Shruti Joshi | Manager-HR (Talent Management and Organization Development) | Asian Paints Limited

Born in Bhopal, Shruti Joshi has lived in about 11 cities and studied in 8 different educational institutes. The experience she has had in her life so far has shaped her as a professional and her passion to make a social impact and the nudges of her parents has helped her in all her endeavours. After completing her MBA from XLRI Jamshedpur, Shruti joined Asian Paints, where she had been able to gain a lot of experience, much more than the number of years she has spent in the domain.

“I find a lot of meaning in doing work that impacts individuals’ worldviews and being in HR allows several avenues to engineer the same,” says Shruti Joshi, Manager-HR (Talent Management and Organization Development), Asian Paints Limited.”

Decoding the magic formula for business success by being in the HR domain

Being part of the HR team of the company allows Shruti to understand the levers that drive humans to create organizations that are larger than life. By being in this function she can learn what inspires diverse individuals to achieve extraordinary feats and strive for breakthrough disruptions. 

Shruti shares, “I have always believed that humans are the magic formula for the unexplained success of several things and decoding that magic formula is an exciting journey, I am on currently.”

Passion & Curiosity: The key differentiators

When asked what makes Shruti stand out from the crowd, she highlighted passion and curiosity as some of the key differentiators. 

Immense passion to understand human processes and how they interact towards organizational priorities coupled with designing interventions that surface the invisible is something I add to the group,” says Shruti. 

Her ability to deep dive and research from various sources to firm up a view has helped her in career so far and the interest in multiple areas off-work has allowed her to tap into the audience's mind real-time.  Further, Shruti’s recent experience has shown her that simplicity is appreciated. 

Biggest talent priority

As the entire world of work deals with the challenges of multiple generations working together, Shruti’s focus will be on decoding how HR can be the guardian of culture and create more inclusivity. Further, as  any trends such as the emerging gig workforce impacts the workplace, the priority for Shruti will be to decode how companies can retain their soul and anchor everything else around it without limiting diversity of thought and actions. 

With the curiosity to understand aspects of human and business both and the ambition to make a social impact, let’s see what key actions and plans does Shruti have in mind for the HR function.

The one thing I will change in HR

The notion that structure limits creativity and that processes are barriers to agility.

I firmly believe that discipline eliminates unnecessary decision making and hence frees up time for the things that matter. I think HR can benefit from strong processes where they don't exist. 

The one thing I will retain in HR

The respect for human discretion and informed intuition.

Digital is not here to substitute humans, instead it creates a need and an opportunity to help HR function evolve. Hence, what I would like to retain is the human touch in the increasing tech enabled world. 

Vision for HR's future growth

My vision is that HR balances the touch and tech aspects of its offerings and takes the best of both these worlds to offer to its customers a service that is valued and indispensable.