In today’s world, it has become more important than ever for organisations to hire the best available staff as well as find ways to keep them motivated and committed. Motivated employees bring in increased productivity by achieving higher levels of output. However, often at times, there is a lack of motivation and engagement in the workplace that makes employees feel demoralised and of less significance to the organisation. This acts as a significant contributor to emotional distress and burnout that eventually leads to a range of psychological disorders. A study by ASSOCHAM in April 2015 stated that nearly 42.5% of employees in private sectors suffered from general anxiety disorder or depression.

To promote psychological health through motivation and engagement in an organisation, the human resources (HR) role is critical. Their purpose is to promote self-confidence, creativity, autonomy, and initiative which are the essential characteristics to meet the internal demands of the organisation and streamline the productive flow for work performance.

In organisations, the role of the human resources is of strategic importance. With their activities, the human resources can increase motivation, thus increasing the quality of work-life balance for the employees. Simultaneously, the organisational climate improves that directly impacts productivity.

The HR manager needs to understand that motivation is directly proportional to the improvement of individual performance. While several employees across the globe can and do work while experiencing mental health issues, like depression or anxiety, with little impact on productivity but there are situations where an individual is not able to work because of the severity of the condition. In the majority of cases, supportive HR intervention can be the key to continued productivity.

STRATEGIES TO ENHANCE MOTIVATION AND PERFORMANCE

Since employee motivation and well-being have a strong influence on organisational health, financial success along with customer satisfaction and loyalty, HR managers can adopt certain strategies to put into practice in this context.

PLEASANT WORKING ENVIRONMENT

Professional well-being stems from healthy and pleasant working conditions. Therefore, it is necessary to provide employees with a comfortable, clean, and if possible, customised workspace. Other than that, flexible working hours or work from home opportunities (if compatible with the work activities) can also be offered that can increase motivation levels and lower work-related stress.

IDENTIFYING POSITIVE ATTITUDES

HR managers should value employees who have proactive and successful attitudes. Since autonomy introduces more dynamism and flexibility to work, this professional stance is presently in demand. Apart from that, passing on work-related compliments and positive feedback can go a long way in showing employees that positive attitudes never go unnoticed.

ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY

Innovation happens through creativity. Thus, human resources should always be open to adopting techniques that promote this process. Such processes shouldn’t focus on exaggerated structuring and instead adopt flexibility to thrive. The “Hackamonth” program implemented by Facebook allows employees to work with a different team and project for a month. Through this approach, integration between different teams is stimulated, and also the employees are able to develop new experiences and perspectives from their peers.

TRANSPARENT & OPEN COMMUNICATION CHANNELS

HR managers should always be open talks or discussions with employees regarding any issue. Anxieties, frustrations, and possible problems need to be heard and properly addressed to stall negative impacts on the organisation.

CONCLUSION

Workplace mental well-being is demonstrated when employees feel able to seek feedback, ask questions, report mistakes and problems, or propose some new idea without any fear of negative consequences to themselves, their career, or their job. A psychologically healthy and safe workplace actively promotes emotional well-being among every employee while taking all required steps to reduce threats to employee mental health.

The writer is global head for Mental Health at Round Glass, Managing Trustee Poddar Foundation.

The organisations World over are taking various measures for competitive advantage, remain relevant and for the survival. Those ranges from adopting various strategies and technologies. What we are seeing is there is larger role of technology in the businesses. Further, the technologies themselves are used as larger part of strategy as well the vehicle for an organisation’s competitiveness and survival.

Organisations are realising a great merit and value in the adoption of the digital technologies. There is spurt in the digitalisation of the organisation at various levels and speed both for large and small corporations. Main focus is on making business processes more transparent, efficient, controllable and automate. It has changed the entire ecosystem of production, processing, storage and distribution of both products and services. Big data analytics is the broader umbrella of technologies which not only provide framework and platform for the storage and processing of data from heterogeneous sources but also provide sophisticated algorithm based on machine learning and deep learning for analysing the data and derive insight from it.

VALUE OF BIG DATA ANALYTICS

Most organisations are turning to advanced analytics for business intelligence, data mining, predictive and prescriptive analytics. Some of the prominent sectors that are switching to analytics as a fundamental component of their functioning include finance, sales, marketing, supply chain logistics and shop floor among others.

The source of data are the business processes, customer and supplier engagement data, transaction data, as well as the millions of sensors in the form of Internet of Things (IoTs) and also the data stored on the Clouds. Big Data Analytics uses these data for the creating and running highly efficient and automated business processes. One of the important implications of use of big data analytics is to have data driven decision making and business processes across the hierarchy and breadth of businesses. Big data analytics is a key driver for innovation; more and more companies are using big data analytics to bring new innovative products and services by analysing the large and complex data. Consequently, there is a growing demand for professionals who are skilled in big data analytics. Also, there is a larger focus by big organisations to re-skill their workforce specially in the area of big data analytics.

KEY SKILLSET

Professionals with skills in big data analytics are in high demand and draw premium. Some of the key responsibilities is to obtain data from divergent sources, clean and pre-process the data, train machines to learn and do intelligent work based on the data, and deploy these machine learning models in the data driven processes. They together give us new insight for taking decision, data driven action and even help make prediction. For this they also need an Apache Hadoop framework for handling bid data set. They help create dash boards where data and tasks can be seen and visualised in real time. These are fundamental for any business and key for the business growth.

To become a big data specialist, a professional need a variety of skills including programming using Python or Scala, knowledge of statistics to use large data effectively and of course knowledge of machine learning algorithms to derive insight from the data. Professionals also need to have problem solving skills and critical thinking to take advantage of this larger information ecosystem.

BRIDGING THE SKILL GAP

As global markets are rapidly transitioning towards automation and computing, especially due to the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), modern businesses are struggling to scout for skilled professionals who possess the relevant expertise. Therefore, the scope for a promising career opportunity in big data analytics is consistently expanding.

There is a significant deficit in the supply side of big data professionals as compared to its soaring demands in the current job market. This is a global trend, wherein despite the overwhelming requirements for this skill set, there is a huge number of unfulfilled positions due to the shortage of skilled data scientists.

If the case of the Indian market is considered in isolation, there is a challenging scarcity of big data professionals. Bridging this deficit can attract global organisations to outsource their work to Indian employees, a trend which is expected to grow by several folds in the coming years. Considering a career as a data scientist or analytics consultant, depending upon the niche of expertise is a great option for professionals who are seeking to create commendable impacts in the corporate scenario.

B-SCHOOLS’ ROLE IN BIG DATA

To effectively use big data skills in a business environment professional also need to have core business and management skills so that they can transform their business problem in a form which analytics platform can help solve. Since these skill sets come from variety of disciplines a systematic approach is definitely desired.

Leading B-schools around the world as well as in India are recognising the promising opportunities in the power of big data. They are curating their curriculum accordingly to impart key and relevant skills that foster the problem-solving skills and curiosity to the students and prepare them to become competent professionals in a data driven economy.

Management institutes are offering both introductory and advanced courses in Big Data depending on the role and responsibilities of the professionals and the career goal of the students. Coupled with their practical exposure to programing, platform and machine learning models and Automation, these B-schools are determined to produce multifaceted leaders of tomorrow.

IN CONCLUSION

Big data analytics may come across as an advanced framework for formulating strategies and data driven decision. However, it is an effective method to comprehend data and offer impactful solutions. Keeping this scenario in mind, it is safe to predict that the career possibilities in this field will skyrocket in the coming years.

Prof Lalit K. Jiwani is professor and area chair of Information Technology at FORE School of Management, New Delhi.

Being an efficient Principal is not a job. It’s a way of life! You must always keep the teacher alive within the leader and vice versa as each fires the other. These stories are not new nor have been written by me. They have been assorted from various books and sources on the Internet. They have, over the years, inspired me and have been used at various training platforms. The takeaways are simple but important. We know we must do certain things in a certain way, but we tend to forget. They have been put together here for your easy reading.

#1 ANECDOTE

Once a mother decided to take her young boy, who had become addicted to eating sugar, to Gandhiji for help. After a scorching tiring journey, she finally reached Gandhiji’s ashram and asked him to tell her son to stop eating sugar as it wasn’t good for his health. Gandhiji refused to help at that time and asked the mother to bring the child back to him after two weeks. The mother was confused and upset and took the boy home. Two weeks later, she came back. This time Gandhiji looked directly at the boy and said, “You should stop eating sugar. It is not good for your health.” The boy nodded his head and promised he wouldn’t. The boy’s mother was puzzled. She asked, “Why didn’t you tell him that two weeks ago when I brought him here?” Gandhiji smiled and said, “Two weeks ago, I was eating a lot of sugar myself.”

Takeaway: Leaders must model the behaviour they ask of their subordinates.

#2 ANECDOTE

A gentleman was once walking through an elephant camp when he noticed that the elephants weren’t being held by chains. All that was holding them back from escaping the camp was a small piece of rope tied to one of their legs. The man stood there, completely confused. The elephants could easily escape from captivity using their strength to break the rope. But instead, they weren’t even trying at all. Curious and wanting to know the answer, he asked a trainer nearby why the elephants were just standing there and never tried to escape. The trainer’s answer was an eye-opener. He said, “When they are very young and much smaller, we use the same size rope to tie them. At that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.” The only reason that the elephants weren’t breaking free was that over time they believed that it just wasn’t possible.

Takeaway: Believing you can become successful is the most important step in actually achieving it.

#3 ANECDOTE

Many years ago, in a small Italian town, a small business owner owed a large sum of money to a loan-shark. The loanshark was a very old, unattractive man who liked the businessman’s daughter. He decided to offer the businessman a deal that he would wipe out the debt if he could marry the businessman’s daughter. Needless to say, this proposal was met with a look of disgust. The loan-shark then thinking smart said that he would place two pebbles into a bag, one white and one black. The daughter would then have to reach into the bag and pick out a pebble. If it was black, he would marry the girl, and the debt would be wiped. But if it was white, the debt would be wiped, and the daughter wouldn’t have to marry him. Standing on a pebble-strewn path in the businessman’s garden, the loan-shark bent over and picked up two pebbles. While he was picking them up, the daughter noticed that he’d picked up two black pebbles and placed them both into the bag. He then asked the daughter to reach into the bag and pick one. The daughter naturally had three choices; refuse to pick a pebble from the bag, take both pebbles out of the bag and expose the loan-shark for cheating or pick a pebble from the bag fully aware it was black and sacrifice herself for her father’s freedom. She drew out a pebble from the bag, and before looking at it, ‘accidentally’ dropped it into the midst of the other pebbles on the path. She then said to the loan-shark, “Oh, how clumsy of me. Never mind, if you look into the bag for the one that is left, you will be able to tell which pebble I picked.” The pebble left in the bag was obviously black. As the loan-shark didn’t want to be exposed, he had to play along with the trick and pretend as if the pebble that the daughter had dropped was white. He lost the marriage proposal and had to clear the debt as well.

Takeaway: Smart, out-of-the-box thinking can sail you through tough situations.

#4 ANECDOTE

Four frog friends were travelling through the woods. Two of them accidentally fell into a deep pit. When the other two frogs crowded around the pit and saw how deep it was, they told the two frogs that there was no hope left for them. However, the two frogs decided to ignore what the others said, and they attempted to jump out. This time they fell back harder and also bruised themselves. The two frogs on the top shouted harder and told them to stay safe inside, as jumping out was not possible. Eventually, one of the frogs, believing what the others had to say, gave up. However, the other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. The three frogs now yelled at him to stop and accept his destiny to die in that pit. But he jumped even harder this time and made it out, leaving one behind in the pit. When he got out, the other frogs said, “Did you not hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time.

Takeaway: Your thoughts are very powerful. They will make anything happen, no matter what people say.

#5 ANECDOTE

There was once a farmer who sold a pound of butter to a baker. One day the baker decided to weigh the butter to see if he was getting the right amount. When he weighed it, he found the butter of less than the ordered quantity. Angry about this, he took the farmer to court. The judge asked the farmer if he was using any measure to weigh the butter. The farmer replied, “Sir, I am primitive. I don’t have a proper measure, but I do have a scale.” The judge asked, “Then how do you weigh the butter?” The farmer replied, “Sir, long before the baker started buying butter from me, I have been buying a pound of bread from him. Every day when the baker brings the bread, I put it on the scale and give him the same weight in butter. If anyone is to be blamed, it is the baker.”

Takeaway: In life, you get what you give. Don’t try and cheat others.

#6 ANECDOTE

In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. He then hid and watched to see if anyone would move the boulder out of the way. Some of the King’s wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many people loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none of them did anything about getting the stone out of the way. A peasant then came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon approaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to push the stone out of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant went back to pick up his vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King explaining that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway.

Takeaway: Every obstacle we come across in life gives us an opportunity to improve our circumstances.

#7 ANECDOTE

One day a man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He noticed a small opening on one side. He sat down to watch the butterfly as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Suddenly it stopped making any progress and looked as if it was stuck. The man decided to help the butterfly. He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shrivelled wings. The man sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly to fly. But that didn’t happen. The butterfly struggled there, unable to fly, crawling around with tiny wings and a swollen body to ultimately die. The kind-hearted man didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small opening were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, thus preparing itself to fly to life.

Takeaway: Our struggles develop our strengths. Without them, we never grow or get stronger.

#8 ANECDOTE

There once was a little boy who had a very bad temper. His father decided to hand him a bag of nails and said that every time the boy lost his temper, he had to hammer a nail into the fence. Conscious of the situation, the boy was shocked to see that he had hammered 37 nails into the fence on the first day. The boy gradually began to control his temper over the next few weeks, and the number of nails he was hammering into the fence slowly decreased. He discovered it was easier to control his temper than to hammer those nails into the fence. Finally, one day when the boy didn’t have to hammer a single nail, he rushed to his father. The father then told the boy to pull out a nail every day he kept his temper under control. The days passed, and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, “You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one.”

Takeaway: Control your anger. Don’t say things to people that you may later regret.

The writer is director principal, Sarvottam International School, Greater Noida West. The article is an edited extract from her new book, ‘104 Traits of Highly Successful School Principals’ (Notion Press).

The Aditya Birla Education Academy (ABEA) has collaborated with Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY) to offer scholarships for CTY’s online programmes for advanced learners in India. Both ABEA and CTY aim to identify and support the needs of bright young learners in India through these online programmes at reduced rates up to August 2021.

Through this cooperation with CTY, Aditya Birla Education Academy is providing a 5% scholarship on tuition fees and reduction in the application fees up to August 2021.

This scholarship can be availed by only the first 50 advanced learners who apply to ABEA. Students in grades 2 through 12 can qualify through participation in the CTY Talent Search and demonstrating high ability in either quantitative or spatial reasoning (for math and science courses) or verbal reasoning (for humanities and writing courses).

The admission process for nursery and other classes across the national capital will start soon. Nursery admissions in private schools in Delhi this year will be held completely online. All schools in Delhi have been closed for primary classes since the last 11 months. The Education Ministry of the Delhi government will now work out a process for the admissions. The school forms will be downloaded and applications will also be submitted online for admissions. The list of the successful applicants will be displayed online and the parents of these students can pay the fees online. However, in government schools, the admission process would be conducted both via online and offline modes. Apart from nursery admission, admissions for other classes in government and private schools would also be started soon.

As vaccines undergo trials and others are rolled out across the world, it is expected that a large part of the vulnerable population will be protected against Covid-19 by the end of 2021. While it will take a few years before everyone gets the shot, especially with new strains of the novel coronavirus presenting a fresh challenge, there is still hope of returning to normalcy over the next two years. However, this will bring a major transformation to the education process as it will take the blended approach with both online and offline classes, depending upon the severity of the situation.

HOW THE PANDEMIC HAS AFFECTED EDUCATION

Education has been one of the worst-affected sectors in India during the pandemic. It has thrown a new challenge in every student’s life. The learning process of around 32 crore students in India had come to a halt all of a sudden when the pandemic hit. According to a UNESCO report, about 14 crore primary and 13 crore secondary students were affected. But that is also what made every student more resilient and open to adapting to new challenges. They opted for technological platforms for uninterrupted learning, while many educational institutions moved classes, examinations and internships to the online medium. Teachers assigned work via the internet and delivered lectures via online video conferencing apps. Thus, ovid-19 taught both students and teachers how to emerge victorious.

Even though the scenario was not similar everywhere, it was still a challenge which could be overcome with good internet penetration in rural areas. The government also postponed examinations for secondary and higher secondary classes and conducted them later while adhering strictly to Covid-19 guidelines.

THE EDUCATION SCENARIO IN 2022

Here are some of the major trends which will be observed in the education scenario in 2022. They may also be considered as positive outcomes of the pandemic and lockdown.

A shift towards blended learning: This kind of learning will give students exposure to both online and face-to-face learning. In a recent survey, it has been found out that 59% of students are more motivated to learn through a blended or hybrid mode than with a fully online course or a flipped classroom setting. It gives them the advantage of learning at their own pace and via digital technology. At the same time, virtual learning is often best consolidated by in-person interactions. SO, in many ways, blended learning combines the best of both worlds.

A rise in the use of learning management systems: There is a rising demand for learning management systems among educational institutions, especially for soft copies of learning material. This is providing a great opportunity to the companies which are developing and strengthening the learning management systems.

Though the outbreak of Covid-19 has had many negative impacts on education, educational institutions in India have accepted the challenges and adjusted to the new normal despite the initial hiccups of using technology. They are trying their best to provide seamless support and services to students and continue their education. In fact, it can now be said that the pandemic has brought an opportunity for the Indian education system to transform and enter a new era.

The writer is CEO of ICA Edu Skills.