People Matters Podcast Series

Gen AI represents a paradigm shift in the field of human resources. The integration of Gen AI  is likely to transform the entire HR organisation. It will streamline processes, facilitate data-driven decision-making, and enhance the overall employee experience, making HR practices more agile and efficient – and less transactional.

In a conversation with People Matters, Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst & CEO, Josh Bersin Company spoke about the transformative technological shift and its likely impact on business strategies.

Recognition is in the AIRe" is a podcast that explores the transformative power of Appreciation, Incentivisation, and Reinforcement, all while emphasizing the importance of fostering an emotional connection. Join us as we delve into the world of recognition, sharing insights and stories with Partha Neog, CEO of Vantage Circle.

In this episode, People Matters’ CEO and Editor-in-Chief Ester Martinez speaks with Nitin Sethi, CEO, Aon Consulting, India & South Asia on his insights and observations on the Top Trends HR leaders should look at in 2023. They will deliberate on talent trends and opportunities that are likely to impact the industry and explore impactful strategies for staying agile.

As employees calibrate their work-life compass again, employee benefits and rewards are playing a larger role in keeping employees happy and content at the workplace. In this episode, crafted in collaboration with UflexRewards, the world’s first digital global total reward platform, we discuss all about employee benefits and rewards with uFlexReward’s global reward counselor Peter Newhouse. 

"Future of work will create more demand for flexibility and respect across the workforce and thus, employers have to prioritise these in the future. Value in coming back to office will play a significant role in the future and it may also cause employees to switch, thus contributing to attrition," said Akhil. Additionally, casting light on 'moonlighting' he mentioned that other than simply for money, many employees also moonlight for other factors such as skilling and developing. 

As we head into the future of work, restructuring the workforce and the workplace becomes an imperative. The fact is that the changes brought about by the pandemic are irreversible. Hybrid workplace with partial or full dependence on technology and other automation processes is here to stay. With such anticipations across all business sectors of the world, how are leaders planning to prepare themselves for the future of work? 

In this episode of the podcast series, Viijay Colaco, HR Director, Intel India joined us to share his perception of the future of work and also how leaders should buckle up to lead the future employees who are probably pursuing their academics right now. 

In the latest episode of People Matters Podcast, Chris Murdock joined us to share how the hiring process will get influenced by AI in the future of work.

Recruiters have to make sure that they know who the right candidate is and also, that the candidates are elaborated about the roles that the recruiters are hiring for. Otherwise, in the process of spamming resumes and candidate profiles, crucial time is lost,” said Chris Murdock, Chief Sourcing Officer and Co-Founder of IQTalent. 

S. Venkatesh, Group- President HR  of RPG Group shared insights on how the conglomerate looks at the importance of employee wellness, in this episode of People Matters Podcast. 

In this episode, we chatted with Ritu Sharma from AppFlyer who joined us to share how she looks at the leadership transformation coming parallelly with the changes in the future of work.  

Along with the transformation in the definition of mental health, leadership definition has transformed too. Several surveys and studies have found that employees seek empathetic leaders today. In this episode of People Matters Podcast, we chatted with Rajesh Rai, the vice president - people team and head of human resources, India, GlobalLogic to explore the new aspects of hybrid leadership.

Katie Ballantyne joined us for the episode to share the various aspects of leadership in the hybrid era and also how leaders can create and atmosphere of wellness among the workforce, by leveraging the wellness policies themselves and setting examples of how to enjoy work-life balance. 

In this episode of People Matters Podcast, Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari joined us to share insights on the leadership transformation in the hybrid period. 

"In the era of hybrid working leaders need to be empathetic. They need to understand that there is no need for employees to stay logged in throughout the day and that the outcome matters over time span. Today, people are working from several locations and time zones. So, this calls for a difference between the traditional leadership and team management in hybrid environment. Today flexibility is the essence of leadership," said James Ong, CEO Asia of Sedgwick.

According to In the world of increasing concerns over mental health and new leadership styles, leaders are required to be more agile and approachable. Jayanthi Vaidyanathan, Senior Director HR of PayPal India states that leaders need to be the role models of the employees and create a safe and happy workplace. She stressed that the right way to start this is by letting people know that even leaders juggle between work and life, they can be messy too and that they are not super-humans. 

While number of DEI policies are placed by leaders and organisations, not much is practically implemented. An inclusive workplace calls engagements on the part of the companies in order to ensure inclusivity. Sarika Naik, Chief Marketing Officer and DEI Chairperson of Capgemini, shared some minute but highly significant details which the organisations should pay attention to. Listen to the full episode to know more. 

With the changing employee-employer relationship, it has become an imperative for the employers to track keep a track of the latest priorities of the job seekers and employees. As we transitioned into the remote working mode and are bouncing back to the office floors, have the behaviour of the workforce towards the LGBT+ employees changed for good or bad? In this episode, Aubrey Blanche, Senior Director of Equitable Design, Product & People answered the questions. 

Priorities of the job seekers and the employees have seen huge change over the last two years. A mentally healthy workplace and flexible work culture have surfaced as two major criteria that the job seekers have been pressing on. With the market running short of talent, is the organisation well aware of the latest needs of the workers? Are they working on meeting those needs?

Rachel Clements, Director of Psychological Services at the Centre for Corporate Health (CFCH) shared her thoughts on scenarios of mental health issues being faced by both the leaders and employees, and also the fate of the same in the long run. 

Wellbeing has been discussed for a long time but the onset of pandemic and remote working pushed the wellbeing quotient upward on the list of employees' priorities. This led to employers rethinking over their wellness and retention strategies. To discuss further about how the global players are looking at this scenario, Deepti Varma, Director- HR for Amazon in APAC and Middle East joined us for an episode of the People Matters Podcast. 

This six part exclusive ‘Pride at Work’ series, hosted by People Matters, in partnership with Pride Circle, dives into the finer nuances of the multi-faceted journey of LGBT+ inclusion at the workplace.

In episode two of the podcast series, industry leaders Prachi Rastogi, D&I Leader, APAC, IBM and Ramkrishna Sinha, Co-Founder of Pride Circle and recipient of the NielsenIQ India’s Inclusion Icon 2022, talk about the why, what and how of overcoming the many LGBT+ inclusion challenges with a data-oriented approach.

Prachi and Ram also talk about organisational health from the lens of LGBT+ inclusion and the upcoming India Workplace Equality Index.

On the occasion of International HR Day, People Matters spoke with Rowan Tonkin for an episode of People Matters Podcast, to discuss how the leaders are looking at this transformation. Rowan is the Senior Director of HR Transformation JAPAC at Oracle.

In this exclusive podcast with People Matters, Raga Olga D'silva talks about eliminating homophobia and performative allyship at the workplace, boosting queer visibility and architecting a culture of psychological safety and auhentic inclusion for LGBT+ talent.

With over 25 years of experience in the creative field, Raga has worked in senior positions in advertising in India and New Zealand and has been the recipient of several prestigious awards.

Raga is the author of the recently published book, Untold Lies, a TedX Speaker, and Co-Founder and Director of Speaking Minds, among India's largest international speaker agencies. She is also a host of various shows including Coming Out Stories from India.

Named amongst the Top 100 wonder women in advertising, marketing and entertainment in 2021, Raga is a known advocate in the LGBT+ space.

As hospitality was one of the hardest-hit industries by the pandemic, it saw job losses like never before. However, as places reopen to travellers and customers, what is the scenario for hiring in the industry? Answers Chef Saransh in interaction with People Matters.

"We are currently running 100% capacity, whether it's restaurants or hotels. People are looking to hire as many human resources as it's practically possible to do quick recovery in their businesses," Chef added. 

Twitter’s Head IDEA - JAPAC, Preet Grewal, talks to People Matters about the allyship framework, meritocracy in diversity hiring, eliminating racial inequities, and accelerating the DEI agenda at the workplace.

Listen to the podcast for a deep dive into channelling leadership engagement to enhance inclusion, fostering education, advocacy and allyship through BRGs and boosting ethnic diversity through sustainable and scalable DEI strategies.

Informal employment makes up a huge section of the global workforce. Though informal labour has been transformed into formal ones across many countries, some regions, especially the ones with developing economies are yet to see the change. In this episode,  Lohit Bhatia, the President of the Indian Staffing Federation shared insights on why the informal workforce needs to be transformed into the formal one and also, that how it can be done. 

Focused on demystifying, simplifying and accelerating the multi-faceted journey of LGBT+ inclusion at the workplace, People Matters and Pride Circle, among India’s leading Diversity and Inclusion consultancy firms, bring to you an exclusive six part exclusive podcast series. 

In this episode, Surbhi Srivastava, DE&I Manager - APJ at ServiceNow and Srini Ramaswamy, Co-founder - Pride Circle & Pride Circle Foundation, talk to People Matters about the why and how of mobilising allyship at the workplace. 

As the office culture surfaced as one of the significant causes of attrition, a post surfaced on LinkedIn that those who leave for money may return for culture but those leaving for culture may never return for money. How true is this statement? Answers Sreekanth Arimanithaya, Global Talent and Enablement Services Leader of EY GDS.

To discuss the role of the right employee value proposition policies in hiring and retention, Nikhil Arora, Vice President and Managing Director of GoDaddy India joined us for an episode of the People Matters Podcast.

In an interaction for an episode of the People Matters Podcast, Irena Stetska, Sales Leader at Turing shared insights on how the lives of working women have changed with the introduction of remote work. Hailing from Silicon Valley and having worked closely with the IT industry, she shared how some companies have been supportive of women employees during tough times. 

In this exclusive podcast with People Matters, Priya Mathilakath, Titan's Head HR, highlighted the importance of gender-agnostic allyship, sustainable and scalable gender-neutral practices, and recommended ways for organisations to steer clear of tokenism in their hiring and cultural transformation efforts.

Sahil Dharia, the CEO and Founder of Soothe Healthcare, shares insights on creating awareness around the holistic wellbeing of women both at offices and homes. He shares how the participation of women can boost the GDP of a nation and also the journey that women have seen over the past two years. 

Sanket Atal is the Senior Vice President and MD - Sites at Salesforce. In this episode, he shared how the increased participation of women can help employers meet talent needs and bridge the skills gap. For more, listen to the full episode. 

"Instead of increasing the employee headcount, companies must focus on building skills of the existing workforce in order to survive the talent shortage," said Sandeep Sharma, President Asia at Workday.  

While discussing the graph of the Indian gig economy, Gurpreet Singh and Vineet Arya noted that 2022 is going to be the game-changer. While Gurpreet is the Co-Founder and CRO of Awign, Vineet is Founder of Cohire. 

For this episode, CHRO of Ather Energy had joined us to discuss some of the major concerns in 2022 and also all the aspects of bringing employees back to the offices this year. Sunitha, besides being a CHRO, is also an author and talks about various aspects of leadership.

In this episode, have Kavita Viswanath, General Manager of Jfrog has discussed with People Matters, the various aspects of skilling needs of the tech employees in 2022. She also cast light on how academic modification can bridge the skills gap. 

Kavita has held a number of leadership roles in companies namely Microsoft, Flipkart and Oracle. She expertises in sales and B-2-B strategies.

A tectonic shift is underway, from organisations to people and from profit to purpose, as 2021 draws to a close. With the changing dynamics of businesses, workers and employees, the world of work has transformed – for the better - offering the global leaders a never-before opportunity to reframe work, workforce and the workplace. 

Pranali Save, CHRO of Icertis joined us on this episode to discuss the different aspects of work in 2022 and those of getting back to the offices. She also cast lights on the future of hybrid working, as the new variant of COVID-19 that is the Omicron gives us a glaring look. 

“If we haven't talked about inclusivity, in the context of what it really means, I think we need a lot more education around it,” is what Maureen Kyne said while elaborating on the aspects of inclusivity along with the mindsets triggering the behaviour of being non-inclusive.

Maureen is the Managing Director of Maureen Kyene & Associates and a subject matter expert in the management of workplace crises and bullying including sexual harassment and inclusivity.

In a PMPodcast episode, Maureen cast lights on the global picture of workplace bullying. Though this is a matter of serious concern globally, are the employers doing enough to address it? Several studies have found that employee wellbeing and mental health have been two of the major reasons causing the talent crisis and attrition. According to Maureen, despite this fact, education about these acts is still lacking in both employees and employers.

From health risks, ensuring workplace safety at home, mental health, and resilience, leaders need to ensure that they are leading the business, their teams, and themselves in this crisis. There’s also a need to ensure organizational reliance as businesses take on the current wave and future waves. And reexamine productivity while bolstering mental health initiatives.

In this episode, Kamal Dutta, Managing Director, Skillsoft India talks about the shifts that L&D professionals need to be aware about. 

Pilar Orti gives a summary of the Episode 1 of the Virtual Team Leader course.

In this podcast, listen to Ester Martinez, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of People Matters in conversation with Nitin Sethi, Chief Executive Officer, Human Capital Solutions, Aon, India & South Asia decoding the trends in executive compensation.

As a new and evolving workplace shapes the future – one where digital collaboration, personal productivity, and team work are going to be critical as a hybrid workplace model takes over, companies need more data and insight to align their agile strategy. And this means rethinking the employee journey (across full time, part time, and remote employees) and identifying specific actionable steps that can lead to disproportionate outcomes.

In this podcast, Dr. Suryanarayan Iyer, Senior Director, Solution Engineering, Oracle India and Yasmin Taj, Managing Editor, People Matters discuss the new ground that technology platforms cover.

The government had late last year notified the Industrial Relations Code, the Social Security Code and the OSH & WC Code. It had earlier notified the Code on Wages in 2019. These four codes will significantly impact the workers and the employers as it aims to improve the ease of doing business and provide universal social security to all 500 million workforces of India.

In this exclusive podcast, PV Murthy, a Labor Law Consultant at Economic Laws Practice (ELP) will explain the key provisions and how they will impact employers and employees.

In this podcast Priya Mathilakath, Head- HR, Retail and Corporate, Titan Company Limited shares some of the ways by which organizations can create a gender-balanced workplace.

The World Economic Forum's global gender gap report for 2020, banks, it is among the five worst-performing countries on the economic participation and opportunity metric. As per the periodic labor force survey, 2019, the female labor force participation rate was only 19.7% in rural India and 16.1 in urban India was this greater than 55% for means.

In this podcast, listen to Ruchira Bhardwaja, CHRO, Future Generali India Life Insurance in conversation with Yasmin taj, Managing Editor, People matters where she reflects upon how the pandemic has put more women out of the workforce and how organizations need to gear up and take steps to create a gender-balanced workplace.

Listen to the podcast as Ruchira addresses the following questions:

• How the pandemic has impacted women's workforce participation in the workforce? Could women be leaving the workforce more than men?
• Working mothers absorb a disproportionate amount of childcare and homeschooling responsibilities, and with COVID-19 & lockdown, the double shift has grown to a “double-double” shift. It has also been quoted as one of the reasons for women to step down from the workforce. How can organizations address this challenge?
• What are some of the immediate actions that organizations can take to support women working remotely?
• What are the possibilities for women out of the workforce due to pandemic today and in a post-COVID world?
• What are some of the opportunity areas that organizations should focus on accelerating the needle of a gender-balanced workplace?

Listen to the podcast here:

In this podcast, listen to Sarah McCann-Bartlett, Chief Executive Officer at Australian HR Institute (AHRI) in conversation with Yasmin Taj, Managing Editore, People Matters where she shares more about how organizations can create development programs aimed at promoting more diversity.

In this podcast, listen to Maria Rajesh, CHRO, Embassy Group in conversation with Yasmin Taj, Managing Editor, People Matters on creating reward, succession, and promotion processes bias-free.

In this podcast, listen to Rowan Tonkin Senior Director, Human Resource Transformation, Oracle Corporation, and Yasmin Taj, Managing Editor, People Matters as they talk about how to rethink learning journeys – from building learning-based connections, integrating learning in the flow of work and creating an opportunity marketplace, there are new steps that need to be introduced.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

1.  Why does learning need a revamp for the new workplace?

2.  What are the key lessons on learning that companies need in the flow of work?

3.  How can technology enable new innovation – from building a growth mindset to improving practice?

4.  How to redesign a new learning roadmap?

In this deep-dive podcast, Shaakun Khanna, Head of Human Capital Management Applications, Asia Pacific, Oracle Corporation and Yasmin Taj, Managing Editor, People Matters, discuss use cases of how technology is transforming the conversations on health and safety and how it is freeing up HR to focus on critical human connections.

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