Real Estate and construction sector is the building block for a nation’s growth, a critical component of the GDP. When this engine of growth is chugging along, it also provides support to a host of other industries – ancillary and others, e.g. with growth in housing, growth in consumer goods, furniture, lighting, household goods, etc. is assured. And not to forget the millions of people employed in the sector whose families are dependent on their wages – it is one of the largest employers in the economy.
When it comes to Human Resources (HR), it’s the function that plays an enablers role in making businesses achieve their objective. It all starts with HR – providing the leadership talent and the resources. For construction in general and real estate in particular, this is one aspect in which HR’s contribution has been immense. In the last decade or more, a lot of talent has been attracted to the industry from other sectors – hospitality, telecom, banking and NBFCs, aviation, etc. Employees coming in from other sectors have been oriented and inducted seamlessly and many of them are doing extremely well. I’ve also observed that having come into the sector, they appreciate their roles and they choose to work here for long tenures. There isn’t as much migration from the sector as into it.
Apart from attracting talent from outside, HR has also done a good job in incubating talent from within. In the last decade, talent has come in from premier institutes – both engineering and management – into the sector. This was not the case earlier. Today, students from premier colleges view the sector as progressive, modern and offering a pool of worthwhile opportunities for long lasting careers. This has been the result of the collective efforts of companies that have taken a lead role in building their employer brands in campuses and changing the mindset of job seekers.
HR has also played a big role in experimentation with innovative organisation structures in the sector. We’ve gained a lot of insights from companies working in the Middle East, especially Dubai. The construction boom there happened ahead of India and there was a lot that we learned from their experiences, especially on how to manage large developments – high rises and mixed- use multiple towers.
When it comes to grooming of resources post the on- boarding, HR’s role becomes even more intensive. A lot of emphasis is given to learning on- the- job. Some evolved organisations have been able to facilitate this aspect of the job through aided learning and have benefited immensely from it. Additionally, online learning has successfully gained momentum in the Industry. It suits the Industry because of its geographical spread. Reaching out to the remotest of employees has become seamless and HR functions across companies have made good use of it. Today, the industry follows progressive talent management practices which help in developing the leadership pipeline for the phenomenal growth that is expected in the sector.
To support all this, the HR function needs a solid technology backbone and that is available today in various SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) platforms. Again, the industry has gained significantly from the introduction of cloud solutions that suit companies across the country and abroad. Solutions like SuccessFactors, Oracle, Darwinbox, Workday, PeopleStrong and others are beneficial and meet the requirements of growing organisations. Employee self- service results in higher engagement, leading to long tenure and presumably higher productivity and a much better employee experience from on-boarding to off-boarding and in between.
