building hr competencies in rpg group

October | 2010 NHRD Network Journal 17

About the Authors

Dr. Arvind Agrawal is an IIT Kharagpur and IIM (A) alumnus,majoring in Marketing and Human Resource Development. Since1999, he is President – Corporate Development and Group HR inthe RPG Group. His current responsibilities in RPG comprise HR,TQM and Information Technology. The first 12 years of hisworking life were spent in the HR function incompanies like Escorts and Modi Xerox. Onthe professional front, Arvind has been active

in Management & HR forums in the country. In 1992, he wasawarded the National HRD Award.

Yogesh Patgaonkar, a product of Narsee Monjee Institute ofManagement Studies currently Vice President - Group HR at RPGEnterprises.

BUILDING HR COMPETENCIES IN RPG GROUP —LAYING FOUNDATION FOR A STRONG

BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPDr. ARVIND N AGRAWAL and YOGESH PATGAONKAR

Frequent travelers to city of Bangalorewho also love food, can’t escape “MTR”

near Lalbaugh. Set up in the mostunassuming environment, the place hasalways been on the “Top of the Foodie’sList” for decades. For the patrons, the nameis synonymous with high quality andhygiene. To build a reputation like thatwithout spending a shilling on interiorsmust have been a herculean task. If youlook into the history, the strategy adoptedwas very simple – “For many years, theentrance to the restaurant was through thekitchen to enable the patrons to get satisfiedwith the cleanliness in the kitchen beforeactually eating the food”….. Simple yetprofound ….. if you are familiar with thecredibility of MTR, they got the formulacorrect ….. to build your credibility, firststart with your kitchen and not the dininghall!

We, at RPG HR, in our journey to becomebusiness partners took a somewhat similarpath about a decade back. It has been anenriching experience to build thispartnership on the foundation of“credibility first” – a journey that gatheredmomentum with first putting the kitchenin order – by starting with building HRcompetencies and then continuing it as away of life…….

Background:

The RPG Group is one of the leadingbusiness conglomerates with diversifiedinterests. By the turn of the millennium,RPG Group was a significant player insectors as diverse as Tyres, Power,Infrastructure, Entertainment, Agriculture,Technologies, Retail, Chemicals as well asLife Sciences.

02 NHRD Oct2010_1.p65 10/26/2010, 1:16 PM17

18 October | 2010 NHRD Network Journal

“The RPG Vision”

We shall be a leading Indian Group with a focuson market capitalisation through:

Alignment of HR Vision and mandate to RPG Vision and Values

Define HR Competency Model in line with HR Vision and mandate

Identification of key HR Roles and Design of “Role-Competency requirement matrix” for each role

Identification of HR professionals to be assessed against each role

Assessment of HR professionals as per the “Role-Competency requirement matrix” and feedback

Development Action Plans (DAPs) and execution of agreed DAPs by concerned HR professionals

Exhibit – 1

The RPG Group has always believed in thephilosophy of nurturing leadershippipeline through developing internaltalent. There is also a belief that at GeneralManagement level, it is more aboutManagement than about domain andhigh-caliber managers can move acrossthe domains and businesses. As per thelast survey as high as 80% of ourSBU Heads/CEOs have track recordof working with at least two of the RPGGroup businesses.

All this has posed a unique challenge toHuman Resources Function - to act as glueto the diverse set of businesses and playan active role to develop leadershippipeline across the businesses. One of thesignificant interventions is the constitutionof HR – Business Review Board (HR-BRB)comprising HR Heads of all companiestogether with President HR who also is apart of Management Board of RPG Group.HR BRB is chaired by Group Chairman Mr.Harsh Goenka himself and is held onceevery quarter. This has proved to be asimple yet effective way for the RPG HRcommunity to stay in touch. In one of theseHR BRBs it was decided that in order tobecome a strong business partner, we mustwork on building the HR competencies.The starting point was the directionprovided by the Group Chairman to theHR community to embark on the HRcompetency development.

Process of Building HR competencies inRPG

Exhibit 1 shows various steps involved inimplementation HR competency initiativesat RPG Group. The details of each of thesteps are given below:

Alignment of HR Vision and Mandate toRPG Vision and Values:

RPG Vision and Values form thefoundation of HR Competency Model

Leadership in Profitability and RevenueGrowth in our chosen businesses

Being a Customer centric organisation

Being the most exciting workplace

The vision clearly spelt out the importanceof all stake-holders viz: Investors,customers and employees.

“RPG Core Values”1. Customer Sovereignty2. People Orientation3. Innovation and Entrepreneurship4. Transparency and Integrity5. Anticipation, Speed & Flexibility6. Passion for Superior Performance

“HR Vision and Mandate”The HR vision and the HR Mandate isderived from the RPG Group Vision. The

02 NHRD Oct2010_1.p65 10/26/2010, 1:16 PM18


RPG HR Competency Model has fourcritical components :

A. Business Masterya. Commercial Skillsb. Management skillsc. Strategic Perspective

B. HR Masterya. Management Development Skillsb. Functional Expertise

C. Change & process Masterya. Conceptual Skillsb. Group Process Skillsc. Reasoning Ability

D. Personal Attributes (defined as traits‘Must Have’ in HR professionals andaligned to the RPG Core Values)a. Customer Orientationb. People Orientation & Meeting

Commitmentsc. Innovation and Entrepreneurshipd. Transparency and Integritye. Anticipation, Speed & Flexibilityf. Passion for Superior Performance

Identification of key HR Roles andDesign of “Role-Competencyrequirement matrix” for each roleThis was one of the most importantsteps in the diversified RPG Group. Theseroles were defined to ensure thatall important HR functions across theRPG Group are covered. Identification ofthese roles also ensured a commonframework of competency assessment forHR function.

Following were the 8 HR roles identified:1. Head – Learning & Development2. Training Manager3. Unit IR Head

4. IR Manager

HR Mandate for the RPG Group lists downthe key deliverables for the HR Functionin the Group. These have been identifiedbased on the expectations from the HRFunction as defined by the GroupChairman . Qualitative inputs were alsotaken from CEOs and Managing Directorsof the Group Companies about theirexpectations from HR.

HR Vision:“Creating an exciting workplace whichinspires superior people performance”

With this vision, HR is mandated to createan ethos that helps employees live the RPGvalues and deliver the results as per thevision.

HR Mandate:Key deliverables of HR Mandate:

1. Build a High Performance Organization

2. Align HR interventions with BusinessObjectives

3. Drive People Development & GrowthOpportunities

4. Champion RPG Values

5. Creating an Exciting Workplace

RPG HR Competency ModelA team of HR professionals drawn fromvarious businesses helped to finalise theRPG HR Competency model and itsCritical components.

Exhibit – 2 : RPG HR Competency Model

02 NHRD Oct2010_1.p65 10/26/2010, 1:16 PM19


5. Sector HR Head

6. Company HR Head

7. Unit HR Head

8. HRD Manager

Each of these roles was mapped against thedesired level of competencies as per RPGHR Competency Framework andmeasurement parameters were evolved todefine “Role-Competency RequirementMatrix” for each of these roles. Please referAnnexure I that represents the Matrix forthe Role of Head – Learning &Development. Matrix with desired level ofcompetencies was designed for each role.

Please note that though the competenciesare common across all the HR roles, thelevel of competencies required for each rolewill be different. The levels ofcompetencies are rated on a scale of 1 to 5and are defined as follows:

1. Basic

2. Developing

3. Competent

4. Advanced

5. Expert

Assessment of HR professionals as perthe “Role-Competency requirementmatrix” and feedback

Annexure - I

02 NHRD Oct2010_1.p65 10/26/2010, 1:16 PM20


Around 84 HR professionals wereidentified across RPG Group Companiesand structured Assessments were carriedout. Each participant was given feedbackbased on the strengths and the areas ofimprovement. At HR Functional level acompetency matrix based on Assessmentwas derived. This gave a clear direction tothe efforts that needed to be taken atGroup Level.

Development Action Plans (DAPs) andexecution of agreed DAPs by concernedHR professionalsOnce the Assessments were completed,each participant was given feedback todraw a Development Action Plan (DAP).In each DAP, the concerned professional,his immediate supervisor and Head HR (incase immediate supervisor was not HeadHR) were involved. Following were someof the guidelines for DAP:

1. After taking the stock of allcompetencies key competencies to beidentified for action based on thefollowing parameters:

a. Criticality for the job

b. Visibility-Impact-Ease factor (Highvisibility and impact with relative easeof implementation)

c. Choose not more than 2 competenciesfor time-bound action planning

2. Ownership of DAP is primarily with theIndividual

3. Identify the root causes for impact onperformance. The root causes to beidentified as attitudinal, knowledgerelated or system related

4. Generate options for the DevelopmentArea identified based on resourcesavailable

At RPG Group we created a DAP wizardwhich helps participants for root-causeanalysis and presents repository ofresources available.

Key Learning points:As we, at RPG Group, continue with ourjourney to build HR Competencies, thereare some key enablers that we learnt on theway:

• Support from the TOP is absolutelyessential. In our case, Group ChairmanMr Harsh Goenka not only providedthe initial direction but also reviewedit in quarterly HR BRBs. Once the planwas finalised, President HR personallycommunicated to all company CEOs sothat everyone was on the same page.

• Alignment with the RPG GroupVision helped us to stay focused onwhy we had undertaken this exerciserather than working in a functional Silo.Decision points during design phasewere always anchored around thequestion – ‘Is this in line with ourvision?’

• Simple yet comprehensive processdesign helped us to implement theprocess. Before we initiated any action,process design and implementationplan was documented to the last detail.This ensured absolute clarity during theimplementation and also helpedprocess efficiency

• Supporting Environment is equallycritical for any such initiative. At RPGGroup, we always maintained a focuson continuous learning andprofessional development:

o Continuous Learning – Senior HRprofessionals in the Group arealways encouraged to go for betterlearning options including highereducation. What helps is astructured training anddevelopment calendar published asa part of ‘RPG University’ initiative.

o Diverse Career Opportunities –Clearly identified HR competencyframework has helped us induct

02 NHRD Oct2010_1.p65 10/26/2010, 1:16 PM21


professionals from streams asdiverse as marketing, strategy andtechnology into HR at senior levels.HR professionals also have beencontinuously encouraged not onlyto take different assignment withinHR but also into Line BusinessFunction from time to time

• This is a continuous journey and thesuccess lies in continuing the efforts andintegrating the learning as we go along.As Frost famously said…..

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go

before I sleep ……..

Sample Role-“CompetencyRequirement Matrix”The following Matrix was drawn for eachof the eight roles defined for HR anddesired level of competencies weredetermined for each role. Thus thebenchmarking of HR professionals wasdone as per these expectations for each rolerather than general benchmarking.

02 NHRD Oct2010_1.p65 10/26/2010, 1:16 PM22

building hr competencies in rpg group

Documents