HR FOR STARTUPS: PEOPLE MANAGEMENT FOR SMALL, SCALABLE

AND SUSTAINABLE TECHNOLOGY VENTURES

2 MONTH ONLINE COURSE

WHY THIS COURSE?

While the word “startup” has been around in some form, since the 16th century, it’s widespread
use has accelerated only since the 1970s, thanks in part to the special attention, that several
technology-enabled business ventures have received, all over the globe. Interestingly, though
any type of small business that has an innovative product or service which can be scaled up, can
claim to be a startup, the similarities between the two, begin and end there. This is because
Industry experts who have closely studied a huge number of startup ventures, are of the
opinion that the ways in which startups are conceived, hatched, and ultimately, grown
represents a paradigm shift in the way entrepreneurs are known to pursue a business idea. For
instance, startups have a very different perspective on innovation, technology, scale, rate of
growth, profit, financing, business continuity, exit strategy and even people management.

Whether startups represent a break from business tradition or not, there is no denying the fact
that just like any other small business, the rate at which startups fail is quite high. According to
one study, almost 90% of startups in India, close down in under five years. With that kind of
failure rate, it is anybody’s guess how many survive after 7 or 8 years. Invariably, startup failure
is caused by multiple factors including, poor product-market fit, operational bottlenecks,
technology snags, financial pressures, marketing challenges and people management issues.

This 2-month course is designed to be a kind of reality-reckoner on the most critical people
management issues that startup founders and their employees face during startup inception,

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growth and even decline. Based on a close review of how 100s of startups, in India and other
parts of the globe, navigate HR and people challenges during various stages of their lifecycle,
this course offers a deep-dive into startup strategies and practices focused on attracting, hiring,
inducting, deploying, measuring, recognizing, rewarding, developing and retaining people.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Closely modelled on startup-specific people management challenges & issues, this 2-Month
Course will help participants to:

Ø Develop HR Strategies & Operations in sync with Business Model and Growth Stage
Ø Explore Lean Approaches to Workforce Planning
Ø Link Workflow and Work Roles
Ø Solve a host of Recruitment & Selection Challenges
Ø Evaluate various Employee Onboarding Practices
Ø Identify & Build Skills that matter
Ø Examine ways to Plan, Monitor, Measure and Improve Employee Performance
Ø Review innovative Compensation Strategies
Ø Appreciate the role of Leadership Development in Career Pathing & Succession Planning
Ø Minimize Risks posed by Employee Relations & Exit Management Practices

WHAT WILL BE COVERED?

COURSE CONTENT:

Online Sessions will address the following Areas:

1. The Startup Business Model & Critical Organizational Drivers: HR as Business Driver
2. Finding Work and Workers: Workforce Planning
3. From Work Flow to Work Roles: Organizational Design
4. Where there is Work, there is a Workforce: Recruitment & Selection
5. Of Square Pegs and Round Holes: Induction/Onboarding & Deployment
6. Building Skills & Paying Bills: Learning & Development
7. Linking Employee Performance & Business Performance: Performance Management
8. Money Matters: Compensation & Benefits
9. Stable Careers & Volatile Organizations: Leadership Development & Succession Planning
10. See Them Come, See Them Go: Employee Relations & Exit Management

COURSE METHODOLOGY:

• 2 Month Online Course – 20 Hours of Live Instruction

• Live Facilitator-led Sessions of 2 Hours Duration Scheduled on Fridays/Saturdays
• Highly Interactive Sessions featuring real-time discussion with all Participants
• Limited Batch Size to facilitate maximum experience sharing and learning

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SOME KEY TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE COURSE

1. Well-Researched Course Handout

2. Regular Assessments (Knowledge & Skill Tests)
3. Situation-Based Exercises
4. Resources (Videos, Books & Articles)
5. Tips, Techniques and Tools for becoming an effective People Manager
6. Certification on Course Completion

WORKSHOP METHODOLOGY:

The Online Sessions (offered throughout the Course) are highly experiential and will feature:

• Case Discussions (On real issues faced by Start-ups)

• Role Plays
• Interactive Presentations
• Quizzes
• Inventories
• Simulations
• Videos

COURSE FACILITATOR:

Sumeet Varghese, SPHR® , GPHR®

Founding Partner, Your HR Buddy®

Expertise Overview:

Sumeet brings more than 20 years of work experience as a Human Resource Management &
Organization Development consultant, facilitator and published researcher. He was earlier India
Country Manager for the Human Capital Institute – a Washington DC based HR Think-tank and
Associate Director at T.V. Rao Learning Systems Pvt. Ltd. He has personally trained over 1000
executives and consulted more than 100 firms comprising large multinationals, domestic
corporations, small and medium businesses, PSUs, governmental agencies and not-for-profits,
representing various industries in India and in international locations like the Middle East and
South East Asia.

Sumeet’s main practice areas involve initiating and supporting organizational processes linked
to Competency Management, Assessment & Development Centers, Leadership Development
through 360 Degree Feedback, Employee Engagement Surveys, HRD Audit and setting up of
basic to advanced HRD Systems covering key components like Performance Management,
Training & Development and Recruitment & Onboarding.

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As a consultant, Sumeet is known to add tremendous value to client engagements through his
impeccable well-researched insight into client problems, high quality solutions and terrific client
connect. In his avatar as a facilitator, Sumeet delivers highly experiential workshops designed to
edify as well as change participant behaviour. He is equally at home with highly technical as
well as behavioural topics and moreover, offers a completely customized workshop experience
that can meet the expectations of both junior executives as well as c-level luminaries.

As a trainer, Sumeet’s public and in-house workshops have featured MDs, CEOs, Directors, VPs,
GMs as well as Middle and Junior Management executives from national and multinational
companies like: Microsoft, Ranbaxy, IFFCO, Colgate Palmolive, Idea Cellular – Aditya Birla
Group, NTPC, BHEL, ESSAR, BNP Paribas, Intel, Claris, Asia Motor Works, ING Vysya Bank, Kotak,
Marico India, Raymond, Reliance Industries Limited, Shapoorji Pallonji, Unimark Remedies,
Wipro, Business Standard, Crompton Greaves, HPCL, Unilever, Kaplan India, Maruti Suzuki,
Mawana Sugars, Oil India, Samtel, Simplex Infrastructures, Titan, Yamaha Motors, Bajaj Auto,
Hypercity Retail, UltraTech Cement, Glenmark Pharma, Deepalaya, VVF Limited, Schindler India,
Waters India, Mahindra & Mahindra, etc.

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TESTIMONIALS BY BENEFICIARIES:

We have been offering various versions of this Course in the form of Onsite Workshops and have
loads of Feedback to share – here are some…

BUSINESS OWNERS: MANAGING DIRECTORS & CEOs

(Attended multiple Workshops covering most of the Course Modules since 2017)

Hemang Somaiya. Director, Somaiya Techno Products

Atul Shinde. Director, Micro-Log Systems & Tech.
Vidyanand Deodhar. Director, Surya Equipments
Jaykumar Parikh. Director, Suyash Group
Gorakh Mali. Director, M& K Industries
Sanjeev Tungatkar. Director, Ceraflux India
Uday Thite. Director, Ceraflux India
Ajit Otavanekar. Director, Fortune Foundries
Sandesh Kanekar. Director, Fortune Procurators
Rajesh Piralkar. Director, Renutron Power Solutions
Mrs. Asmita Kulkarni. Director, List Software
Sunil Battase. Director, Magna Industries (Flux Division)
Sanjay Karkhanis. Director, Samarth Foundry + Samarth Metallurgicals
Mahesh Date. Director, Ved Industries
Shashikant Patil. Director, S P Engineers
Mangesh Patil. Director, Mouraya Group
Prasad Kulkarni. Director, Prasaditi Equipments
Sandeep Patil. Director, Varsha Dairy & Food Engineers
Shrirang Deshingkar. Director, Bhavani Iron Works
Pramod Magdum. Director, Sahyadri Engineering
Kiran Chavan. Director, Suyash Group
Mr. & Mrs. Ujjwal Sathe. Directors, Chintamani Motors
Mr. & Mrs. Gaurav Patil. Directors, Marvelous Metals