COURSE CORRECTION

BUSINESS SCHOOLS ARE REVISITING THEIR CURRICULUM AND PARTNERING WITH INDUSTRY TO BUILD A PIPELINE OF PROBLEM SOLVERS WHO ARE NOT OVERWHELMED BY CONSTANT CHANGE.

- AJITA SHASHIDHAR

EVER SINCE COVID, fast-moving consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has moved its campus recruitment process online. Though triggered by the lockdown, HUL still finds this process more robust and effective in contrast to physically visiting B-School campuses.

“Online interviews have given us an opportunity to listen to them repeatedly, and that has allowed us to raise the bar and make our selection process more scientific,” says Anuradha Razdan, executive director, human resources, HUL. It helped the organisation eliminate biases in selection, she adds. “Just by listening you can see the points that are checked for again and again. For instance, one might keep checking for people’s problem-solving and analytical abilities, but focus less on their creative-thinking skills,” she further explains.

Creative-thinking skills are a critical quality, especially in an era where businesses need to be perennially agile. If a pandemic or war brings about chaos, what can one do differently to ensure that supply chain and distribution mechanisms aren’t disrupted? It definitely requires unconventional thinking skills.

HUL’s management training models are widely followed across the industry, but the question is whether the company can afford to invest that kind of time to train new entrants when change is happening on the go. “The time to learn has shortened,” agrees Rajkamal Vempati, CHRO, Axis Bank. “We want dayone productivity. Earlier we had an apprentice model where we used to teach the ropes, but today the business reality is we need people who can run on day one,” she adds.