Back

Event Account brief

“Compensation Demystified” – A HRD Network Delhi chapter special event Creating the right compensation structure for your company is a task that has most HR professionals completely baffled. And given the kind of changes that have taken place in the economy, in organizations, in employees’ attitudes, and in just about everything that could possibly impact compensation, this task has become just that bit harder. As a result, the first special event to be organized by the new team of the Delhi chapter of the HRD Network on 2nd July, 2008 at the PHD Chamber of Commerce, Khelgaon Marg, appealed to a great number of members – “Compensation Demystified”. The event began with the Secretary, Mr. Anubhab Goel, requesting the audience to repeat the HRD Code of Conduct after him. The President, Mr. S. Y. Siddiqui, then took the stage. Mr. Siddiqui first mentioned his appreciation for the outgoing team of the Delhi chapter, who were felicitated with a small token. He then introduced the new team, and spoke briefly about the vision they have for the next two years. The agenda for the evening was then put forward, and the panel members introduced. These included Mr. Aquil Busrai from IBM, Mr. A. Sudhakar from Dabur, Mr.P.Dwarkanath from Max Group, and Mr. Sandeep from Hewitt. The discussion started with each of the panel members comparing the compensation trends that were seen fifteen years ago, with the trends seen today. Some of the interesting views that emerged talked about changes in employees’ attitudes, changes in taxation policies and organisational attitudes towards tax, simplification of compensation structures, and the emergence of performance-oriented pay, among others. Compensatory trends in India were also compared with global trends, such as the fact macroeconomic factors such as inflation do not impact compensations in India as much as they do in the U.S. or in the U.K. It was felt that no one comprehensive definition could be given for the term “compensation”, but the idea of “Psychic elements of compensation”, along with material components, was propounded very strongly by some of the panel members. Sectoral trends in compensation in recent years were discussed, as was the distinction between compensation for attracting, motivating, and retaining talent. Audience questions were also addressed in a very systematic manner. Every audience member was provided with a slip to write their question for a specific panel member, which were then passed onto them for their response. The questions that arose addressed diverse issues such as talent poaching, handling taxation policies, the influence of macroeconomics on compensation structure, giving importance to the compensation of blue collar employees, as well as the sensitive issue of striking a balance between the compensation given to experienced employees and higher-performing employees. The discussion ended with a few thoughts on what the future of compensation is likely to be, which also had some very interesting insights from the panel members. Mr. G P Rao then thanked the panel members for their participation and presented them with mementoes of the event. The Vice-President of the Delhi Chapter, Mr. Suresh Tripathi, then concluded the event by presenting a Vote of Thanks, where he mentioned that the discussion truly had brought out the evolution of compensation over the years, and put into context for a lot of the audience. He also thanked the volunteers who had helped in the event, as well as the panel members and the audience for their participation.