Parijat Shrivastava | Senior Cluster Manager-HR | Bajaj Finance

As Senior Cluster Manager - Human Resources at Bajaj Finance, Parijat Shrivastava's role involves managing a wide range of HR processes with the responsibility of delivering reliable and effective solutions and processes. To be able to run these HR processes, he has to juggle between identifying people issues, diagnosing problems, identifying solutions, and even modifying or creating new processes. His task is not limited to himself but also involves training existing talent to reliably address problems so as to support the organisation. “Ultimately it should help improve business productivity”, he said 

How curiosity led to HR

Parijat’s passion for HR was ignited during his first job as a technical analyst, wherein implementing an HRIS instilled curiosity about the impact of HR on organisations. This curiosity was further nurtured by teachers, mentors and exposure to books during his post-graduation. Moreover, when he became a people leader, he was able to experience first-hand, the challenges of managing people and organisations. “This journey has been deeply fulfilling personally and makes me proud to choose to be a Human Resource professional every day ”, he shared.

The path ahead

Parijat believes that HR needs to be ready for India's supply glut of young working talent and must help organisations adapt and work towards absorbing, training, engaging, retaining employees and nurturing future leaders. He has worked extensively on building processes for apprentice engagement, training and subsequent absorption. This work was instrumental in gauging the enormity of the challenges that lay ahead and guided the organisation to address issues through the institutionalisation of processes.

According to Parijat, people challenges shall continue. He quoted an example, “The pandemic forced organisations to question traditionally accepted work schedules, while 2023 saw the gradual return of workforce to the workplace. As a result, we are seeing a growing acceptance of non-traditional work schedules and flexibility in work norms”. 

Learnings from Are You In The List Awards

On the journey of People Matters Are You In The List Awards powered by Aon, Parijat shared that the assessment tests administered by Aon were backed by a credible scientific process and yielded insightful results about his qualities. The evaluation process helped uncover developmental areas, many of which were surprising and would have remained hidden had they not been systematically analysed and reported. He dwells on the coaching sessions administered by People Matters, which gave young leaders like him a chance to interact directly with senior leadership of renowned brands and gain from their experience. 

“These sessions personally helped me address actual problems in my organisation and also helped develop a vision to chart a path to being a true people leader”, shared Parijat. 

Vision for HR

Parijat lives by a simple philosophy in work and life – ‘clarity in thought and action, backed with confidence and humility; grounded in passion to acquire knowledge and gain new experiences.' This, he believes shall enable him to build his 2024 vision for HR in a world where changing demographics are leading to an increased supply of talent and breakthroughs in technology are being led by artificial intelligence. “HR in 2024 needs to be ready to frame the challenge for organisations and help re-design work to strike the right balance between these seemingly opposed forces”, he shared.  

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