Why a switchover to HR after successfully Commerce-Account liaison….?
I have never thought what I want to become an HR specialist, but it was always on back of my mind that whatever I will do I should have liking for that. I had commerce in twelfth standard and as a natural progression I did B. Com. in grads. Then finally when I decided for an MBA, specialization in Finance would have been a natural choice. However, then luckily I had some interactions with people who were from HR domains and I grew a liking for it, so at last I choose HR as my specialization. Another reason is that every organization needs HR functions and I liked the opportunities that were in front of me in HR domain, so I decide to choose HR as a profession.

 

Why is your company only into auto loans…?
We were known as Apeejay finance, which was acquired by the Société Générale Group, a leading financial bank in the euro zone. As Apeejay finance was already in two and four wheelers loan segment, it was a natural progression for us to continue in the same and that point of time it was our only choice as well.

 

Modus operandi of family credit…….
We generally have two kinds of employees one is payroll and another is off payroll. We have a relationship manager who is on payroll and he/she would have 10-15 contract salesmen under him/her who are mainly responsible for all the sales that are happening. We also have tie-ups with companies like Mahindra & Mahindra, Hero, etc. We indulge in channel sales; sometimes we tie ups as preferred finances with lot of dealers.

 

Importance of HR in finance company like family-credit…
Lots of importance is given to HR domains i.e. because ours is a number driven company and in a number driven company sales force becomes the life-line of the company. So as an HR of such a company whose sales-force remains on the street for most of the day. We need to address their concerns & needs, because most of them are off-payroll employees and they are kind of people who will move away from one company to another for few bucks, therefore we as an HR need to take them into comfort zone where they will feel this company is their own &will address their problem, will not neglect them. If they are disappointed sales gets a hit so need to ensure that they always remain motivated by creating incentives, salaries, engaging them in some type of activities from time to time to keep them motivated.

 

Being in the HR department, what types of challenges you face during the lay-offs or recession…?
We are relatively young in the consumer finance business in India. Having launched our operations in July 2007, we have proved our resilience through the turbulent times of the global meltdown which hit all of us at a very crucial juncture of our evolution and have undergone significant transformation in the recent years. We had personal loan business which we were forced to shut down because it was eating into the profit that we were making in the auto loan segment. So it was decided to shut down the loss making section, we tried to place the employees of that section in other section or helped them in finding job in other companies through our contacts.

Role of the HR during recession become very huge. As companies are left with no option but to part ways with some of its employees, the employees who are retained start feeling nervous and lots of uncertainties starts to come out throughout the organization and tension builds which leads to depressing atmosphere within the organization. Here HR people have to come in front and assure the employee who are still with the company that it is the need of the hour and we are not able to accommodate and give them the confidence that there job is safe and keep them focused on whatever they are doing rather than thinking about their job.

Future plans…..
We are trying to set up our branches in Tier-2 cities because most of our branches are situated in Tier-1 cities. We are trying to reach out to more and more people because ours is a volume oriented business the more we reach out to people the more the profit is or the more the growth is.

 

Tips for budding managers.....
Hard work & discipline should be something that I’ll ask any budding mangers to never compromise with. Hard work never gets wasted. One should also keep himself/herself always constantly updated on what going on both inside the organization as well as outside of it. They should also communicate with various individuals from various departments to know & understand how various departments contribute to the organization. This will help them in getting the holistic view and help them to give their inputs/efforts in a much better way.


How did you find the interaction with the students…..?
I completely enjoyed the interaction, I like interacting with group of students as it is always a lively bunch. They generally discuss and ask questions without any inhibitions which tend to make these interactions quite entertaining, enriching and enjoyable.