Volume 1 - Issue 8 - ICTACT.IN

Tech TalkHR’s New Avtar – “CompetencyCustodian”Lakshmi Narayanan, Head Career & Talent, HCLAs the HR Intensive Indian IT Industrymatures up, HR Function is also inevitablyundergoing changes in what is expectedout of the functionStarting from a USP of low cost resourceprovider at the dawn of IT Industryin 80’s HR function in IT Industry hasdonned numerous “avatars” in tune withdemand of the industry. In the processit has also gone through a metamorphosisof fission and mutations. CurrentlyHR function in IT industry has many faceslike HR Business Partner, EmployeeEngagement Partner, CnB specialist,Workforce Planning Cell, OrganizationDevelopment Cell etc.The latest in this evolution of HR isthat of a role of “Competency Custodian”driven by the latest synergic developmentsin the fields of Competency BasedManagement and Human Capital managementOrganizations are increasingly lookingforward to HR playing the role of a strategicbusiness partner by being the maincustodian of the enterprise human capital.HR is expected to assess, catalogueand calibrate the total skill value of the enterprisehuman capital and show case itas a Business Capability to win BusinessDeals.This process involves three major stages:• Building a Role CompetencyArchitecture• Integration of Role Competencywith Capability Building• Human Capital as Business LeverBuilding a Role Competency ArchitectureIn this role HR has to build a RoleCompetency Architecture with the followingelementsIntegration of Role Competency withCapability BuildingIdentification and Integration of Roleand Competencies is followed by designingprograms to build capability to acquirethose competencies. This is usually doneby the Learning and Development (L&D)arm of HR Function which may includeTechnical and Non-technical Skill buildingFunction.Human Capital as Business LeverSuch systematic identification andconscious building of capability acts as apotent business lever for gaining marketadvantageOne of the most important aspects ofconsideration in Business Proposals iswhat called “People Readiness “ where afirms highlight the Human Capital Valuewith following aspects which reflects theorganisation’s readiness to successfullytake up the assignment:• People Readiness Matrix with rolesand Skill Proficiency• Role Profiles• Human Capital Effort Cost• Future Talent CapabilityEnhancement PlanGiven below a sample of extract from aBusiness Proposal to develop avionic mobileapplications presented by CompanyXYZ Ltd which is a leading SoftwareVendor and leader in the Engineering andR&D Domain to a Company ABC Ltd -which is one of the world’s biggest aircraftmanufacturerXYZ Ltd Proposed Team FactoryModel Based on the current understanding,XYZ Ltd proposes the following initialJune 2013 I 32