HR INTERVIEW: NETWORK18 An HR Addiction: 18 Till I Die! Aditi Sharma speaks to Rajneesh Singh (Group Head-HR, Network18) and finds out how the Group has used the models of Embedded HR and OD to build a ‘great place to work’ in the media and entertainment industry |
 He is unmistakably passionate about his work; he is exceedingly warm and affable; he is insightful and articulate; and, to top it all off, he is learning to play the guitar! Rajneesh Singh, 45 years of age and Post Graduate in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from XISS, Ranchi, is currently Group Head-HR at Network18. In this exclusive interaction, he discloses why Network18 was ranked the Best Workplace (in Media and Entertainment) 2 years in a row, and also his most memorable career moments. With experience of more than two decades in HR, Mr. Singh has had interesting stints in different industry verticals, having worked in consulting, automobiles, FMCGs, telecom and now, media and entertainment. The opportunity to work with people has kept him going, as he says, “I was attracted to HR purely for the ‘people focus’ it entails. My eldest brother is into HR and he was an influence too. With each stint over the past 20 years, I kept learning newer nuances of HR and it has been a very rich journey.” From his first job at National Productivity Council to his more recent assignment handling talent acquisition for Gillette, Mr. Singh says that it was important for him to join media and entertainment purely to ensure that he did not carry any “baggage”. “I could come with an absolutely open mind and start things from scratch,” he explains. And that is exactly what he did when he joined Network18 four years back. This leading Indian media conglomerate has interests in television, print, internet, filmed entertainment, mobile content and various other allied businesses. The Group is responsible for the content and operations of leading television channels such as CNBC-TV18, CNN-IBN, CNBC Awaaz, IBN7, IBN Lokmat, Colors, MTV, VH1 and Nickelodeon, and has also invested in real-time financial information terminals (Newswire18), internet (Web18), print and publishing (through the acquisition of Infomedia18), home shopping (Homeshop18), events management (E18), and sports management (Sport18). In the latest pioneering foray, they recently launched Forbes India, in collaboration with Forbes media. Running all these businesses brings the employee headcount at Network18 to about 5000, and the fact that the Group’s divisions have been involved with start ups, acquisitions as well as joint ventures means that each one of them brings a different set of HR challenges. However, it is apparent that the HR team of 35 professionals (with 3 of them solely for OD) at Network18 has risen to the challenge, as Mr. Singh explains, “We have kept things very simple - that is the key to our success. The HR team here has taken on one challenge after another in the last few years. It is the best in the industry. Our HR goal is to make Network18 a great place to work, which largely got vetted in the last 2 years, as we were voted the Best Workplace in Media & Entertainment by Great Place to Work Institute. The challenge now is to sustain this.” After Mr. Singh joined, the first thing he did was to understand the leadership’s expectations from HR. He tells us, “There was seriousness about HR taking root in the organisation. In fact, the size and the rapid growth of our businesses probably pushed the leadership to look for a more structured HR model.” |
 That is when Mr. Singh and his team went to the drawing board and came up with an HR model built around an ‘Amoeba’. Explains he, “The amoeba characterises how an HR person in Network18 works! It is flexible, yet it has a boundary. This amoeba has six arms, that is, the areas that our HR team focuses on: culture building, talent acquisition and onboarding, talent management, team engagement, team scorecard, and administration excellence. It also has two legs, the first being ‘E-HR’ that has been decentralised and ‘embedded’ into each of the Group’s businesses and is very operational in nature; and the second being that of ‘organisational development’ (OD), that is, a common pool of resources for all businesses to tap into, with a strong development focused.”In line with their philosophy of keeping things simple, the Embedded HR (E-HR) looks at HR operations, such as hiring, performance management, reward and recognition, communication, and exits. OD, on the other hand, deals with culture building, leadership development and training. And there have been some very interesting HR roll-outs over the past 3 to 4 years, since this model was put into place. The HR handbook, for example, at Network18 lists out the company policies in parable format, through two characters called Sam and Vinny (pictured here). While Vinny has just completed her MBA and is new to the corporate world, Sam has significant work experience with an MNC and is a typical ‘cool dude’. Reading the handbook of 40-odd pages becomes an uncomplicated task with the conversational style used, and the policies written in a straightforward, readable, and colourful format. Meanwhile, the Value Book depicts the Group’s values and the mission statement. Even more significant is the intranet portal called My18. Besides the conventional uses it offers in administrative HR (through ‘My Corner’), there is a host of other reasons why team members at Network18 stay tuned to it. It works as a platform for keeping them connected and involved with each other. For example, 18 members are profiled every month through ‘18 Stars’, wherein they talk about their likes and dislikes, working styles, etc. ‘Career’ is the page where internal job openings are posted, while ‘SUCES’ functions like an internal NGO – helping employees contribute to the education of the children of drivers, peons, etc. working in the organisation. |
