Vishal Pandey is the HR Leader - Pitney Bowes India, Commercial Operations . He is a seasoned HR professional with over 13 years of professional experience across brick & mortar industries (like Energy and Automobiles) and new age technology companies. A keen observer of human psychology and emotions, focused in the key areas of Talent Acquisition, Workforce Strategy, Employee Benefits & Engagement, Total Rewards, Performance Management and Merger & Acquisitions. Prior to Pitney Bowes, he has worked for companies like – Polyplex Hydro Group and Sumi Motherson Group. He is an alumnus of XLRI Jamshedpur.
As the competitive marketplace increasingly diversifies, aiming for a deeper level of organisational change becomes a necessity. An organisation needs to go beyond traditional training methods and build a cultural diversity training program which helps people to collaborate and contribute towards building a promising organisation.
Most of the members in the workforce are ignorant of their behaviour, responses, actions, etc and when you sensitize and educate them through workshops and experiential journey, it helps people to collaborate and contribute towards building a promising organisation.
It is All About Change and Exchange!
Change is one of the most critical aspects of effective management. Change is the coping process of moving from the present state to the desired state that individuals, groups, and organisations undertake in response to dynamic internal and external factors that alter current realities. One reason that the rate of change is accelerating is that knowledge and technology feed on themselves, constantly creating innovations at exponential rates.
Managers and the enterprises they serve- public or private, service or manufacturing will continue to be judged by their ability to effectively and efficiently manage change. Designing, evaluating and implementing successful change strategies largely depend upon the quality of the management team, in particular, the team’s ability to design the organisation in such a way as to facilitate the change process in a responsive and progressive manner.
Why Do We Need Interventions?
Change heralds new opportunities and poses formidable challenges. Organisations that learn and cope with change will thrive and flourish and others which fail to do so will be wiped out. Under these circumstances, it becomes imperative to discuss the various change tools and models in the field of organisational change and management.
In brief, change must come from within the organisation. People must be aware of the need for change, believe in the potential value of the changes proposed, and be willing to change their behaviours in order to make the team, department, or the organisation effective.
In the absence of these beliefs and behaviours, effective organisational change may be problematic. In addition, effective change must rely on a contingency perspective- that is open to trying different things at different times.
To cope up with the changes, organisational leaders and managers employ well-established instruments and tools, which bring desired change among the subjects of the organisation. Sensitivity Training and Inclusion workshops are the instruments among them. These tools will help inculcate the needed change in their values, beliefs and interpersonal and intrapersonal operations. Thus, support the organisation in building the appropriate culture for its workforce to operate effectively.
Diversity & Inclusion and Sensitivity are core to progressing organisations. There will be a stronger team and better decisions will be made – when we have people with different backgrounds, experiences and different points of view. This is why data is very clear that diverse, inclusive & sensitized teams are key to high performing organisations and provide insights into Market and Talent.
The openness of sensitivity training environments can “free up” workforce so much that they perform better than they would in the “real world.” It describes some of the experiences in which a businessman is supposed to learn or get new and fresh insights about himself and his impact on others.
Inclusion Workshops
With rapidly shifting demographics, continued globalization, and increased reliance on partnering, organisations must embrace diversity and inclusion not only as a means to enhance business performance but also as an enabler of innovation and collaboration. Inclusive organisations understand and seek to capture the power of a varied cognitive landscape, and the resulting rise in performance and productivity of people.
The Anatomy of the Inclusion program allows participants to be guided through frank conversations about the status quo of inclusivity and the desire within organisations to expand, and then maximize cultural diversity.
In organisations where life is a constant push-pull of new ideas facing off against ingrained ways of doing things, the ability to overcome resistance is a critical career skill.
Organisations which are focused on driving Sensitivity and Inclusivity are been able to see the following improved dimensions:
- Intrapersonal – Sensitivity towards self
- Sensitivity towards people around / large system
- Emotional mellowness
- Interpersonal relationships
Sensitivity training, however, cannot have any direct impact on increasing the revenue for the organisation. This program would bring about positive change in the working relationship between members of the organisation which would lead to better productivity, cordial working relationship and this will lead to the fulfilment of organisational goals.
Sensitivity and Inclusion are among the few ingredients which help in building a productive culture. It also plays an important role in removing ambiguous thoughts among employees and it makes an experiential journey for both the Workforce and Business.
To conclude – Diversity & Inclusion and Sensitivity are the right things to do, imperative of business and core to a culture which helps in hiring and retaining talent. Organisations need to start framing diversity in terms of their inventiveness, imagination, and competitiveness to re-engage employees in organisational change.
