HR Leaders Confronted A New Code Of ‘Vulnerable Leaders’

The New Normal has introduced innovative ways to manage and execute work, this lockdown has blurred boundaries between work and home. Being captive in homes and maintaining the physical distancing made us more stressed and overwhelmed. While stressing the importance of keeping the employees mentally healthy and sane; Badgaiyan mentioned that “The key is to understand the need to encourage Associates to find new ways of de-stressing and rejuvenating to keep up productivity and maintain their health.”

Recent disruption has created a huge room for innovations and collaborations as the conventional ways of working are redundant and least effective during the recent outbreak. Rashmi shared that unprecedented collaboration has been observed among different departments, teams to keep business operations running. The recent unannounced situation demands leaders to redefine criteria to evaluate individual performance success and give equal weightage to team focus areas versus individual success/time and effort spent helping a colleague succeed in their goals versus one’s accomplishments. 

At ADP, they strongly believe in the power of diversity and that highly engaged diverse associates are the foundation for building a better company — and a better world. Rashmi Badgaiyan adding on the same lines shared that she has been a core member of the focused group for Womens’ inclusive group iWIN. The purpose at iWIN Medha is to “Engage, Equip and Empower women” to achieve personal and professional success to drive ADP’s Business Results through a strategic partnership in a gender-inclusive environment to enhance a stimulating career. She played a significant role as Communication Lead to introspect shortcomings and enhance our offerings to drive important interventions & promote gender diversity in critical / leadership roles at ADP.

Throwing more light on the challenges faced by HR leaders she stated that navigating the business continuity along with taking care of employees of the organization is a huge responsibility and task to do. Rashmi claimed the role of HRBP as completely another side of the HR world which taught her to identify, develop, motivate, engage and retain performing Associates in a competitive business. Badgaiyan added that “this role gives me a seat at the table in helping business leaders identify & address people implications of business decisions & supporting business strategies with relevant HR programs needed to provide competitive advantage & bringing diversity, inclusion and engagement for business success.”

At ADP, they strongly believe in continuous growth with innovation towards success. “We have a very strong team at ADP, a team which is led by path-breaking, thought-provoking leadership who encourage us to strive for innovative solutions in space of Talent Management and to develop best practices to foster Inclusion and Diversity at the workplace”, says Badgaiyan.

Looking at the future of the HR fraternity she optimistically emphasized that Leaders must curate the balance in the work culture - to keep pace with changing business demands; be the Ambassadors to embrace changes and be agile and respond to changes with a collaborative mindset.