40UNDER40 2020 OPENING ESSAY
Photograph by Freepik Creativeart
YOUTH CAN, AND
KNOWS TOO
› The winners of BW 40 Under 40 awards display equal degree of
energy and maturity in handling complex HR situations, especially
when Covid has hit the world of work hard
B W People’s 40 Under 40 HR List, in association with BW Busi- The grand jury included Sumant
nessWorld, is a hunt for 40 insightful and talented HR pro- Sinha, Founder, Chairman & Man-
fessionals who have the zeal to bring about a change in the aging Director, ReNew Power (Jury
industry. It celebrates forward-thinking human resource pro- Chair); Kulmeet Bawa, President
& Managing Director, SAP Indian
fessionals and leaders. subcontinent (Co-Chair); A Velum-
ani, Creator, Thyrocare; Paul Du-
For 2020’s 40 under 40 Awards, a total of 107 nominations were received. puis, MD & CEO, Randstad India
and author, The E5 Movement; Ra-
Out of these 67 were shortlisted for the jury. These were carefully analysed by
the jury and the top 41 HR professionals were awarded in a virtual awards
ceremony.
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 102 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
jkamal Vempati, EVP & Head Hu- The Elite BW People 40 Under 40 Achievers 2020:
man Resources, Axis Bank; Rahul
Taneja, Managing Director, Essar S Achiever Designation Organisation
Capital; Rajendra Mehta, President No.
& CHRO, Welspun India; Sudhir
Mishra, Founder & Managing Part- 1 Aditi Pareek Head - Human Resources Pepperfry.com
ner, Trust Legal; Indu Shahani, Director, People Team WeWork India
President & Chair, ISDI | ISME | 2 Aditya Gurjar Assistant Director, HRBP - Strategy Ernst & Young
ISDI WPP; Vipul Singh, Divisional & Transaction | CBS
Vice President & Head of HR, ADP 3 Amrita Walia Kumar VP - Human Resources IndiaLends
India; Nellie Wartoft, CEO, Tiger- Manager - Compensation & Benefits OYO
hall; Kavita Dasan, Head of People 4 Anu Yadav Head - People Operations Razorpay Software
Practice, ABP News Network; and 5 Anuj Mishra Vice President, India Head- Total Aviva Life Insurance
Gauri Sarin, President Approach 6 Anuradha Bharat Rewards & Learning & OD
Intl & Founder - Forum for Women 7 Ashish Mittal VP - Global Talent Acquisition OYO
Leadership for Better India (FWLI). HR Leader Johnson & Johnson
8 Avisekh Agarwal
Further, there was virtual cel- 9 Darshika Chandra Director & Head, Talent Acquisition ADP
ebrations of all the winners which
aimed at recognising insightful Khare Vice President - Employee Relations Barclays
and talented 40 Under 40 HR pro- 10 DeepaWadhwani
fessionals having the zeal to bring 11 DivyaChathly Assistant Director, Talent Lead - Ernst & Young
about a change in the industry. 12 Evita Fernandes Strategy & Transactions | Parthenon
Prabir Jha, Founder & CEO, 13 Girish Menon Head - Human Resources Swiggy
Prabir Jha People Advisory and 14 Indu Nair
keynote speaker at the event, shared 15 Julie Sachde HR Business Partner Bayer CropScience
his perspective on talent acquisition
and management. “When you hear Director of Human Resources JW Marriott New Delhi
the word hiring, everyone believes Aerocity
that it’s external. But I believe it
should be about internal hiring, and 16 Kapil Takkalapally Head of HR Quantela
career inclusive. If you want leaders 17 Megha Gupta
of the new normal, you have to look 18 Neeharika Bhupathi Director HR Fiserv
at hiring internally”, he said. He said 19 Nikita Zutshi
fundamental of hiring a leader will 20 Niyathi Madasu Vice President - Early Careers India Natwest Group
not change. Factors like curiosity,
courage, resilience, agility, humility, Vice President - Human Resources MakeMytrip
learnability, and the entire basket
of competency and behaviours have Director HR Premier Energies
already existed, he emphasised. Limited
“What the crisis has shown us 21 Paromita Bhattacha- Business HR Partner & Practice Head ICICI Securities
is the reality that we have not done rya for Compensation, L&D
our jobs well enough. We must hold
ourselves responsible, and guilty,” 22 Peyu Gupta Head – Business HR & Talent Man- Panasonic India
he added. agement
A Velumani, Creator, Thyrocare, 23 Pradeep Kumar Director - People Success Altruista Health
remarked that HR is responsible for Bonda Services
three main aspects — creating, im-
proving competencies, and sustain- 24 Pragnya Mohapatra Assistant Director - Location Talent Ernst & Young
ing efficiencies. He said, “An organ- Lead East I Bangladesh
isation’s efficiencies are enhanced
when everybody in the organisation 25 Rachita Srivastava Regional HRBP - North & East Entertainment Net-
is on the same page. It needs mul- work India
tiple layers and each layer should
have well-defined roles.” 26 Rahul Bhatnagar VP & Head - Human Resources Pittie Group & IN10
Media
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 103
27 Rahul Jagannathan VP - People & Culture Design Cafe
28 Rashmi Badgaiyan
HRBP Lead (Global Product & Tech- ADP
nology) India
29 Ravleen Anand Head of HR ALP Group
30 Reeti Dubey
31 Ritika Bhandari Vice President - HR India Natwest Group
Vice President & Head - HR, Middle Teleperformance
East
32 ShashikanthJayar- Vice President - Human Resources MulticoreWareInc
aman
HR Head - Radio & Entertainment HT Media
33 ShikhaDhillon Business
Lead - HR initiatives & HRBP Lead ADP
34 Shilpa Kankaria Lead - HR (Retail & Talent Acqui- PUMA Sports India
35 Shruti Mishra sition)
General Manager - HR, EVP & Signify Innovations Ind
36 Sourya Sidhhartha Culture
Dash General Manager - HR Ashiana Housing
Corporate Human Resources BOB Financial Solu-
37 Surbhi Dewan tions Ltd
38 Venus Soundararajan Training & Placement Officer (TPO) JECRC University
Talent Attraction Leader Pega Systems
39 Vinayak Gupta Associate Director – Human Re- KPMG
40 Vivek Thukral sources
41 Yogja Singh
Designations and organisation names at the time of awards
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40UNDER40 2020
ADITI PAREEK training and develop-
Head HR, Pepperfry (Online Furniture Business) ment calendar.
LYNCHPIN FOR “Working alongside
ORGANISATION
the founders, I have
helped institutionalise a
great operating rhythm
at Pepperfry. This rhythm
› Pareek describes the pivotal role that HR has played drives the communica-
in institutionalising processes and ensuring smooth
functioning of Pepperfry tion across the company
and includes programmes
like townhalls, all-hands
F review meets, annual
or a relative- offsites etc.” A great op-
ly young or-
ganisation, erating rhythm helps in
Pepperfry
clear and timely commu-
nication about business
boasts of a great human to all employees and goes
resources management a long way in getting the
system (HRMS) that not best out of our employees.
only allows for seamless Working alongside
record-keeping and com- the founders and CXO’s
munication but also an of Pepperfry, she is also
integrated performance known to have helped in
management tool. reducing cost and retain-
And this is where ing talent in times when
Aditi Pareek has played a most organisations went
pivotal role in institution- through unprecedented
alising this HRMS and times of economic slow-
the performance manage- down. Pareek additional-
ment process at Pepper- ly took up the responsibil-
fry, having run successful- ity of running customer
ly for the past four years. support, thereby, leading
“In the past two years, by example and fostering
the human resources learning agility.
team at Pepperfry has She believes that “an
enabled training from en- e-commerce start-up is
try-level frontline staff to unique in the sense that
leadership coaching. The it employs folks from
programme, which was diverse industries. An
set up by me, has reached omnichannel business
300 out of 500 people like Pepperfry has people
at Pepperfry,” Pareek in- from retail, technology,
forms. FMCG, manufacturing
Pareek has set up and and supply chain and
institutionalised training therefore heading
and development at Pep- human resources here
perfry from scratch. In has allowed me to gain
her view, Pepperfry has a diverse experience of
the most comprehensive people, industries and
and all-encompassing cultures.”
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ADITYA GURJAR
Director of HR, JFrog
(Head, People Operations, Performance CoE, WeWork at the time of awards)
NEW-AGE
TORCHBEARER OF HR
› Believing his ilk’s role to be that of custodians of workplace values,
Gurjar kept up the tempo even during Covid
A Human B-School campus recruit- making it frequent and and feelings of isolation,
Resourc- ment, lateral hiring and strength-based. With this the whole WeWork fam-
es profes- learning programme lead. process, we identified fu- ily supported each other
sional with ture-focused action plans with consistent mental
“My biggest achieve- for all employees,” claims health counselling. All
experience in the people ment at WeWork India Gurjar. this led to having amaz-
was addressing the chal- ing employee satisfaction
function across a gamut lenge of building a fair This further led to in- scores and this served as
and outcome-based per- creased engagement and great validation for their
of roles, Aditya Gurjar has formance management better talent management employees’ relentless ef-
process which is focused across WeWork. Gurjar forts.
served in various capaci- on improving the perfor- also worked on creating
mance conversation and and launching indus- HR is an integral
ties, such as HR business try-leading and employ- function of any organi-
ee-friendly programmes sation’s machinery and is
partner, geo talent lead, that position WeWork as responsible for creating
an employer of choice. enriching careers. It is
HR programme design imperative that human
Talking about his im- resources create and ac-
and project management, pacts upon his present or- celerate trust in teams
ganisation, he started by that contribute to a thriv-
creating a high perform- ing work environment.
ing, engaged team within
HR to address complex “Hence, we should
issues and mission-criti- build transparency, ex-
cal projects. He is known plore employee strengths
to have led the adoption and add to their happi-
of our new HRIS tool as ness and contentment
part of their multi-year at the workplace. We are
HR tech strategy. This custodians of the cultur-
further led to automation al ethos of the organisa-
and efficiencies which in tion and it is up to us to
turn led to a better em- instil the values and pur-
ployee experience. pose of our business and
get them excited to be a
Druring the pandem- part of its growth story,”
ic, keeping in mind the he says.
stress of remote working
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BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 105
40UNDER40 2020
AMRITA KR AHLUWALIA
Associate Director-HR, E&Y
(Assistant Director at the time of awards)
WORKING FOR A BETTER
WORLD OF WORK
› Kumar wants to do this by engaging like-minded individuals,
penning her thoughts in a book
P ossessing a well-round-
ed experience in Hu-
man resources – re-
cruitment, special
projects, business partner & organi-
sation development – Amrita Walia
Kumar, Associate Director-HR
Business Partner, Ernest and
Young, has been blessed with great
opportunities to provide HR advi-
sory to more than 1,200 employees
armed by career journey incepted
with recruitment consulting almost
15 years ago.
Being an advisory to partner
group and senior leader on strategic
decision making, Kumar has helped
enable the firm with strong decision
points. This transformational agent
wishes to become a renowned au-
thor of her own book, based on her
experiences in human resources.
“Contributing directly to busi-
ness growth and decision making to
sustain and achieve organisational
goals, as a noteworthy contribution, I have increased to 60 per cent year- Talking about the working style
on-year growth in the competition of her organisation, Kumar claims,
Kumar has helped EY Corporate Finance Woman of “At EY, we are committed to build-
enable the firm with the year; which was an important ing a better working world — with
strong decision points. step to build EY corporate brand increased trust and confidence
This transformational at the campus, to inspire next gen- in business, sustainable growth,
agent wishes to eration of female talent and bridge development of talent in all its
become a renowned gender diversity gap (EY has been forms, and greater collaboration.
author of her own marked as one of the world’s most We want to build a better work-
book, based on her attractive employer for students by ing world through our own actions
experiences in human a survey conducted by Universum),” and by engaging with like-minded
resources states Kumar. individuals.”
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40UNDER40 2020
ANU YADAV
Head-People Operations, AGRIM
(VP-HR, IndiaLends at the time of awards)
CATALYST FOR
WORK FROM HOME
› A chance entrant in the HR domain, Yadav has ensured that the
team is heard in decision-making, including during Covid
L iving by the credo 'Be True, Be You', Anu Yadav explains she fell in love with the possibilities that
with honesty how she became an HR professional. She HR function provided to truly impact the
admits, “My foray in HR was not a planned one. It’s a ca- organisation’s success.
reer I stumbled upon as I completed my education and
For her, the most significant learning
moved towards building a career to be financially independent and in this profession has been the value of
empathy in everything the HR fraternity
to do justice to the sacrifices made by my mother for me." Eventually, does, retaining the ‘human’ in human re-
sources. Yadav explains, “IndiaLends gave
me the opportunity as well as empower-
ment to think beyond the traditional con-
fines of the HR function. Our organisation
places an implicit value in the people cap-
ital they have built.”
Reminiscing the work she did at In-
diaLends, Yadav remembers the first
critical step she took was to ground-up
build a strong team. She was fortunate
to have a great team who were like com-
rades in arms. With the consistent help
of her colleagues and pals subsequently,
it gave rise to building ARMs of HR in
IndiaLends.
Talking about the lockdown challeng-
es, she says, “When Covid-19 hit the world,
I was given an opportunity to lead our
business continuity planning task force.
In a short period of time, we understood
and implemented the technology, pro-
cess and infrastructural changes needed
to enable work from home for the entire
organisation.
"As an HR function we created the
right trust with business stakeholders and
earned the right to have a say at the decision
table. The fraternity on the whole acted as
the primary voice in each and every busi-
ness decision that has an impact on peo-
ple. The team became the right catalyst for
making work from home successful for the
organisation."
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40UNDER40 2020
ANUJ MISHRA FOR
Manger - Compensation and Benefits,
INSTINCTOyo (Online room booking service)
INNOVATION
› Mishra has challenged the status quo mindset and dared to join
a startup for his love for experimentation
S pending his childhood
in a small town on the
banks of Yamuna and
knowing nothing about
the corporate world to landing in an
MNC with presence in almost every
country and having the courage
to join a startup, Anuj Mishra has
come a long way.
A civil engineering graduate
from APJ Abdul Kalam Technical
University and a postgraduate
diploma holder in human resource
management and personnel
management from KJ Somaiya
Institute of Management Studies
and Research, Mishra started his
career with ICICI Bank and later
moved on to Ola and then Oyo. He
has developed an understanding of
mix of job roles in new-age sectors;
loves to work in fast-paced, volatile
and unstructured workplaces, the absence of HR you might not HR lacks agility to adapt to new
feel a thing till the machine starts technologies; there is a huge skill
declares among his strengths data showing symptoms of friction.” gap; the awareness of HR regarding
markets is low; as is innovation
orientation, ability to step out of Some other pluses about the level; and most strikingly, it’s
HR role for him are: knowing the indecisive — it’s unable to take
comfort zone and questioning big picture and the ability to see decisions promptly at times.
things cross-functionally and the
status quo, and is firm in his belief fact that HR can impact lives of all Mishra acknowledges inability
employees. to use apt words as one of his
that good HR managers come from weaknesses. But he does get his
But he is brutally honest in point across, in a strong way.
grassroots. acknowledging the shortcomings
of HR function too. As per him, WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
Mishra also believes that the
HR function has a central role
in an organisation. He says, “HR
is like the oil that keeps the cogs
in the firm’s wheels working. In
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40UNDER40 2020
ANURADHA BHARAT
VP, People Operations, RazorPay
(Head-People Operations, RazorPay at the time of awards)
EXCITED ABOUT
STARTUP STRUGGLES
› Bharat stuck it out with an unknown brand because she related to
their core values, agility and speed
A nuradha Bharat has been part of Razor-
Pay from the days when it was a ‘Never
heard of it’ outfit, to its becoming a brand
and an employer of choice attracting top
talent from the most established companies.
“The beginning, the end and the core of everything
in my opinion are people. People can make or break
things,” says Bharat. She shares how she got associated
with the company. “They had a dream of building a
happy place to be — not about biz or processes alone.
It was to simplify payments for everyone else, and for
me, it was to simplify the people practice. I continued
with RazorPay because that focus has not changed. This
journey has not been easy — but the struggles were
worthwhile,” remembers Anuradha Bharat.
Delving on the struggles, she says, “Startup journeys
are very different — the breadth and uniqueness of chal-
lenges, the urgency, quality and speed of execution, the
unique style of leadership in displaying agility in deci-
sion making, small teams — every day is a brand new
day.”
The people function directly influences the DNA of a
company by shaping its values and culture. The maturity
with which the company takes care of its people is driven
by this function. “We bring in the empathy, emotional
and the human quotient to key company decisions keep-
ing the people and their needs at the very centre.”
“This new normal has in a way brought us closer
to people. We suddenly understand the importance of
human relations, human connections, socialisation and
We bring in the empathy, nature. And people will want to experience that even at
emotional and the human their workplaces — after all, we spend more time in a
quotient to key company day with our colleagues than we do with anyone else,”
decisions keeping the people believes Bharat.
and their needs at the very
centre” Bharat is proud of the fact that she initiated a pay-
ment gateway and today the opportunities she has creat-
ed using the collaborative efforts.
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40UNDER40 2020
ASHISH MITTAL
Head of HR, Aviva
(VP-HR at the time of awards)
A PERSON OF puses and they became one of the
ACTION sources of our middle management
bench strength.” Adding on to the
› From ideas to implementation, Mittal is same he shares that he revamped
quick with initiatives, as was proven during the campus hiring system introduc-
the pandemic ing ‘employer branding at the cam-
puses’.
A n alumnus of XLRI-Jamshedpur, Ashish Mittal is an expert
in design and implementation of various aspects of total re- HR is known for ‘human con-
wards, HR policies, C&B benchmarking & analysis, budget- nect, employee relationship, open
ing, annual promotions & salary review cycle, variable pay culture of communication’ in the or-
ganisation. During the recent mas-
plan, long-term and short-term incentive plans administration, and expat sive disruption, when everyone was
anxious and stressed and some felt
management. disengaged due to the absence of
laptops, at Aviva, the management
Hiring is a standard process but a slight revision can impact the whole ensured over 1,700 employees of
Aviva India stay connected, engaged
outcome. Mittal informs, “We regularly hire from India’s top B-School cam- and continue their learning journey
in just three days. People Function
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 111 had a crucial role to play here; it re-
quired quick actions almost every
day.
“Our employees were provided
access to over 8,500 learning re-
sources to identify their learning
needs & enjoy on-the-go learn-
ing. 50+ webinars & podcasts
were shared & received excellent
feedback,” shares Mittal. A four-
week campaign was launched on
WhatsApp to ensure that learning
never stops and mental wellbeing is
taken care of.
Despite how flexible and com-
fortable remote working may seem,
it still carries its own set of chal-
lenges and hence introducing room
for new definitions of work-life bal-
ance. Mittal addressed the issue of
adhering to the working hours’ lim-
it’ and the team decided that as an
organisation managers will not send
emails to their teams post 6.30 PM
or during the weekends. “Also, we
gave a two-hour lunch break since
we knew that everyone was on their
own, cooking too.”
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
AVISEKH AGARWAL
Head Talent, Nexus Venture Partners
(VP - Global Talent Acquisition &
Engagement, Asia Pacific & Middle
East, OYO, at the time of awards)
RINOCROEAMSING leaders want to spend a maximum
of their time.
FOR HR
“Human Resources happened
› Agarwal is confident that post-Covid, to me, I never planned for it. Had I
the role of his domain will no longer be not been enticed by the pre-place-
that of just facilitators ment talk of the first organisation
I worked with (Executive Access)
A visekh Agarwal believes that having high-per- at Shri Ram College of Commerce
forming talent on board can make the difference (SRCC), Delhi, I would have prob-
between winning and losing. It’s therefore not sur- ably ended up in marketing or fi-
prising that in every CEO survey “hiring and retain- nance,” remembers Agarwal.
ing” quality talent continues to be the most important area where Joining OYO was one of the
defining moments of Agarwal’s ca-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 112 reer. A six-year-old Indian company
making strides the world over gave
a sense of pride and seemed like an
irresistible opportunity. Agarwal re-
members, “OYO for me happened at
a time when the company was look-
ing at rapid global expansion and
incubation of several new business
lines. It was important for OYOs
talent strategy to coincide with its
business strategy.”
As a function, at OYO, HR had
to focus on people, processes and
technology to establish a strong em-
ployer brand that could attract the
best talent in the world. It was im-
portant to figure “what is possible”
versus “what is being done”.
Agarwal believes Covid-19 has
elevated the importance of HR pro-
fessionals within organisations like
never before. It has helped shine a
spotlight on the value that HR deliv-
ers in keeping employees engaged,
motivated, safe, and productive.
“It’s pretty evident that in the
radically changed world post-Covid,
HR cannot be seen as a facilitating
function. The best companies will
be those where business under-
stands people and HR understands
business. The best way to do this
would be to encourage HR talent
to move into business roles and vice
versa,” is his advice.
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40UNDER40 2020
DARSHIKA CHANDRA KHARE
Head HR, Johnson & Johnson, Pharma & R&D India
(HR Leader, Johnson & Johnson at the time of awards)
BPaUrtnSeIrNs inESS
› Khare is proud of the evolution of HR’s role from operations
administration and employee concerns to becoming the strategic
advisors in company’s business goals
D arshika Chandra nication, enablement, assimilation “The pandemic-induced lock-
Khare Khare joined and accommodation down restrictions have further
Janssen, the phar- elevated the role of HR within or-
maceutical business • Leading a robust talent agen- ganisations as business leaders are
da to create a strong internal talent leaning on our leadership for shap-
of Johnson & Johnson, as an HR pipeline for critical roles and carv- ing internal policies, driving appro-
ing career trajectories by leveraging priate communication and employ-
business partner in 2018. Since the enterprise at Johnson & John- ee engagement, and demonstrating
son agility in the responses. The way
then, her focus has been on sup- Johnson & Johnson has respond-
HRs are the torchbearers for the ed during the pandemic says a lot
porting employees to adapt to the organisation and the recent pan- about the organisational culture.
demic has proved this. Khare says, As an HR business partner for the
ever-evolving external healthcare “I believe, as an HR community, we pharmaceutical sector at J&J, ena-
have evolved exponentially, from bling our talent to quickly adapt to
environment and develop the right operations administration and em- the changing external innovative
ployee champions to becoming the market space, enhance access for
capabilities to enhance access to our strategic advisors to the business. our patients and be the best scien-
We are business leaders and not tific partner of choice has been a
innovative medicines for our pa- just HR leaders, and as I reflect on critical focus for us.”
my career journey, the multitude of
tients. learnings reinforces this point for
me.”
Some of her contributions in the
company are:
• Achieving efficiencies through
the above steps that led to increased
business profitability
• Enhanced candidate experi-
ence of new joiners through a robust
approach on connecting, commu-
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TEGMHXOILTEINERGA DEEPA WADHWANI
Director, Talent Acquisition, ADP
D eepa Wadhwani has more than 13 years’
experience as HR professional in mul-
ti-cultural set-ups and has expertise in
talent acquisition and capability build-
ing, talent management, diversity and inclusion, em-
ployee engagement, HR projects & automation.
Being an organisation focused on human capital
management, the ADP’s HR team has always played a
significant role as partners in decision making for the or-
ganisation. It was no different during the pandemic and
the leadership team’s vision was effective in managing
the situation. Discussing her role during the pandemic,
Wadhwani shares that she had the complete authori-
ty and support from her leaders to take the necessary
action to ensure a smooth transition of experience for
candidates and processes from a pre-Covid world to a
post-Covid world.
During the pandemic disruption, Wadhwani was at
the forefront of adopting technology, established an in-
novation lab within HR and digitally transformed the
experience for candidates and associates.
Going the extra mile beyond her KRAs, she has led
some successful initiatives in the organisation.
i. Transformative HR leader & mentor: As an active people at ADP, in which Wadhwani has also played sig-
nificant role, have been:
member of the Pune Executive leadership Committee
• Leadership learning intervention in collaboration
and HR leadership team, she has been a key strategic with external partners and the senior leadership team.
The outbound learning programme yielded excellent
partner and coach, tasked with facilitating strategic leadership retention and overall improvement in site
engagement.
planning and leading initiatives, change management
• A mega employee engagement event with over
and organisational design. 3,000 associates in Pune, for which the company re-
ceived accolades from leaders across the globe for crea-
ii. Advocate for diversity and inclusion- She led the di- tivity and flawless execution.
versity and inclusion charter for India, with the core
responsibility to attract, engage and retain the diverse
workforce, especially women associates.
Some of the leading programmes initiated for the
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DIVYA CHATHLY
ER Lead for India
Barclays Global Service Centre
DRIVING PEOPLE The service ensures consistency
AGENDA of case management advisory, re-
duction in the ageing of cases and
› Chathly has been driving innovations and is the one-stop point for all MI,
improvements that have been integrating thematic analysis and data insights
employee development and business for business which has helped them
objectives/goals at Barclays. drive interventions to proactively
resolve colleague issues thereby re-
A n Experienced employee relations specialist with a demon- ducing colleague and conduct risk.
strated history of working in the financial services industry,
Divya Chathly, single-handedly set up the Case Management “My exposure and experience
Service Line in India, entailing consolidation of all case man- across the width and breadth of the
HR function encompass multiple
agement activities with one team comprising of experienced ER advisors. functions, roles, stakeholders and
projects which has set the founda-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 115 tion for my being a strong HR pro-
fessional,” claims Chathly.
With a consistent and continued
focus on the people agenda entail-
ing self-development, career ena-
blement, professional and personal
growth for self and team members,
Chathly has been driving innova-
tions and improvements that have
been integrating employee develop-
ment and business objectives/goals
at Barclays.
While trying to make a mark in
any new organisation, managing a
very critical case involving a senior
leader, there was a push from the
management to take very strict ac-
tion. The leader in question wasn’t
able to align to the organisation cul-
ture and they wanted to use this as
an opportunity to take a tough call.
“The allegations itself while sub-
stantiated, did not call for a very se-
vere action in normal circumstances
and I had to push back very heavily
to agree on the right action on the
basis of case facts and also suggest-
ed an alternate way of managing the
issue at hand,” remembers Chathly.
Once remediation was done, a
root cause analysis was undertaken
and accordingly measures were put
in place to ensure such a situation
does not arise again in the future.
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40UNDER40 2020 EVITA FERNANDES
FOREVER Assistant Director, HR
READY TO Business Partner at Ernst
UPSKILL & Young (Professional
Services)
› Keen to be conversant with the latest
tools of work, Fernandes has never missed a “Upskilling is the key to sustain
learning opportunity in the current competitive envi-
ronment. Hence, I didn’t leave any
W ith over 10 years the above group were to discuss the stone unturned in achieving quality
of experience possible concerns of the team and certifications in transformative lead-
and exposure in define agreed ways of working which ership, data science (Power BI Tool)
the talent strate- would be customised specifically to and design thinking. I have always
the group and followed as norms of been updated with the constant
gy segment, Evita Fernandes claims working style. Transitioning from flow and upgrading, and therefore,
working out of the office to WFH in the era of digital disruption, have
to have been fondly known for fos- mode is challenging for companies. acquired and implemented digi-
Hence, Fernandes took this respon- tal innovations to the standard HR
tering a sense of belonging from a sibility to cultivate a proper flow. process like digital handbook and
virtual hobby club,” says Fernandes.
distance.
I didn’t leave any
She initiated a project focusing stone unturned in
achieving quality
on empathy where the manager and certifications in
transformative
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 116 leadership, data
science (Power BI
Tool) and design
thinking”
Talking about her problem-solv-
ing ability, Fernandes narrates a spe-
cific instance. “In the current firm,
during a focus session, a junior staff
confided about favouritism being
played in the team. Straight away
in the upcoming focus page discus-
sion, I firmly initiated the discussion
about the issue of favouritism and
highlighted this to the team lead on
trends observed. The conversation
led to a defensive argument from
the team lead. I handled the situa-
tion well in the subsequent meeting,
on the basis of data analytics and re-
ports which analysed that only two
out of six managers were allocated
on large projects.”
She leads by her belief that run-
ning a project in diversity and inclu-
siveness for female students aspiring
to join the corporate finance indus-
try is what should be the mindset of
every professional going forward.
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40UNDER40 2020
GIRISH MENON
VP-HR, Swiggy
(Food Delivery Platform)
AN ANECDOTE sise the same. He has led a couple
FOR EACH of large interventions during the
OCCASION last one year with Swiggy, includ-
› Menon recounts how his HR value system ing the organic restructuring of the
took shape during his initial struggle against organisation. He believes that HR
leaders’ highhandedness as a function embraces the change
much faster than others as it’s felt
G irish Menon has over a decade of experience in setting up HR by the largest stakeholder group i.e.
processes in Indian and MNC start-ups. He has always been employees.
keen and receptive to the concerns of all the staff members,
irrespective of their position, and relates anecdotes to empha- No organisation embraces the
efforts unless it’s shown in form of
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 118 positive output. Menon has always
been a curious learner and that has
been his strength which has helped
him scale with the organisation. A
year back when he had joined the
organisation, Swiggy only had 500
employees and 5,000 delivery part-
ners; the employee strength has
now risen to 10,000 employees and
over 3 lakh delivery partners.
Like any other employee, Menon
too has had to strive hard to make his
own name into a new environment.
Remembering the initial struggle,
Menon shares his experience when
he had to deal with a leader who
had high need for power, was biased
and also had credibility in the sys-
tem because of being an early joiner.
Hence almost like a founding group
member, the individual was keen to
fire an employee without much due
diligence or following principles of
natural justice. Menon recounts
how he had to put his foot down to
ensure leaders don’t act whimsical
as this could have lead to a cultural
breakdown and precedence.
Menon adds that he has always
ensured keeping the bar high on
integrity for himself and his team
and believes, “Unless you don’t care
about your employees’ integrity, you
can never expect reciprocation from
their end too.”
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40UNDER40 2020
INDU NAIR
HR Business Partner-Product Supply and
R&D, Bayer CropScience
Forever In
Learning Mode
› Through training modules and everyday lessons at workplace,
Nair wants growth for whole team
I ndu Nair has worked in success for the organisation. do is happiness’ and I stepped in to
training & development, “Since my graduation my pas- Bayer Vapi, our manufacturing set-
HR processes, recruit- up based at Vapi in Gujarat in 2013,
ment, employee engage- sion for people was reflected in where I found my happiness in real
things I did, and having seen this sense,” states Nair.
ment at the Vapi of Bayer, which resonance deeply, I became sure of
it! I started my career in 2013 in a Nair has created and executed
produces chemicals for crops. Hav- consultancy firm and within a short various learning and development
span I realised, ‘Doing what is to projects at the site and has been
ing been associated with Bayer for be done is life, but liking what you involved in various HR projects for
which the plant as a team and Nair
close to nine years, she has proven individually have achieved various
internal and external recognitions.
the leadership which resulted much Perhaps the biggest achievement
lies in the everyday learning that
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 119 one gets in the unit, she says.
The impact of her contribution
towards her company has truly been
commendable. “Giving various per-
spectives, ideas and doing things
innovatively emerged as strong ar-
eas for me which surely made an
impact. High level of team support
and their acceptance made it seam-
less for undertaking life-changing
projects at site by taking baby steps
together as a team to move our jour-
ney from good to great to ultimate
in a collaborative way.”
“Lastly, I believe that getting
into the depth of the subject and
creating meaningful outcomes to
the industry and society is my key
success.” With this urge to delve
deeper, this forever learner is also
pursuing PhD in Management
(HR) from Mumbai University.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
JULIE SACHDE
Director of Operations,
JW Marriott (Hospitality)
STICKLER I wish to reach the
FOR RULES & level of regional
TRANSPARENCY corporate head of
human resources in
› Sachde is known for strictly following the an organisation and
company policies to the core, go by the book alongside, get an
and take seniors’ advice when stuck in a tricky inch closer to my
situation aving spent 15 years in the industry, Julie Sachde has grown dream of founding
an NGO that helps
alongside the HR holistically. As an HR professional, she is protect animals,
respectively”
H highly driven towards making HR a core department. “My
financial literacy and business acumen make me analytically competition in Aerocity, which also
stronger,” believes Sachde. Her strategy towards leading HR includes vari- brought down the hotel’s voluntary
ous dimensions and she deals with the details ensuring internal synergy and turnover,” claims Sachde.
transparency.
Under Sachde’s scrutiny, the
One of her many accolades with Marriott was when she was a business Marriott Hotel chain received a Ti-
head, and Marriott had achieved those revenue targets which only 6-7 hotels tanium Certification for TakeCare
were able to achieve for the year 2019. “I also won laurels for being able to in 2020, which is Marriott Inter-
successfully drive engagement in the hotel despite the excessive prevalence of national Sociocultural Programme
for associates’ wellbeing, as well as
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 120 the community around them. “I was
able to successfully achieve a key
rating (highest) in the hotel balance
score card for fulfilling the Manage-
ment Succession Pipeline Database
and brought up the time taken to
fill positions to a strong performer
rating.”
Sachde is known for strictly fol-
lowing the company policies to the
core, always go by the book and take
advice when stuck in a tricky sit-
uation from a superior in the field.
She remembers having dealt with
sexual harassment cases with im-
mediacy, following all protocols and
maintaining transparency in every
situation.
Talking about where she wishes
to see herself in professional and
private front, she says, “I wish to
reach the level of regional corporate
head of human resources in an
organisation and alongside, get an
inch closer to my dream of founding
an NGO that helps protect animals,
respectively.”
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40UNDER40 2020
KAPIL TAKKALAPALLI
HR Services Director, Quantela
(HR Head at the time of awards)
A ROLE BEYOND
NORMAL HR
FUNCTION
› Takkalapally and
his HR team are also
involved in client and
project management
A disruptor on his • Career framework with mar- culture to scale activities. Present-
duty made sure to ket-linked pay practices ly, the team is engaged in building
reframe the struc- long-term strategies, drawing on
tures and strategies • Implement an integrated glob- their past experiences during the
al human resources informa- pandemic and scaling up to pro-
matching the pace of the advance- tion system (HRIS) for seam- vide value to their customers in
less workflows across corporate the new normal world.
ments. Kapil Takkalapally moved functions
There is a lot to be achieved
from the traditional view of HR and Covid As Disruptor for Quantela in the name of goals
Around the world, Covid-19 has but the impact created in terms of
reset relationships with employees, building a culture of hiring talent
forced organisations, enterprises with purpose has been huge. Tak-
customers and partners. and entire industries to regroup and kalapally says, “We have been able
reassess how they do business. At to build expertise in engineering,
“My tenure at Quantela ena- Quantela too, things are no differ- product management, UX and
ent. As Quantels’s HR Head, Takkal- sales functions especially at the
bled me to implement a robust HR apally initially focused on the short middle- to senior-talent segments.
term to keep the employees safe We expanded globally in the US
framework ranging from hiring to and sustain essential services with- and Europe and established a
out any disruption which in the end strong leadership team and a stra-
exits,” states Takkalapally. Some made him win this tag of BW HR 40 tegic acquisition to build capabil-
Under 40. He quickly moved on to ities and access to wider market
noteworthy steps that have been stabilising the organisation to the opportunities.”
new reality and adapting their work
implemented under his aegis are:
• EVP focused on strong global
talent attraction
• Performance management cen-
tred on ‘pay-for-performance’
philosophy
• Talent management framework
for building deep leadership ex-
pertise and critical talent
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 121 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
MEGHA GUPTA
Director HR, Fiserv India
(Financial Services)
ENABLING ations was something she worked
ROLE CHANGE towards. There came a steady shift
FOR HR in HR function from a cost centre
to a strategic partner for business,
› Through relentless approach and keeping which required a huge mindset shift
communication open, Gupta has redefined in both the HR function as well as
the scope of function for her team the business. With a multi-gener-
ational workforce, global environ-
W ith 17 years’ experience in Fin-Tech, IT, Telecom and Cre- ment and dynamic business needs,
ative sectors, Megha Gupta is at the helm of HR initia- the demands from stakeholders and
tives in Fiserv since more than three years. She is working business increased, and now more is
towards several goals, like creating right culture, promot- expected from the HR function.
ing diversity on gender, LGBT and disability front, capacity development Gupta being an open and com-
passionate leader, has always made
and creating compliance policies, among others. sure to keep the channels for com-
munication open. She also created
Shifting the HR function to be more strategic level than seen as oper- a fair and transparent channel for
communication within the organi-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 122 sation, leveraging both top to down
and bottom-up approaches. The
role change within the HR function
was made by putting together ca-
reer frameworks and competencies
for the HR team for people to see
the shift.
Gupta doesn’t consider this pan-
demic to be a “pause button”, rath-
er a “restart button” to go back to
the drawing board and think about
every decision that we have made in
past and relook with a fresh lens.
Solutions that worked till now
will have no relevance now, like
the creche facility and gym. Rath-
er, there is a need to think about
what matters now to employees in
the remote working set up, believes
Gupta. This also brings in new op-
portunities like opening the talent
market in new geographies which
were untapped due to the need for
physical presence in office. “This
pandemic has forced me personally
to think about the new normal and
challenge my mindset to relook at
talent strategies like never before,”
believes Gupta.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
NEEHARIKA BHUPATHI
Head of Early Careers, India, at
Natwest Group (Banking and
Insurance)
FIRM IN HER Creating a great place to build
STAND careers and future-ready talent is a
vital part of RBS India’s strategy to
› Nevertheonetobudgefromrules,Bhupathi build a bank for the future. In line
has achieved a lot for the organisation and its with the strategy, Bhupathi has suc-
employees cessfully launched the RBS-ACE
programme, which aims to build a
A n HR graduate from XLRI, Neeharika Bhupathi, VP, Royal future leadership talent pipeline for
Bank of Scotland, India (Natwest Group) has successfully de- RBS India.
livered business results and enabled people growth and en-
gagement, alongside leading several large scale enterprises “Since my initial days, I have
been instrumental in designing
with wide HR initiatives like organisational restructuring, building acceler- and launching the 18-month pro-
gramme and hired our first two
ated talent programmes, diversity, building people capability etc. cohorts of graduates from tier-1
B-schools in India who are current-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 123 ly working on future-ready strategic
projects in RBS,” shares Bhupathi.
Fondly known for creating business
impact by working with people and
building a bridge between what is
good for the organisation and what
is good for people, Bhupathi has
come a long way in her career.
“I believe relativity applies to
physics, not to ethics,” she says, de-
scribing an incident during her stint
in one of the organisations. A senior
leader has pressurised her to bypass
a few steps in the selection process
of a critical role and hire a candi-
date referred by him. This really
tested ethics because she knew that
if she did not honour his request,
he would make things difficult for
her. However, she ensured that the
process was followed in a fair and
transparent way without succumb-
ing to his pressure because she be-
lieved it is the right thing to do.
“I feel obliged to be able to posi-
tively influence and change the lives
of many people by helping them
develop and grow in their careers
and support them in realising their
dreams,” states Bhupathi.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
NIKITA ZUTSHI, VP-HR, MakeMyTrip
ENSURING THE
FUN QUOTIENT
› With incentives like uncapped leave and international reward
trips, Zutshi has ensured high motivation level at MakeMyTrip
Photograph by Freepik Delving deeper into the work culture at MakeMyTrip,
Zutshi explains, “One-on-one and group discussions
A masters in HR from Bologna Business with key people revealed that what is most important
School, Italy, Nikita Zutshi has over 17 is customer focus, excellence and innovation. Further,
years of experience in human resourc- we found that most employees found the culture to be
es. At MakeMyTrip, Zutshi is working caring, allowing experiments, a fun place to be, execu-
tion-focused and innovative. Keeping all this in mind,
on creating a sustainable and productive work culture, we are suggesting a ‘Being and Doing’ model to describe
our core values and our collective behaviours.”
managing perceptions, creating right structures, the
Elaborating about some of her significant initiatives,
right person for the right job and many more. The team Zutshi shares that she started two channels called Holi-
day Experts (HE) and Certified Travel Associate (CTA).
has also come up with initiatives like uncapped leave HE is an offering for stay-at-home women. CTA and
Certified travel associate includes retirees, students, an-
and international reward trips, yone with a love for travelling.
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 124 Beyond her KRA’s, Nikita Zutshi is also a part of
the core team of Corporate Social Responsibility. Along
with colleagues, she facilitated the launch of the ‘Be the
Change’ initiative to help offset carbon footprints.
Travel, Tourism and hospitality are the most badly
impacted sectors during the pandemic and being a trav-
el company MakeMytrip has also been largely affected.
However, all credit to Nikita Zutshi and other leaders
for the way they have kept the organisation afloat and
ensured that and its employees employees are safe, con-
nected, productive and motivated throughout.
“The company took several cost rationalisations and
restructuring measures to re-engineer the cost structure
to make it more variable or semi-variable. The good
news, however, is that with the business coming back,
we restored our team members’ salaries,” she informs.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
NIYATHI MADASU
Director-HR, Premier Energies
(Solar Energy Solutions)
CUSTODIANS Madasu. It was this perspective
OF CULTURE right from the start which always
motivated her to value the contri-
› Proud of the central role that HR plays in bution an HR professional brings to
an organisation, Madasu has contributed by the table. “To me, HR has been an
way of action plans that aid organisation’s enabling function and a custodian
growth of culture, without which even the
best articulated and debated strate-
A n alumna of SCMHRD, Pune, and holder of executive certif- gy shall fall flat,” she adds.
icate in organisation development from ISB-Hyderabad, Ni-
yathi Madasu is an expert in talent management, leadership Having joined Premier Energies,
consulting and organisation development. Madasu realised that the organisa-
tion was going through an amazing
“Over the years I had the privilege of working with some very powerful transformation moving from a pro-
moter led traditional set-up into a
managers and mentors who helped me internalise that though HR is a sup- process-driven set-up. This mission
by far was the most exciting ten-
port function, it doesn’t make us any less important to the business,” states ure for Madasu as this allowed her,
along with her team, to be respon-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 125 sible for driving a culture of perfor-
mance, trust and feedback.
Talking about the changes
brought about by Covid, Madasu
says, “Business of course hasn’t been
normal but we are on our road to
recovery. As an HR leader it is has
been my responsibility to orches-
trate this recovery by being a voice
of bold decisions and policymak-
ing and leading my organisation to
thrive in the ‘new normal’.” Some of
the key projects undertaken by the
HR team are:
1. Focus less on roles – instead
build skills that drive the
organisation, providing multiple
opportunities to employees to
promote horizontal growth.
2. Design roles that increase
agility – flexible roles that pro-
mote cross-functional training
3. Go for result-based performance
tracking that is outcome-led.
4. Create a culture of trust but
harness the power of virtual
collaboration.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
PAROMITA BHATTACHARYA HR function is
the anchor and
Head- Learning & Development, C&B and Senior custodian of
Business, HR Partner - Private Wealth, ICICI Securities culture for an
(BFSI segment) organisation along
with the senior
PRIDE IN management. It
NEW-AGE HR acts as a neutral
entity to the
employees”
› Bhattacharya believes young professionals learning initiatives and innovations
have an edge over old practices in terms of to the company’s design of the entire
nimbleness and agility learning journey for campus hires.
She has played a significant role in
A n alumna of Indian custodian of culture for an organi- introducing bite-sized learning to
School of Business sation along with the senior man- provide an independent perspective
(ISB) Hyderabad, agement. It acts as a neutral entity to both, businesses and employees
Paromita Bhattacha- to the employees,” Paromita Bhat- at large.
tacharya asserts.
rya has over 15 years’ experience in Bhattacharya takes pride in be-
As an HR leader, she along with ing part of a new age of HR prac-
BFSI segment, and has played key the company’s objective aligned titioners who have an edge over
the learning and development pro- traditional HR thinking, bringing
role in people practices in organisa- grammes to enhance employees’ in agility and nimbleness as a pro-
capabilities. She initiated various fessional. At ICICI, she has an es-
tions she has been associated with tablished track record of having
worked on HR practices involving
--both startups and market leaders. organisation design, culture and
change management that makes
“HR function is the anchor and her a holistic HR professional in the
financial services industry.
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 126
The company has ensured the
spontaneous facilities to match the
pace of accelerated digitisation. HR
leaders were there on the front to
get the operation going without any
interruption. Bhattacharya led the
virtual transition of the entire year-
end assessments & compensation
review process amidst the Covid-19
situation with equal impact and dil-
igence within the same timelines as
every year.
Spearheaded two key projects in
the organisation, where the restruc-
turing process was aimed towards
substantial profitability and cost
efficiency for the Company. Along
with modification, adaptation to
technology and expansion, she has
significantly played a key role in the
profitable execution of international
branch closure.
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40UNDER40 2020
PEYU GUPTA
Director, HR & Administration, Hughes Communication India Ltd
(Broadband Satellite Services)
STEEP LEARNING CURVE
FOR SELF & OTHERS
› Before and since Covid, Gupta brought in crucial changes in
processes, including digitisation, in her then place of work, Panasonic
W ith an experience of over 13 years Management verticals for India & other geographies like
of an HR career, Peyu Gupta has South-Asia & the Middle East. Gupta represented Pana-
grown internally in organisations sonic Globally for a 30-day programme for presenting
and reached a leadership position in HR case study theses at Stanford University in the US.
HR while working with esteemed companies like LG & At Panasonic Gupta intensively contributed to HR
strategy for Business Continuity during the financial cri-
Panasonic (at the time of the BW People ranking of 40 sis of Covid-19, ensuring no lay-offs despite being under
a huge crisis.
Under 40-2020), and now, Hughes Communication.
Gupta also played a leading role at Panasonic in in-
Gupta is full of gratitude and responsible to have han- troducing and building a robust Talent Management
System for employees’ self-learning tool called ‘Lear-
dled the responsibility of leading Business HR & Talent nado tool’ and employees in return shared the positive
feedback.
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 127
Focusing on accelerated digitisation even pre-pan-
demic, she automated end to the end recruitment pro-
cess. Looking at the manual painstaking process, Peyu
Gupta delved into it and brought a virtual employee
engagement platform to make it more fruitful and less
time-taking. She digitised the entire HR management
system in order to be more innovative and move ahead
of time in the market. She pioneered innovative safety
practices for employees during the pandemic.
HR develops and reinforces the culture of the organ-
isation by navigating through strategic function which
brings, develops & utilise the company’s biggest asset
i.e. employees to their highest potential. HR leaders also
ensure all compliances to run businesses efficiently, per-
forms budget control, attracting & retain employees at
the best cost.
Gupta firmly believes that “HR leaders play a signif-
icant role in designing organisation’s structure to trans-
late business strategy into units and linking the units to
a common goal”.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
PRADEEP K BONDA
Director, People Success
Altrusita
Photograph by Freepik OurTeam “I have been diligently involved
in building a highly engaged culture
DATA-DRIVEN that has resulted in high retention
APPROACH rates and high engagement scores,”
asserts Bonda.
› HRcanprovidebetterinputstothebusiness
in decision making and can be seen as a value Some of the key challenges HR
creator than facilitators, believes Bonda has always faced is to demonstrate
the returns on HR initiatives and to
P radeep Kumar Bonda is known for his expertise in designing delineate the intangible component
HR strategies, promoting an organisation’s effectiveness and en- of people. Partnering with business,
hancing employee engagement. Having spearheaded multiple continuous engagement with em-
change management initiatives in partnership with cross-func- ployees, leveraging technology to
gain efficiencies and a data-driven
tional teams, Kumar has also led the transformation of the human resource approach has helped the teams to
look at things from a new lens. This
function from a support function to a strategic business partner. has helped the team to go to the
business with more reliable data
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 128 and provide better inputs to the
business in decision making. This
has enabled the teams to be seen as
a value creator than facilitators.
Bonda is of the view that “As a
leader, one of the key attributes one
should possess is attention to detail.
And, sometimes to achieve it, you
have to deep-dive into operations.
Throughout my career, along with
the strategic view, I have closely
worked with every function in the
organisation, understood how work
gets done, what are the best prac-
tices each team follows and how
can they improve upon building the
next best.”
This exercise further helped him
understand the learning needs of
each function, understand the ca-
pabilities of mid-level managers,
coach leaders on how to set a direc-
tion for the teams, help them come
up with the right metrics, measure
the progress and more than any-
thing, how to provide feedback at
Altruista Health.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
PRAGNYA MOHAPATRA
Assistant Director, Human Resource, E&Y
HR BEYOND
THE BORDERS
› Mohapatra has taken EY’s culture of open communication and
trust-building to Bangladesh too
E &Y is the leader in its sector and Pragnya Mohapatra has played free ground to let employees have
a remarkable role in its expansion plan, successfully integrat- the freedom to grow and shine ac-
ing the HR processes in EY Bangladesh. Starting her career cordingly. HR is truly a custodian
in 2007, Mohapatra has worked with HCL and Vodafone, in- of the company’s culture and plays
an important role in nurturing and
volved in training and development, business HR, performance manage- keeping the culture intact at times
of crisis.
ment and recruitment.
The culture of open communi-
Mohapatra rightly points out that HR is the torchbearer of the values cation and trust-building is at the
core of E&Y. Talking more about
and purpose of the organisation. The company seems to be giving a fair and practices at the company and the
role of HR, Mohapatra says, “HR
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 130 is seen as an unbiased team where
employees can open up with trust.”
Looking forward, Mohapatra
explains the criticality of innovation
and collaboration. She has integrat-
ed the value system of EY to Bang-
ladesh while she is handling HR for
both Kolkata & Bangladesh. Many
projects and initiatives have been
taken under the guidance of Mo-
hapatra and the results are fruitful
for the company. Optimistic about
post-Covid work culture, she shares,
“New initiatives and sustainable
practices are under process to make
the company thrive in the New
Normal.”
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
RACHITA SRIVASTAVA
AVP & Regional HR Lead - North & East,
Entertainment Network India
(Regional HRBP - North & East at the
time of awards)
CONNECTING agement level for reve-
GEN X TO nue-generating and the
GEN Y creative content teams.
These interventions have
› Considering the youthful profile of the significantly addressed
organisation and the creative mix needed, Srivastava upskilling & reskilling re-
is playing a unique HR role at Mirchi quirements.
R achita real-time, which is relata- mentoring too, through Further, she has de-
Srivastava ble to our people too,” says continuous efforts at signed onboarding system
has played Srivastava. building such a culture. for the revenue-generat-
a key role ing team, to decrease time
The HR team has Srivastava has taken to productivity, shape
in developing a successful done a significant amount several remarkable ini- product and functional
of work in helping Gen X tiatives at Radio Mirchi. knowledge and help build
culture of meritocracy at managers deal with the She has amped up the impactful social connec-
expectations of Gen Y and brand presence of Radio tions for learning and
Radio Mirchi, with firm the Millenials, who make Mirchi in North & East support. Considering that
up more than 75 per cent India, and has built learn- the company does not
steps for building it. She of the workforce at Radio ing interventions aimed hire from the same indus-
Mirchi. Different gener- at developing leadership try, the gestation period
has established perfor- ations are approachable and functional compe- is on the higher side and
for coaching and reverse tencies up to mid-man- scaling up organisational
mance and ethical bench- knowledge requires far
more effort.
marks for the organisa-
In the last couple of
tion. “We communicate years, the HR team has
embarked on a journey
our commitment to the to help Mirchi transform
from a radio company to
organisational values in a music-centric enter-
tainment company. And
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 131 there lies the challenge of
evolving an HR function
that helps Mirchi win in
the marketplace.
What has changed
with the pandemic is
that the process of inte-
grating culture, fostering
new behaviour patterns,
developing new compe-
tencies has been expedit-
ed. The approach has be-
come more localised and
customised to different
workforce segments for
Entertainment Network
India.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
RAHUL BHATNAGAR
VP & Head - Human Resources, Pittie Group and IN10
Media (Diverse Businesses)
HEAD
HUNTER
INSTINCT
› Bhatnagar takes pride in his recruiting skills and feels
India is a storehouse of talent
R ahul Bhatnagar has and collaborative in nature. Lead- HR as a vital role for all businesses
close to 14 years of ership is now facing major chang- at Pittie Group & IN10 Media Net-
qualitative experi- es as the leaders are more con- work,” says Bhatnagar.
ence in recruitment. scious regarding humane values,
employees’ well-being and agility. He states that he is a strong be-
He believes India is a strong pow- The organisation is also investing liever in gender equality, and that
in training programmes for the every organisation should have
erhouse of talent and wants to col- employees. The organisation has a fair representation of women
always aimed to make employees across departments.
lectively work towards making In- the best versions of themselves. In
this context, Bhatnagar’s own con- The current pandemic has pro-
dia one of the best places to work. tribution has been “managing peo- vided numerous lessons to learn
ple, strategising HR processes and from. Bhatnagar says, “We got
Talking about his role at Pittie plans across departments, hiring introduced to a new set of chal-
strategies and aligning employees lenges. Managing employees un-
Group & IN10 Media Network he to the company’s goal.” conventionally and making deci-
sions to keep their morale high,
says, “One of the top priorities has “With the experience and ensure overall mental and physi-
knowledge of managing people cal well-being, as well as constant
always been to attract talent, which across vast cultures and industries, aligning with the business evolving
I want to contribute towards mak- objectives and situation, has been
is essential for the growth and de- ing a strong impact and redefining key.”
velopment of each business and WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
the overall group. My endeavour is
not only to attract the right talent
but to align employees towards the
company’s vision with regards to
the overall organisational culture.”
Decision-making process in the
organisation is fairly transparent
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 132
40UNDER40 2020
RAHUL JAGANNATHAN
VP-People and Culture, Design
Cafe (Home Interiors)
IMPORTANT PITSTOP VP, People and Culture,
TO BEING CEO the function was focused
mainly on processing sal-
› Jagannathan is proud to see HR’s role ary and rolling out offer
transformation from just rolling out salaries to letters. But over the past
being a key decision maker 1.5 years, I’d like to be-
lieve that we have become
A die-hard stints at large corporates aries are processed on a business-enabling func-
admirer of such as Mahindra and time? The context today tion and are playing an
Bill Camp- Reliance, Jagannathan is completely different, influential role in the or-
bell, Rahul has explored and built says Jagannathan. Today, ganisation’s growth story.
multiple functions - from we live in a world where
Jagannathan aspires to sales to HR. everything is a lot much “The thinking of peo-
more transient, and the ple here is pretty strategic
do something extraordi- The role of HR orig- pace of change has in- and is about how to help
inally was really to en- creased dramatically. the business grow sus-
nary for the startup eco- sure that the wheels keep tainably. We have done
running, ensuring that “When I began my very early investments in
system in India. Having workers are regular, sal- stint at Design Café as organisation’s develop-
ment compared to most
spent the most part of startups, which is truly
going to place the compa-
his career in the start-up ny in good stead. Further,
the management has re-
ecosystem post the brief ally thought through how
the company wants to run
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 133 performance in the or-
ganisation.”
Jagannath emphasis-
es that you are playing
the role of head of HR, it
allows you to understand
how other functions
work, it helps you build
a much broader perspec-
tive, and helps you under-
stand how to shape the
heart of an organisation.
“And let’s face it, an
organisation is about
three things — a good
quality product or ser-
vice, making the finan-
cials work and making its
people tick. So if you’re a
person who wants to be a
CEO, I really think doing
this role is a very impor-
tant pitstop.”
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
RASHMI BADGAIYAN
Manager HR Business Partner (Technology) at Automatic Data Processing, ADP
SEAT AT THE
TABLE WITH BIZ
LEADERS
› In her HR role, Badgaiyan is in a position to present the human
dimension of business decisions with the leadership
A n MBA in HR from Pune University, Expressing happiness with the supportive leader-
Rashmi Badgaiyan has been associated ship, she says, “We have a very strong team at ADP, a
with ADP for more than 10 years and team which is led by path-breaking, thought-provoking
has performed a
leadership who encourage us to
range of roles in the organisa- strive for innovative solutions
in talent management and to
tion. develop best practices to foster
inclusion and diversity at the
Badgaiyan has been at the workplace.”
forefront of ADP’s diversity in- She also has a glass-half-full
attitude about the Covid dis-
itiatives and is a core member ruption and says it has created a
huge room for innovations and
of the focused group for wom- collaborations. Unprecedented
collaboration has been observed
ens’ inclusive group iWIN. The among different departments
and teams to keep business op-
purpose of iWIN is to “engage, erations running. “The key is to
understand the need to encour-
equip and empower women” age associates to find new ways
of de-stressing and rejuvenat-
to achieve personal and profes- ing to keep up productivity and
maintain their health,” she says.
sional success to drive ADP’s Looking at the future of the HR fraternity she says
leaders must curate the balance in the work culture, to
business results through a keep pace with changing business demands, be the am-
bassadors to embrace changes and be agile and respond
strategic partnership in a gen- to changes with a collaborative mindset.
der-inclusive environment. WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
Throwing light on the chal-
lenges faced by HR leaders Bad-
gaiyan states that navigating the
business continuity along with
taking care of employees of the
organisation is a huge responsibility. Talking about her
HR role, she says, “This role gives me a seat at the table
in helping business leaders identify and address people
implications of business decisions and supporting busi-
ness strategies with relevant HR programmes.”
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 134
40UNDER40 2020
VISION TO RAVLEEN ANAND
Head of Human Resources,
ALP Group (Manufacturing)
CELEBRATE transparent performance manage-
DIVERSITY ment and employee system while
maintaining the essence of a family
› Anand is working to create a culture organisation.”
where women are visible in hitherto male-
dominated territories With 2,200 multicultural em-
ployees from five states and five
R avleen Anand joined marketing communications, and countries, ALP today is family, and
ALP as a manage- overlooks CSR and IT while being a way of life — a place where they
ment trainee 17 years the Director of 2 companies and feel self-actualised and taken care
back, progressed to founder of a Non-Profit. of. ALP now has a negligible attri-
tion rate of high performers and a
international marketing and then Looking back at her tenure till salary wage to revenue ratio of 16
now she says, “I’ve been successful per cent. And it has no union. The
joined human resources. Currently, in creating a professional, fair and structure of the company is ag-
ile and resilient, adapts swiftly to
she is heading human resources and change, and take advantage of new
opportunities and navigate threats.
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 135
Anand remembers rebranding
ALP as Align Learn and Progress
(Previously Anand Lescuyer Poly-
mers) and ensuring that this vision
runs through the veins of the organ-
isation.
ALP is focussed on learning and
development, as 20 per cent of the
individual scorecard is based on
learning & development. An organ-
isation-wide crash course in prod-
ucts and technology, high potential
employee and long-tenure employ-
ee’s growth programme, job rota-
tions, quizzes and competitions are
some of the initiatives that Anand
points out.
Women in leadership roles are
still not very common phenomenon
in the automotive industry. Empha-
sising the need for change, Anand
says, “In future, I look forward to
enhancing inclusion, diversity, gen-
der equality, respect, empowerment,
and growth opportunities for wom-
en and unrepresented sections.” To
take ALP to greater heights she has
the vision “to create a goal-orient-
ed bias in the organisation wherein
diversity is celebrated, honed and
nurtured to attain higher feats”.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
REETI DUBEY
Director HR, Natwest Group
CHOOSING OPPORTUNITIES
OVER CHALLENGES
› Dubey believes in going beyond her KRAs and doing value creation
for the organisation beyond her defined role
T he current environment brings HR at the outlook must change from a control function to an ena-
heart of business strategy as HR is required bler and problem solver. We need to build on our busi-
to build organisations that are more agile, ness, commercial acumen and focus a lot on experience.”
adaptive, diverse, and purposeful to derive
This passionate HR professional carries over 15 years
greater value. Reinforcing the fact of reimagining and of experience in HR functions, majorly in the banking
and financial Services sector. She is currently leading
reinventing the functions of HR, Reeti Dubey says, “Our HR strategy and planning for RBS’s international hubs
and also responsible for leading diversity and inclusion
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 136 at RBS India.
Talking about the unannounced challenges faced
during the recent massive outbreak; she opens up and
says, “Thinking about inclusion during 100 per cent
work from home wasn’t an easy task. However, there
were opportunities that needed us to stretch beyond our
thinking and make them happen.”
Dubey remembers going beyond her KRAs and ex-
plore the opportunities for the organisation; to collab-
orate outside of her job with the industry bodies, aca-
demia and wider community on disability inclusion and
women in technology.
She launched an initiative for HR function called
“MadeForMore”. It allowed employees to build addition-
al skills while still in their jobs. Over 70 projects were
delivered through this additional capacity created. “We
also created more value for the organisation by deliver-
ing additional work with no additional resources,” she
informs.
As D&I India lead, Dubey is proud of Natwest Group
winning prestigious awards in the inclusion space, as an
endorsement of the organisation’s inclusion agenda.
“The pace is key and the pandemic has taught us to
operate with pace. We all shouldn’t lose this even when
things go back to where they were,” she says.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
RITIKA BHANDARI, Vice President and Head - HR, Middle East, Teleperformance
LEADER IN
LEARNING MODE
› Passionate about capacity building, Bhandari is walking the talk
and strives to achieve the same for the workforce too
R itika Bhandari’s dy- is significant in
namism and quest
for self-improvement hiring right peo-
is manifested in her
ple, grooming
them and keep-
360-degree orientation of industry, ing them moti-
market trends and Government vated. Employee
regulations; the nimbleness with wellbeing and
which she handles 35 different na- career progres-
tionalities in her job role; her win- sion is managed
ning the Global HR Tech Leader in and led by HR,
World HRD Congress, 2020; and which also gives
her pursing relevant courses and us lucrative mar-
certifications (she is certified in gins.”
Green Belt Six Sigma and Fellow of There are
the Chartered Institute of Personnel tricky situa-
and Development.). tions too, which
Bhandari is passionate about Bhandari as HR
HR capability building and bridg- leader has to re-
ing skill gaps and building of mar- solve. Describ-
ket-specific workforce. This also in- ing one such
volves identify the existing potential incident, she
employees who can be trained to describes, “We
take the new challenges. trust our admin
HR is misunderstood sometimes team with the
to be carrying out only the role of inventory of of-
admin/payroll and people usually fice material.
overlook the vast depths of the HR However, once it was brought to sic-ethics. I took professional de-
cision, mindful of business impact
world. But Bhandari is proud of the notice that one admin staff had sto- and the needs to establish a robust
check for assets. In the wake of the
role of HR team in driving organi- len one of the electronic items from incident, I conducted a refresher on
code-of-conduct, and made whistle-
sations, and says, “People are the storage room. I took a lead, looked blowing policies.”
most fundamental part of an organ- deeper into cause-effect, collected WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
isation. To drive and manage the evidence, and despite resistance
most critical resource and asset, HR and influence, I followed my intrin-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 137
40UNDER40 2020
SHASHIKANT
JAYARAMAN
Vice President -
Global Human Resources,
MulticoreWare Inc
(Accelerated Software
development/
Technology)
ing & development in an
online avatar or initiative
social benefit activities,
HR has been at the fore-
front.
Jayaraman had
brought about a shift
from standardised infor-
mation practices to cus-
tomised communication
to every employee. For
a company with a high
rate of talent retention,
remote integration of new
NEEDED, GOOD talent and the commit-
ment to hire from cam-
puses during these tough
times have been oppor-
EMPLOYEE-HR RATIO tunities to adapt and rise
up.
Jayaraman sees in-
creasing issues relating to
› Jayaraman lays emphasis on HR’s role in mental mental health and gener-
wellbeing, stepping out of comfort zone in crises al wellness. This calls for
reorienting HR as em-
like Covid ployee wellness champi-
W ons. Jayaraman advocates
“maintaining a good em-
ith 19 it is necessary that they ping out of the comfort ployee to HR ratio despite
years’ have access to the right zone and doing extra;
expe- talent. With limited re- leadership at MutliCore- the influx of technology in
rience sources, the organisation Ware has proved it in
has been able to activate many ways. The demand most of the HR opera-
and access talent through for business continuity
the right channels. Jayar- especially in the pandem- tions”.
aman has put learning & ic has been enormous
in BPO, BFSI, retail, au- development at the heart from the leadership and From a larger perspec-
of the organisation’s cul- employees alike. Be it
tomobile, IT services, ture with a belief that stepping in as the nodal tive, he says, “Organisa-
individual development officer for Covid-19 safe-
ed-tech, consulting and leads to organisation de- ty or dealing with infra- tions have to be clearer on
velopment. structure readiness or
startups and having run persisting with the learn- what they want from HR
Talking about step-
a startup offering HR ser- and the HR structuring
vices for two years, Sha- has to be built from that
shikant Jayaraman brings need. Clearly, upskilling
deep insight regarding in HR is necessary to en-
HR issues to the table. able an HR practitioner
A boot-strapped start- to transcend the various
up that MulticoreWare is, functions within HR.”
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 138 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
SHIKHA DHILLON
HR Head, Decimal Technologies
(HR Head, Radio & Entertainment Business,
HT Media, at the time of awards)
A‘STTRTEEITTONUFDEEET’ mising on either.
› Be it facilitating the expansion plans of Proud of her contribution at
the organisation or framing pay rules during
Covid, Dhillon avoids closed-door decision HR Media, she narrates, “While
making the company has had a plethora of
high performing teams, the estab-
W ith over a decade performance management and lishment of seamless core processes,
of experience in merger and acquisition projects, data synergy and availability were
the HR field in Shikha Dhillon is successfully able things that took a back seat. With
the areas of tal- to handle the balancing act between monthly dashboards capturing the
being an employee champion and larger picture of each business re-
ent management, leadership devel- a business leader without compro- garding all HR functions — talent
acquisition, talent development,
opment, organisation development, employee data analytics and budg-
eting — impeccable synchronisa-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 139 tion and alignment were achieved
between the business functions
and the HR team. This completely
aligned all the HR practices to the
business objectives of each depart-
ment and quickly reflected in the
output of all the activities done in
collaboration.
“Also, the introduction of elec-
tronic record management helped
us achieve the much-needed data
security and organised hassle-free
retrieval. These were my first steps
towards making Fever FM a waste-
free, digital and lean organisation.”
Things changed at a rapid pace
when the new brand, Radio One,
was acquired. This was a stepping
stone to a sharp growth curve,
Dhillon says. None of the decisions
ever taken was concluded upon in
secluded boardrooms and a lot of
work went into understanding the
business nuances by following the
‘Street on Feet’ attitude.
Talking about the changes
brought in since Covid, she says,
“The crisis demanded every em-
ployee to stretch beyond usual both
personally and professionally. It be-
came the need of the hour for the
team to ensure that we provided all
our employees with the necessary
encouragement and empathy to get
through difficult circumstances.”
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
SHILPA KANKARIA
Site HR Leader, XPO Logistics
(Senior Manager, ADP at the time of awards)
DIGITAL STEPS TO IMPROVEMENT
› Kankaria ingrained technology in all the HR processes in the
organisation where she spent close to a decade
S hilpa Kankaria has a rich experience of 14 years in the HR kaan - A Foundation for Road Safety, and
domain, having worked in talent attraction and manage- has also worked with Tata Group, as lead
ment, capacity building, performance management, con- for talent management.
flict resolution, policies and compliance, HR digitisation
Having been associated with ADP for
and several other areas. An alumna of Management Development more than nine years, Kankaria led the ef-
forts towards identifying opportunities for
Institute (MDI), Gurugram, Kankaria started her career with Mus- digitisation across the HR lifecycle cover-
ing over 30 geographies where ADP has a
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 140 presence. Today the company has digitised
multiple processes across talent acquisi-
tion, payroll, HR shared services and span-
ning multiple geographies in Europe, Mid-
dle East and Africa (EMEA), US and Asia.
Kankaria says, “The bigger impact was
my role in shaping the culture within HR
by engaging the larger team in a continu-
ous learning process to challenge the way
HR services are delivered, adopt the mind-
set to leverage technology, and ingrain
these traits for the ADP HR team. This has
been possible due to the vision created by
the HR leaders at ADP.”
In this era of accelerated digitisation;
especially post-pandemic Kankaria elabo-
rated upon the initiative and actions taken
at ADP. She as an HR leader was a core
team member for HR and led the efforts to-
wards the application of robotics and prod-
uct enhancements to multiple processes
across global HR shared services. Some
of the solutions designed by the core team
were later extended to ADP clients as well.
Though she has moved on, Kankar-
ia expresses gratitude for having worked
at ADP, saying, “It has strong robust HR
practices, a team which is led by a vision-
ary HR leadership, and the zeal to come up
with innovative HR solutions.”
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
6th
40UNDER40 2020
SHRUTI MISHRA
Teamhead-People Connection & Attraction,
Bavaria, Germany, PUMA Group (Lead- People
& Organisation Partner-Retail, India, PUMA
Sports, at the time of the awards)
DECISION-
MAKER FROM
DAY ONE
› Mishra hires people who can
take calculated risks, innovate,
and have a sense of ownership
S tructuring and making PUMA. This has boosted the com- stakeholder and decision-maker
the process more sys- pany’s internal metrics of perfor- from day one.”
tematic has always been mance, attracted some of the best
Shruti Mishra’s point talents across the industry. Doing different gives different
results, believes Mishra and shares,
of focus. Process reengineering, The recent disruption has ac- “Introducing social recruitments
celerated the digitisation and tech- through collaborations with NGOs
restructuring & optimising the re- nological development of the com- across the country to provide a live-
panies and specifically of HR as a lihood to the marginalised sections
tail HR cost, streamlining people function. While the pandemic cost of the society has been one of the in-
thousands of jobs but it also added itiatives that I take immense pride
engagement & development pro- to the responsibilities and duties of in. Leading employer branding ini-
HR leaders. But Mishra says, “It did tiatives by engaging with campuses
grammes along with the introduc- not take a pandemic to stretch my apart from the conventional touch-
role to a decision-maker, it was from points of placements and promot-
tion of channels for socially sus- the day I joined the organisation. ing a culture of continuous learning
At PUMA, we hire people who can has been some areas where I went
tainable recruitments are some of take calculated risks, demonstrate beyond my call of duty.”
confidence and passion towards
the initiatives undertaken by her at their role and have a positive mind- Looking ahead, Mishra informs
set. We give them a level-playing that her focus is to develop a robust
At PUMA, we hire field and autonomy to chart their technical infrastructure within the
people who can careers and trust that they will work HR function, enabling it with rel-
take calculated towards the best interest of PUMA. evant data that brings sharper in-
risk, demonstrate This makes everyone here a key sights into existing processes and
confidence and people.
passion towards
their role and have WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
a positive mindset”
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 142
40UNDER40 2020 MENTORING BY
QUESTIONING
SOURYA SIDDHARTHA DASH
THOUGHT
General Manager-HR PATTERNS
Signify Innovations India Ltd
formerly Philips Lighting
› Guiding the youth is not about
helping them overcome one
problem; it’s about investing time
in stimulating conversations,
feels Dash
S ourya Siddhartha Dash has worked in what is convenient.... It is the conscience keeper of
multiple industries, including retail, au- an organisation and has to balance between employ-
tomobile, healthcare, Pharma, Power ee advocacy and organisational priority.”
and FMCD. His key contribution is man-
At Signify, he launched a programme during the
power planning & rationalisation, talent acquisition current Covid times to ensure the morale of the em-
ployees remained high. To do that, he brought the
and retention and performance management. focus on two critical elements — resilience and rec-
ognition. This was realised in the form of role mod-
Dash leads with action-oriented plans and solu- els within the organisation, employee stories, exter-
nal examples, leadership connect as well recognising
tion-inclined strategies. Furthermore, he shares and calling out champions in the organisation who
have shown resilience in tough times.
that in his tenure till now he brought down attrition
It is critical for any professional to invest in the
from 32 per cent to 19 per cent through continu- growth of others – especially young talent by groom-
ing and developing them. Talking about guiding
ous engagement and leadership development. He young professionals, Dash says, “For me, this men-
torship is not just about helping them overcome a
launched a programme called ‘Get Set Glow’, focus- difficult task or learn a new skill, I focus on ‘building
character’ and ‘thinking’, by investing time in stim-
ing on the themes of ‘newer ways of doing things,’ ulating conversations, questioning decisions and
thought patterns and providing direction wherever
‘radical collaboration’ and ‘giving back to society’ required.”
which enabled in re-stimulating the energy in the WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
organisation, which in turn is now reflected in busi-
ness picking up as well in an upswing in the employ-
ee NPS score.
Sharing his outlook about HR as a function,
Dash states, ‘HR leaders have to walk the talk and
have more courage to do what is right and not just
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 143
40UNDER40 2020
SURBHI DEWAN
HR Head, Ashiana Housing
Global
LESSONS
› Dewan puts her expertise developed at home and abroad to the
best use in all endeavours
G raduate from the University of Delhi and gy and launched a manager’s programme for behaviour
masters from Kurukshetra University, change and organisation performance.
Surbhi Dewan did her further educa-
tion in human resources from the New Pros & Cons
Happy to be in the profession of her choice, she says
York University. She feels blessed to have been taught it’s ever changing and impactful, especially in enabling
career progression of employees. It’s also inclusive and
by management gurus like Jim Collins and Verne Har- promotes diversity. And it has the ability to change the
future of the company.
nish. She has played meaningful roles in organisations
At the same time, she admits that the function be-
like hCentive, Delhivery and Fleishman-Hillard. For a comes too administrative and lacks vision and strategic
insight, and also that it’s often not aligned with the busi-
brief while, in 2017-18, she also ran her own show, at ness. HR team often gets stuck in protocols and process-
es and that could lead to red tape.
HRbizVisory. She has worked in areas like talent attrac-
She is data driven and goal-oriented, and in tricky
tion and retention, employee engagement initiatives, situations, knows how to remain calm and work with a
humane and pragmatic touch.
benchmarking surveys, preparing organisation policies,
communication strategies, preparing of employee hand-
books, performance management and culture building.
At Ashiana Housing, she has implemented a com-
prehensive 12-step hiring and interviewing methodolo-
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 144 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
VENUS SOUNDARYARAJAN
Corporate Human Resources, BOB
Financial Solutions
OPPORTUNITY
TO REIMAGINE HR
FUNCTION
› Soundaryarajan has seen tremendous expansion in the scope of
work for HR, to a large extent brought about by the pandemic
B eing awarded as one 40 under 40 event winner, Venus The pandemic was not
Soundaryarajan expresses her happiness by stating
that “I have been instrumental in making a perfor- part of anyone’s KRA
mance-centric organisation through a well synched
and it brought in a huge
PMS and transforming employee experience in the organisations
opportunity for all of us
via mapping employee journeys.” She has been focused on the dig-
to relook at the way we
itisation of HR interactions and focus on the health and wellness
function”
of the employees.
in a huge opportunity for all of us to relook at
The recent acceleration of digitisation is demanding the next the way we function,” Soundaryarajan says,
and elaborates that with remote working man-
leap HR should take to bring function to the next level. More digi- dated, HR had a critical role in enabling the
organisation to work effectively on remote
tal HR enablers and transformation of the employee experience at working platforms through various awareness
and sensitisation interventions. Addressing
all stages of an employee lifecycle is where the future lies. employees’ concerns became one of the top-
most priorities during pandemic. HR had to
“The pandemic was not part of anyone’s KRA and it brought resolve concerns in a timely manner to avoid
any snowballing in the uncertain times.
During the pandemic, the HR function also
saw complete revamp. AI & machine learning
are the two big areas that enable companies to
make data-centric decisions for business and
bring in efficiency through automation in the
function of Human Resources. HR leaders on
the large scale are thinking about reimagining
the various functions and operations of the
organisation as everything went under total
transformation recently.
For the myriad opportunities at the BOB,
Soundrayarajan conveys gratitude to her lead-
er, saying, “Under the guidance of Ravi Khan-
na (Head-Human Resources), I have come
a long way in the transformation journey of
learning and development specialist to the HR
professional.”
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 145 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
VINAYAK GUPTA
Head, Training and Placement Cell,
JECRC University, Jaipur
THE UNIVERSITY
CONNECT
› Gupta believes there can be more intense collaboration between
industry and academia for higher goals
I n academia there are a lot of areas where the
leaders can give more output given the efforts
and investment going in. With over 10 years of
experience and investing a long span of time
with JECRC University, Vinayak Gupta is a strong advo-
cate for putting in hard work to achieve higher goals and
a stronger bond between academia and Industry.
Leading the placements, he has experience of nur-
turing and skilling students of JECRC for the past many
years. Gupta looks forward to structuring his thoughts
and maintaining a positive approach amidst new initi-
atives.
Focussed on getting the right employment for the
right person, Gupta initiated a drive to this effect. As a
result, placement officers of the university achieved the
high placement offers and grabbed more than 1,935 of-
fers for the university students. Gupta has intensively
worked on ‘employability skills’ and that helped many
students to become industry-ready.
Looking towards the recent disruption he shares that
it was a difficult yet learning experience for students,
teachers and other functionaries of the university. Mov-
ing forward in the new normal, being agile and resilient change and will include the higher focus on humane val-
ues to survive in challenges.
will be the key. The parameters of employability will
HR as a function plays a crucial role in bridging the
They (HR) have the skills company’s line with its knowledge. The department has
and expertise necessary to leaders who have the skills and values to understand oth-
negotiate group benefits ers and care for them. Speaking on the same lines Gupta
packages for employees within Asserts, “HR functions are important to the organisation
the organisation’s budget because they have the skills and expertise necessary to
and consistent with economic negotiate group benefits packages for employees within
conditions” the organisation’s budget and consistent with economic
conditions.”
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 146 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
40UNDER40 2020
VIVEK THUKRAL
Senior Director and Global Head of TA, Pega
(Senior Director, ADP, at the time of awards)
QUALITY
OVER
QUANTITY
› A business-oriented HR leader,
Thukral has ensured tremendous
cost savings for the organisation
V ivek Thukral has close to 16 years of work HR plays a strategic role and
experience in HR, especially talent acqui- is the key link and propeller
sition. Prior to joining Pega, he was asso- of most initiatives due to the
ciated with ADP. expertise that it brings to the
table”
Truly focused on improving and driving a more efficient
due to reduction in cost per hire & efficiency gains in the
talent acquisition process at ADP, he conceptualised and process. Thukral focused on engagement of employees
at various levels and he claimed to have the highest (90
started implementing the overall talent strategy at ADP. %+) engagement & retention consistently for multiple
years at ADP.
Vivek Thukral emphasises the ‘quality over quantity’ and
Elaborating and understanding the importance of
says, “I championed the quality of hire vs. quantity of HR; he mentioned, “HR plays a strategic role and is the
key link and propeller of most initiatives due to the ex-
team members and revamped the hiring strategy with- pertise that it brings to the table.”
out any negative impact to the overall cost.” WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
He also created ‘client-centric model’ at ADP, over-
saw hires across two countries, India & Philippines and
onboarded 1,300 for niche technology roles.
Balancing the HR role as a niche operation role he
created a commendable equation and was able to con-
sistently contribute to company’s business growth.
Thukral as a business-oriented HR leader has played
a significant role and saved over 1 million dollars yearly
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 147
40UNDER40 2020
YOGJA SINGH
Associate Director - Human Resources,
KPMG (Audit, tax and advisory services)
EXPERT IN CAMPUS RELATIONS
› Through her painstaking efforts into campus recruitment
strategy, Singh has made her organisation a sought after place for
job-seekers
D rawing from her experience of over 13 years in various and delivering an exceptional candidate &
HR functions, Yogja Singh is contributing to KPMG hiring manager experience. The effort has
in several ways, like building a world class campus enhanced KPMG’s brand attractiveness
relations programme, campus recruitment strategy, ranking, positioning it as an ‘employer of
choice.’
providing insight into annual budgeting & strategic planning pro-
The candidate experience that she de-
cesses, and developing an annual business plan, KPIs & monitor per- livered is not just limited to recruitment
and on-boarding but also covers career
formance against goals. enablement and development of resources
during pre-boarding and after on-board-
As an HR leader, Yogja Singh has created a difference by think- ing.
ing beyond existing organisational boundaries, designed and im- Going beyond her KRAs and curating
out-of-the-box plans resulted in remark-
plemented a lucrative talent attraction proposition. She revived the able transformations. She assisted with
building a charter for the ‘Future of Work’
campus relations programme with a differentiated ‘go to campus’ ap- at KPMG in India to help build a more ag-
ile and resilient organisation that provides
proach focusing on providing widened and priority access to talent personalised candidate and employee ex-
perience. She is currently exploring how
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 148 emotional intelligence can be embedded
in the existing and new processes for this
purpose.
Singh believes, “HR function has the
capability to enable extensive transforma-
tion and convert the potential of the firm’s
workforce into financial performance and
market value.”
The pandemic has turned the spotlight
on HR and business is increasingly looking
up to its HR function. Singh pioneered
symbiotic relationships between academ-
ia, business, and the capability team and
positioned KPMG as a strategic business,
thought leadership, and skill development
partner and further enhanced KPMG’s val-
ue proposition.
WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
Celebrating the Trust Builder & Change Makers #BWFinance40under40
FINANCE
Presented by
In Association With Nomination Deadline:
May 10, 2022
MAY, 2022 NOMINATE NOW
BW CFO WORLD PRESENTS FINANCE 40 UNDER 40 – IN ASSOCIATION WITH BW
BUSINESSWORLD. IT’S A HUNT FOR THE 40 MINDS IN THE COUNTRY WHO HAVE
THE DRIVE AND COMMITMENT TO BRING ABOUT AN ECONOMIC CHANGE IN THEIR
ORGANISATION AND THE INDUSTRY.
JURY JURY
CHAIR MEMBER
Sethurathnam Ravi Subodh Gupta Nitin Parekh
Director Finance CFO
Chairman Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. Zydus Lifesciences Limited
TFCI, Former Chairman
Bombay Stock Exchange (BHEL)
Vivek Anand MP Vijay Kumar Sonam Donkar Dr. Annurag Batra Noor F Warsia Madhumita
CFO CFO CFO -Aluminium Chakraborty
DLF Limited Sify Technologies Vedanta Ltd. Chairman & Editor-in-Chief Group Editorial Director
BW Businessworld & BW Businessworld Associate Editor
BW Businessworld
Founder, exchange4media
For Nomination Ashish Kumar | [email protected] | +91 97179 22747
Inquiries: Khabirul Islam | [email protected] | +91 98186 05549
Talees Rizvi | [email protected] | +91 93106 34007
For Sponsorship: Sajjad Mohmmad | [email protected] | +91 99118 55935
Ashish Kumar | [email protected] | +91 97179 22747
For Speaking Urvi Shrivastav | [email protected] | +91 98110 53212
Opportunity:
For Editorial:
SPOTLIGHT
SAP Labs Shows
the Way for
Hybrid Offices
› It champions a flexible and inclusive work environment and
reduced carbon footprint through its location-free work ethos and
creative office-space design in its buildings
By Sugandh Bahl
BW PEOPLE JUNE 2022 150 WWW.BWPEOPLE.COM
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