Anang Agarwal| Manager-HR| Asian Paints

Currently playing the role of Manager HR at Asian Paints, Anagh Agarwal has taken on various roles in HR and in each one of them, worked consistently towards improving the HR service. “The practices I had set up in my stints were not only adopted but also cherished by my successors”, he shared. 

The evolution of HR

Anagh believes that compared to the major business functions, HR is still young with enormous possibilities to explore. He chose HR to become a part of this evolution.

Creating possibilities amid the challenges

Anagh shares that the biggest problem in HR is aligning the expectations of business leaders with the expectations of the new-age talent. He has always striven to bring transparency, objectivity and structure to HR tasks and initiatives, in a bid to align these two stakeholders. Identifying and presenting the relevant trade-offs has helped Anagh bridge this wide gap of expectations in a practical and sustainable manner.

In the various HR roles in Compensation, Performance Management, Learning and Recruitment, that Anagh has undertaken, he has been able to create and streamline the processes to improve the HR service delivery in his organisation. This process improvement has helped him save the organisation's time, help the leaders with their business goals and also improve the employee experience. 

Reflecting back upon the past years, Anagh mentions that the fundamentals of workplace challenges have remained unchanged since the impact of COVID. However, he believes that the trends of automation and employee-centricity have become more pronounced in 2023.

Journeying with Are You In The List Awards

“The process allowed me to deep-dive into myself as a professional and helped me reflect on my working patterns”, said Anagh on the People Matters Are You In The List Awards powered by Aon. He also shared how in one’s regular work routine, they may not get a chance to explore where they are heading, making it difficult to identify the areas which are most crucial to professional development. He thanked the team at People Matters and Aon for having already figured this out. He also highlighted that the process tools allowed him to step back, question and re-organise his approach. “Given a long career journey to come, I feel this milestone is perfectly timed”, said Anagh. 

Vision for the future 

Outlining his HR vision for 2024, Anagh shared that the dependency of businesses on knowledge workers will continue to increase. Also, the expectations of the talent pool from their employers will increase, thanks to the boom of social media, diverse career choices, information transparency and a rise in the Indian standard of living. He also believes that organisations which acknowledge and live up to these high expectations of the talent, will gain a competitive advantage over their industry counterparts.

To get to know the insights, experiences and vision of all the People Matters Are You In The List winners, follow the #AreYouInTheList.