No looking back for HR heads

Bhupesh Bhandari in New Delhi

Santrupt Misra, human resources (HR) director in the Aditya Birla Group, used to function from the basement in a building away from corporate headquarters, when he joined the group six years ago. Today, he operates from the heart of the headquarters. Talking about the change in his role, Misra says: "It has evolved from routine work to critical business."

Top notch HR professionals like Misra have never had it so good. Leading companies have re-discovered the importance of modern HR practices. This has resulted in an elevation in the status of the HR head in many firms, with a higher position in the hierarchy as well as a better compensation package.

"I know of at least a dozen firms paying their HR heads between Rs 60 lakh and Rs 80 lakh per annum. Two years ago, the maximum salary an HR head managed was Rs 40 lakh," says Anil Sachdev, the founder and chief executive of the HR consultancy firm, Grow Talent. According to Sachdev, the HR head's salary has moved up from 30 per cent of the CEO's salary to 60 per cent.

The demand for quality HR professionals was also reflected in the recent campus recruitment at Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur. "While other management institutes were struggling, we achieved 100 per cent placement in three days," says P D Thomas, director of XLRI, adding: "For the current course, many engineers have joined up, seeing better prospects in HR management."

Adds William M Mercer country head, R Sankar: "An HR chief is now required to perform a business partner's role to bring tangible benefits to the company." Several firms are offering the HR head a compensation at par with the CFO or the marketing head.

Satish Pradhan, executive vice-president of group HR in Tata Sons, says the HR manager's job profile has shifted from managing industrial relations to playing a strategic role in company affairs. "One has to provide a sense of strategic leadership and development," says Pradhan, who joined Tata Sons in April last year, from ICI Plc in London.

According to Misra, this elevation is due to emerging talent, the growth in the services sector and the corporate governance movement in the country. "You can't have 21st century external corporate governance and 15th century internal corporate governance," he says.

In certain new-economy segments such as call centres, the status of the HR manager is at par with that of the COO, say HR consultants.

"The average age at such places is very low. This makes the human dimension all the more important," says the head of a Delhi-based, head-hunting firm. "The attrition rate in a call centre can be as high as 50 per cent. If the HR manager can bring it down to 20 per cent, the company doesn't mind paying him a little extra because this results in substantial savings," says Sachdev.