At what point in your life did you decide to take up HR as your career? What were the guiding / motivating factors?

After 15 years of working with various organisations, industries and at various roles I finally got my calling. I was trained to be a finance person.  It was my desire for some time to move to HR and when an opportunity came my way which did not need me to sacrifice anything professionally, I took it up with open arms. The motivating factor was to work with people and to solve their problems.  I like the blend of operational elements and softer elements of understanding needs, wants and compulsions of people in HR. Trust that is what attracts me.

HR is one practice that touches human lives directly. Do you think employers and specially HR Professional can play role in reducing stress levels of employees through various employee engagement initiatives?

The primary role of an HR professional is to ensure that people enjoy their work and this needs to happen at different levels. This can only happen if we engage with employees at the deepest level. And when we engage at the deepest level stress levels come down

What are some of the most important employee engagement initiatives related to Music, Art, Dance or Sports that you have taken in your career?

I am relatively new in my current position. 
In my earlier roles I have actively designed and run sports competition amongst our employees – cricket, football, carom etc. 
We have used quarterly Town halls where we urged and encouraged employees to showcase their talents. 
During Annual Days, there were months of practice by employees for various cultural programs coordinated by the HR department.

Do you think time and cost for employee engagements are an investment for the organisation and can help in multi-fold returns?

The return on investment on employee engagement activities is very high. But this cannot be only activity driven. The intent and strategy to engage with people has to be imbibed as a culture. The sense of belonging, camaraderie, pride are long term impacts of engaging with people successfully

Do you feel there is a need even to reach out to the family of employees so that they get better connected to the company? Have you undertaken any such initiative in your past or current organization?

Reaching out to families of employees help to a large extent. Initiatives like thanking spouses when employees have spent personal time completing official assignments was one activity which gave us great returns. Observing a family day and calling parents/ spouse/ children over created a deeper connect and it in fact helped us reduce attrition. Making families’ part of annual day functions or calling them when their family members get rewarded are great ways to connect with employees

What is the one change that you would like to bring in HR practice that has potential to boost employees work-life balance?

Ensuring that employees are enjoying what they are doing has a direct correlation with work life balance. When work becomes a drudgery work life balance gets impacted. Thus improving processes basis continuous feedback from employees ( hearing their voice), job rotations, learning opportunities all have their place in creating and retaining the enjoyment. When there are assignments which involve huge time commitments from employees we need to create stress busting atmosphere at work. I would like to do all of the above to ensure work life balance of employees

What are your personal interests in Music, Art, Dance or Sports and how do you continue to pursue it?

My morning commute to work is set aside for listening to music exclusively. I make it a point to attend musical events regularly.
 In my weekends I dabble in some art form. My current passion is glass and tile mosaic. 
I do not indulge in sports apart from watching it. However, I am a Yoga enthusiast and have been practising it for many years now. If I have time, I also like to swim.