonding between two employees in a professional environment. Once a young girl recruited as a fresher approached the HR with a grievance against her supervisor stating that the supervisor was treating her as if he was her parent. So, we had to counsel both.”

Prof. Dr. Ajay K Jain from MDI Gurgaon spoke about the impacts and the cost of being silent in a workplace can be fatal for the business, the organization and the individual. Citing Mahabharata and examples of corporate biggies like Enron, Lehmein Brothers, Prof. Jain explained how if people with insights instead of choosing to remain silent had spoken up, major disasters could have been avoided. Dr. Purnima Agarwal, Former Head of Department, Psychology, University of Lucknow, encouraged students on “Building Interpersonal Relations at Workplace” and presented an interactive case study with situational analysis.

Mr. Vijay Rai, M.D – Enterprise Business, Asia Pacific and EMEA Markets, Saviour US INC. and President NHRD, Delhi Chapter, in his valedictory speech spoke at length on the relevance of communication in developing healthy interpersonal relations and how ‘design thinking’ – an approach that can be used to think through relationship issues and applied in business to seek help in breaking the barriers of Interpersonal relationship in workplace. Mr. Rai also mentioned how this new generation with constant mobile connectivity and being used to with real-time interactions, can leverage on their superior adaptability to newer technologies for effective communication within the work place, however, a positive intent is the most critical component in the entire relationship building process.

Among other eminent speakers present were Prof. Mirza Saiyadain, Professor, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow & Former Professor, IIM Ahmedabad; Prof. M. M. Monippally, Former Professor, IIM Ahmedabad and Dr. Kavitha Pathak from Jaipuria Lucknow who has been a founding member of the institute.

Located in Gomtinagar in Lucknow, Jaipuria Institute of Management offers state of the art infrastructure and value for money to its 300 management students. The institute has constantly been ranked among best private B-schools of India in various surveys and ranked 49th in NIRF survey. The other campuses of Jaipuria Institute of Management, is located in Noida, Jaipur and Indore.