#MakeitMatter – Megha’s personal philosophy is to strive for excellence in whatever she does. She is passionate about creating practical solutions from scratch that solve business challenges in a constructive and effective manner. In her 10-year experience, she has worked across HR roles, in areas of business partnering, leadership development, and learning management. To her, family is extremely important and spending quality time with them helps her unwind and get back to work with rejuvenated vigour. 

Megha Gupta, HR Business Partner, Sapient Corporation Ltd.

One thing you will:

Start in HR: HR should move away from “one-size-fits-all” approach and move towards experience. If we provide best experience to our people, they will provide best experience to the clients.

Continue in HR: Focus on partnering with Business and coach leaders to facilitate organization priorities. 

Stop in HR: The world is changing at a fast pace and HR need to be agile and lead from forefront rather than being transitional and operational.

As an emerging HR leader, one thing which brings great pride to you: 

Being able to relate with people and understand the real pulse. I have never been afraid of asking the right questions or highlighting when I believed something is not right. I have always believed if all the people agree all the time, something is not right. Application of independent thought and willingness to speak up my mind are prized qualities that I would continue to nurture and take pride in. 

Biggest flaw in the way organizations operate today, and how do you plan to fix that: 

I have come to believe that still most of them and their business leaders do not realize the importance of HR function in harnessing the best of the organization’s most valuable resource – its people.

It is my firm view that many organizations remain laggards only because of this flaw.  I am committed to work towards changing this apathy by communicating and working to create a network of people to help deliver a successful people strategy which is additive and complementary to the organization’s growth objective and goals.

What makes the difference while you are in HR in a corporate set up:  

My intent is never to stand out of the cluster. I always try to enable the teams by asking reflective questions so that they come up with the real problem and solution - me almost invisible with only my voice audible when required.

In 5 years, you see yourself as:

A transformative HR leader who is trusted by business partners to ideate and drive a successful business and people agenda which is additive and complementary to their growth. I would also actively engage with global HR community and contribute to research and fostering best practices in HR management function. 

Your Are You in The List Journey: 

The ‘Are You in the List’ is one the most prestigious platforms in the HR fraternity today. The day when I enrolled myself in the competition I knew that it is going be tough and would need a lot of perseverance. Every round is so different than others and unique on its own way that tests you in every skill that a future leader should have. During Leadership Assessments, I realised that these are situations that we face every day and answering them became a sort of reflective journey. Each stage is an experience in itself and helps you learn so much about yourself.

FIRE SHOT QUESTIONS: 

• As an emerging HR leader, what keeps you up at night: “Nothing” – Instead of letting things that keep me up at night, I sign off every night and go to sleep. When I wake up the next morning, I’m refreshed and ready to conquer new problems.
  
  
• Describe today’s HR in one line: change is the only thing which is constant and HR is here to change
  
  
• Who is your inspiration to be an HR professional: My Parents
  
  
• Qualities which differentiate you from other participants: Focus on self learning, unlearning and constantly asking “will this solve the real problem?”
  
  
• A stranger’s first impression of yours would be: Approachable, easy going yet assertive
  
  
• Who or What are your biggest strengths: Keen interest and commitment to working on and with human capital, as well as focus on mastering both hard analytics and emotional quotient.
  
  
• One weakness you can do without: seek for perfection in everything  
  
  
• If we have to automate you and ask you to keep one human quality, what should that be: Sense of humour
  
  
• Your Favourite book: Secret – it makes me believe in power of dreams
  
  
• Your Hobby: Keeping myself healthy and fit
  
  
• One word that describes an HR professional: HR in today’s world is an institution in itself that can help business to transform its core differentiator which is “People”.

For the entire list of Are You in The List Awards 2016, please click here.

Here are the profiles of other winners (not based on ranking): 

 Here’s the list of India’s 15 future HR leaders:

1. ABHISHEK BUDHARAJA, Associate Director, HR (Talent Management, OD & OE) at Snapdeal
   
   
2. ANKITA PODDAR, HR Business Partner, Amazon
   
   
3. APOORVA PRADHAN, Assistant Manager, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd
   
   
4. RAVI BAJPAI, Practice Lead Talent Acquisition, Infosys
   
   
5. SALIL RAHEJA, Deputy General Manager, Essar Steel India Ltd
   
   
6. SHAVETA ARYA, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition, PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd.
   
   
7. SHREYAS HARIDAS, HR Business Partner, Star India Pvt Ltd. 
   
   
8. SIDDHARTH BHASIN, HRBP, G&A Business, APAC Region, Google
   
   
9. SOUMYA MALKANI, Deputy Manager – Organisation Development, Tata AIG General Insurance Company
   
   
10. ADITYA ADYAR, Chief People Officer, Faasos
    
    
11. NIYATI GOEL, Regional Rewards, AMEA (Asia Middle East & Africa), Mondelez International 
    
    
12. APEKSHA JAIN, Senior HR Business Partner, PepsiCo
    
    
13. RAJESHWARI RAMACHANDRAN, HCM Consultant
    
    
14. SNIGDHA SINGH CHAUDHURI, Sr. Manager, HRBP for Sales team, Cipla