#134: On the role of HR leaders as strategic business partners, and enabling top-down approach to building learning cultures, with Atul Mathur

If you care about leadership, Atul Mathur is someone you should know.

Atul combines a career in Human Resources—including working with Indian telecom operator giants like Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Max New York Life Insurance & Times Group—with a perspective that captures both the big picture and the nitty-gritty details of what it takes to build today’s workforce.

He currently brings that expertise as the Executive Vice-president at Aditya Birla Capital. Having been a part of the HR fraternity, he has years of corporate leadership experience to his name.

On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, hear him share his insights on various aspects of leadership. From adapting to changing world conditions, enabling and embracing empathy, and practising mindfulness - he opens his heart in this extremely engaging conversation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• The role of HR Leaders as strategic business partners
• Why employees are the most important customers in any organisation
• How upskilling your workforce benefits your organization
• Enabling ‘Top-Down’ approach to building learning cultures
• Why is it important for leaders to stay on top of technological changes & innovations to effectively counsel their teams

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Role of HR as a Strategic Business Partner

Mr. Mathur explains his journey of how he, an electrical engineer, transformed his career in HR. The interviewer asks about the role of HR as a strategic business partner. Mr. Mathur replies, saying that the role of HR has grown from being a support function to being a strategic business partner because HR understands various functions of an organization. HR leaders now play the role of strategic business partners to MD and other business leaders of a company, and organizations were recognized when the HR leaders played a pivotal role.

Are Employees the First Customers of a Company?

Mr. Mathur thinks that employees are the first customers of any company. If employees are customers, it means that they are happy with the organization. He feels that HR and other leaders should take care of their employees and practice diversity and inclusion in the workplace. When they do that, the employees take care of the customers, he adds. According to Atul, progressive organizations do that and put humans first and resources later.

Upscaling and Descaling to address the issue of evolving skills

While answering this question, Mr. Mathur gives an example of how a salesperson can use digital technology to reach customers. He emphasizes learning new skills and highlights the importance of mindset and skill set.

While answering the learning and development questions, he explains that even customers need to be groomed and skilled as they are a part of the ecosystem. The complete ecosystem should be aligned per the L&D programs, he feels.

Why is it essential for leaders to stay on top of technology changes and innovation?

While answering this question, Atul ascertains the importance of the pandemic and how it brought digital mediums into the forefront. An HR leader should propagate digital mediums, and they must also be able to demonstrate it. Therefore, management should learn things that they want their subordinates to practice. The top leaders should be passionate about new trends and bring ideal elements from a business point of view.

The necessity of blended learning and instructor-led learning

Physical classroom programs, inner engineering programs, seminars, and other programs were organized where Mr. Mathur is serving. He feels virtual training should be conducted differently.

Follow Atul on LinkedIn
Produced by: Priya

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