Good day, Dharani Narayanan. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Yes, Sir.

Yes, Sir. Thank you for the question.

Take your time. Please share your professional journey in academia.

I would like to introduce myself first of all. I'm Dharani and I'm currently working as an HR Assistant at Meenakshi Medical College and Hospital with hands on experience of 1.5 years and my daily HR operations are screening resumes, conducting interviews.

Managing payroll and coordinate with meeting and also other key activities in HR also and apart from that I hold.

An MBA graduate at Tirumala Engineering College in the batch of 2022 to 2024.

Got it, Professor Dharani. Let’s begin assessing your skills step by step. First, could you explain the principles of performance management and how you would ensure its effective implementation in an organization?

Yes, Sir. For the performance management, we use to managing the monthly key performance indicator for each and every employees to analyze and monitor their performance by the teaching way and another how they behavior inside the campus. They're all conducting through the soft copy uh, by the department head of the department. We used to collect and inform to the Dean if is there any key performance is low.

Used to conduct their training for the people for the three month. After that we used to get the effective evaluation form. If we didn't get the satisfaction level, we used to do the further process.

Yes, Sir.

Understood. You mentioned using monthly key performance indicators and a system of tracking and evaluations. To clarify, how would you design or improve a performance appraisal system to ensure fairness and alignment with organizational goals?

The key performance indicator we used to follow for the each role we have specific format we used to managing by the head of the department. Every week they used to monitor their employees, how they are performing by teaching wise and other activities.

And they used to report for the human resource department and we used to do the further process like if they are skilled or semi skilled or they have to do the trainings for the specific role, we used to do the further process.

I'm sorry, Sir, I'm not aware of that.

Got it. Next, let’s discuss compensation and benefits. How would you structure a compensation and benefits program to both attract top talent and retain employees in an educational institution?

Cancel.

Yes. So employee engagement is major thing in the working environment to maintain our day-to-day activities in the good pipeline. So we used to do the work like employee engagement. We used to get the information from the concerned employee. If they have any queries in the team, we used to discuss their queries and try to resolve within a week or within two days. It help us to increase the employee engagement with other departments.

Acknowledged. Let’s proceed. Could you elaborate on your approach to fostering employee relations and engagement within a team or organization?

Uh, develop.

Uh, colleague relationship and other things.

To strengthen the overall engagement of the campus, we would like to conduct the meeting of every month of welfare committee related. It will help us to connect with the employees to work more in the smarter way. In the meeting, we used to get the information more about what are the advantages they are getting and what are the disadvantages. Every month they used to phase so it helped more as to get the information to.

Understood. You emphasize resolving employee concerns quickly and fostering relationships. How specifically would you enhance cross-department collaboration in an organization to strengthen overall engagement?

I love the advantages more and try to reduce the disadvantage through the meeting and the meeting will help us every month to grow our academic side.

Understood. Let’s explore the use of data in decision-making. Could you explain how you have used data to identify trends or measure the impact of HR initiatives in an organization?

Sorry, Sir, I would like to repeat the question.

Of course. How have you used data to identify trends or measure the impact of HR initiatives within an organization?

And for the HR initiative, we used to do the through the mail. We used to conduct the other activities and.

Yes, Sir. Thanks for the question.

Thing, uh, to connect with employees it helped to initiate first of all, we'd like to talk with the superior for the implementation of any other things like if we are going to catch the EPF uh, for these specific persons, we used to talk with this superior and then we used to uh contact with their e-mail after that we used to conduct a meeting then only they know, uh, what is the content going to going to be elaborate in the meeting so through.

1st we connect with e-mail, after that we conducting a meeting for the HR policies implementation. Then only we used to do the further things.

Got it. You mentioned communication via email and meetings for HR policy implementations. How do you evaluate if these initiatives are achieving the intended outcomes or impacting employee engagement positively?

Sorry Sir, I didn't understand the question.

No problem. Let me rephrase. How do you assess whether your HR initiatives, such as meetings and policy implementations, are effective in improving employee satisfaction or engagement?

Yes, Sir. After we implementing the HR policy, we used to get the feedback form from the employee concerned. Employees like if they are satisfied with their policies or with the advantages we are giving from the organization.

We used to implement the thing so.

Understood, collecting feedback to measure satisfaction and connecting with employees for further clarification is a structured approach. Let’s examine your knowledge of employment regulations and best practices. How do you ensure compliance with employment laws and adopt best practices in an educational setting?

Yes, Sir. During in the, uh, organization side, we used to get these so many uh, irregular complaints like uh, especially in payroll, we used to, uh.

Calculating the payroll if some errors will come. So after getting the salary after salary credited they used to get queries about this payroll. So at the time we used to contact with the concerned employee and what is the issue. We tried to resolve the issue within two days and in the explanation we used to give to the superior and within five days we used to. Give back the salary pending so through like that.

Every actions we used to do.

Understood. You focus on promptly resolving payroll queries and maintaining transparency with superiors. To dive deeper: how do you stay updated on changes in employment laws and apply them proactively in HR practices?

As a as a newcomer with with the experience of 1.5 years, I used to update my knowledge especially in labor laws and.

For example, LinkedIn is the very good friend for me because I used to check out every day. It will help me to recall the labour laws and other apart from that used to get the reading newspapers and other things will teach me the labour laws.

A couple of weeks time because it will help us to exchange our knowledge. So in in my team, for example in HR department we used to conduct.

And in my department we used to discuss about things.

A couple of weeks once we used to conduct the meeting. So at the time we used to exchange our knowledge. So it will help me a lot to learn about the labour laws and apart from that other key roles in human resource.

Understood. Regular discussions within your team and leveraging resources like LinkedIn and newspapers to stay informed is a proactive approach. Let’s move to the final skill for verification. Could you discuss how your Master’s degree in Human Resource Management has prepared you for the challenges of this role?

Yes Sir, during in my studies time, in my PD time actually I was de decided to study human resource and finance too. In my many project time I decided to do finance side but.

After completing my project, I understand I'm very interested more than finance. So human resources is major thing in every organization, industry, everything because human resource used to play their role 5050 by like for the management they have to work and another 50 percentage for the employees because it is a very good and satisfaction worker.

So I really interested in that. So I used to do my. I was done my.

Uh, final project in my PG time human resource. So it helped me a lot to work in a large platform, Sir.

Thank you for explaining, Professor Dharani. It seems your Master’s program provided a foundation for your interest and commitment to HR. With that, I’ve gone through the verification of necessary skills. Thank you for your detailed responses!

Thank you, Sir.

Professor Dharani Narayanan, I noticed your project titled "A Study on Employee Motivation," where you analyzed factors influencing motivation and job satisfaction. Could you discuss how you approached identifying the key variables for motivation in the study?

Yes, Sir. During my college time time, I decided to took the project of employee motivation because uh, currently nowadays employees used to be tested and frustrated in the working area and they don't have the working balanced life. So I decided to took the project of employee motivation because it's play a major role in each and every employee's uh life and their mindset will be free so.

Decided to took the topic and I joined in one of the company in my native area.

In this, uh, in, through this project, I understand how to talk with the, uh, employees, even if they have the bad day or even in the good day. We used to discuss, uh, monthly. One time we used to conduct a meeting and we used to inform them and instruct them. Like, if we have to do this, it will come like we have to talk. I talk very positively in the good manner and so many people and.

Please help me to learn the things and teach me certain areas in HR function. So it helped me a lot and in the end of my project, I get so many feedbacks from the employees in the concern office industry. They said employee motivation is the major thing in every organization and industry. It helps us.

To work more harder and smarter in the better way after getting the employee motivation skill lab. So it helped me a lot for me also Sir.

I see. Thank you for sharing about your approach and learnings from the project. Following up, how did the insights you gained from this study influence your perspective or strategy when handling HR functions, such as recruitment or employee engagement, during your internships?

Uh, during the internship I got the task of uh getting uh recruitment process. I was assigned to get a recruitment area. So I first of all one of my superior teach me how to get the resumes first. So in the task I have to keep 5 resumes each day and in the end of the week the superior will choose any two of the resume and I have to conduct the interview for the uh candidate and after.

The interview, I have to do the onboarding, uh, or, uh, if they are not selected to the role, I have to, uh, contact the person and talk in the convoy and polite, uh, instruct them they are not selected in the. That was the biggest task for me in the project time. So I day by day, it was little bit difficult, but.

Within a week I catch up all the ideas. First I just got the job requirements. After that I start to search our resumes whose are applied for the exact role and for the JD we have certain criterias like. So with the criterias I choose certain resumes and in the first week my superior said these are not fit for the role. So in the second week I decided to work little more harder in the smarter.

Recommend. So it helped me a lot to connect with the resumes which is perfect for the role and which is not ready to conduct interview for the roles. So I keep certain resumes and the second week end my superiors selected 4 resumes and I initiate for the interview process. In the interview process two people done well in the interview and two was not well. So at the time I got one more task I have to inform in the.

So I use ATS application with this certain keywords for the job.

The way that they are not selected. So I tackle the, uh, situation and I've done well. And after the pending two people have the experience differentiation. So it was handled by my superior and the task was done and I learned so lot in the task.

India recruitment area, I done my task in the polite way because I understand every week it was changed because day by day I start to learn that thing and employee engagement would help in the meeting time of monthly ones we used to conduct the meeting. So at the time we used to conquer and communicate with the employees to get their information like what are the advantages and what are the disadvantages they used to get.

Understood, Professor Dharani. It seems that your experience taught you both technical skills, such as using an ATS for candidate sourcing, and interpersonal skills required for difficult conversations. My final question in this area—how do you envision applying the lessons from both your employee motivation study and recruitment tasks to design strategies for improving retention rates and team engagement in a larger organization?

From the organization.

And another thing.

I learned so many things in my project time because my superiors are very friendly and teach me how to talk, how to behave as a human resource.

How to do the employee engagement works and how to coordinate in the meeting time and how to give training to the semi skilled to skilled person like so. It helped me a lot to learn more about human resource and it's currently helping me to work.

I appreciate your reflections, Professor Dharani. It’s evident that your foundational experiences have contributed to your understanding of recruitment and employee engagement. Let’s transition now.

Professor, let us start with a broad but critical question—could you outline your 3-year research and development roadmap as it pertains to driving institutional rankings, specifically in the HR domain?

MMM, sorry Sir, I'm not aware of that. But soon I will learn about the thing.

And update my knowledge.

Understood, Professor. Let me dive into another area—how would your experience in statutory compliance contribute to ensuring ethical and legal HR practices within an academic institution?

I saw especially in statutory compliant.

Which is, uh, playing a major role, uh, to make it as an, a black mod for the organization, like academic side. So, uh, in my team, human human resource manager is there, he used to handle the sensory complaints like for the payroll or any other things. First of all, I used to take a note of two sides of the people, what they complain and how it was created. And the things and I informed and I what are the notes I took? I informed to the.

Hey Cortana and he will do the further things and in the meeting time he used to involve me in the meeting and it's helped me a lot to learn how to project the thing which is not.

Upset both of the team and what are the things we have to talk in inside the complaint area which is made satisfactory in the end of the meeting. We try to as a HR team, we try to make both team compensate.

Thank you, Professor. How would you leverage innovative HR technologies to streamline payroll and benefits management within an academic institution?

Yes, Sir. Thank you for the question. As a innovative thing in the human resource department, we used to get the Phaser ID for the each and every employee for the attendance management.

Using the ERP software which is if they are present in the phaser biometric, it will convert as in a present for the day. For the each day it will calculate and get the.

And another thing is in the payroll, we used to.

I have number of days for the each and every employees and for the screening resumes we use the ATS application and for the employee documentation in every organization used to maintain a soft copy and hard copy. We are not only managing in excel for the documentation we are also maintaining their profiles details in HRMS software also. So it helped me it help us to manage.

Little bit easier.

With this innovation, HR department plays major and better role in every organization.

Professor, considering the dynamic nature of the HR Executive role, could you describe a detailed plan for implementing an active learning model, such as a Flipped Classroom, in a large-enrollment HR management course without relying on slides as the primary instructional tool?

Sorry Sir, I didn't understand the question.

Yes. So as in the Lord's academic area, we used to conduct the meeting for the students and teaching faculty. Also, we used to prepare the PPT for the concerned meeting and used to get the agenda for the meeting in the first PPT we used to conduct.

Apologies if the question was unclear, Professor. Let me rephrase it: Imagine you are conducting a large-enrollment course on HR management. Instead of delivering traditional lectures with slides, how would you design an active learning strategy, such as a "Flipped Classroom," to engage students effectively? Could you share the steps and methods you would use?

The meeting we have to inform through the e-mail for each and every students and for the teaching faculty also. So it help us to connect with them easily and apart from that.

Within a week, we used to.

Prabhat for the meetings? So it will help us to connect with every people. Whenever we used to see the employees, we used to talk like we have the meeting in the upcoming month like so it help us to understand and they used to recall the meeting is there so they have to attend that. So they know the importance of the meeting.

Apart from that, through the WhatsApp group and e-mail and from the instruction of Dean will inform them to attend the meeting. So these are things we used to do for employee relation.

Professor, it seems like you're drawing upon experiences related to organizing and managing meetings for communication. However, for the flipped classroom approach in teaching, the idea is to have students engage with materials (like videos or readings) before the class and then use classroom time for discussions, problem-solving, or case studies. Could you elaborate on how you might apply such a student-centered approach to an HR management course? For example, if students reviewed materials on statutory compliance beforehand, how would you engage them during class to ensure deep understanding and practical application?

To the deep understanding for the uh thing with the students we used to.

Sorry to that.

So this.

Would you like to continue your explanation? Take your time.

No Sir, I'm not aware of that, so I have to learn more about it.

Yes, Sir.

I will.

I would like to inform you that I'm not professor.

M Dharani.

So you can call me Darani.

Thank you for clarifying, Dharani. Let's proceed—how would you systematically enhance research output per faculty while balancing teaching responsibilities?

The researching things will handle by the students action. So we are not involved from the human resource side. We are not involved to manage that thing. It will harness by another team. They are worked only for the researching area so they used to do. We are just monitoring the team whether they are completed the thing.

Or it is processing. So, uh, we used to monitor the thing only to make their Staffs, uh, to work in the better way.

If so.

Would you be able to provide further insights on how your experience in statutory compliance contributes to ensuring ethical and legal HR practices within an institution?

Research uh, if is there any queries we try to resolve within a week or at least couple of days? We used to take a time to analyze what is the queries, uh, query and how to resolve that within a day or within a couple of days.

I saw to the resource department weekly once. We used to monitor whether what are the results are going on and when the research will complete and what are the queries is there for the.

Uh, likewise, we used to conduct weekly once monitoring and in the end of the month, we used to submit an explanation to our higher authority like what are the things are done and what is the disadvantage? Is there like that?

Thank you, Dharani, for detailing your approach to supporting research efforts through regular monitoring and resolution of queries. Now, shifting focus to innovative practices: In what ways would you integrate technology to streamline payroll and benefits management within an HR department?

I saw the benefit, uh, things from the HR department to the employees are, uh, in my current company we used to provide PF and ESI and another advantage is uh.

Monthly one CL is there, SL sick leave is there and El is there earned leave. Apart from that we have the list of holidays of public holiday which was given by the government. We used to give to the employees this kind of advantages to utilize for their working life balance better way.

Understood, Dharani. It's clear that your current system provides essential benefits and support for work-life balance. Could you share any experience you have in leading internal committees or teams that directly impacted quality audits or accreditation results in your role?

Yes, Sir. Uh, recently I was assigned in the ISO audit. So at the time from the human resource department, I am the representative for the ISO audit. So I used to get the documentations and current the, uh, trainings, conducting trainings for the employees whose are semi skilled and we are planned to conduct a meeting and trainings for the people. To make them skilled and apart from that we have other certain things, so I used to get.

My superiors advice and suggestion take a note and.

I used to implement within a week and I completed all my works for the ISO audit. And in the audit time I performed well in front of the Invisalign and our department didn't get any NOC for the audit. And it's make me more happy and I'm very happy because of my team have so many experienced people but they involved me for the ISO.

Uh, to explore more things about uh ISO and also from the academic side.

Thank you, Dharani, for sharing your experience with the ISO audit. It’s evident that you played a significant role in preparing documentation, conducting training, and ensuring compliance—in a way that positively impacted the audit outcome. This concludes our discussion for this section. Thank you for your responses.

Time is up! Ending the interview now.