Positive Workplace Culture for Increasing Productivity
the HRM
The Human Resources Society Nepal (HRSN), the apex body of Nepali HR professionals, organized the 11th “National HR Conference” on September 7 in Kathmandu. The theme for this year’s conference was “Cultivating a Positive Workplace Culture”.
More than 200 professionals from various industries attended the annual flagship event of HRSN. Inaugurated by Minister of Labor, Employment, and Social Security Sher Bahadur Kunwar, the one-day event also saw the participation of business leaders and international experts.
In the first session, Anirvan Ghosh Dastidar, Managing Director and CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Nepal dwelt on ‘Designing Employee Experiences to Improve Workplace Culture’. Dastidar discussed the culture that Standard Chartered Bank Nepal has set and how it has impacted the bank’s work culture. He also gave a few instances and steps taken by the bank in making the environment comfortable to work for all.
According to Dastidar, as Standard Chartered Bank CEO, he does not have a cabin and he works in a shared space with his colleagues. Similarly, the bank conducts various surveys inside the organization to know the employees better so that the environment can be made conducive by the employees themselves wherein they thrive. He also said the bank has planned to start a discussion on the impact on work during the menopause stage of women.
The second session was the panel discussion on “Changing Dynamics of Workplace Culture”. Moderated by Binod Shrestha, EXCOM – HRSN, the session has Asutosh Tiwari, CEO of Safal Partners, Amun Thapa, founder & CEO of Sasto Deal, and Tripti Rai, Country Director of Water Aid Nepal as panelists.
Tiwari talked about why there is a need to create a positive culture and how to get started. Tiwari also shared his experiences of challenges he faced while working with Nepali companies and how he had to first change the working culture to produce a good result. “We should stop hiding in our comfort zone and open up to international best practices and start adopting those that can help us,” said Tiwari adding, “Let us not resist the change.”
Thapa talked about the setting up of the working culture in his entrepreneurial journey of Sasto Deal. He also shared how they developed a committee inside the company called CLAWS that looks after the workplace culture of the company.
Rai shared her experience about working pre and post covid period and how working from home is a new culture that they have adopted gradually. She also talked about the challenges the HR Department had to face during the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic and how it was overcome.
It was followed by an interesting dialogue session with Pawan Golyan, chairman of Golyan Group. Moderated by Mohan Ojha, immediate past president of HRSN, this session focused on the cultural impact on talent retention.
Renowned India talent strategist Lekha Sishta delivered a powerful keynote speech on building a positive workplace culture. She gave the example of Hotel Taj, Mumbai and the terrorist attack on the hotel in 2008 as a major branding case study. According to her, the staff of the Taj hotel showed how much they care about the hotel during the terrorist attack, where they put their lives at risk to save their customers during the attack. “It is the culture that is in-built into the employees and the world should learn from them,” she said.
The final session was on creating awareness regarding the Social Security Fund (SSF). The conference concluded with a vote of thanks by Bhuban Raj Joshi, President of HRSN.
