Apeksha is an Engineering Grad with an MBA in Human Resources who started her professional career with Sales as a launch pad. In her words, she is ‘a Maximizer, someone who tries to stimulate personal and groups excellence through her strengths.’ A Go-Getter & with heavy Bias for Action, Apeksha loves to indulge her free time in Badminton, Palmistry, and Trekking. She describes HR as a delightfully evolving function which has taken a quantum leap in the last 2 decades to help businesses stay afloat in today’s VUCA world.

Apeksha Jain, Senior HR Business Partner, PepsiCo

One thing you will:

Start in HR: Real-time use of Technology, Data Modelling & Advanced Data Warehousing skills to derive insights & support business with overall talent architecture of the organization.

Continue in HR: Being the employee champion since this is the core differentiator of every HR. 

Stop in HR: Bringing upon themselves responsibility or tasks & activities that do not fall under any vertical which just increases non-value added work in the HR basket. 

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

I am very proud of the Factory HR Head role done by me very early in my career. I treaded on a path strewn by risks and hurdles by handling the most IR sensitive, dual union plant of the country. Incredible Mentors and belief in my abilities to deliver results helped me traverse this journey successfully. 

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

I think organizations have become too impatient and focus a-lot on short term results (Quarterly) rather than keeping focus on Long term value creation. As a future HR Leader, I feel that strategies will take

As a future HR Leader, I feel that strategies will take time to unfold and bear fruit and thus I will provide requisite time to managers to develop their own capabilities and those of their teams to succeed in long term. I would lay importance on achieving short-term results as a way to test new approaches.

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

I stand out from clutter through my core differentiating competency. I bring with me practical business acumen gained from my line role as a Territory Sales Manager which gives me a competitive edge over others. 

In 5 years, you see yourself as: 

5 years down the line I see myself as the growth driver of the organization I work with. I see myself working as an integral part of building an organization which delivers outstanding business results. I see myself being the talent architect of the organization - building such talent development interventions that every talent that gets hired increases the competitive edge of the organisation

Your Are You In The List Journey:

Are you in the list journey has been like a rollercoaster ride for me. The entire journey from stage 1 to stage 7 has been thrilling and enriching. Using various assessment tools and clearing them one by one makes you feel great about yourself. Apart from this I also feel it’s a great opportunity to retrospect and learn from the entire process. I draw immense satisfaction from the fact that I can succeed on an external yardstick as well apart from internal recognitions.

FIRE SHOT QUESTIONS:

• As an emerging HR leader, what keeps you up at night: High Frontline Attrition and instability in teams 
  
  
• Describe today’s HR in one line: A delightfully evolving function which has taken a quantum leap in the last 2 decades to help businesses stay afloat in today’s VUCA world.
  
  
• Who is your inspiration to be an HR professional: Samik Basu (ex CHRO PepsiCo) He was the driving force behind me taking up a challenging role in plant very early on in my career. 
  
  
• Qualities which differentiate you from other participants: My Result Oriented ways of working and diverse experience across verticals.
  
  
• A stranger’s first impression of yours would be: My tremendous energy level and my ability to have a meaningful discussion with people across a wide range of subjects
  
  
• Who or What are your biggest strengths: I am a Maximizer, someone who tries to stimulate personal and groups excellence through my strengths. I am a Go-Getter & have heavy Bias for Action.
  
  
• One weakness you can do without: I tend to do things very fast and then expect to get quick results. 
  
  
• If we have to automate you and ask you to keep one human quality, what should that be: Empathy/Emotional Quotient
  
  
• Your Favourite book: Gone with the Wind 
  
  
• Your Hobby: Badminton, Palmistry, Trekking
  
  
• One word that describes an HR professional: Enabler
  
  

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. MEGHA GUPTA, HR Business Partner, Sapient Corporation Ltd
   
   
5. RAVI BAJPAI, Practice Lead Talent Acquisition, Infosys
   
   
6. SALIL RAHEJA, Deputy General Manager, Essar Steel India Ltd
   
   
7. SHAVETA ARYA, Senior Manager, Talent Acquisition, PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt. Ltd.
   
   
8. SHREYAS HARIDAS, HR Business Partner, Star India Pvt Ltd. 
   
   
9. SIDDHARTH BHASIN, HRBP, G&A Business, APAC Region, Google
   
   
10. SOUMYA MALKANI, Deputy Manager – Organisation Development, Tata AIG General Insurance Company
    
    
11. ADITYA ADYAR, Chief People Officer, Faasos
    
    
12. NIYATI GOEL, Regional Rewards, AMEA (Asia Middle East & Africa), Mondelez International 
    
    
13. RAJESHWARI RAMACHANDRAN, HCM Consultant
    
    
14. SNIGDHA SINGH CHAUDHURI, Sr. Manager, HRBP for Sales team, Cipla