Good day, Mehfooz Zaki. 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?

Am I audible?

Yes, Sir.

Yes, Professor, you're audible. Can you hear me clearly as well?

Excellent. Let us begin. Could you provide a brief overview of your journey in the field of Human Resource Management and academia?

Hello, good, good afternoon.

Thank you for providing this opportunity. I am. I've completed my bcom and MBA from Aligarh Muslim Mystery. During masters. I have worked as a research intern in Nawaz.

In the same year I have qualified NET. I have NET in two subject management and commerce. After that I got admission in PSD which I recently submitted. I have published 7 research papers out of which 4 is Cisco is indexed.

And I have joined several workshops and national international conferences. I'm there for the interview of Assistant Professor in HRM.

Thank you for this introduction, Professor. It is valuable to hear about your journey and accomplishments. To start, could you share your perspective on how HR analytics and the use of AI are shaping decision-making in Human Resource Management today?

AI helps HRM in several perspectives such as it helps in doing repetitive work.

Automation which will help reduce our effort and. Understanding human behavioral aspect and related to quantitative attitude will be helpful. It will also help in training our employees and it will be.

By using AI to interpret several aspect which will be difficult to train the employees, the idea can also help to teach students with the help of several AI tools.

And the greater opportunity for.

Etcetera.

Understood, thank you. Could you provide a more specific example of how you would incorporate AI tools into teaching HR analytics to students?

I will use AI to develop some model which which will be difficult to show to teach teacher students. For example, if I want to explore and dimension. For example, let's say example, there is a company Coca-Cola which we which we manage students have never visit but with the use of AI and videos. We can show them how the factory is working, how the different.

Websites we can create a website or several AI related tools which you can improve the training of the my students and employees.

The environment feels like or for the pilot, we can show how.

Thank you for your response, Professor. Building on this, could you explain how you would use HR analytics to design a practical student project that emphasizes real-world challenges in an organization?

Yes, for example to prepare every student in working for industry.

We can use AI to for the better learning in learning environment. We can use a teaching aid teaching teachers with the help of AI to give a better examples which will be helpful for the students.

Thank you, Professor. Let's shift our focus slightly. Can you elaborate on your experience and approach to teaching strategic management, particularly in engaging students with theoretical and practical aspects?

Listen, I believe that the relationship between teacher and student should be interactive. We should be using case studies and real life example to teach our students and understand them effectively. And I also believe that skills is one of the most crucial aspects which we cover by the teachers if a teacher can able to develop. Develop skills in students. It will be very helpful for the students.

To go in the real world and participate as a good employee and good cities and all the country.

Understood, Professor. Could you provide a specific instance where you utilized case studies or real-life examples effectively in a class setting to teach strategic management?

Let me think about an example.

During during our masters, our teacher has taken to taken to the market where they show how the price is decided and why it is necessary. For example, they take products which is very cheap and.

The better understanding of the students.

Thank you, Professor. That's a practical and insightful example of how field-based learning can enhance strategic understanding. Could you now briefly describe your approach to guiding student projects and research? Specifically, how do you mentor students to maintain academic rigor while fostering innovation?

I will help them to think critically and have.

Think out-of-the-box and have a critical approach. They should have a creativity and our curious mind can invent and solve any problem in the world if we are curious and critical enough.

Thank you, Professor. How do you ensure that students not only stay curious and creative but also adhere to ethical research practices throughout their projects?

We can do it with the help of challenging their thought process. For example, if I say students that what is HRM, they might be not that much curious. But when I say why we need HRM, why it is necessary? Why should we studying HRM?

There these types of questions will raise curiosity among the students.

Thank you, Professor. Let's move on to your research. Could you outline one of your Scopus-indexed publications and explain how it contributes to the field of Human Resource Management?

I recently submitted my thesis which was focused on the investigating work life balance of IT sector employees in Delhi NCR and I also published a research paper on which focus on the work life balance situation on academia. Which which one of the studies you would like to know about more?

Let's delve into your research on the work-life balance of IT sector employees in Delhi NCR. Could you summarize the key findings and explain how they can be applied in HRM practices?

The study focuses in IT sector of in Delhi NCR. I take. I've taken 428 respondents for the final analysis. The study finds that workload and role ambiguity have negative impact on work life balance while supervisor support, participation in decision making, resilience and family support has positive impact on work life balance. On the other hand, study also found find that.

Our work life balance and negatively impact stress, burnout and turnover intention and positively impact job satisfaction, life satisfaction and psychological well-being. The study will the study helps the employees and.

And the companies to work on this, if they want to reduce the stress and the role ambiguity or turnover intention, they should be focusing on the work life balance.

If the the work life balance is improved then the the employees stress role ambiguity, the stress turnover intention and job burnout can be decreased. About how? Now the question arises how we can reduce work life balance then we can use the antecedents which was used in the study such as role ambiguity. Role ambiguity can be reduced so work life balance can be improved. Which will.

Impact the turnover intention. So to reduce turnover intention we have to 1st reduce the workload role ambiguity. Will we will be we should be provided supervisor support which will help today.

Use unbalanced work life and willing introduce ultimately will reduce the role ambiguity and turnover intention.

Thank you for the detailed explanation, Professor. Your research underscores some essential aspects of employee well-being and HR practices. Could you now describe how your findings on work-life balance could be integrated into developing a training module for HR practitioners?

Like the module will focus on the antecedents which is impacting work life balance. We first have to find what are the outcomes which can be reduced with the help of worklife balance and after that we will be We should be finding that whether these outcome are due to.

My study focus on the term of intention, but if the turnover intention of organization is due to higher work life balance issue, then it can be reduced with the help of increasing supervisor support, participation, decision-making and.

The work life balance or not if they are due to some several other reason, for example terrible intention.

Reducing workload and roll ability.

Understood, Professor. Let us shift to teaching. Could you elaborate on your method of evaluating students’ progress, particularly in theoretical and applied concepts of HRM?

I believe that providing them project case, case study based project and.

Brainstorming will be will be a very helpful for the evaluating the understanding of students. If students is able to understand any concept, they should be.

They should be able to use a real life example and identify the pattern in the market. For example, there is an issue for example in the.

Let's say, let's take an example of marketing and that will be easy to explain right now. If the the product, there are several kinds of product, the and we will send students to find the.

Let's give them an example, give them particular markets. You have to go to that market and find what segment they are working on. For example, there is a washing pattern which is Nirma and there is a washing powder which is which is Surf Excel. We should be.

He sending them to the market and tell them to find which product is targeting which segment of the consumer. These type of real life example will be very helpful for the students and to evaluate that whether the students have understand it or not.

Similarly, it can be applied in HRM as well. We can send them to the two or three companies and tell them to find whether these companies have a higher turnover intention turnover or not. If they are have turnover higher turnover by their.

Have higher turnover whether it is due to work life balance or other related domains. For example they are due leaving the company due to financial aspect with the help of these real life project.

Will be very helpful for the students and can be evaluated on the basis of this projects.

Uh, during my, uh, SF.

Thank you for your response, Professor. It’s clear you have a hands-on approach to engaging students in practical learning and evaluation. Let’s now focus on your ability to manage academic responsibilities. Can you describe your experience with student evaluation and examination-related duties, such as

Web which is a senior research fellow. When I was senior search fellow, I've been given some responsibility related to academic teaching. I have to take 1-2 lecture in a month and I was assigned to.

Besides that, I also work as a secretary reading room in the in my hall and I am currently editor in of Hall magazine in the same hall which is the garden milk. I am the resident of Vikaran Milk Hall and I have worked there as a editor of all magazine and.

Write down the numbers given by the teachers and sometimes I have to perform the duties in the examination. So I have little experience in working as in academia.

And the secretary did who?

Thank you, Professor. It sounds like you've gained varied responsibilities and experiences both academically and administratively. Could you now share your approach to integrating organizational behavior and soft skills training into the overall HR curriculum for students?

For like what? What do you specifically want to know?

Can you elaborate?

Certainly, Professor. Specifically, how would you design training sessions or integrate soft skills like leadership, teamwork, and communication into organizational behavior courses to prepare students for practical workplace challenges?

This can be developed in the student with the help of if. If we will engage them in several activities for example.

The leadership we will let let we recently was discussing that how we can develop the handle practice to the students. I give the example of the sending them to the market.

Given this project, we can provide a we can give one of them a leadership role that you have. You are a leader of this in team and you have to perform leadership skills and show the leadership skill with the help of these kinds of.

Similarly, if we, when we, we.

Yes, so the skill, software leadership skill and the qualities of communication quality and critical thinking can be developed on the with the.

Method.

Help of these practical examples.

Thank you for your detailed response, Professor. Your method of leveraging practical activities to instill leadership and communication skills is clear. I’ll now confirm your technical expertise further. One moment.

Professor Zaki, to begin the discussion about your teaching philosophy and approach, could you share an example of a specific course that you find most engaging to teach, and explain why it resonates with you?

I believe HRM is more than.

As I said, during that time you might have to go to some villages and collect data there. I understand that apart from financial and technical aspects, human behaviour is so much important. During the same time I start exploring the research about the research and the domain which where I can explore, which I can explore further, so I find. Human resource management and organizational behaviour are more interesting.

Most interesting, the interest of HRM and specifically HRM and research was started when I was working.

I started deep digging the these concepts and I was very happy to read about it. So after my journey in HRM has started.

Professor Zaki, I see that your MBA dissertation focused on analyzing the impacts of banking correspondents on financial inclusion. Could you explain the primary findings of your research? Specifically, how did banking correspondents influence financial inclusion in your study?

A large number of people living in countries right or in village which is very much like like isolated. The study find that 80,000 villages are in India are.

Now, financial inclusion was a concept given in It was a long concept, but after 2414 it was given much emphasis because.

Less than 1000 and the cost of opening a bank there would be much higher and all this.

Study also find to run a bank, the cost would be around.

60 to 40,00,000 annually, so it is very difficult for banks to open their branches to solve this problem.

From the Government of India bring a concept which is banking correspondent. These banking correspondent work on behalf of bank and perform several activities.

These which can be which can be given a. These these service can only be given by banks, but bank give or outsource their so these words to the banking correspondence. Banking works for correspondence was.

Responsible for adhered ceiling withdrawal at cash deposit, KYC et cetera. They were given commissions on the basis of the transaction and the amount of transaction. These are the my findings. They're 80,000 villages, 80,000 villages which have led to 1000 population.

The average cost of running our bank is 40 to 60,000, and the bank correspondence is performing a.

Team duty Based on the finding, I give suggestions such as to improve banking correspondent condition and they are not happy with the remuneration they are receiving etcetera. These were the several findings which were discussed in my dissertation.

Thank you, Professor Zaki. It seems your findings highlighted the economic inefficiency of traditional banking in rural areas and underscored the critical role of banking correspondents in driving financial inclusion. Could you elaborate on specific strategies you proposed to improve the conditions for banking correspondents, especially in terms of their remuneration and job satisfaction? How did you justify these recommendations in your dissertation?

I give recommendations. The first recommendation was to give these banking correspondent.

In, uh, there were very, uh, there were uh, many of the banking correspondent, which is also called BCC was under trained. They, should they, they need training. Uh, I can clearly see with the, uh, the position of the working and they were very unprofessional and they were charging more than they require the amount decided by the. Banking companies.

The second thing was that the remuneration of these Bengal correspondence should be higher because they were given like some pesas for one for 1000 which is very less because in a village village is known for the comparatively their village have.

Uh, lower income people. So the transaction was very less, uh, which ultimately backed the, you know, average monthly income of these bank correspondent. The third suggestion was to develop a cluster of these banking correspondent.

So the proper channel of the direction from the RBI can be passed through this channel and also the if the channel is developed then the supervisor supervising authority will be responsible for adding discrepancy if arise instead of an individual vacuum correspondent. So it will create an A responsibility on the value correspondent and the accountability on the. Against hold the banking system sector.

Understood, Professor Zaki. You pointed out practical issues like insufficient training, low remuneration, and lack of accountability mechanisms, and proposed structured solutions. Regarding your third suggestion, developing clusters and introducing a supervisory system, could you clarify how this approach might balance the need for accountability without adding excessive bureaucracy? What framework did you envision to ensure this cluster system remains efficient?

The banking system was already working in the organization. The banking correspondent is just like a outsource.

There were there will be several branches of SVI or other banks, but there will be some banks. There would be some villages a 10 kilometer or 15 kilometer, 20 kilometer where the.

Version of banks. The banks is already performing, for example in Vellore.

The religious has to go to these.

So 15 kilometers just to withdraw some few ₹1000. To tackle this issue, bank correspondence was start giving the duties. So if the bank starts supervising these banking correspondent then the concern of the accountability and the responsibility can be minimized with the help of banks. Bank is already performing, so there would not be an another layer of bureaucracy which.

Will be added, the bank is already working, the system is already established there. So we just have to add this banking correspondent with the banking from when it comes to the responsibility.

Thank you, Professor Zaki. It’s clear that your proposed cluster system aimed to leverage existing banking structures without introducing unnecessary bureaucracy. By integrating banking correspondents into the bank's existing supervisory frameworks, you emphasized enhanced responsibility and accountability efficiently. Let us shift now to another aspect of your profile: your internship report on the JAM Trinity's impact on government schemes. Could you summarize the key insights you discovered regarding how the JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) Trinity has influenced the efficiency or inclusiveness of these schemes?

So the study focus on the JAM Trinity which is JAM than Aadhaar and.

Mobile, uh, the the scheme was focused to integrate these three concepts.

Aadhar card and the third one is account. So what?

The government will bring these three integrated model if we. Let's give me a minute. If we integrate general account without her, then duplication can be removed if we.

Comment Want to include to enhance financial inclusivity to integrate this.

Add Jandhan to the mobile we can directly TRA track who's the respondent and we can inform them that you have received several income. Similarly, if we had adhered with the bank mobile then we can they remove the duplication of mobile numbers. So to reuse the corruption government bring this mobile scheme jam Trinity.

Uh, which focus to reduce the?

Corruption, the second focus of this study was.

To understand the role of banking correspondent which I include in my dissertation in detail. Mobile was also focused on.

To enhance DBT the my suggestion include that all all the other schemes such as Manrega, the time that it was called Manrega, Mandrega should be included in this JM gem Trinity to reduce the discrepancy and corruption in the.

Other schemes if exist.

Professor, it seems you're discussing the JAM Trinity as a model for enhancing financial inclusivity and reducing corruption by integrating Aadhaar, Jan Dhan accounts, and mobile technology. While it is a pertinent topic, let’s focus on the specific requirements for this academic interview. To move in alignment with the role, please share your three-year research roadmap and explain how your work would foster industry-academia collaboration to create consultancy or funded research opportunities that align with VIT University's mission of applied research excellence.

I before applying the IT, I go through the website of the IT and I saw the vision of the IT which is very interesting.

It shows that the transformation of life through excellence of education and research which align with my professional goals. It motivates me to join the IT.

When did it come to how I What is my three-year goals?

I think that there should be some aspect which I will be covering first. This research I plan to.

Integrate AI How AI is impacting work life balance and.

Impact to to see the impact on the several aspect how we can enhance the well-being of employees.

Employee protectivity, et cetera, how we can use to AI to.

Add the second.

In part of my research will focus how what is the situation of work life balance in South India because I have. Focus just on the studies.

And data work collective mainly from the daily and CR and related region. I not explored South India yet. So why the third focus or the second focus will be to explore research in South India?

The third before I will focus on writing other research paper really relevant with the well-being of uh.

Other sector I take ID.

Sector employees, I focus on Academy, you know, but there was an organized sector which is.