Article: Meet Satyamvada Sharma, Are You In The List 2019 winner

Leadership

Meet Satyamvada Sharma, Are You In The List 2019 winner

Publicis Sapient’s Manager People Strategy and one of the winners of People Matters Are you in the list 2019 Satyamvada Sharma aspires to help individuals thrive by creating an inclusive and happy ecosystem.
Meet Satyamvada Sharma, Are You In The List 2019 winner

Satyamvada Sharma | Manager People Strategy | Publicis Sapient

With 8.5 years of experience, Satyamvada has worked with companies like John Deere, Pune and Publicis Sapient, Gurgaon. In her current role she is HR Business Partner for Product Management Capability Group and Front-End Technology Team and is responsible for talent management, retention and happiness of her teams. She is also the Program Manager and an active member of the Inclusion and Diversity Council for Publicis Sapient India. A strong advocate of Women, PwD and LGBTQIA+ inclusion at workplace, she is working with the HR leaders and helping them solve the challenge of Employee Happiness at workplace.

“I believe that organizations need to create an ecosystem in which all individuals can flourish,” says, Satyamvada Sharma, Manager People Strategy, Publicis Sapient.

Satyamvada’s purpose is to help individuals thrive by creating an inclusive and happy ecosystem. It was this drive and her inclination towards psychology that led her to the HR domain.

Creating an ecosystem for everyone to flourish

“I wasn't a student of HR, I was pursuing CA, and I was not happy with it,” reminisces Satyamvada.

While preparing to become a CA, Satyamvada realized that she wanted to pursue a career where she could bring difference in the lives of people, understand what makes us the way we are.

She shares, “I have a firm belief that everyone out there is up for excellence, and no one wants to fail. All we have to do is create the right ecosystem for everyone to flourish.”

So, she mustered the courage to switch her career and went on to pursue MBA in HR from SIMS, Pune. Ever since then Satyamvada has never looked back and has continued on her endeavour to make a difference in people’s lives.

Taking on the world of work with a strong learning orientation

Satyamvada believes that it is her ability to quickly translate ‘I don't know’ to ‘I am a master’ is her key differentiator. It is no news that the future belongs to those who are agile in their learning behavior and those who are resilient. And Satyamvada, as she says is part of this clan that refuses to give up, and is always on.

Besides the drive to learn, a strong execution orientation is another attribute that sets her apart from the rest.

The two biggest talent priorities

For Satyamvada, the two focus areas as an HR professional are development and retention of women leaders and helping organizations overcome unconscious bias at workplace.

Development and retention of women leaders: There is a war for talent when it comes to women leaders, while every organization aims to invest in development, we lose sight of retention and assume that individual is not at risk. Satyamvada thinks a lot of focus has to be put in this area, as a strong woman employee shall be the leader for tomorrow.

Ability to deal with unconscious bias at workplace: There is nothing more important than people at workplace and the respect they get irrespective of their gender identity, ethnicity, financial background, religious beliefs or sexual orientation. Satyamvada aspires to make inclusion part of every conversation at workplace and bring it to mainstream.

With two talent priorities in mind, let’s read what vision does Satyamvada has for the HR function and how she wants it to evolve.

The one thing I will change in HR

The attitude with which a lot of people look down at HR as a non value adding function is disheartening. The perception of HR is hence what I would like to change. To rebrand HR, professionals in the domain must put metrics around key people processes, create tailor made solutions for workforce rather than generic, and start taking joint accountability of people's happiness at workplace along with business. We have to ensure that we start people practices that help enhance individual happiness. We need to promote the idea that employee is as important as our clients or customers!

The one thing I will retain in HR

In the age of technology, the X factor of HR teams is "Empathy", we should not let go of that. Along with that a key differentiator is the business acumen that HR has built to co-create solutions with business stakeholders, it has helped us elevate our role and gain respect as credible business partners and that has to be retained and further harnessed.

Vision for HR's future growth

We are the keepers of Humane aspect of HR, however, simultaneously we need to embrace the latest technologies with an agile mindset. HR partners have to be extremely open in trying new technologies to run people processes, dashboards, to run learning interventions, engage with gig and full timers at equal pace. The world is changing and we have to keep on redefining ourselves as successful HR partners. We have to be on a cycle of learn-unlearn-relearn, only then we can be future ready.

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Topics: Leadership, #AreyouintheList?

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