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CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 20132

© 2013 - People Matters & Monster.com

Disclaimer:The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. People Matters and Monster disclaim all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. People Matters and Monster will bear no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof.

The material in this publication is copyrighted. No part of this can be reproduced either on paper or electronic media without permission in writing from Monster. Request for permis-sion to reproduce any part of the report may be sent to People Matters or Monster.

Monster.com India Pvt LtdPlot No 61 -“Chimes”D – Block, 1st FloorSector 44, GurgaonHaryana

People Matters Media Pvt. Ltd.1203, 12th Floor, Millennium PlazaTower B, Sector 27, Gurgaon-122009 Tel: +91 (0) 124-414 8101 [email protected]

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 3

Foreword

One phenomenon which is no secret from anyone is that companies have reduced hiring. While companies have been trying cost rationalisation for a few years now, CEOs never faced so much pressure to rationalise costs as they did this year. Thus, there is an added pressure on the people

residing within organisations to do more with less. While this survey has shown across the three years that people continue to remain the central focus of the agenda, never before were concepts of motivation and discretionary effort as important for a CEO as they are now.

The complexities of the operating environment have trebled in the past few years, thanks to the combination of the macro-economic uncertainties and the govern-ment’s policy paralysis. The difficulties in the external environment have trickled down to the internal operating environment, with people becoming the centre of a CEO’s attention and time. While growth and financial health continue to fight for the CEOs time, an increasing number of them comment that retention of key people in the organisation keeps them up at night. Considering people constitute the heart of any business agenda, the lines between people and business have blurred beyond recognition. It is, thus, no surprise that the number of people metrics have steadily increased in CEO scorecards in most organisations.

CEOs seem to have altered their approach toward communication and people engagement, and are looking to drive these themselves rather than letting their HR function drive them. The capability of a good CEO is now a factor of predictive thinking capability, rather than a reactive look-and-learn approach. Organisations that have done well in the recent times are characterised by CEOs who were able to predict the productivity crisis accurately, that tight budgets have brought, and proactively devised strategies to adjust to these changes.

Employee motivation is a big challenge faced by organisations across industries, and CEOs are playing a key role in keeping the workforce motived and engaged in these hard times. CEOs are leveraging technology to drive employee motivation and the talent pool is increasingly seeing CEOs communicate through social and other media. While the aspect of people and growth were never independent of each other, this has been the year when CEOs have realised that they cannot further any of their business agendas by treating the two separately. For example, we know that a number of new banks are coming up, and for the CEO of a talent sourcing organisation like ours, I might see an opportunity. While building the business plan, I can make accurate estimates of the order size and arrive at a great execution plan. While this is getting done, I may miss the opportunity to assess if there is talent available to realise the efficacy of the estimate. I might realise at the end of the projected period that only 15 per cent of the estimate has been achieved. A CEO, therefore, just cannot afford to treat business plans and people plans separately.

At Monster, my primary focus has been to bring together the leadership team as one entity showing one face to the customer. It is no longer the sole responsibility of the marketing head to build customer relationships, but a joint responsibility of leaders in other functions. I believe CEOs in the coming times will spend most of their efforts aligning their business objectives with people efforts.

A CEO can no longer keep talent and business plans separate

Sanjay Modi Managing Director, Monster.com (India/Middle East/South East Asia)

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 20134

If 2012 was a tough year of volatility for business corporations, this year turned out to be even tougher than one could imagine. If the global macro-economic crisis was not enough, the year was marked by a complete policy paralysis brought forth as a result of populist

measures that the government had undertaken in the past several years, and have culminated into a stage where the national and the economy’s growth prospects appear crippled. Along with cost pressures, confidence in the country and the economy loomed low among global corporations and many even retracted their India businesses in the past several months. Never before have the lines between people and business blurred as much for a CEO as they did this year, and many have come to realise that their key to business goals can only be achieved through a singular focus on talent.

This is the third year we conducted the CEO as the Chief Talent Officer Survey among CEOs in Indian corporations. CEOs from 80 business corporations across the breadth of the Indian industry participated in the survey to assess their talent priorities for the year. The results of this year saw surprising shifts in the manner CEOs are viewing talent management and their talent priorities.

By Vikram Choudhury

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 5

Methodology

Demographic InformationType of CEOs taking

the surveyEmployee size of the

organisationIndustry of participants

Monster.com and People Matters conducted a survey among CEOs, MDs, and Heads of Businesses to

understand the importance of the talent agenda among Indian CEOs. A total of 80 CEOs from several industries participated in the survey and rated their key talent management priorities for the year. The online survey was conducted across the month of November 2013. The talent agendas included in the survey were identified through extensive market research and by talking to senior executives and CEOs across 2013 in several industry forums and seminars.

In parallel, Heads of Businesses from several companies were interviewed about their key talent management priorities in 2013 and the priorities that will drive their talent management plans in 2014. The CEOs interviewed in the study were asked three pressing questions:-

Less than 200200 – 500500 – 1,0001,000 – 5,0005,000 – 10,00010,000 – 50,000Greater than 50,000

ManufacturingIT/ITESProfessional ServicesBFSIRetailHealthcareOthers

39%

61%

I am an Entrepreneur/PromoterI am a Professional CEO hired by the board

27%

6%3%

21%

24%

9%

9%18%

29%

14%

14%11%

7%

7%

123

How important was talent management in the list of the CEO priorities in 2013 and why?

What aspects of talent management did CEOs priorities in 2013 and why?

What will be the key factors driving the talent agenda for a CEO in 2014?

The report summarises the results from the survey and outlines the qualitative comments from several CEOs and Heads of Businesses.

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 20136

The growing importance of talentTalent has become the singu-lar engine driving a CEOs business agenda

Not surprisingly, while a third of the CEOs commented last year that they spend more than

half their time on talent management, the number this year has jumped to 61 per cent. Only 6% of CEOs taking the survey commented that they spent less than 25 per cent of their time on talent management.

The picture globally seems to be no different. Very recently, the advisory services firm, The Confer-ence Board conducted a global survey among 729 CEOs, Presidents, and Chairmen asking them about their top business challenges for the coming year, 2014. The survey results state that Human Capital ranks as the no. 1 challenge for heads of businesses for the coming year. It is perhaps, not unfair to say that CEOs view talent and the business as the same and hence, and the singular question that they are asking while discussing business plans are, “Do we have the people to do it?”

Building a common vision of purpose

While there is the need for growth for businesses to stay robust, cost pressures and lack of availability of skilled talent is crippling CEOs against making strong decisions. Many talent considerations complicate the growth equation and therefore CEOs are tracking recruitment, retention, learning, and motivation more closely in their organisations. One of the primary reasons why the involve-ment of CEOs in talent management has increased is because CEOs have become more cautious about the costs of key people leaving the organisation or having the wrong people on board.

Our survey results show that 81 per cent of CEOs consider that build-ing teams in line with growth expecta-tions is their top priority.

Sanjay Modi, CEO of Monster.com says that CEOs are now looking for leadership who can work outside their silos and contribute to the growth

CEOs spend more time on talent

2012 2013

54%

30%16%33%

6%

61%

Less than 25% More than 50%Between 25% & 50%

1

2

3

Building teams in line with business expectations

Raising productivity levels

Focusing on increasing employee engagement

81% 77%

64% 50%

51% 48%

Top 3 HR priorities

for CEOs’ in 2013

Rank in 2012Rank in 2013

Effective CEOs stand as an evangelist for the brand and spread the message of a common goal and purpose among the teams

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 7

plans of the organisation. The roles of leaders have all merged into business-centric profiles where even the head of procurement could be having direct customer interactions, while the head of marketing may be spearheading a talent initiative within the company. Effective CEOs stand as an evangelist for the brand and spread the message of a common goal and purpose among the teams. Not surprisingly, many CEOs have mentioned that there has been an increase in their leadership development efforts in the past months intended to drive and fortify the beliefs and values of the organisation among the leadership teams. Our survey indicates CEOs looking to spend greater amount of time on the leadership of the organisa-tion considering it is one of their top business priorities for this year.

Sandeep Banerjee, Managing Director (India), of the multinational food services company Compass Group says, “I am convinced that driving the values of the organisation and the brand can solve many of the problems that CEOs encounter. In our organisation, I drove several work-shops in the company, where leaders were asked about how they want to drive the growth and business direc-tion of the company. In these work-shops, leaders were actually asked to graphically depict their vision for the brand and the organisation. We conducted these workshops with the help of an experienced OD consul-tant firm, and what I achieved as a CEO was a set of ideas and vision that came up from the ground. Now my job is to merely act as a facilita-tor for these visions to see the light of the day. I do not have to worry about alignment and accountability, as these

ideas originated from the people in the team. I realised that it is a beautiful way to drive the goals and values of the organisation within the teams.”

The “hands on” CEOA striking shift in the CEO role

has been observed this year compared to previous years. In our survey, more than half of the CEOs (54 per cent) indicated that they invest the maxi-mum amount of time in formal and informal coaching. This in in stark contrast to last year, where CEOs indicated their involvement in hiring, motivation, restructuring, retention, and leadership development priorities as more important than mentoring and coaching. This jump in priori-ties (from the sixth to the first) is very interesting to note because it firmly establishes the skill and leadership crisis that organisations in India are facing at this point.

Globally the scenario is no differ-ent. A 2013 survey by the consulting firm, PWC, the 16th Annual CEO survey among 1330 global CEOs, says that lack of key skills is worrying CEOs across the industry.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman of Infosys says, “In our industry, what a CEO really needs is a set of lead-ers who can give strategic direction to the business. We need accelerated development of leaders. It is, thus, the age of the hands on CEO who spends time and effort in educating, mentoring, and coaching people in his teams to take on the challenges of the coming times.” 83 per cent of the CEOs in our survey, across industries, have responded saying that CEOs need to spend at least a quarter of their time in talent-related activities.

Top 5 CEO priorities for this year

CEOs looking to spend greater amount of time on the leadership of the organisation considering it is one of their top business priori-ties for this year

1Leadership planning &

development

2Restructuring organisation for growth

3Key talent retention

4Hiring the

right people

5Keeping

employees motivated

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 20138

Aditya Malik, CEO of the education services company, TalentEdge says, “For a CEO, growth of the business demands having talent with the right set of skills. It is important for the CEO to have people in his team who can keep pace with the changing needs of the business and demands of the external environment.”

Another area where CEOs are investing their efforts around is the succession management process of the organisation. In our survey, CEOs ranked leadership planning and succes-sion as the most important activity of CEOs in 2014 followed by restructuring of the organisation to aid growth plans. Hands-on involvement of the CEO in the succession management process has, therefore, become a business necessity.

Are CEOs facing the scarcity effect?

While conditions appear difficult for the business as well as the operat-ing environment, CEOs comment that after succession and restructuring priorities, their biggest headache was retention of key people within the company. Retention of key people within the company ranked as number 3 among the list of CEO priorities. CEOs we interviewed for this study commented that the fear of losing key people is what keeps them up at night.

This raises the question on whether CEOs might be over-invest-ing their time and efforts on talent retention because of their perception of talent as much too valuable to part with. This frame of mind can be very well captured by the term, “the scarcity effect.” A well-known termi-nology among marketing profes-sionals, the scarcity effect refers to the phenomenon of consumers sub-consciously hiking the premium on items of consumption which are seemingly scarce. Our survey results indicate that 92 per cent of CEOs have started tracking retention of high potentials and high perform-ers actively as part of their business scorecards. Consequently, CEOs now can be seen actively involving themselves in efforts to retain and engage talent.

Where is the CEOs’ time going?

Formal and informal

coaching and mentoring

Restructuring organization

in line with the growth

Increasing productivity of the workforce

Managing wage costs

Solving grievances and

conflicts

Approving changes in HR

policies

Leadership planning &

development

Hiring the right kind of

people

Building employee motivation

Retention of key talent

6

3 7 9 10 8

5 1 2 41

6 7 8 9 10

2 3 4 52012 rank2013 rank

Amount of time a CEO should spend on talent

related activities

17%

83%

Less than 25% More than 25%

92 per cent of CEOs have started track-ing retention of high poten-tials and high performers actively as part of their busi-ness scorecards

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 9

Social collaboration is one area where CEOs are actively seen participating to engage and motivate talent. Aruna Jayanthi, CEO of the IT services firm, Capgemini says, “Forward looking CEOs are already planning ahead to be prepared for talent retention and succession chal-lenges among next-Gen talent, and therefore they are investing a lot of effort on social collaboration. CEOs are involving in putting together a social environment within the organ-isation to bridge the gap between the personal and professional lives of employees. CEOs are now spearhead-ing the use of social collaboration within their organisations, through channels such as Facebook.”

It’s about what you do, not what you say

During times of uncertainty, what a CEO does becomes much more important than what he talks. Employees tend to monitor the actions of a CEO much more closely, and judge if there is alignment between what they talk and what they do. Almost every CEO we spoke to unanimously agree that due to the changed business and operating envi-ronment, their focus on playing the role model for employees has become much more important. CEOs are therefore much more vigilant about

their internal and external communi-cations, and make concerted efforts to act as an ambassador of the brand and the organisation.

As the national, political and economic landscape continues to wade through uncertainties, CEOs have realised that it is meaningless to treat business and talent separately. This is the age of the hands-on CEO, and true business leadership has become a question of the intent and ability to plan for talent. The CEO role has transformed into the role of a brand ambassador, as a coach and a mentor, as a champion of organisa-tional values, and most importantly, as a representative of talent needs and preferences.

Almost every CEO that we inter-viewed noted that a great CEO in the coming months will be one who can fortify the organisation against the internal and external uncertainties that may threaten growth and health of the organisation. Talent has taken the centre-stage in a CEOs priority map and the credibility of his leader-ship will be based on beliefs and values. Over the years, while they’ve wished for radical changes in the business landscape, it is encouraging to see that CEOs are at the helm of affairs now, spearheading this change. CEOs are chartering a new course for business corporations, which are

Talent has taken the centre-stage in a CEOs prior-ity map and the credibility of his leadership will be based on beliefs and values

What are the people related goals that CEOs track on their scorecard?

Retention of high potentials 65% 4 92% 1

Employee satisfaction/engagement 69% 3 77% 2

Hiring right 62% 5 71% 3

Overall employee retention 58% 7 59% 4

Talent productivity/effectiveness 76% 1 58% 5

Employee Cost 42% 8 53% 6

Succession planning 61% 6 52% 7

2012 2013Rank 2012 Rank 2013

grounded solidly on the fundamentals of trust. While rebuilding of confi-dence is a slow and painful process, it is perhaps not too far-fetched to say that CEOs have taken a step in the right direction, and the future corpo-ration will be one which is based on trust, integrity, and values.

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201310

Survey results in detail

Top 5 CEO talent priorities in 2014

Top 3 HR priorities for CEOs in 2013

Building teams in line with growth expectations

Raising productivity

level

Focusing on increasing employee

engagement

77 50 48

Where did CEOs spend most amount of their talent management time and efforts on?

CEOs’ talent management investment 2013 Rank 2012 Rank

Formal and informal coaching 1 6

Leadership development and planning 2 5

Hiring the right kind of people 3 1

Building employee motivation 4 2

Retention of key talent 5 4

Restructuring organisation in line with growth expectations 6 3

Increasing the productivity of the workforce 7 7

Managing wage costs 8 9

Solving grievances and conflicts 9 10

Approving changes in HR policies 10 8

Leadership planning

and devel-opment

Restructuring organisation for growth

Key talent retention

Hiring the right people

Keeping employees motivated

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 11

CEOs expected time commit-ment to talent in 2014

Amount of CEOs direct involvement with HR

CEOs belief in HRs alignment with business in 2013

42%

58%

I will spend more timeI will continue spending the same amount of time

CEOs required time commitment to talent management in 2014

Less than 25%25 - 50%50 - 75%

We have an HR Head who reports to the CEOWe have an HR Head who reports to another function head (CFO/COO/other)No HR Team – handled by Finance/Administration department

Our HR is aligned to the business needs and adds high value to the business

Our HR is still struggling to align itself with business needs but there is a strong focus on aligning HR to the business needs going forward

Our HR team takes care of administration and HR operations, but does not get involved in driving business agenda

We do not have a dedicated HR team

69%

14% 17%

78%

16%

6%

67%

15%

12%6%

EXPERT SPEAK

A CEO’s plans hold little worth without the right talentTalent has to be the single most important agenda for a CEO in these times when every business opportunity is linked to talent. If an organisation does not have the right talent, it cannot possibly hope to achieve any of its business objectives especially at a time when there is a heavy reliance on people. Talent is the absolute foundation of any business function, whether it is sales and market-ing, or operations.

For our industry, leadership development is the most important CEO priority. Along with growth, organisations are continually looking for talent to take on the responsibilities of new markets and new locations and aid the growth of the company. Accord-ingly, organisations need to have a great succession plan and CEOs should be at the helm of an organisation’s succession plan. Lastly, keeping the new generation engaged and happy is also the primary challenge for a CEO especially in the IT industry where the average age of talent is below 30.

Creating a platform for social collaboration will define the next age of talent management in the IT industry and organisations which are able to do that well will gain an edge over the others which do not. It is for the CEO to abolish traditional working styles, based on hierarchical structures and bring new age practices to the fore. The influence and responsibility of a CEO, therefore, has increased tremendously and along with it, the time it commands among other business priorities.

Aruna JayantiCEO, Capgemini

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201312

EXPERT SPEAK

Developing leaders is keeps all business heads up at nightThe need of the hour for any business leader in this age and economic conditions is the element of leadership. There is no agenda as big for a CEO or any business leader as the agenda of finding, developing, and deploying the right leaders. Organisations need great leaders who have the vision and the direction to lead change and strategy.

Accordingly what is important for a CEO or a business head is the involvement in the succession management process of the organisation. A lot of organisations in a dynamic industry such as IT services are talking about accelerated development. It takes a considerable amount of time to create the experiences necessary to make a great leader. A developing economy like India cannot afford the luxury of grooming leaders over an extended period of time given the dynamic nature of the industry. Being a leader is there-fore not necessarily about experiences, but about being ready in the mind. The Indian economy has shown many success stories of leaders who were young and lacked experiences, but had the vision and perseverance to take a strategy forward.

For a CEO, therefore, it is of utmost importance that the organisa-tion has a pool of ready leaders who can take up the necessities of a growing organisation and a growing economy.

Kris Gopala- krishnan

Executive ViceChairman, Infosys

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 13

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201314

Talent is the top CEO agenda in our businessFor an organisation like ours, having a high degree of customer-orientation is extremely essential. Among all several reasons, the reason for such a high emphasis on customer-orientation is the diversity of our customer base. We have three sets of customers who are diverse in shape and character— corporate and high-net worth clients, medium net-worth individuals, and individuals from the lower economic strata of the society. With such a diverse set of customers, having the right talent becomes extremely important because we have to serve a diverse set of expectations under the same brand.

To achieve our business objectives, a CEO in the industry has to always look at how to improve the productivity of employ-ees while giving continuous upskilling opportunities to deal with changing times. For example, with the emergence of more competition and evolution of the service culture, people have to be skilled on soft skills, technology skills, and other hard skills.

A CEO, therefore, has to spend about 20-25% of his/her time on talent related activities. With a number of new banking organisa-tions coming up in the next year or two years, it will mean better penetration in rural areas making banking facilities more readily available to all. That also means an increasing amount of talent competition and therefore, it is likely that talent management will continue to remain one of the CEO’s top agendas in the coming months.

V R IyerBank of India

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201314

EXPERT SPEAK

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 15

The right people – a third of CEO’s agendaThere are three attributes of talent which are the most important for a business establishment, finding the right talent, grooming them for becoming effective, and retaining them. There are three things that dictate my day as a CEO, not in any particular order of priority. First, I have to ensure that the company is operating in sync with strategy. Secondly, I need to keep an eye on whether it is meeting its financial numbers and generates enough cash to support the business. The third thing on my agenda for the day is the attrac-tion, retention, and grooming of talent.

I spend anywhere between 40 and 45 percent of my time on talent management and that should indicate how important the talent agenda has become for a CEO. As part of my talent agenda, I try to ensure that the key people in the organisation are constantly motivated, and ensuring the retention of the key and high-poten-tial talent. As a CEO, my perspective about the direction of the company and talent’s role in the equation is very clear. For any business leader, having the right people and giving them the right guidance translates into three quarters of the objective achieved.

In order to align the HR function with the strategy of the organ-isation, it is important to have the CHRO be a part of the annual strategy meeting. Any people-related initiative should be aligned to the strategy that the CHRO has agreed to act upon.

Vivek GourMD & CEO,

Air Works India Engineering Pvt. Ltd.

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 15

EXPERT SPEAK

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201316

Talent management – the single most important element of growthTalent management is at the foremost of my talent management priorities because anything that I do as part of growth of the business is based on talent management. The primary challenge for us as an organisation is to uphold the credibility that we’ve built as a brand in the food service business in India. Among all the business priorities, managing talent and ensuring adequate quality talent is on board at any point of time to manage growth is the singular biggest challenge for me as a CEO.

In the food services business, while one part of the business is showing slowdown owing the global macroeconomic conditions, there are other business constituencies which are actually growing. An example is the growth in the Tier 2 and Tier 3 markets. As a CEO, it is a big challenge to provide one consistent message to the whole employee community when different parts of the business are performing differently.

Developing a line of leaders who are capable of taking on the chal-lenges of the new leadership positions that growth will offer is also among the key priorities for a growing organisation in the food service industry. Every day we are in the need of talent who are ready to take on leadership positions with every new branch or outlet that opens.

Ajay KaulCEO, JubilantFoodworks

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201316

EXPERT SPEAK

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 17

CEO’s top job is to etch the business’ value among peopleFor a company like ours which is growing, talent is always the number 1 agenda for a CEO. No matter what kind of growth trajec-tory an organisation is seeing, talent always stands at the centre. In my 8+ years of experience as a CEO, one particular aspect of talent has increasingly grown on me. For a CEO the top talent agenda is to inculcate the values of the organisation within employees. While this might sound as too aspirational, the reality is that a CEO cannot hope for a business plan to be successful unless the people involved in it stand for a common purpose, which is linked to the objective of the plan. If done right, all the other elements of a talent agenda is taken care of, including hiring, retention, and develop-ment.

In our organisation, we organised some workshops among the high potential group to gain their views on how take business plans forward. We asked them to pictorially depict their view of the outcomes of these business goals and how they envision getting there. What transpired from these workshops was a set of value-aligned goals which were really the vision of the people, and not of the CEO. As a CEO, this was an important step toward involving the leaders in the growth of the business.

Sandeep Banerjee

CEO, Compass Group

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 17

EXPERT SPEAK

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201318

CEOs should seek inspiration from outsideDisruptions in the Indian industry are happening very fast and talent, unfortunately, talent in India still has a very conventional approach toward employment. Getting the right talent who understand the nuances of the changed market is very important for a CEO. Unfor-tunately, the availability of such skilled talent is in short supply and therefore talent continues to remain the No. 1 priority for a CEO. The talent challenge stops not just at the point of hiring. Without the CEO making concerted efforts to ensure that his team is aware of the changing business environment, s/he cannot be confident of the organisation being ready to take on new challenges of the market.

One thing that should be on the agenda list of a CEO is to look for inspiration and ideas to groom talent by looking outside the industry. Second, the CEO and HR’s mandate should be to work closely with each other against some of the key talent initiatives which are linked to business goals. An example of such an initiative is the leadership development initiative where CEOs and the HR team are working toward a common goal. Third, while getting talent from outside, the CEO has to closely monitor how that talent is getting groomed for future talent requirements and facilitate necessary adjustments.

Aditya MalikCEO

TalentEdge

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 201318

EXPERT SPEAK

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 19

HR head should be an essential business partnerTalent is among the top three priorities for me as a CEO and I spend quite a lot of time on talent-related activities. For a CEO, creation of a talent pipeline is the biggest priority because organ-isations need talent to meet the future demands of the business. It is, thus, important for the CEO to act as a facilitator of the talent brand. As a CEO, it is very important for me to ensure that our employer brand provides a challenging and intellectually stimulat-ing environment.

Four important talent priorities will dictate my time and effort in the coming months. They are, hiring, leadership development, coaching, and productivity. It is important for the CEO to work very closely with the head of HR to devise a common goal for talent. The CEO’s time should be spent equally, if not more, with the head of talent as compared to the heads of other business func-tions. Talent has become an integral component of an organisations future business plans and no business decision can be complete without a discussion on talent. It is for the CEO to realise that in these times, every business initiative is at risk without planning and preparing for talent and therefore, the head of HR should become an essential business partner.

Vel DhinagaravelCEO and President,

Beroe Inc

CEO AS THE CHIEF TALENT OFFICER STUDY 2013 19

EXPERT SPEAK

People Matters Media Pvt. Ltd.1203, 12th Floor, Millennium PlazaTower B, Sector 27, Gurgaon-122009 Tel: +91 (0) 124-414 8101 [email protected]

Monster.com India Pvt LtdPlot No 61 -“Chimes”D – Block, 1st FloorSector 44, GurgaonHaryana