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

During my MBA, I was working on employee training project with ACC Limited Company. The entire process involved jotting down on the training need analysis through various interactions/surveys , planning the training calendar, executing 10 days training workshop which created a strong bond with employees and at the same time gave me the satisfaction looking at their confident faces that they were becoming the better version of themselves day by day.

The complete transformation in employees by the simple HR initiative helped me realise that HR has a strong influential role to play in an organization & somewhere found my inclination towards the profession. I believed I can be a better contributor in HR world and that is when I decided to take this up in my career.
 

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?

Yes, to a large extent. 
For eg, organization can plan health and wellness programs as an engagement activity for employees (Especially Sales Employees ) who are consistently under pressure of achieving targets to help them manage stress and ways out to deal with the same.

Such initiatives have greater impact on the lives of employees, not only employees but their families as well if the support is extended.
 

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

Out of all, sports teaches you to become a good leader, a good mentor, team player and to have sportsman spirit.

I support sports to a large extent & encourage maximum participation in playing tournaments and cricket matches with different entities in the same group.

The other added advantage to what mentioned above is you get to know others, their skill sets and helps networking.
 

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

Yes, investments in employee engagement activities have astonishing ROIs.
You get a direct connect with the employees who are assets to your business. Understanding your internal stake holders first before customers and providing them the culture and work environment for them to enjoy their work with passion should be the top priority for any HR professional.

This helps employees to feel valued and they outperform. They are positive and wish to have long term association with employer giving best results.
 

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?

Employees have unswerving connection with their family and have a strong emotional attachment. So, caring for their family members is directly proportional to caring for employees and who would not like to work for such organization who not only cares for the employees but also the same is extended towards their family.

One such HR initiative that I appreciate is to extend the appreciation to the family members as well of all the star performers by meeting them personally by the senior managers with an intention to share gratitude with their family members that their son/daughter are doing so well at work and are proud to have them as a part of company and would be looking forward to have them in long term.
 

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

I strongly believe in “Practice before Preach” 

The one change that I would like to bring in the HR practice is to encourage all the people, managers first to themselves follow on work life balance eg- to focus on productive working hours, encourage mid working breaks, support flexible working and not promote late working after office hours. 
This helps in creating the trust amongst the team, value their manager, and give ownership to the employees to manage the work on time as per their own way.

At the end followers will follow their leader first.

This can help in building a strong team and retaining your best employees.
 

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

I have a special interest in classical dancing specifically in Bharatnatyam. I have dedicatedly given 6 years to learn and become a professional classical dancer, apart from what I do in my profession.

I think it’s important to give time to yourself to get self-awareness and take out time even in busy schedule to do what you like.