Looking back at Are You In The List

In Part II of the feature on past winners of Are You In The List Award, we find out how the award changed their lives

The search for the third edition of Are You In The List? Awards has received an overwhelming response from the HR fraternity. Our initial nomination process received 2,053 applications. More than 400 professionals have been shortlisted after the first rigorous screening process. The list will further shorten to the final 25 winners.

In the second week of October 2014, we conducted three Are You In The List? Round-table Conferences in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurgaon. The aim of these conferences was to discuss new ideas and judging parameters for the final rounds of the event. There was good participation from the industry as well as some of our former winners from the previous years who contributed great insights into the changing trends of the industry.

In such a short time, Are you in the List brand has become an aspirational platform promoting young HR professional to greater heights. We take a look to see how the award has changed the lives of our previous winners. In this issue, we present to you Part II of the Winner Series:

		P. Prashant Kumar Before Are You In The List Award: Senior Manager-HR, Harrisons Malayalam Limited, an RPG Group Company After Are You In The List Award: Senior Manager-HR, Harrisons Malayalam Limited, an RPG Group Company I did my B-Tech in Electrical Engineering from College of Engineering, Trivandrum, and went on to work for three years in MRF Tyres in the Electrical Maintenance Section. After that I pursed my PG Diploma in Personnel Management & Industrial Relations from XLRI Jamshedpur. Following my management education, I joined the RPG Group from Campus in 2008. Over the course of my career, I have handled various roles in TA, IR, Administration and Generalist HR. How did Are you in the List award change your life? Are You In The List Award gave me recognition both from within and outside the organization. It further increased my self-confidence and motivated me to pursue higher goals in life. Because of winning this award, I was able to pursue the Organizational Development Certification Program (ODCP) by Indian Society for Applied Behavioral Sciences (ISABS), sponsored by my organization, which is a cutting-edge course on Organization Development.
		Sanjana Vaidya Before Are You In The List Award: Manager and Head-HR for Strategic Services Unit, Zensar Technologies After Are You In The List Award: Sr. Manager and Head-HR Hyderabad, Zensar Technologies I have a work experience of about 14 years performing diverse roles across marketing communication, BPO operations, PMO function and HR. However, there was one thing in common among all these roles: Orientation towards people and acumen to manage people better. Retention of associates is my preferred arena of work. I have always been committed to my job and strive to be the best in everything I do. How did Are you in the List award change your life? Participation in this contest, especially during the selection rounds, has helped me understand my strengths better and the way they reflect on my performance. Also, it gave me an opportunity to interact with other participants from different functions in HR and know their perspectives. We execute different type of processes and practices as a part of our job. However, once we become experts, we seldom realize the importance of doing it and it gets perceived from a third-party view.
		Saurabh Nigam Before Are You In The List Award: Vice President-HR, Beroe After Are You In The List Award: Vice President-HR, Snapdeal At Snapdeal, I lead the Human Resources function globally and am responsible for formulating and executing the HR strategy in alignment with the organizational vision and goal. I also hold SPHR, GPHR and HRMP certifications from SHRM, USA – being the only Indian and amongst the first 10 people globally to hold these three certifications simultaneously. With the backing of this varied experience and an ever increasing desire to add value to self and exceed organizational expectations, I have risen up the corporate ladder at a fairly young age. During the course of my career, I received the “HR Leadership Award” from the Asia Pacific HRM Congress 2010, “Young HR Professional of the Year” at Asia’s Best Employer Brand Awards 2012 and the “Young HR Manager of the Year Award” at IHRD National HR Conference 2012. I am a regular speaker at many conferences on topics ranging from Compensation, Talent Management and GenY. Apart from my academic and professional pursuits, I have keen interest in cricket, biking, traveling, teaching and public speaking. How did Are you in the List award change your life? The Are You In The List Award and the entire selection process was a great learning experience, which has helped me in more ways than one. While the leadership inventory was a great way to identify the leadership potential in my own self, the video interview round exposed me to an entirely different way of interviewing. The best part of the awards journey was to meet and interact with fellow HR practitioners who are achievers in their own space.
		Prof. Vishal Gupta Before Are You In The List Award: Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta After Are You In The List Award: Assistant Professor, Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad I am an Assistant Professor in Organizational Behavior at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, India. I obtained my doctorate in human resource management from IIM Lucknow, India, in 2013. Prior to joining IIMA, I was working as an Assistant Professor in the HRM Group at the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta, India. In my early years I have also worked as a Hardware Design Engineer with ST Microlectronics Pvt Ltd., Greater Noida and with Infineon Technologies AG, Munich, Germany where I was involved in the design of high-performance Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs). My current areas of research are leadership development, organizational justice, creativity and innovation management, R&D management, performance management and high-performance organization design. My PhD thesis on ‘Leadership in Public Sector R&D Organizations’ was awarded the ‘Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation’ award in the year 2013-14 in Leadership & Organizational Development category by European Federation for Management Development and the Emerald Group Publishing. This research has also been published in international and national journals and has been covered by dailies like Times of India, Business Line, Ahmedabad Mirror and DNA. How did Are you in the List award change your life? The award has been a wonderful recognition and has helped me become more visible in the HR fraternity. The reach of People Matters through various sources (published magazine, online portals, conferences etc.) has ensured that there is enough promotion of these awards and people working in HR domain understand its relevance. After I received the award, I have received calls from companies like L&T, Randstad and Reliance to give guest lectures, conduct trainings, moderate their events and also join them as a HR professional. I have my interests in academics and research. These opportunities are a great source to get to know industry and work closely with them. I moved to IIM Ahmedabad in March 2013. Both at IIM Calcutta and IIM Ahmedabad, this award has helped me earn respect and recognition from institute colleagues and also students. Many times students come up to me and say that they feel inspired and have read about me. Leadership needs a lot of inspiration. The award is helping me inspire both myself and people around me to achieve greater things in life.
		Sunder Ramachandran Before Are You In The List Award: Senior Manager - Training Academy, Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group After Are You In The List Award: Head - Sales Training, Global Commercial Operations, Pfizer I am an enterprise learning professional who is passionate about leveraging technology for learning. I specialize in helping organizations respond to the mobile and cloud first learning eco-system. How did Are You In The List Award change your life? For me, Are You In The List Award raised the bar and added to the visibility of my professional career. It also helped brand my work within the larger HR community and not just my own sector.