In Conversation Sriharsha Achar, CHRO, Star Health And Allied Insurance
With your 38 years of HR leadership across diverse industries, could you share an example of a significant HR challenge you have faced and how you successfully addressed it?
Asking 250 people to leave in a span of 4 weeks in 2001 after the 9/11 incident has perhaps been my toughest challenges so far in life.
We decided to make the exits as empathetic as possible. Every single individual was spoken to and explained why this decision was being taken and what we have in store on their severance, outplacement plan and medical insurance coverage until they found a new job. We helped with outplacement after talking to other BPOs in the city and in a matter of weeks all the 250 people had found something for themselves and continued their career elsewhere.
The beautiful part of this whole exercise was that even today a majority of the then affected folks are still in touch and all of them have done well for themselves over the last 20 years or so. The lesson I learnt then was people do not remember titles, designations or positions. They remember how you treated them – with respect, dignity and graciousness.
Each one of us faces personal and professional trials at some point in life.
That is the time when you make a choice of either learning from your own mistakes or blame it on the situations.
With age and experience, I use the 12-fold path for myself:
1. Right speech - communication
2. Right action - deeds
3. Right livelihood - source of revenue
4. Right effort - energy
5. Right mindfulness - awareness
6. Right concentration - focus
7. Right perception - insight
8. Right attitude - approach
9. Right intent - resolve
10. Right conduct – demeanour
11. Right state of mind – emotional state
12. Right level of passion - Detachment / attachment
You have held senior HR positions in various sectors, including health insurance and healthcare. How has your experience in these domains shaped your approach to developing HR strategies and frameworks that support business goals in these fields?
I was born in Goa, educated in Goa and also started my career there. Goa is where my zest for life comes from. Education and Telecom were my industries there.
My career took me to Lucknow. That is where I polished my skill of interacting with people.
I have lived and worked in Bangalore for a long time. That is where I honed my management skills. IT/ITES / Pharma industry exposure was acquired here.
I have also lived in the North, in Gurgaon. The last seventeen years in NCR have been interesting as well. Insurance exposure happened here and above all organization building exposure is what I am enriching myself with currently – not just people.
I spent a good one year in Hyderabad – where I was exposed to the Healthcare ecosystem in Apollo Hospitals.
Over the last four years, I operate out of Chennai and try to be with the family in Gurgaon whenever I am able to get a few days off.
Having lived in the Philippines, US and Dubai and travelled to various other parts of the world, mainly for work, I have added additional perspectives, flavours and exposure to professional life as well personal life.
To my mind, all HR professionals, who are successful in their respective domains / fields/ careers, are the ones who have not only surmounted the organizational challenges and stakeholders’s expectations, but have gone beyond. Gone that extra mile, thought out of the box consistently to make a difference to the human side of the business.
Even today, I wake up, each morning, as if it is my first day at office and look forward to a new learning.
This discipline is perhaps the reason for my success as a son, a husband, a father, a friend, a neighbour, a professional and above all a human being.
Talent management is a key aspect of your expertise. Can you elaborate on your approach to building and strengthening a unique organizational culture that promotes high performance, execution, and continuous improvement?
Whether you have been provided with new clay or old clay - the architecture is the same in a new business or a well-established one.
In both places, you have a playground and you need to make your mark with your team. Strategies, process, plans and speed of execution might differ but the result of creating a high-performance team is same.
The only difference perhaps - in a setting up from scratch environment you start alone and build a team. In a well-established organization, the team is present before you.
Vision is something you imagine and with today’s dynamism, vision is injected in employees, customers, shareholders, vendors, and candidates for employment and that creates a shared meaning about what your organization wants to become in future.
As a HR professional, converting that common vision into reality is what we should collectively be doing.
Many people think that building a high-performance culture is HR’s toil.
For me, each manager should acts as a HR manager and contribute equally in attracting, developing, nurturing, engaging and motivating their taskforce.
That is when a company will be a called a leader, futuristic, progressive and a great company to work for.
I constantly strive to make employee friendly policies, lead through motivation of others (whether subordinates, colleagues, seniors or project team members) towards the achievement of shared goals not only through the application of formal authority but also by personal role-modelling a collaborative approach, the establishment of professional credibility, and the creation of reciprocal trust.
Given your impressive academic background, including a PhD in Human Resources Management, could you discuss how your academic pursuits have contributed to your practical HR leadership in different organizations?
Although I am a qualified engineer, machines and technology did not interest me too much.
I started my career in Training and that is probably what brought me closer to people.
HR has become a passion for me – I want to make a difference in people’s lives and I continue to look for opportunities to do so.
HRD is a way of life as far as I am concerned. My humane approach to life – both at a professional and personal level and relationship management skills have made me the person I am today.
I have not been to B – School actually. I am a hard-core technical school product. An Electronics Engineer by qualification with a PG in Industrial Engineering.
I have acquired a string of Diplomas; however, all of them have been while on the job.
While my Engineering school taught me the science behind everything, I believe the organizations I have worked for have actually taught me the art of applying the science.
For me HR is application of human sciences in an artistic way.
You've received numerous awards and citations for your contributions to HR. Can you share one achievement or initiative that you're particularly proud of, and how it positively impacted the organization you were associated with?
I have held many senior positions in various companies. More than me being recognized, I am happy when the organization is recognized for HR practices.
Under my HR leadership, Apollo Munich Health Insurance Company Limited featured in the India’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work for List, by Great Place to Work (GPTW), 9 years in succession, from 2011 until 2019.
That by far has been one achievement that I am very proud of.
Consistency was one aspect and every year the ranking was better was the other aspect.
People remember the great culture and tone we had set at Apollo Munich even today and talk about it in other organizations where they have all now gone. That is a very satisfying feeling.
As a seasoned HR leader, what is your philosophy on succession planning? How do you ensure that organizations you have worked with are well prepared for leadership transitions?
The philosophy is very simple
The process defined must be followed in letter and spirit to ensure success of any HR initiative. That’s the key.
My sample process
All CXO functions and their DRs, along with Corporate Human Resources team will be required to identify potential successors and talent within their teams by the month of June. These employees will be put on a fast track learning and growth path to help develop their potential in time for assuming leadership roles as they become available.
This will be done in June month of every year and will expand till all roles in the Senior management up to the level of Vice President have potential successors identified.
In June of each year, the CEO will meet with all departmental Heads.
At that meeting, each manager will:
Follow the process and Succession planning becomes a cakewalk.
In your current role at Star Health and Allied Insurance Company, what unique HR challenges and opportunities have you encountered in the insurance and healthcare sectors, and how have you addressed them?
The insurance industry is sitting on massive growth potential.
As the industry is preparing for this phase of growth, insurance companies have to prepare for major transformation—in the kind of employees, the size of the workforce, the volumes the industry operates with, the way insurance companies are structured, and the scale of growth, among other things.
HR leaders will be tasked with building a workforce that is skilled for the new ways of working in the insurance industry. Implementing a transformation of this scale is a massive task. Strategizing the process, securing approvals from the leadership, and finalizing the HR tech product vendor is but a small part of the process.
Ensuring that every employee in the organization uses the tech tools is the real challenge.
We have picked three KPIs for HR
Capacity building - Developing and strengthening the skills, instincts, abilities, processes and resources that organizations and communities need to survive, adapt, and thrive in a fast-changing world.
Capability building – Developing a scalable plan for how an organisation can identify, develop and nurture the capabilities critical to business success.
Culture building – Developing a plan to promote the values, beliefs, and actions in an organization.
In addition, a massive focus on leveraging IT for all HR processes is the other weapon in our arsenal that we are using to make sure Hi Tech and Hi Touch HR is delivered consistently across the organization
You advise educational institutes on student education and wellness matters. How do you see the role of HR in supporting the well-being and development of the workforce and students, and what advice do you often provide to educational institutions in this regard?
In my research during the thesis of my PhDs, I have come across five things that are common across countries, cultures, organizations and generations - when it comes to employees – Trust, Respect, Flexibility, Empowerment and Compassion.
As work demands more and more of employees, employees are demanding more and more from their companies. Specifically, holistic workforce wellness programs and mental health support.
Wellness programs that support the 8 dimensions of wellness have the highest chance of successfully helping employees heal and grow.
Occupational, Physical, Emotional, Social, Intellectual, Spiritual/Purpose, Financial and Environmental - All of these aspects make up a person's multidimensional wellbeing.
My guidance to all budding HR students and practitioners is to use the two very sparingly used senses – common sense and human sense when deploying any HR programs including wellness.
As a seasoned HR leader, what do you consider the most significant development or trend in the HR space in 2023, and how have you or your organization adapted to leverage this development for HR strategy and practices?
As the waves of the COVID subside and economic growth returns this will renew consumer confidence, which in turn will stimulate recovery and expansion initiatives.
All of this will lead to businesses increasing headcount.
So, the Hiring Havoc will continue.
Employee Experience will be centre stage
Skill gap bridging through Upskilling, Cross skilling will gain traction
Back to office mantra – provided Covid does not raise its ugly head again
HR will continue to face an unprecedented amount of disruption.
Use of Hi Tech and Hi Touch HR is the only way to adapt to and leverage the disruption
Looking ahead to 2024, what trends or changes do you anticipate in the HR field that will significantly impact how HR leaders approach their roles and responsibilities, and how do you plan to stay ahead of these trends to remain effective in your CHRO role?
In my view the top 5 HR priorities for 2024 are:
I never dreamt that my work would give me the chance to travel so far and wide , both nationally and internationally; expose me to such a variety of knowledge , get published in national magazines / newspapers; go up to this level in the corporate hierarchy , so on and so forth.
I've figured out a few things along the way that I wish someone had told that 21 – year - old with short hair walking into his first day on the job in 1986.
The one missing link in today’s generation and many other people as well, is the habit of reading. I always make it a point to ask people in meetings, interviews about what they are currently reading – and the answers surprise me. 90 % of the people don’t have an answer to this question.
In my view, in today’s context, organizations train and develop their people in the skills they want their employees to develop for the organization’s growth.
It therefore becomes extremely important for each one of us to keep abreast of what is happening around us.
We have to keep ourselves employable at every point in time. This can be achieved only if we spend time religiously updating ourselves. The internet is an ocean of knowledge waiting to be tapped.
The other aspect is Business knowledge – many employees restrict their learnings to their functional domains and fail to recognize the fact that they ought to know about the business they are in for them to succeed in the corporate world.
Apart from lapping up any opportunity within the organization to up skill their knowledge, I firmly believe that we have to make investments on our own as well to skill / reskill / cross skill ourselves.
This is something that will pay back over the longer term by way of career enhancement.
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