Exclusive: "Consideration for people should be built into every task" - Ernest Louis, Vice President HR, Asian Paints

A summary of the interaction:

Q: We hear HR managers don’t get paid as much as their counterparts. Is that really true?

A: HR is becoming an important role but still has a long way to go. In many Indian organizations, HR is still an administrative role. That said, the value put by companies in HR differs from company to company.

Q: In India perhaps finance is valued more, and Indian companies don’t value HR.

A: There are Indian companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, Aditya Birla, Asian Paints that are looking at the potential of HR. Most Indian companies don’t believe they can get the best out of people. They think that when they are hiring someone, they are just buying skills. They are not looking at the transformative potential of these people.

The blame lies with the quality of managers. Some HR heads have reduced themselves to admin functions. They don’t see themselves on par with business managers. The real role of HR is not transactional, of executing orders. An HR manager is a partner. He walks shoulder to shoulder with the business guy. He has to get down to the market, know its nitty-gritties to make decisions together. He has to talk the business manager’s language, be a business partner.

Start your own HR consultancy if:

•    You have been able to run successful businesses in the field and have worked in HR for organizations for at least 5 years
•    You are gifted with superior thinking abilities
•    You can go beyond concepts and truly make things happen in organizations

Shifts in HR thinking at Asian Paints:

At Asian Paints, we are a lot of left brainers, engineers. We are too task-oriented. We have to turn this task vs. people balance towards people. For that we are trying to ingrain the ‘Internalization of the people agenda’ – that consideration for people should be inbuilt in every task.

To see more photos from the event, visit http://on.fb.me/16JoGBi