Kalappa K B, Country Head HR – Aster India says that professionals with HR analytical skills combined with finance acumen will have a great role to play in the organization
Q. Please tell us something about yourself. What have been the key highlights in your career?
I am an HR Professional with over two decades of experience across industries – mainly in Hospitality and Health care. I have been in the startup environment for a large part of my career. My healthcare stint has been really satisfying from setting up the processes, policies to working on HR automation and building culture to working on helping people develop capabilities.
Q. Any awards/achievements that you would want to share with us?
Yes, I would like to share a few notable achievements. I worked tirelessly and curated HRMS of eight modules with the help of a software engineer. I have also curated employee engagement and reward platform working closely with a technology company. I am also proud of the work done towards co-creating Applicant Tracking System which has been very useful in the organization.
Q. How can HR help create world class organizations in today’s context of evolving world of jobs?
HR can help create a world class organization in the following ways: a) Recruitment is the crux of building a world class organization. Recruiting quality people on board will help build a world class organization b) Setting the right culture from day one and then ensuring the organization implements it in letter and spirit by walking the talk consistently and always c) Coach and train people day in day out. This is a regular activity to be done over and over again. This is also a tried and tested way of building a pipeline of leaders d) Bring a culture of finance orientation to supervisors, middle managers and senior management in the organization. Cost consciousness, revenue generation and frugal in expenditure are ways to run an organization so that it grows sustainably.
Q. In context of the future of work, what new roles do you see emerging in the HR function? How should HR professionals prepare themselves to remain relevant?
With the world changing so rapidly, we are seeing work, workers and workplaces undergoing rapid transformation. Professionals with HR analytical skills and also having finance orientation will have a great role to play in the future of work. It’s also imperative that keeping technology at the forefront, HR folks should stay current and relevant, Those who understand financial aspects and add value to the business will be seen as major differentiators in the talent of the future. Agility, tech-savviness, finance orientation will be the key in the future of work.
You might also be interested to read: ‘There Is A Propensity Today To Blindly Copy Organizations That Have A Large Valuation’ -Naga Siddharth, CHRO & Head Teacher Excellence at Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
Q. What’s your view on the mega global trends in HR?
With AI taking the world to the next level, predictive analytics, data converted into meaningful MIS which give insights and trends to the business will have a big role to play. HR professionals should be tuned towards data and analytics and ensure they add value through their insights to the business.
Q. How does one ensure quality of hires in your business domain? Today, we see people everywhere but employability remains elusive.
We need to bring people from better pedigree who have the understanding of the subject not necessarily the sector. We shouldn’t shy away from innovating and brining people from different sectors and domains. This will automatically scale the organization to the next level as human resources will become more fungible and scalable. We should rotate people and help them multitask so that they can manage more than one departments. In this way, they will also be more embedded in the organization.
About Kalappa K B
Country Head HR – Aster IndiaKalappa K B is the Country Head HR – Aster India. He has over 2 decades of professional experience in areas such as setting process, policies, culture building, mentoring, coaching and training. Prior to joining DM Aster HealthCare India, Kalappa was with the Columbia Asia Hospitals over a decade and has been instrumental in establishing Human Resources function since the inception. Apart from healthcare, he has been with hospitality industry, over a decade.
Kalappa is a PGD in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations from Bangalore University. He is a life member of NHRD, NIPM and ISTD Bangalore chapter.
He has a keen interest in cycling and running. His other interests include fitness, automobile and sports.
