Interviewer: Mahmoud Mansi
“As we enter 2020, India’s workplaces are now beginning to feel the real impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0, where technology and humans are coming almost head-to-head at the workplace. For a nation of 1.3 billion people, new job roles need to be created at a faster pace, even as some low-end tasks keep getting automated…”
Vikas Dua
ABOUT THE INTERVIEWEE:
Vikas Dua is a consummate HR professional with a specialisation in Talent Acquisition based out of New Delhi, India. With an experience of over 18 years, he has worked with both, startups (when it wasn’t considered so cool) and with larger, diversified organisations such as Wipro, Concentrix & Startek Aegis, driving large scale hiring in the APAC region.
Currently, he is playing the role of Chief HR Mentor at Attayn – a disruptive HR Tech firm working on enhancing and democratizing knowledge sharing in the academic space.
Personally interested in the inter-locking of HR and technology, he is an active contributor in strengthening this bond through multiple channels, including HR seminars, campus network, social media and more.
He is an avid vlogger (and even a poet!) on HR practices, sharing his learnings under his self-designed ‘HR in my HeaRt’ brand umbrella. Additionally, his articles have been published by reputed online portals and magazines.
Vikas is also an accomplished speaker having delivered TEDx and keynote speeches, besides having moderated panel discussions at renowned Indian universities such as Allahabad University, Guwahati University, Delhi University and Panjab University and at various industry forums.
Vikas can be reached via Email at vykas.dua@gmail.com or contacted via Twitter @vykasdua
THE INTERVIEW:
1-HR Revolution Middle East: How do you believe your current job or role in life is contributing to humanity?
Vikas Dua: With the pace of transformation increasing at a scorching pace, faculty and students, both, need to be aware of the latest developments in their field of study. Often, however, the pace of change in the academic world tends to lag the pace in the world of business.
Therefore, in my current role, I am facilitating the sharing of knowledge in the world of academia. At Attayn, we are building the blocks that will enable this exchange of knowledge and experience to happen with speed and accuracy. With this, we are confident, that the students who transition from the campus to the corporate world, will be smarter, more knowledgeable and more equipped to handle the challenges thrown at them by the world of business.
2-HR Revolution Middle East: From your personal observation, what do you believe are the common challenges in today’s workplace in India? How to overcome such challenges from your personal perspective?
Vikas Dua: Post 1991, India has been on a strong upward trajectory as an economy for the most part, expect for a few periods in the interim where growth has been slow; and even these have been largely caused by global recessionary trends.
As we enter 2020, India’s workplaces are now beginning to feel the real impact of Industrial Revolution 4.0, where technology and humans are coming almost head-to-head at the workplace. For a nation of 1.3 billion people, new job roles need to be created at a faster pace, even as some low-end tasks keep getting automated.
Additionally, India’s workplaces will need to support diversity and inclusion and create an environment that promotes a positive work-life balance, for these are considered to be ‘must haves’ and not ‘nice to haves’, by today’s workforce.
3-HR Revolution Middle East: Recently you were a speaker at TEDxVCE conference, what was your talk about? How do you believe this topic can be applied on an individual and social level?
Vikas Dua: At the recent TEDx Conference held at the Vardhaman College of Enginering in Hyderabad, India, I was honoured to be one of the speakers amongst a host of other distinguished achievers.
Pulling from my experience and my background, my TEDx Talk was on ‘Campus Interviews – The Stress & The Solution’. In a country like India which is trying to bridge the gap between a ‘developing nation’ and a ‘developed nation’, campus interviews play a huge role in creating the path for graduating students to join the workforce. However, while they leverage the campus placements opportunities, they also undergo a lot of stress that has long-term harmful effects.
Through my talk, I wanted to bring this issue to the forefront and educate students, their parents and the authorities in the academic field, to handle this with sensitivity and allow each student to reach his or her potential. At a broader level, my guidance to all was to develop themselves holistically and enjoy the journey, without taking undue stress of a pre-decided goal.
4-HR Revolution Middle East: Tell us about one activity you like doing, and why do you believe this activity is special?
Vikas Dua: I am passionate about interacting with the student community by contributing as a speaker at seminars, conclaves, college festivals, etc. These allow me the opportunity to share some of my experience with them, with the hope that it will help them in their journey as a young professional when they start out.
In fact, I also believe that in these interactions, I take away so much learning from the young students, which helps in my personal and professional growth as well.
5-HR Revolution Middle East: From your point of view, what makes a TEDx talk so special?
Vikas Dua: A TEDx event is a platform that enables knowledge and experience sharing for the benefit of the community. The grouping of a diverse set of speakers who deliver their Talks with passion allows for open dissemination of thoughts that sow the seeds for further action in the physical world.
For the speakers, it a great opportunity to get their message out into the world, where others who share the same passion and connect seamlessly and take their work forward.
6-HR Revolution Middle East: Can you share with us a situation you have been through, where it was a learning experience, perhaps learnt a new wisdom or inspired you to think differently?
Vikas Dua: I am reminded of an experience very early in my career when I had just started leading the campus hiring program at one of my previous organisations. We had recruited students from campus and on the joining day, I visited the venue of the on-boarding program. I found to my surprise that several students, especially, the girls, were accompanied by their parent.
This was quite an insight since I had never been accompanied to my places of work by my parents or relatives. I realised that for some parents, whose children were moving between cities to take up their first employment, there was a lot of concern and uneasiness.
I, then decided to address this in a multi-pronged way. To share a few, we started sending communication to the parents of selected candidates letting them know that their children were in safe hands and joining a world-class reputed organisation. We, also, organised meet ups with parents in some of the bigger towns in India, from where we had selected them. For those parents who still came along with their wards for the joining, we made sure that some of us in the ‘HR’ function met them personally and addressed their concerns adequately. These measures made a huge difference and we found that the percentage of parents coming across fell by almost 60 per cent.
7-HR Revolution Middle East: The meaning of leadership can change from one era to the other, how would you define the meaning of leadership today?
Vikas Dua: With ‘Generation Z’ now at the workplace, our leadership style must evolve drastically. Clearly, young professionals who make up this group, come with a strong educational background, global exposure, comfort with high technology and a high degree of self-awareness. They are not content just being part of an ‘automated assembly line’. They want to contribute in a wholesome manner while they continue to develop their own personalities and skills.
Hence, leadership in this decade must be all about empowering them. A work environment where leaders encourage this will enable them to thrive and produce their best work, enabling the organisation to stand out and succeed.
8-HR Revolution Middle East: Can you share with us a challenge you have been through at your work, and how you overcame this challenge?
Vikas Dua: At one stage in my career, while being based in India, I was tasked with setting up the hiring processes for our company’s operations that were being kicked off in Mexico City, Mexico. This was no small task. After all, the primary language spoken in Mexico is Spanish and English, while spoken, is not very prevalent. Also, the time zone in Mexico is exactly 12 hours behind the time zone followed in India! As per global practices, we also were required to adhere to all our standard hiring processes and hire the required number of resources within the tight timelines.
With some amount of deliberation, I realised that remotely managing this project would not be feasible. Hence, I decided to send across one of my tenured team members to Mexico City to operationally drive the hiring along with the local team, even as I guided and monitored from India. This was in effect, a smart decision.
With the support of my highly skilled and passionate team members, we were able to successfully hire for the organisation in Mexico City. His presence there, also ensured that the local team was well trained and then geared up to hire resources required in the future.
9-HR Revolution Middle East: What do you think are the main threats that could be facing India’s economy? What would be your strategic suggestions to mitigate such threats?
Vikas Dua: India benefitted tremendously in the last part of the 20th century and early part of the 21st century. However, today, India is navigating a tough, global market that is showing signs of becoming ‘protectionist’ in some parts. Calls in some countries to slow down international trade are becoming louder.
At such a time, it is imperative for India to grow the internal consumption market. This in turn requires India to invest and drive production, especially in the manufacturing sector. This will have the additional benefit of generating employment since typically the manufacturing sector is more labour intensive.
10-HR Revolution Middle East: What is your advice to other people who are enthusiastic to become TEDx speakers?
Vikas Dua: Being on the TEDx platform is an honour and a responsibility. My first and foremost guidance to aspiring TEDx speakers would be to accept this truth. With this understanding in mind, I would urge them to create a speech that is attuned to the audience. The speech should be ideally witty, impactful, insightful and guiding. An extremely critical element of the TEDx Talk is the delivery and for that the advice is to practice hard. Day after Day. One should reach a point where one is able to deliver the speech immediately after being woken up.
In fact, I have also written a detailed blog on this. I would recommend that if you are hoping to be a TEDx speaker, you read the same here – http://bit.ly/VD_T3Dx