How did you start your career?
I started my career in HR with ITC, LRBD. Early in my career, I shifted from a business role to training. The opportunity to train others meet and impact people’s capability appealed to me. I found that I enjoyed working with people a lot and saw some good early traction from my line leaders as well. The feedback from my customers as well as the employees trained was positive and thus began my career in HR. From ITC, I moved to NIIT, Reliance Brands and now with Kaya Ltd. All the companies I worked with gave me a new perspective on how HR could impact business results, stakeholder value and employee well-being. I have been heading HR for Kaya Ltd since 2009.
Why did you choose HR as your professional field?
I understood the role which HR could play in impacting business strategy and improving employee productivity. It was far more holistic and went with my own career anchors. The role of HR was changing, organizations were looking for a far more strategic HR function which adds value to business and people.
Culture in my opinion is one of the most critical factors which either drives or destroys strategy. As they say “Strategy is only as good as the ability of an organization to execute it”. Culture creates the capability of execution. HR strategy should be closely aligned to the business strategy and all people processes should reinforce the same. This aspect of organisational dynamics appeals to me.
I also enjoyed working on people processes, connecting with people, and building capability. Contributing to the strategy through orchestrating the people agenda gave me far higher career satisfaction.
Pursuant to that, I am on the way to being certified as a PCC coach from ICF. Coaching and mentoring appeals to me and I want to enable people harness their true potential.
Could you briefly describe the initial years of your career what were the challenges you faced, the areas you enjoyed the most, the lessons learnt?
I thoroughly enjoyed my initial years in HR. It was immense learning. Thinking from an HR and employee’s perspective on every facet of the job was challenging since I was used to looking at everything from a business angle. But the shift was not very tough as intrinsically, perhaps, I was always inclined towards the latter.
I enjoyed core HR processes and the HRBP role, the entire spectrum from recruitment to onboarding, assimilation, T&D, PMS and career planning. NIIT was an amazing place to work for an HR professional. It’s a hub of HR best practices. I got an opportunity to work with the leadership team in NIIT on a cross functional project to drive employee retention. That was a great experience where I learnt the way business leaders look at HR and what they expect from HR.
What would you describe as the most significant achievements of your HR career?
Its difficult to describe one achievement as key. Also some of these are confidential as well. However, some which stand out in my memory are leading the talent retention taskforce in one of the companies I have worked with, managing the cultural integration of an international acquisition, Driving an OD intervention in another part of our international business, handling a demerger, orchestrating a culture change agenda, reworking the organization design and finally managing and enhancing people productivity in the current business.
Also, every moment where the organization or I get recognized internally by a customer or externally by any other body is a proud moment.
I specifically remember one where an internal member thanked me for “changing her life”. Such recognition keeps me going.
Could you tell us about some of the external awards and recognitions that you have won, and cherish?
Awards that I have won include: • Leading woman in HR at the 2012 IIglobal Business Information awards in India.
- Best company in Training and Organisational Development at the 4th Asian leadership awards in Dubai 2014.
- One of the 25 most talented HR Professionals in Retail at the Asia Retail congress 2015.
- One of the 100 most influential HR leaders in Asia at the CHRO Asia 2015.
- Excellence in T&D at the world HRD congress 2016.
- Great Places to work – Best companies to work for (RAI).
How did these achievements transform you personally and professionally?
Personally such experiences have taught me patience and the power of reflection. Also, they make you realize the importance of communication in the organization. HR plays a very critical part in all the above situations I have described. Its important in all such critical moments to:
- Reflect and plan in advance rather than react.
- Involve stakeholders and the leadership team at every step of your plan.
- Be resilient, setbacks do occur but its important to bounce back
- Be innovative- think of solutions and initiatives which have not been tried earlier. Observe
- best practices of other companies and industries.
- Plan for long, Mid and short term.
- And last but not the least be there for your people.
What advice would you like to give HR practitioners of the next generation?
HR practitioners need the learn the art of empathetic listening. They need to have patience and remember HR is finally about human relations. I encourage all new entrants to HR to spend a lot of time on the field interacting with the end customers and internal customers. This will really help them understand the ground realities and business challenges which they should impact positively.
HR professionals must be tech and business savvy. They should be constantly learning and trying new initiatives to enhance productivity and culture. HR is the champion of the people so go ahead and take charge of the people agenda.
