Bhubaneswar, Aug. 21: Xavier University was brimming with industry leaders in human resources at Kshitij-2016 - a national level HR summit - in which the institute's budding managers gained from the innovative practices in the field of human resource management.

Satyadeep Mishra, the head of HR-digital services at Reliance Jio, Suresh Pugalenthi, the organisation development head at HPCL, and Prasad Balkundi, an associate professor of the State University of New York atBuffalo, addressed the crowd during the event yesterday.

Mishra spoke extensively about the importance of connections between individuals beyond the realm of hierarchy.

He said: "It's all about the power of connections." He also decoded the golden mantra of being an HR - Stop being an HR - and said learning was a continuous process and it was about creating the right experience for the employee.

Pugalenthi said: "Organisation development is to understand what customers want and what customers need." He emphasised on the inevitable role of innovation in today's HR practices. He also cited examples such as digitalisation of processes through introduction of mobile apps and internal communication at his organisation as the way to move forward.

"HR needs to create value for the organisation," he said.

Balkundi said the trends in HR practices were changing all the time and highlighted some well-known personality and training models.

He said: "Training key individuals will flow down the entire system." He also spoke about the concept of cluster and forming informal networks that could be linked to formal hierarchy.

The speeches were followed by an interactive session with the audience. The summit also saw the final round of the Pan-India Best Summer Internship Competition of students of Tier-I and Tier-II B-schools.