Those were the winters of Nainital. I along with my friends of
IMT-HR had booked the Corbett Lodge in the deep unchartered valleys of the
exotic hill-station. My friends had gone for sight-seeing and the Safari-wala had
insisted them to visit the Sunset-point in particular. I somehow wasn’t feeling
well and thus didn’t feel like accompanying them. They criticized me for this
and told me you’ll be missing a great fun. But I preferred to stay back at the
lodge and ordered for a coffee.
Sitting alone in the balcony, I was examining the texture of the
land and admiring the miraculous tectonic creations. A narrow passage ran
through the hillocks making way for a river lit by the rays of the dying sun
ready to show up again in a matter of hours. The ripples of the water reflected
the weak sunshine straight through my spectacles as I sipped in the evening
coffee. My gaze followed the flow of the river to where it was ending and by
the time it stopped following, the sun’s rim had touched the edge of the river.
The scene was like a painting, though my mind deciphered the scenic beauty from
a different perspective. A perspective which would enhance the vision of my
career.
For me, that time, it was not just a mere coming-together of 2
nature’s greatest gifts but a gift for my thinking, my point-of-view, my
approach towards my career. It was a union of HR managers (sun) and the
personnel (river). The sun makes the river glitter; it makes it shine not just
in the day as sunlight but even in the night as moonlight. Similarly the
efficiency of a staff depends on the knowledge bestowed on them by their
respective HR managers. Be it good (day) or bad (night) times the HR takes them
through. A blending not just of two greatest forces in the world but a
combination of administrative personnel functions and performance.
The sun sprinkles its light equally to each and every particle of
water irrespective of the nature of that particle; similarly an HR is
indiscriminate about the various diversities prevalent in the organization.
This can be exemplified by the organizational transitions taking place in Bank
of Montreal, Quebec.
As I was busy relating the scene to an organization suddenly the
waves started building up in the waters. The level of the water began to rise;
the white herons took off in an instant for their nests like an HR manager who
anticipates the future supply and demand for employees. A sense of terror started
prevailing in the atmosphere. I, the least concerned and the least terrified of
all didn’t stop thinking and relating it to my career. What if these are
indications of the various challenges that an HR management has to face in an
organization. These could be the economic and technological changes in the work
environment or some sort of organizational restructuring. The tides need to be
pacified.
All the processes going on in this world are governed by a set of
rules and regulations like gravity. So was my thinking. An HR management must
have a set of predefined rules and regulations and certain assumptions which it
must abide by, in order to ensure a healthy and sound HR functionality. These
could be ensuring equal employment opportunity, ensuring diversity in
workforce, compensations and benefits, ensuring healthy relationship between
employee and management.
The scene had such a deep impact on my perception towards my
management branch that i felt like i had discovered something great and
blissful. My approach towards HR had completely changed and a voice said from
within me that there’s no stopping me from understanding the greatness of my
field and faring well in it.
It was hard to realize that I had spent two hours watching the
magnificent and informational sight until one of my friends called me from
behind saying ‘we’re back’. One of them teased me saying ‘I feel sorry for you
as you couldn’t enjoy some of the most beautiful places on earth’. I recalled
how I had spent the past two hours and replied back ‘I surely missed the
hang-out with you guys, but what you missed is something you might regret in
future.’ And I narrated the summary of what I had discovered. I could see their
faces turning green with envy.
