Tata Capital human resources group head Amar Sinhji joined Khaitan as executive director, human resources, after Khaitan & Co’s human resources head of six years Swapnakant Samal left to join Human Capital Consulting as a consultant in April.
Khaitan Mumbai partner Rabindra Jhunjhunwala told Legally India that Sinhji will be taking a larger role in the firm than Samal, including being part of the management. Sinhji began his career in human resources in 1991 with Bharat Petroleum and since then has been a part of the Essar Group, the Tata Group and Indian Hotels.
Khaitan stated in its press release: “Amar will join the management team of Khaitan & Co which includes the chief operating officer and the chief financial officer. The Management Team reports to the Executive Committee of Khaitan & Co, which comprises of a group partners across all its offices elected on a three-year term to run the management of the Firm.”
Khaitan senior partner Haigreve Khaitan said in the release: “Human capital is most important asset of any services firm, like a law firm. Amar’s move is more a strategic decision to give us thought leadership on several issues, be it employee engagement, hiring practices, partner compensation or generally bringing the Firm in line with international best practices.”
Sinhji said in the release: “I am very excited & honoured to join the venerable firm of Khaitan & Co. It has been carefully built over a 100 years, based on value systems that I strongly identify with. I look forward to working with the Management Team and putting in place world class HR practices, while ensuring that we retain and nurture the ethos, culture and value systems, that have sustained the firm for over a 100 years.”
Comments
Few things that Khaitan would need to ensure if they want to make the most of this move:
1: Empower HR and not to command - Law firms tend to ignore the intangible contributions brought in by the seemingly non fee earners, specially HR professionals and the tendency to look down upon HR department is pervasive in professional services firms. Khaitan would prosper more if HR is treated at par with other functions of the firm.
2: Work cohesively and not in isolation - Law firm partners tend to be more individualistic and egoistic. Some of them would need to tone down and 'listen' more.
3: Have a long term human capital strategy - firms in today's time are just hiring from campus for the sake of hiring, adding on to their numbers because the competition is doing likewise! Hire for the future and just not for today.
4: Trust old wisdom; welcome new HR practices/ideas and don't shy away from experimenting - Lot would depend on how the firm's management and young guns within the firm view this development. Khaitan's old HR practices though well ahead of their times, would need to change drastically to deal with new dynamics coming in with the split of AMSS. It would need to think out of the box to retain their big guns. Hope Amar is able to manage this well.
And 7 and another similar comment on another Khaitan story.