"HR Professionals Need To Become Change Champions"

Meha Mathur Jan 29, 2024

I got interested in HR started while I was in school. My teachers influenced me to believe that I can make an impact on other’s professional lives through learning & development. That sowed the seeds for my HR career. During my engineering education, I was actively involved in events that included administrative/management work, communication, coordination, organisation and working with multiple teams. I successfully switched my career path as a technology graduate to an HR professional. Specialising in learning & development track for the first few years in HR, I created training content, facilitated learning sessions on behavioural & leadership skills, consulted with businesses for learning interventions and led the training operations team. Thereafter, I transitioned to HR Business Partner role, successfully supporting multiple business units in driving their talent & engagement strategy. Eventually, I evolved to a HR generalist role.

Vision

My vision for HR is to act as strategic partners for business in driving its goals & objectives, through the talent/people strategy, having a big picture in mind. It is essential that HR aligns with the organisational direction/strategy and works together with business, by being actively involved in key decision-making conversations. HR has a key stake in influencing the workplace culture, engagement, and communication in the organisation.

HR needs to play a pivotal role in coaching, guiding, and mentoring the leadership/managers, so that they can focus on talent attraction, engagement, development, and retention. Championing the role of change agents, HR needs to transform culture, grooming people managers as role models, delivering excellence and success through their high performing teams.

With the whole landscape of ‘work’ undergoing major tectonic shift since the pandemic, HR professionals need to accept & adapt to the new normal, become change champions to drive organisational change from the driver’s seat.

Path-breaking initiatives

The HR team has been successful in setting up the entire organisation from scratch in the middle of a pandemic. The team was instrumental in establishing the brand in a new country outside of US, in conducting all HR processes virtually/remotely, in enabling the organisation to grow in headcount very aggressively and in ensuring a successful return to office for all colleagues.

Weekly pulse checks, employee committees, development programmes for women & managers, return to office engagement, activities focused on employee wellbeing are some of the innovative initiatives the team has taken, which has led the organisation to achieve Great Places To Work certification, for two years in a row.