Airtel names Shruti Gupta AVP, Head of Employee Experience and Services

Airtel has promoted Shruti Gupta to Assistant Vice President (AVP), Head of Employee Experience and Services, expanding her leadership responsibilities across the telecom company's people function.

In her new role, Gupta will lead Airtel's employee experience strategy and people services agenda. Her mandate includes strengthening employee engagement, workplace experience, service excellence and organisational culture across the business.

Expanded mandate for people strategy

The appointment marks the latest step in Gupta's leadership journey at Airtel, where she has held several HR leadership roles since joining the company in 2018.

According to the company, her responsibilities will include:

• Leading employee experience strategy across the organisation.
• Driving the people services agenda.
• Strengthening employee engagement initiatives.
• Enhancing workplace experience and service excellence.
• Supporting the development of Airtel's organisational culture.

The promotion reflects Airtel's continued investment in building a people-first workplace while supporting its business growth and digital transformation efforts.

Progression through internal leadership

Before taking on her new position, Gupta served as General Manager, Head of Talent Management, where she led strategic initiatives across leadership development, succession planning, performance management and capability building.

During her eight-year tenure at Airtel, she has held a series of progressively senior HR roles, including:

• General Manager, Head of Talent Management
• Diversity and Inclusion Lead
• Senior Manager, HR Business Partner
• Manager, HR Business Partner
• Manager, Talent Acquisition
• Talent Acquisition Lead

Her work has focused on strengthening talent acquisition, embedding inclusive people practices, partnering with business leaders and supporting employee engagement initiatives.

More than a decade in human resources

Gupta brings over 11 years of HR experience spanning talent management, employee experience and organisational development.

Before joining Airtel, she spent nearly three years at Aircel, where she held roles across corporate HR, talent acquisition and talent management. During this period, she managed employee lifecycle processes, recruitment, employee relations, onboarding, performance management and engagement programmes.

She began her career as a Management Trainee at KPMG India, gaining early experience in talent acquisition and employer branding.

Over the course of her career, Gupta has developed expertise across:

• Employee experience
• Talent management
• HR business partnering
• Diversity and inclusion
• Talent acquisition
• Performance management
• Employee engagement
• Leadership development
• Organisational capability
• People strategy

Internal talent continues to shape leadership

The promotion highlights Airtel's focus on developing leadership from within its existing talent pool. Gupta's progression from talent acquisition roles to leading employee experience and services reflects the increasing strategic importance organisations are placing on workplace experience, culture and employee engagement.

As organisations continue to compete for skilled talent, leaders overseeing employee experience are playing a larger role in shaping culture, improving service delivery and supporting long-term workforce capability.

Founded with a vision of enabling global connectivity through technology, Airtel today serves more than 574 million customers across its mobile, broadband, enterprise and digital businesses. The company continues to invest in technologies including 5G, IoT, Airtel IQ and Airtel Black while expanding its digital infrastructure and people capabilities.

New leaders, fresh capital, workforce shifts and unfiltered conversations — the story of work unfolds here.