HR Meet 2011

Theme: Learn From the Leaders
Date: February 24, 2011 8:00am onwards
Venue: The Everest Hotel, Kathmandu

Introduction

With the inception of HR Meet 2008 Growth Sellers Private Limited, first came up with the idea of creating a common platform to discuss HR issues and create HR awareness in the context of Nepal.  Ever since then HR Meet has continued to take place annually based on enormous feedback from participants and stakeholders. It was the sole effort of G.S. when it made the attempt to bring HR professionals together then to interact, learn, experience, and share when various keynote speakers from diverse fields contributed for the overall well being of the HR community and promoting awareness.  Based on the recognition of the need of a program as such HR Meet 2009 saw increased participation and the popularity of the program continues on a steady pace.  In the year 2010 the program saw a tremendous turnover of participants exceeding to 200 plus with maximum participants from different sectors registering for the meet on their own self initiatives and even observed increased counter registration.

Following the commitment of organizing HR Meet every year Growth Sellers again organized HR Meet 2011 on February 24, 2011, Thursday at the Grande Ball Room of Everest Hotel, New Baneswore.  The program was inaugurated by Magsaysay Award Winner Mr. Mahabir Pun.  The program was facilitated by Master of Ceremony Mr. Somesh Verma.  It started after the formal inaugural with a web-cast by Mr. Barry Maher, world’s renowned motivational expert and fourth ranking sales management expert who was listed as one of the keynote speakers but due to his health problem could not make his physical presence to the conference.

This year HR Meet 2011 was organized with the theme “Learn from the Leaders.” Around 200 participants from corporate sector, financial institutions, academic institutions, NGO/INGO, and various organizations attended the one-day program which included keynote sessions from leading HR leaders and management consultants from USA, India, and Nepal.  As a part of Growth Sellers’ commitment of adding new feature to the program every year, this year’s meet featured three selected presentations from the participants to enable participants to share their knowledge amid a prestigious crowd represented by different individuals from a wide array of organizations.

The highlight of the event was the award for the best HR Manager of the Year, initiated in the year 2010 by Growth Sellers which in itself is the first attempt in Nepal to felicitate an outstanding HR Manager.  Ms. Nita Rana from Golccha Organization was awarded with the title HR Manager of the Year 2009 in the year 2010.  Giving continuity to the felicitation program Mr. Kumar Joshi from Everest Bank was awarded with the title HR Manager of the Year 2010 amid HR Meet this year.  He has been working in Everest Bank in the capacity of HR Manager for the past 5 years. He was awarded the title jointly by MAN (Management Association of Nepal) president Dr. Janak Raj Shah and past HR Manager of the year Ms. Nita Rana.

Country Context

• Nepal being an underdeveloped country had been deprived of new advancements in terms of institutionalization of HR and HR issues, a decade back.  Today what is being handled by the HR Department used to be poorly managed by the admin Department prior.  Along with the promotion of HR in academia, establishments of MNC’s, we have witnessed increased awareness in terms of HR.  This has resulted in designations of HR Managers and HR heads solely dedicated to the HR department along with other HR-related designations which in itself is a huge achievement.  Similarly, the government has also realized the need for a separate ministry and the Ministry of General Administration has been proposed to be converted to HR Ministry.
• More and more HR-related workshops and programs are being organized as a result of Growth Sellers’ annual event HR Meet which has been patented by Department of Industry authorizing Growth Sellers as the only entity that can organize HR Meet in Nepal.  We have been able to see a remarkable impact of the past HR Meets where companies and HR professionals are showing their increased concern on HR issues and more and more HR wings are being established in various organizations throughout the country.
• Growth Sellers’ sole attempt has been to promote a greater picture of definition of HR as always as people still think that HR means only people who are head of the HR department or HR executives and Growth Sellers has always believed instead of considering HR department as the only unit that drives the company, it is imperative to bring together all the company resources under the umbrella of HR resources to empower the main asset of a company the human capital.  Growth Sellers’ attempt has been widely applauded by all over and Growth Sellers has gained significant success in its attempt to strengthen and empower HR and HR issues with increasing trend of participation from different designations from low ranking to high ranking officials and different companies ranging from small to giant ones with the sole goal being empowerment of the HR community and promoting best practices in HR and creating a common platform for HR issues.

Event Highlights

• International Motivational Speaker and sales trainer Mr. Barry Maher from U.S.A, Mr. Sanjay Muthal, member of advisory board of World HRD Congress; Mr. L P Bhanu Sharma, Principal Apex College (renowned spiritual educator and teacher), Ms. Saagarika Ghoshaal, President-HR Reliance Big Entertainment, India were the major resource persons contributing to the different dimensions of the program.
• Mr. Barry Maher who made his presence via web-cast gave a short presentation on “Filling The Glass-For HR Professionals” based on his popular book Filling The Glass listed as one of the 7 essential business books in the world.  He stressed on the importance of positive thinking for successful performance.  He illustrated an wonderful example of how people can have different vision about a glass being seen as half empty and half full when the content and the scenario is the same and the fact that we can have different visions for the same scenario and what is important is the common goal as filling the glass which also depicts professional excellence in terms of what we do.
• Ms. Saagarika Ghoshaal, listed among the 50 influential HR leaders in Asia conducted a very interactive session involving the participants and shared her experience being the HR President of an organization having more than 25,000 employees. Saagarika currently is the Chief People Officer of Reliance BIG Entertainment (Reliance ADAG).  She has been listed in 50 Most Influential HR Leaders in Asia.  She is an international speaker, trainer and a practitioner with an impressive HR track record spanning twenty years in dynamic industries like airlines and telecom which includes companies like, Jet Airways, RPG and Bharati Airtel.  She is frequently invited to write as well to share her learning at national and international academic institutions and professional forums like SHRM, World HR Congress to name a few . She has been conferred with various accolades like, award for “Most Powerful HR Professionals of India“ which was presented at Singapore in July 2010, RASBIC personality of the year 2005, HR Leadership award 2008, Woman Super Achiever, recognition for Outstanding Leadership promoting Diversity and Selfless contribution to Human Resources Development.  She is also on the Advisory board of World HR Congress and European HR Directors Business Summit.  She was also one of the speakers in World HRD Congress 2011 held in Mumbai.
• Her presentation was entitled “Progressive India Winning Talent War Towards Superior Business Performance.  She stressed the core strength is to bring real impact to organizational results by bringing together the best talent practices needed to attract, engage, build, leverage and retain top talent and also shed light on the global challenges we are facing today in terms of overall well being of an organization. She also said we need to aim to foster a high performance culture by developing leadership capabilities, providing learning opportunities and delivering best in class practices.  She reflected on the social, economic and emotional aspect of employment as prime factors enabling employees to perform better.
• Mr. Sanjay Muthal from Nugrid Consulting Mumbai, listed among 50 influential HR leaders in India and member of the advisory board of World HR Congress gave a presentation titled “The Changing World and Its Implication on The
• Future of HRM.”  Mr. Muthal is recipient of “India’s Greatest HR Professional” award conferred at World HRD Congress 2006. Mr. Muthal is well connected within HR fraternity in India and abroad & is also on various Industry bodies, HR Associations and on advisory board of several management institutes.
• His presentation was focused on the role of HR in the world’s changing economy. He analyzed the positioning of India and China over the years to come as world’s leading economy based on the current speedy economical progress of India and stressed on the fact that Nepal being the closest neighbor and sharing many features in common culturally, socially and historically to be one of the prime beneficiary through the financial enrichment of India and China. He also gave a brief insight on changing paradigms in the Asian Context and new models of business reality.
• Mr. L P Bhanu Sharma, renowned spiritual educator and teacher who is from Nepal and travels extensively around the world made a wonderful presentation on Spiritual Approach to Stress Management.  He enlightened the participants with his mystical speech and participatory approach utilizing music and meditation which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the participants of the HR Meet. He also stressed on the fact that only a healthy mind can perform better and pointed the importance of leading a stress-free life personally and professionally by adapting meditation.
• Ms. Kathleen Heilman from Germany made a presentation from the participants titled HR Standard Processes.  Similarly Mr. Diwakar Pandey from Apex College made a presentation on Mentoring in Workplace and Mr. Rajiv Karna from Exclusive Minds made a presentation on Using Information Technology for Human Resource Management.

Transfer of Learning to the Workplace

G.S. provided copies of CDs of Mr. Maher’s presentation based on one of his outstanding training sessions held in USA. Similarly all the presentations by all the speakers will be posted in HR Meet’s official web site, www.hrmeet.com.np from where it can be downloaded for free and also who could not participate can benefit from the proceedings of the event by logging on to the site.

Conclusion

The program was a grand success with overwhelming participation from various sectors and various places of the nation. Participants made queries with the resource persons during Q&A session with regards to the input they received on various aspects of the resource persons’ presentations and speeches.

HR Meet also served as an opportunity for everyone involved to meet new people, explore new avenues increase business and personal networking and engage in relevant conversation.

This year’s program also observed participation from neighboring country India and Germany which in itself describes the growing popularity of the program not only nationally but globally albeit nominal participation from abroad.

The event ended with vote of thanks from Growth Sellers Chairman Mr. Mohan Ojha with the commitment to meet in upcoming HR Meet 2012, followed by cocktail dinner.  Growth Sellers Chairman expressed his hearty thanks to all the entities listed below without whose support and contribution the program would not have proved as successful as it has been in terms of recognition and popularity.

Feedback

Growth Sellers had taken immediate feedback from the participants amid the program in order to engage the participants as a major contributor to the success of future program by their honest feedback.  The program received an overwhelming positive feedback from the participants appreciating the importance of such event and suggestions for betterment of future HR Meets.

Participant feedback ranged from rating the program excellent to suggestion for organizing the program as 2-day workshop instead of just a one-day workshop. In an attempt to make the program more interactive and participatory participants thoroughly enjoyed the speakers as all the keynote speakers moved around the hall and made the program interactive instead of just delivering speech from the podium.