The basics of even the most complex aspects of life are about keeping it simple but solid. And when one has their basics right, they go unscathed by most challenges life throws at them. The most legendary name from South African cricket – Graeme Pollock (grandfather of Shaun Pollock), once described the basic of good batting as- “Just watch the ball!”. It is so basic and simple and yet when people complicate the theory they struggle. Mr. Nitin Nidhi in this conversation emphasizes on getting the basics right from the word go, in order to reach good heights in the corporate scales.
Mr. Nidhi has always had a liking for HR, even though he started his career with a marketing profile at SIMS – (now Solution Digitas) as a marketing executive back in 1998. He says, “I was looking after OEM operations, and was involved in activities with clients like Asian Paints, Maruti Udyog etc.” Soon in 2000, the doors of HR opened for Mr. Nidhi with AMSYS Infotech (now Zicom). “I was hired as resource manager and soon got other responsibilities like recruitment, which was a very nice learning curve”, adds Mr. Nidhi. In 2002, Mr. Nidhi joined Citigroup Global Services (CGS) in Mumbai before getting an internal transfer to Delhi. He describes this is an interesting and enriching experience as he handled the entire HR gamut of over 550 employees. He then had a brief stint with JP Morgan Chase based in Bangalore but within 5.5 months, he went back to Infosys BPO as Assistant Manager for HR and became manager within four months. Then in 2006, he became part of Genpact LLC as AVP-HR, where he was responsible for aligning Genpact businesses with GE software and also handled verticals like healthcare. This was once again a 360 degree HR role revolving extensively around people management aspects. Mr. Nidhi joined Bank of America in 2010 as VP and has been taking care of the technical sides (ITS LOB) of general HR functions in depth.
According to Mr. Nidhi, healthy levels of interaction with faculty were the main angle towards learning at IIPM. “But never forget that in the real corporate world, it is about practicality, and practicality is all about experience”, he says. Going forward, Mr. Nidhi claims that the world of HR will keep evolving in terms of being a strategic business partner.
And much like Graeme Pollock, his belief in becoming successful is to get the basics right and never ever falter on them. “Be thorough about what you know and be true to what you know, but never fake it!”. He also insists on the growing importance of analyzing case studies to develop astute skills on management and idea generation. Industry interaction is another vital ingredient. He adds, “Do your own SWOT analysis time and time again, to know where exactly you stand”.
Speaking about recruitment, Mr. Nidhi says that he prefers asking technical questions to experienced candidates only during interviews, but, for freshers, it is about finding out the basic tenets like truth, honesty, flexibility etc. He adds, “If you are not honest in the initial days of your career, you will not be able to sustain. A career is a marathon, not some 200 meters relay”.
Mr. Nidhi is prompt to respond to virtualisation of workplace by saying that it is a great concept and. “It makes room for a lot of flexibility and boosts the results, and in coming years, the whole world would be heading to that”, PHOTO: vikram kumar Want to be remembered as: ‘A Good Guy’ An ultimate dream: To have a good life with family, friends, and remain healthy Movie you love the most: Godfather Actor you like the most: Nicolas Cage Author you like to read: Dr. Ram Charan Place you like to spend long vacations: Coorg PERSONAL FAVOURITES he opines. Talking about talent retention and curbing of attrition, Mr. Nidhi says, “Time and authority is the key. You need to know your employee because there’s not a single reason for attrition, but a culmination of multiple reasons”. He thinks that investing time and money in the direction that benefits the employee is best way to mitigate attrition. These days, Mr. Nidhi is totally occupied in spending time with his three year old daughter – Ishi. His wife is from biotechnology background and is working as a researcher. In closing, Mr. Nidhi discloses that if not a career in HR, he would have been into organic farming, and that he already has some plans to initiate that in the
