The end consumer is usu-ally a woman; so it makessense to have a femaleworkforce. We are witness-ing a change with brandscoming up with male-ori-ented products but as ofnow, yes, the industry iswomen-oriented and thatthrows up some great op-portunities for female professionals.

Q.IS IT IMPORTANTFOR WOMEN TO

LOOK GOOD AT THEWORKPLACE? IS APPEAR-ANCE EQUALLY DEFININGFOR BOTH MEN ANDWOMEN?Ruhie: Corporate grooming,as a way of life, is gender-neutral. Both men andwomen have standards theyhave to follow. Althoughthe emphasis on appear-ance is higher for front-endemployees, there has to bea clearly laid-out groomingpolicy for the back-end em-ployees as well. Subramanian: The empha-sis on grooming and ap-pearance has risen with amore youthful workforce. Itis an integral part of corpo-rate life.

Q. WOULD YOU SELECTOR REJECT A CANDI-

DATE BASED UPON THEIRAPPEARANCE AT THE IN-TERVIEW?Ruhie: We are in the beautyindustry and our promise topeople is that we will helpmake them beautiful. Sowe want our employees to

be neat, professional andhave an innate appreciationfor looking good. Duringthe interview, I look for ba-sic hygiene and the way theperson presents them-selves. But there are timeswhen we do make an ex-ception if the person is real-ly keen on joining the in-dustry. We look at their abil-ity to succeed at the job.Once hired, we train themin grooming. Subramanian: It is very im-portant that the person hasthe right attitude towardsgrooming and hygiene. Butfor back-end employees,customer focus is the morecritical skill.

Q.EQUALITY BETWEENMEN AND WOMEN

OR CELEBRATING THEDIFFERENCES – WHICHSTANCE DO YOU SUPPORTMORE AND WHY? Subramanian: Both menand women have their ownstrengths. So I’d say cele-brate the differences andwhat each gender brings tothe table.Ruhie: At the clinics, whenit comes to doctors anddermatologists, customersare comfortable with bothmen and women. Sothere’s an equal opportuni-ty there. But when it comesto serving end consumers,we prefer to recruit womenbecause most of our cus-tomers are women. So, it’sall about understanding theperson’s strengths andplaying up to them.

>> (L-R): PBS Srinivas, country manager HR,HP; Jatinder Salwan, head-recruitment, Societe Generale; Sujitesh Das, GM HR,

Microland and Dr Sunil Kumar Parameswaran, adjunct faculty finance, IFIM B-School

LESSONS IN RECRUITMENTAt Ascent Transformation Series, experts got together tothrow light on the changing paradigm of recruitment.

Here are the excerpts

Watch excerpts of Ascent Transformation Series using Alive

HR managers al-ways exercise theirright on the selec-

tion process with the log-ic that though technicalaspects can be judged bythe hiring manager, thebehavioural aspects needto be evaluated by ex-perts – HR managers. Al-so because post-joining,the candidate becomesthe responsibility of theHR manager, HR man-agers are always keen toplay an active part in theselection process. Theconstraints, which some-times prevent active HRmanager participationare effort cost (timespent by the HR manag-er) and conflict of inter-est (the recruitmentmanager feels an addi-tional filter has been cre-ated, which adds to se-lection time and effort).In any organisation, effi-cient lifecycle manage-ment of HR is critical for

the efficiency of the or-ganisation. Human re-source management inall forms, be it recruit-ment of the right talent,retention of the right tal-ent, managing cost of theworkforce and develop-ment of HR to meet thechanging needs of theenvironment should beon top of any CEO’sagenda. CEOs typicallymonitor and manage re-cruitment health throughdata-driven informationsystems and use of ex-perts. Almost every-where, the top manage-ment monitors recruit-ment numbers diligently,and keeps a close eyeon the functioning of therecruitment engine. Idon’t think a CEO needsto be an expert in re-cruitment activities, butshould continue to putmonitoring mechanismsin place to intervene atthe appropriate time.

> JATINDER SALWAN,VP-HR, Societe Generale

Viren.Naidu@timesgroup.com

WHAT IS ASCENT TRANSFORMATION SERIES?It is a special editorial feature conceived

jointly by the editorial team of Ascent andthe faculty of IFIM Business School. This isa one-of-its-kind attempt to bring theacademia and corporate fraternity on asingle platform.

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An average candi-date may appearto suit the job de-

scription only in the in-terview conversationprocess whereas the‘above average’ candi-date may provoke theinterview discussionswith job enlargementand enrichment ideasfor their sake, even ifthat may not be the fo-cus in the short-term.The “creativity” aspectthat stands for logical,constructive and futuris-tic is the differentiatorbetween average and‘above average’ candi-dates.

A modern-day HRmanager’s role is seenas that of a social archi-tect in business team

building. Recruitment isthe key tool that the HRmanager leverages todesign a robust teamthat is relevant to busi-ness purpose and helpsaccomplish the goals ofsuch building. Beyondthis tool, the modern-day HR manager helpsin continuous and peri-odic assessment of tal-ent skills with that ofthe evolving organisa-tion and puts in place atraining programme toimprove productivity. Akey aspect of the role isto also ensure optimumutilisation of the re-sources and filter-outthe redundant talentand bring in new rele-vant talent. The mod-ern-day HR manager

“A MODERN-DAY HR MANAGER’S ROLE IS SEEN AS THAT OF A

SOCIAL ARCHITECT”

> PBS SRINIVAS, country manager HR, HP:

Recruitment process-es have evolved;however, there isn’t

and can’t be a one-size-fits-all approach andtherefore, behavioural

For editorial queries/feedback, get in touch: Viren Naidu (Viren.Naidu@timesgroup.com)

> SUJITESH DAS,GM HR, Microland:

analysis doesn’tapply to alltypes of hiring.Predictive mod-elling is hap-

pening in pock-ets, but it’s at too

nascent a stage to vali-date the success of stick-iness or loyalty. That’s al-so because it’s not onlythe talent acquisitionprocess that determines

the tenure of an employ-ee, but also the talentdevelopment and man-agement models. Beyondthe knowledge and theskills, it’s the attitude as-sessed through a set ofdemonstrable and meas-urable competencies thathave impacted and willimpact the success of theposition by filling thesame with a candidate,

who differentiates theextraordinary from theordinary. The process ofidentification is a combi-nation of science (ex-pertise) and art (experi-ence). The role of the HRmanager remains thesame as has been foryears – hire the right tal-ent for the right job atthe right time with theright cost.

has to be cognizant ofthe wide role of not on-ly recruitment but alsoensure that the talent isrelevant to evolvingneeds of the business.The young talentgrooming process isevolving and not ma-tured yet. Though it’smore prevalent in prod-uct-oriented companies,the other organisationsincluding manufacturingand services sector aregradually catching up tofast-track growth aspira-tions. Across business-es, the measures arebeing designed to en-sure the direct correla-tion between results ac-complished within timeand the possiblegrowth opportunities.

Agood candidateneeds to be motivat-ed, emotionally ma-

ture and eager to learn.Technical and domainskills can always be tunedby giving extensive on-the-job training. Thus, the HRmanager needs to assessthe EQ of a candidatethoroughly and personalityprofiling and standard as-

sessment tests can play abig role. Consistent pastacademic performancecan flag a person who isintellectually a high flyer,but such an individualneed not necessarily deliv-er on-the-job. A modernHR manager needs to un-derstand his own firm andits culture thoroughly. Healso needs to keep

abreast of trends and de-velopments, technical aswell as commercial, in hisindustry at a global andnot just a local level. Typi-cally, many of the newroles and required skill-sets would have evolvedafter a person graduatedand donned the role ofan HR manager. Soawareness is very critical.

> DR SUNIL KUMAR PARAMESWARAN,adjunct faculty - finance, IFIM Business School:

“THE PROCESS OFIDENTIFICATION IS A

COMBINATION OFEXPERTISE AND EXPERIENCE”

“THE HR MANAGER NEEDS TO ASSESSTHE EQ OF A CANDIDATE THOROUGHLY”

“A CEO TOO SHOULDINTERVENE DURINGTHE RECRUITMENT

PROCESS”

IMAG

ESB

AZA

AR“Celebrate the differences and whateach gender brings to the table”As Women’s Day just went by, we chat with S Subramanian, CEO and RuhiePande, head – HR and training, Marico Kaya Enterprises Limited to get a dualperspective about women in the beauty sector

Ankita.Shreeram@timesgroup.com

Q.IS THE BEAUTY INDUSTRY STILL

PRIMARILY WOMEN-ORIENTED? Subramanian: Yes, to alarge extent. Most of thecustomers are women but

having said that, the malesegment of users is alsogrowing. Employees aredominantly women be-cause of the customer pro-file. There has been a smallshift in terms of the genderbalance but equal paritywill take a long time. Ruhie: I resonate with that.

THE ECONOMIC TIMES, NEW DELHI, TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2015