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

I initially wanted to be in the finance function. I never planned to become an HR professional. I did my summer internship at Bank of Baroda in their finance department. Once I finished it and joined back college, I felt that this was not what I wanted to do in the future as I was not giving my best.  My director advised me that my skills were suited for a role of an HR professional where my ability to understand numbers and business faster would make a better impact. I could empathize with people well and these were both sides of the coin I could bring to the table.  I am thankful for him that he encouraged me to choose this field. I luckily got placed in a great organisation and that’s how my journey started.

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 line manager plays the most important role in engaging the employee and to develop each one to perform in the optimum level. As an HR manager, how do you equip these managers is what matters. Mostly the sales/ branch managers are only focused on the sales’ results. To help branch managers to also focus on people and drive results through engaging them will be the critical differentiator that an HR manager can bring. For example, giving the line managers the necessary tools for engagement and to design the right practises as per the culture of the organisation, etc will be the key contributions that the HR Manager can make.

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

Recently we reached out to all our employees across India and asked them to showcase their talents in MADS. We had 40% of our employees participating in this and it was  overwhelming. To decide the winners, we conducted online voting through Instagram. Not only the people from within organisation voted but even the outsiders got the chance to choose their favourite. Due to this our employees felt recognised for not just their work but them as a complete person. In my previous organisation, we used to have a ‘Time Out’ activity on one Friday of every quarter where everybody used to zone out of their work and indulge into some music, live performances from outside and in-house performances as well. Allowing everybody to shake their head and move to the music.
 

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

We always thought that there has to be some initiatives particularly of music, arts or dance that should run through the year. With engaged people, you have more healthier workforce. Competitions drives people to do more. They carry that impact into the office and that gets them to deliver better outcomes.

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?

We do find initiatives where we can request our employees to invite their family members to attend such events. It feels nice to have families interact and get familiar with the organisation. It’s a carnival kind of vibe and families enjoy a lot. It gets them connected to the organisation and gives everyone an immense sense of pride.

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

Reaching out to employees and asking them how they want the work-life balance to work for them. You can’t have one rule regarding work hours / days for all employees and policies that treat all employees the same will not work. Work life balance shouldn’t have a single definition for every employee. It has to be lot more personal and hence I want to bring more personalisation towards it.

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

I am good at sports but not in any of Music, Art or Dancing activities.  Sports is my way of engaging. I lead a corporate cricket and football team in my organisation. I bring more people and encourage them to play in corporate tournaments. I think there is a lot of scope for sports in city like Mumbai. I also promote Music, Art or Dance activities in the organisation. If someone has completed a long tenure in the company, we do provide them sponsorship to train in MADS activities.

Any other thoughts you may want to share.

The sooner the organisation realises the potential of Employee Engagement activities through MADS, the better work force will become in terms of outcomes and results. We would see a lot more initiative in this space in coming years for the employees.