Today’s HRs are not just confined to recruitment and employee welfare. They are experts in Strategic Partnering, Employee Engagement & Communication, Employee Development, Performance Management, Change Management, and building overall collaborative culture in an organization. A particularly fine example for such a versatile HR leader is Kiran Lal. She worked in industries such as Telecom, Banking, IT, and ITeS, across geographies and a plethora of cultures with a diverse set of teams and partners in a career spanning nearly 2 decades.

Recognizing Kiran Lal as one of the Top Women HR Leaders driving positive change, Women Entrepreneur India engages an exclusive interview with her. Below are the excerpts.

What different roles and responsibilities have you been undertaking in your professional journey?

At any given point in time, an HR professional takes on multiple roles and wears multiple hats (mind you, the hat stays on for good!) based on the business imperative and need. Adaptability is the key. I have had the good fortune of juggling all such roles throughout my career, however, the one which I have personally found immensely satisfying is as an influencer – to promote and achieve the organization's objectives by aligning each employee and adding value to an employee’s career/life through my learnings, by being a guide and mentor.

The global market for hr is expanding, with its current value in the market. What opportunities and the market evolving in India?

Today, HR is dealing with unconventional changing dynamics of the working capacities and capabilities. The need for agile HR professionals has never been so high! The demands of the changing times have pushed HR to adapt, reprioritize and focus on conventional deliverables in an unconventional manner – from ensuring business sustainability and productivity through focus on employee wellbeing, relooking at alternate working options, virtual collaboration, high focus on effective communication, change management, keeping the teams together, Talent management, unlearning and redefining new ways to recruit virtually, focus on data security... The list is growing by the day!

“Kiran lal designs and executes innovative programs which make a visible and tangible positive impact on employee morale, aspiration, and career in alignment with business objectives”

How does an hr leader consolidate strategies with overall business objectives, and how does he/she direct and drive a positive work environment?

Creating an HR Strategy aligned with business goals entails having a clear understanding first of what the business goals are. Breaking it down into how HR can influence, contribute, impact or enable each of these objectives through well designed and agile short-medium-long term strategies is the key.

Every HR initiative has a Dollar impact and value and a leader needs to ensure the team is aligned to the broader picture constantly. Granular leadership is key here and cascading this thought process and alignment of the same along the line will lead to success.

A positive work environment aids the process and what constitutes a positive work environment is relative to the type of work expected from a company and these expectations vary across industries. However, some basics are standard everywhere – an environment that is transparent in terms of - policies and processes high on ethics and values, open to nurturing innovation, is inclusive in nature and shuns politics, is strong on communication and collaboration, is appreciated by all. And HR plays a critical role in defining and propagating the culture most beneficial for that particular organization.

Give a brief account of how the hr models you laid have transformed work culture and client relationships in companies you worked so far.

I can talk about the HR Culture I built in some of my organizations and how it changed the way wherein every manager donned the dual hat of being a supervisor and HR for his/her team member. I have been fortunate to have had the opportunity and empowerment to transform the perception of HR from being a ‘Fundoo Friday and PIP’ department to a team of human capital advisors and consultants. I also extensively worked on building a performance-focused organization – all of this dramatically changed how managers viewed themselves, understanding the profound impact they could make by completely owning their teams. This translated into extremely positive results clearly visible through high engagement survey scores, reduction in attrition, career growths, productivity improvement, increased stakeholder trust and more.

In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you utmost satisfaction?

Being able to positively influence the mindset and ways of working of people and teams I have had the privilege of working with, building the HR culture in some of the organizations I have been associated with and quantifying the impact that HR creates for an organization in monetary terms – it’s typically like a ‘wow’ moment for most – including me.

You know you are on the right path when some of my initiatives have been recognized at a global platform – for example when an initiative won the NOA (National Outsourcing Association) & Utility Week - Skill Development Program of the year 2016. It was also a finalist in GSA (Global Sourcing Association) UK Professional Awards 2017. Apart from this, I received numerous awards on multiple occasions throughout my career, such as the CEO Award, Outstanding Contribution in Business HR Award, Thought Leadership Award, Top Performing HR Team Award, Team Alchemy HR Award, Best HR Partner Award etc.

But by far, I feel humbled when employees I have worked with, still reach out to me to convey the difference I made to their lives or career and how their perception of HR changed for the good.

What advice would you like to give to the young hr(s) in India?

Armed with a strong base of values, strike the right balance (it’s a fine line) as a team that is fair and can be trusted by both employees and management. Dive deep into what your business is all about and consider yourself part of it – not a support team – HR is business too! Lay down strong policies and automated processes. Embrace technology, effective usage of analytics and AI/ML, get comfortable talking numbers and adapt to the changing times and requirements. Constant upgradation of knowledge is a must, since one glove does not fit all. HR does need to constantly evaluate the far- reaching implications of actions, polices, procedures, culture and values it endorses.

Educational Background

Kiran Lal is an MBA (HR) graduate from Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi (XISS) with various certifications such as Green Belt in Six Sigma, Certified HR Merger & Acquisition Professional (CHRMAP) from Aon, Diversity Trainer, and Change Management Professional.