How Can Our MBA Institute Make HR Specialization More Appealing and Engaging for Students?

Dear All, I need valuable inputs from all of you regarding how an MBA institute can position itself as a better B-school for studying Human Resource as a specialization. Specifically, as a member of the HR team at an institute, how can we generate interest among students to choose HR as their specialization at that particular institution? How can we make HR classes more engaging for students?

I look forward to your inputs. Have a good day!

Regards,
Tejaswini
Lecturer - HR
Global Business School Hubli

Ms Tejaswini,

A very interesting and much-required question you have raised in today's times. Suggestions can run into many pages; however, a few pointers I can suggest are:

Involve Students in Practical HR Functions

- Role play in the following areas:
- Interview Techniques
- Appraisal Interviews
- Induction and Orientation
- Cold Calling
- Head Hunting
- Payrolling
- Exit Interviews and Retention Strategies
- Soft Skills Trainings
- HR Forms and Procedures
- Job Descriptions and Analysis
- Advertising and Vendor Management
- Compliance
- HR Audit
- Corporate Social Initiatives

Keep lecturing in class to a minimum. MBA students are grown-up, responsible adults. Discuss the syllabus at the start of the academic session and leave the reading and note-making to students.

During class hours, students must be made to speak the maximum, instead of teachers talking and students yawning! Divide the class into groups and allot assignments of various kinds (HR concepts and strategies). Instruct groups to prepare presentations; each student must contribute a certain number of slides with information.

According to me, the most boring subject in HR is Labor Law, and fortunately, it's the most important for being an HR professional. Make Labor Law classes interesting by discussing landmark judgments in the HR field. As a teacher, one must thoroughly understand the relevant labor laws, prepare presentations, and explain to students the relevant application of laws instead of making students go through mundane, boring, exhaustive articles and language used in laws. Students must learn the moral of the story and not the details of how exactly cases happened. Avoid too much information download on students.

Let each student take up a topic and explain it to the class. The teacher can always back up an explanation if a student is not smart enough to put it across. Teachers must involve themselves with students to get the best out of each student according to their strengths and weaknesses.

In my personal opinion, when students are trained to give public presentations, I have seen a lot of emphasis is given on speaking English. Knowing the demography of our country, not everyone is a good English-speaking person. That doesn't mean they don't have the skills and ability to be a manager or leader of tomorrow. The essence of presentation is to develop public speaking skills and confidence, be it in any understandable language of the masses. In India, it's Hindi. So first develop the personality, and with renewed confidence, students would pick up on their weaknesses also.

Invite HR friends and contacts from several companies (IT, ITes, manufacturing, trading, FMCG, banks, etc.) to interact with students. Don't make it a lecture type; brief the guest to make the session interesting by encouraging questions. Invite HR professionals from mixed levels of management, from recruiters and admin executives to VPs and CEOs if possible. Let students get insight into all levels respectively.

Conduct personality development sessions, email writing, workplace ethics, and etiquettes, etc. First, train HR students in these aspects and let senior students give presentations/groom/mentor freshers or juniors. This will provide real-time experience to HR students, increase interactions and friendship among seniors and juniors, and other benefits.

Make students internet-friendly, computer-friendly, and encourage a lot of computer-related assignments.

Map students and design a development program to make all students technically sound and equal. Identify weak students and brief them to work harder. Provide constructive criticism and feedback to students for continuous development.

Don't spoon-feed students with ready-made notes. Let students work in a team and arrange their own notes. However, be proactively involved to supervise what notes are compiled.

Create awareness amongst students about the reality of HR fields, pros, cons, and get their expectations to reality. Being an MBA is not a ticket to manager levels.

Encourage internships in HR fields for 6 months during the MBA tenure. Let students share their experiences. Make students speak, speak, and speak. Open their minds, open their hearts, excite them, encourage them, and provoke them to be good citizens of tomorrow.

Make them job seekers, rather than sit blindly for campus placements or daydream about plum offers landing in their lap because they paid so and so amount to do an MBA.

The above-mentioned suggestions are too good to be true or applied or easier said than done, but as a teacher, as an MBA institute, as a mentor, the right way is never easy. Strive to attempt and aim to achieve.

There is a famous saying: "When the student is ready, the teacher appears!"

Best of Luck

Dear Ms. Tejaswini,

A very interesting and much-required question you have raised in today's times. Suggestions can run into many pages; however, a few pointers I can suggest are:

Involve Students in Practical HR Functions

Incorporate role play in the following areas:
- Interview Techniques
- Appraisal Interviews
- Induction and Orientation
- Cold Calling
- Head Hunting
- Payrolling
- Exit Interviews and Retention Strategies
- Soft Skills Training
- HR Forms and Procedures
- Job Descriptions and Analysis
- Advertising and Vendor Management
- Compliance
- HR Audit
- Corporate Social Initiatives

Keep lecturing in class to a minimum. MBA students are grown-up responsible adults; discuss the syllabus at the start of the academic session and leave the reading and note-making to students.

During class hours, students must be made to speak the maximum, instead of teachers talking and students yawning! Divide the class into groups and allot assignments of various kinds (HR concepts and strategies). Instruct groups to prepare presentations; each student must contribute a certain number of slides with information.

Make Labor Law Classes Engaging

According to me, the most boring subject in HR is Labor Law, and fortunately, it's the most important for being an HR. Make Labor Law classes more interesting by discussing landmark judgments in the HR field. As a teacher, one must thoroughly understand the relevant labor laws, prepare presentations, and explain to students the relevant application of laws instead of making students go through mundane, boring, exhaustive articles and language used in laws. Students must learn the moral of the story and not the details of how exactly cases happened. Avoid too much information download on students.

Let each student take up a topic and explain it to the class; the teacher can always back up an explanation if a student is not smart enough to put it across. The teacher must involve with students to get the best out of each student as per their strengths and weaknesses.

Develop Public Speaking Skills

In my personal opinion, when students are trained to give public presentations, I have seen a lot of emphasis is given on speaking English. Knowing the demography of our country, not everyone is a good English-speaking person; that doesn't mean they don't have the skills and ability to be a manager or leader of tomorrow. The essence of a presentation is to develop public speaking skills and confidence, be it in any understandable language of the masses. In India, it's Hindi. So, first develop the personality and with renewed confidence, students would pick up on their weaknesses also.

Invite Industry Professionals

Invite HR friends and contacts from several companies (IT, ITes, manufacturing, trading, FMCG, banks, etc.) to interact with students. Don't make it a lecture type; brief the guest to make the session interesting by encouraging questions. Invite HR professionals from mixed levels of management, from a recruiter, admin executives to VPs and CEOs if possible; let students get an insight into all levels respectively.

Conduct Personality Development Sessions

Conduct personality development sessions, email writing, workplace ethics, and etiquettes, etc. First train HR students in these aspects and let senior students give presentations/groom/mentor freshers or juniors. This will provide real-time experience to HR students, increase interactions and friendship among seniors and juniors, and other benefits.

Encourage Technical Proficiency

Make students internet-friendly, computer-friendly, and encourage a lot of computer-related assignments.

Map students and design a development program to make all students technically sound and equal, identify weak students, brief them to work harder, provide constructive criticism and feedback to students for continuous development.

Don't spoon-feed students with ready-made notes; let students work in a team and arrange their notes. However, be proactively involved to supervise what notes are compiled.

Create awareness among students about the reality of HR fields, pros, cons, get their expectations to reality. Being an MBA is not a ticket to manager levels.

Encourage Internships and Real-World Experience

Encourage internship in HR fields for 6 months during MBA tenure; let students share their experiences. Make students speak, open their minds, open their hearts, excite them, encourage them, and provoke them to be good citizens of tomorrow.

Make them job seekers, rather than sit blindly for campus placements or daydream about plum offers landing in their lap because they paid so and so amount to do an MBA.

The above-mentioned suggestions are too good to be true or applied or easier said than done, but as a teacher, as an MBA institute, as a mentor, the right way is never easy, strive to attempt and aim to achieve.

There is a famous saying: When the student is ready, the teacher appears!!

Best of Luck

Dear Sir,
Thank you so much for your wonderful guidance. Encouraging students to discover knowledge on their own is truly a great idea. However, the key point is that students should also possess an interest in learning. I will definitely take your advice.

Currently, I am involved in Human Resource Development. Feasibility of Assigning Projects
Would it be feasible to assign students a simple project on the "Study of HRD Process," or should we consider something more advanced? Designing training modules for corporates in Hubli/Dharwad has not been successful. I am struggling to find ways to make the subject come alive.

I eagerly await your response, sir. Have a good day!

Regards,
Tejaswini

"But the thing is that students should also have an interest in learning things."

This is a sad truth of our MBA programs. As I mentioned earlier, MBA students are responsible adults and can decide for themselves. If they are willing to learn, they will cooperate. Those who don't care, don't matter. I understand this attitude is not feasible. In HR class, for example, 15 out of 20 students are simply passing time and not serious. They are doing MBA just to extend their college life at their father's expense, also distracting the committed ones.

This is a challenge faced by almost all upcoming, non-reputable, easy-to-enter, donation-based MBA institutes. We don't hear about these issues of student disinterest from institutions like IIMs, FMS, ISB, Symbiosis, or other elite schools.

The solution lies in the attitude of the management of such institutes. If they are strict, disciplined, and committed to imparting effective training worth the caliber of an MBA, students will fall in line. For more on this issue, you can refer to my post:

[Click here to read more](https://www.citehr.com/351648-drawbacks-some-mba-programmes-how-improve-them.html)

Project on the Study of HRD Processes

Break it down into various modules. Prepare a task list and distribute it among the teams in the class to research and prepare a presentation. Let students become teachers and teach their colleagues under supervision.

Stimulate creativity, initiative, interest, and curiosity among students for the subject by citing case studies on how HR has changed companies, society, and overall work experience. Provide examples from the Pre-Industrial era, Industrial era, and modern times. Discuss, debate, and brainstorm the formation, evolution, invention, and discoveries of various HR concepts. Provide role model examples for students to look up to and discuss the achievements of HR greats such as Peter Drucker, Henry Fayol, Frederick Herzberg, F. W. Taylor, and many more. Stimulate students' imagination and give them role models to emulate in the HR field.

As mentioned, let students learn by themselves. Give them topics to learn and conduct multiple-choice question tests almost every day in class. Prepare tough, interactive, and effective MCQs.

MBA is a higher-level study. Don't spoon-feed or pamper students. They need to prepare themselves for the competitive world ahead. Relate every effort, training, lecture, and concept with its cost implication on the business. Connect students with the reality of functioning business models.

Study of HRD Processes: Recruitment

Let students learn what recruitment is by themselves. During class, teach the reality of recruitment, including strategies beyond the textbook. Teach how recruitment affects costs and revenue, work on hypothetical figures, provide percentages, calculations, and cause and effect of these concepts on business profitability. Discuss real case studies, invite recruiters for interactions with students, make them speak, present, and act. This is how you can make HR come alive and interesting.

As a teacher, you need to be prepared, research, prepare presentations, MCQs, activities, increase your industry contacts, and stay a step ahead of students.

"Why do you say that 'Designing Training Modules for corporates in Hubli/Dharwad' is not working?"

And please call me "Hussain." I am not that qualified and experienced to be called "Sir."