On 8th August 2017, the Indo-German HR Partner Forum Meet was hosted by its youngest entrant, FEV India amidst the picturesque setting of Talegaon.  At a time, where business realignment and simplification has become the need of the hour, the theme of the day for discussion was appropriately chosen as Change Management, Organizational Development and Innovation Culture.

It was attended by the HR professionals from the following organizations: BASF India, Bayer Group, Bharat Forge, Bosch, Brose Automotive Systems, Covestro, FEV India, Hӓfele, Kion Group, KSB Pumps, Lanxess India, MAN Trucks, Schaeffler India, Siemens, Volkswagen, Wacker Chemie and ZF India.  The meet was hosted by Mr. Neeraj Gupta, DGM HR, FEV India and Ms. Smaranika Mohanty, Deputy Manager, FEV India.

The day commenced with an extremely sharp and detailed presentation on FEV India that was passionately delivered by Mr. Vijay Sharma, Director, FEV India.  He introduced the audience to the organization, its management and its services in the field of engineering, testing and instrumentation. He elaborated on their vision, mission and core values, while proudly claiming that FEV satisfies all requirements in the field of automotive powertrain and vehicle development. Their Technical Centre is already under expansion mode, adding more number of containerised test cells and other equipments.

The HR partners also visited the Vehicle Application Centre of FEV India, wherein they personally witnessed the testing being conducted on a track.

The forum avidly discussed some areas that hold the attention of the HR partners in changing times such as:

  • relooking at HR policies
  • working on future design based projects
  • using quantifications to build business cases
  • changing performance management systems
  • doing away with merit matrix
  • setting performance improvement plans,
  • creating an open, listening and feedback culture
  • building trust and transparency in the organizations
  • ensuring fairness
  • coaching managers
  • moving to cloud based solutions

The highlight of the day was the live chat with Dr. Lakshmi Nadkarni, Director – Human Resources, BASF South Asia on her professional and personal journey till date.  She exemplified a woman of substance with passion, grit and achievements on one hand and poise and grace on another.  Her words “Life is an inspiring canvas of possibilities” touched the hearts of all the colleagues, as she concluded the day on a sweet, musical note.