Jahangir Shaikh - My Advice to Every Aspiring HR Professional Would Just Be Yourself and Have Belief in Your Skills and Always Keep a Positive Outlook Towards Everything Happening Around You (Associate Director - HR - CMS Infosystems)

The current global digitalization is accelerating the changes to the long-standing, traditional onboarding process and practices. The new practices being adopted by HR function are useful and are gaining confidence and popularity too, changes which are bought with a mindset of simplicity and effectiveness are always useful.

Tell us about your background, journey, and upbringing.

I belong to a defense background, my father was in Indian Air Force and my entire upbringing has happened across different parts of the country, I was born in Jodhpur & then we moved to Nasik, Kharagpur, Srinagar, and finally to Agra where I completed my 10th, 12th & Graduation, post which I moved to Delhi to pursue my MBA in 2003.

How did you narrow down on this profession?

During my graduation days, we use to have our personality development classes in which one external trainer used to come to take weekly sessions, from there I developed a liking for the HR role, then during my final year, I made up my mind to pursue my career into HR field as I was more fit for HR role.

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It seems onboarding, even in 2021, is a long-drawn-out process behind the scenes. How do you envision this changing in the future?

The COVID Pandemic has changed the entire thought process of the world from Jan 2020 onwards, earlier which was thought to be impossible is now possible and very much doable with better results, the onboarding process is one of them which was perceived to be more personal has now become more digital and virtual. 

The current global digitalization is accelerating the changes to the long-standing, traditional onboarding process and practices. The new practices being adopted by HR function are useful and are gaining confidence and popularity too, changes which are bought with a mindset of simplicity and effectiveness are always useful.

What’s one thing you would like to change in how Background Verification is done in India?

Over the years in my experience across different industries, one thing which was common everywhere in the Background Verification process was the involvement of an external agency who does it for any organization, I think that the biggest loop hole when we outsource such a critical process to a 3rd party even though knowing the consequences of it, I would strongly recommend to have an in-house verification team who runs this process.

How do you handle someone who has lied on their resume?

People lying or hiding some facts or information in their resume is very common these days, it has multiple reasons into it and basis the sensitivity and impact of information which has been lied, the organization needs to take a call, according to me hiding anything or lying during interview calls has to be dealt strictly and proper action has to be taken if it calls for dismissal or cancellation of candidature.

Several global companies have come out and thrown their support behind not needing a formal education. What is your opinion about this?

Formal education use to be an important criterion before 10 years, but with the evolution of millennials and the gig economy, the focus is more on skills set and competencies rather than someone holding a proper professional degree.

while I do agree that formal education plays a vital role in any individual’s growth but knowledge can also be inherited through experience and practical exposure, we have several examples in front of us especially in start-up companies who had ideas/brains from people with no or minimum formal education.

                              

What advice do you have for aspiring HR professionals?

My advice to every aspiring HR professional would just be yourself and have belief in your skills and always keep a positive outlook towards everything happening around you, it’s always good to treat every available resource on humanitarian grounds as then only we can call ourselves a true HR professional.

Which is your favorite book and why?

My fav book is Good to Great by James Collins, I always believe that every organization has the potential to be a Great organization from being a good organization and what plays a pivotal role in this transformation are People who work there. 

Human Capital is the biggest resource an organization can have at any point in time and to if their skills can be channelized in a positive way, you can do wonders & reach up to any level.

Bio - 

16+ Years of experience in HR Functions, majority into Talent Acquisition, Learning & Development, Talent Management, Employee Engagement, Manpower Planning & Budgeting, Organization Development, Performance Management System, Compensation & Benefits & HR Operations.

Have worked with India’s best Organizations like Pantaloon Retail, Tata Teleservices, Yum Restaurants India Ltd, Videcon Telecom, Bharti Infratel, and Ecom Express Ltd in different roles and geographies.

Currently, associate with CMS Infosystems as Associate Director – HR taking care of Entire North & Central India and managing 11 states with an employee base of 7,000 + employees.

Qualification: PGDBM in HR from Institute of Marketing & Management and currently pursuing Ph.D. from SRMU – Barabanki.