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

I was working as a principal at a very young age when I was in my early Twenties. As I achieved success in a very early age, I realised that there was a shortage of certain specialist and consultants in our country because at that time, many IB ,ICSE , schools were just about to open. So everytime there were a lot of apprehensions and doubts coming up so I thought there must be a consultancy which can cater to all the doubts. Owners are not educationalist, they have to select principals and directors so there should be a consultancy which can take over and do the entire process. That is how my company Eduwizer Pvt Ltd. came into existence.
After working as a principal, I was appointed as educationalist in a reputed school and then I started with my own consultancy. Once I started, I needed to expand my organisation, so I converted it to a Private Limited Company to take it Global.

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?

Of course, it is a very big thing and an ultimate role of an HR person. In corporate and education sectors, there has to be some activities like Yoga or singing as one cannot work at 8 hours stretch, there has be some kind of recreational activity. In my corporate sector, I haven’t taken much activities because I don’t interfere with its HR functioning. However, in the education fraternity, especially we must let the teachers do any kind of recreation activity like dance, music or yoga apart for just keeping this for students because teachers are working 6 to 7 hours in a school, so they also need some destressing hence we need to inculcate this in all schools. Earlier it used to be ‘Co-Curricular Activities’ but nowdays it is said to be ‘Curricular Activities’ for being a part of the curriculum and we are not considering them as an ‘Extra Curricular Activities’ as it should be a part of it. Many schools have made it a compulsion to take up at least two activities. All the upcoming and emerging schools have sports as their mainstream subject amongst others like History, Geography, Maths, etc.

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 have a dedicated team of sports fraternity who set up sports activities in school and I look after the whole thing. As sports have made mandatory in regular schooling activities, we are setting up and insisting on that.

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

Of course it will definitely help in in multifold returns if you are investing in your employees.

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?

Whenever our organisation recruits a Principal or anyone to the Senior Management, we provide free education to their children and also we see to it that they are covered medically and insured with benefits. While taking their interview, at that time we tell the owners to look after the education of their children because if s/he is serving your school then his/her child should definitely get free education.

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

It is always the environment which gives you a quality output so there has to be a very good work environment so that employees do not quit the job and at the same time the salaries they get should be genuine enough. These are the two things very strongly I want to propagate because this is where the employees are getting exploited in India nowadays. The job environment is not good and the amount of work which people are doing, many a times they aren’t paid that much.

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

I am a Kathak dancer and due to this I am very much interested in Dancing. Right from the college days to when I became a Principal, I was a part of the cultural committee. Even now whenever I get to set up a school I always make sure that MADS is also equally covered in it. Dancing builds confidence as being a counsellor, I have seen low self confidence in many children, so I convince their parents to make them learn Singing or Dancing which lets one develop a lot of self-confidence and many related problems gets disappeared when one gets enrolled in curricular activities. This helps in the overall development of a child which makes him/her perform well academically also. These activities make children ooze out their extra buoyant energy which makes them much more enthusiastic and boosts their personality and this is why we strongly propagate all this.

Any other thoughts you may want to share.

This is the generation where globalization has taken place. Nowdays education is not India, Dubai or Canada Centred, it is all intra-country, and this is why we say it as the globalization of education. We require inculcation of MADS activities more because it helps in children’s overall development and even if a child is academically poor then these activities will help him/her enhance his/her academical records. We are insisting every school to not to label these important activities as ‘Co- Curricular’ because then it defines them as optional subjects, like how in my school days we were told that these are not mandatory subjects. But now we are propagating to make it ‘Curricular’, a part of the curriculum. One has to compulsorily choose a Sport, Singing genre, a Dance form or any one thing.