Smiti: Hi everyone, and welcome to yet another episode of Inspiring Leaders and Leadership. My name is Smiti. I’m your host, and I’m the founder of AdvantageClub.ai, an AI-powered global employee engagement, rewards, and wellness platform. Today, we have another amazing leader with us. We have Manvi Bhalla, who is the Associate Director, HR of Compunnel. Welcome, Manvi. Welcome to the show!

Manvi: Thank you so much, Smiti. It’s my honor to be here. 

Smiti: The honor is ours, Manvi. So,  Manvi,  of course,  we have interacted in the past, and we know all about you, but we’d love the viewers to also know a little bit about you. So, can you start by talking about your background, what you do, and, of course, your journey as a leader in the HR space? 

Manvi: Sure, Smiti. So I actually have almost, like, 13 -14 years of experience in the HR fraternity, and my journey was fortunate enough as I got exposure to each and every aspect of HR. So, whether you talk about the platform where you hire people till they retire, I was fortunate enough to cater to each and every aspect of it in my entire journey and career. 

Right now, I am leading the HRBP and HR operations initiatives with Compunnel Inc. When you talk about Compunnel, we are primarily involved in the consulting business and its digital transformation wing. We serve people across the globe, but our major clientele is basically US-based.  As far as head count is concerned, we are almost a group of 6,000+ people in the U.S., and when you talk about India group, there are almost 2,000+. That’s how we’ve been structured. We have a few odd people, around 100 or so, in the Philippines, and, of course, there are, in the Canada office, we also have 50 to 100  people there. So that’s how we have been structured. When you talk about my core contribution towards  Compunnel, it is towards HRBP strategies,  all the pulse events that you talk about are my cup of tea here. And also,  throughout their journey, supporting them with all of their documentation needs, their interaction, transactional needs altogether, is something that my team takes care of. 

So when you talk about the overall contributions, it’s basically, I would like to call it the heartbeat of the organization, because I help them manage their talent altogether. And that’s how I’ve been doing in the past as well. My experience is not domain-specific. I’ve been to IT organizations like Sapient and Mosaics, and have been in financial brokerage houses as well, like Unicorn Investments. Also, I’ve touched the IT industries with effective services, and I’m fortunate that I am here with the Compunnel group. And so, that’s the way I am here, where I am. 

Smiti: That’s amazing, Manvi. And,  what’s also interesting is that your journey spans across so many industries. So, you see the media and then you see the IT industry and then you see the IT, ITES, or maybe the IT services industry. They’re very different, and every industry comes along with a different flavor of challenges, right? 

Manvi: Absolutely. 

Smiti: So what I’d love to understand is,  how do you navigate challenges, when the going gets tough? And can you give us some examples of maybe certain failures which you’ve experienced and you’ve overcome them and what you have learned from them? 

Manvi: This is an interesting one, Smiti. So I don’t want to call them my failures, to be very honest, because I always believe that I do not have failures in my life, I have experiences that carry, because those are not my baggage. I have picked up my learnings from them, and I’ve moved on to the next thing altogether. But,    fortunately or unfortunately, because there are a lot of changes in the audience that I have faced, I have come across with many challenges wherein I’m not able to fit the same sort of framework that I have already worked in my past. So that’s a challenge in itself, catering to the same sort of need, but for a different audience. 

I just firmly believe that, within an organization,  each and every team works in its own fashion. So you might be doing one OD intervention. So, for example, pulse check, and through one specific service that you might be doing. But you have to customize it as per those particular teams altogether, because that will give you the real pulse of people. If you do not change as per the audience of people,  you will not be able to achieve what you really started that particular event for; the intentions will not be achieved altogether. 

So when you talk about navigation, it’s very important that we should actually have a clear-cut difference between people and problems. That’s the biggest way through which you can have a better navigation through all the challenges that you have, because at the end,  Smiti, I believe that we are also humans. We also have our own biases. We also have our own perceptions, assumptions, and all that sort of thing in our unconscious mind. So the important thing is to understand your audience and at the same time, focus on problems rather than people, so that you can have that particular solution which is acceptable to everyone, you as a change maker and the audience as change reflectors altogether. So that’s how I have actually navigated through the journey. 

Smiti: I think that’s a very powerful point you have made, if you are the change maker, you can’t make the change alone. You have to get everybody’s buy-in and everybody’s interests aligned together. And, I always say that the best solution is where nobody walks off completely happy. Everyone feels that they have to give away something to solve that problem. 

Manvi: And that’s just one of the ways to engage them. Unless and until I feel contributed towards one cause, trust me, it is not going to make any impact on me. So I should feel valued enough for contributing to that particular cause. 

Smiti: Absolutely right. And, of course, you and your team are the heartbeat of the organization today, like you mentioned. But who has been your heartbeat?  Who has been your biggest supporter or mentor over the course of your career? 

Manvi: So then I have a thing where,  at each and every step, you need a mentor, you need a coach, whether you are at the executive level, whether you are at any role for that matter, because you might be playing that role for the very first time. So, if you noticed my LinkedIn profile as well, I’ve mentioned myself as a budding leader. I have not yet reached as a leader. I need some coaching. I definitely need some mentors who can help me because a lot of things can be nice for me. 

So,  yes, I was fortunate to have a lot of mentors in my journey.  But specifically, if I have to tell you to answer your question, currently, I have majorly important mentors in my current organization. One of them is my President and CFO, Rakesh Shah. He ensures that he’s there with me in my thick and thin. He has given me that leverage to make mistakes. You understand that? That’s really important because unless and until I have the courage to innovate something, the courage to implement something, I will not be able to reach and create something new. So he has actually ensured that I have that environment around me, that he’s tolerant enough for me to make mistakes. 

So, Rakesh Shah is one person, and two other important mentors that I really wanted to mention here are, one of them is Himanshu Kumar, and the other one is Sam Handa. These two folks have stood by me in all the lows because I call them my extended family. I must tell you one recent thing, it was my birthday on the 10th. And I was  at one of the Chandigarh locations, and Rakesh mentioned that, ” you’re not celebrating it with your family.” And I told him, “No, I’m celebrating it with my extended family. And if you looked at it, I joined this organization just one and a half years ago. But that’s the sort of sense I am carrying, that’s the sort of belongingness I am carrying. So this reflects how mentors can help you create the trajectory of your career. These could be your managers, could be seniors, could be anybody around your ecosystem. But, yes, they play a very vital role. 

Smiti: You’re absolutely right. And I’ve seen that the best people who move forward in life have the best mentors, and they’re also very open to feedback to actually work on themselves and to grow. Because I think the first step in growing is acknowledging the fact that you need scope for improvement in certain parts, in which nobody’s perfect. So you’ll always, even if you become like probably the most influential person or the most influential people in the world, you will still continue growing and you’ll still continue learning. So that’s amazing, and a big gratitude to all your mentors for helping you, growing, and bringing you where you are today. 

Manvi: Thank you. Yes. 

Smiti: So,  let’s also talk about employee needs in general. And,  the world has completely changed. In fact, it’s constantly changing today. What used to work for employees, maybe pre-2020, does not work for employees anymore. We’ve seen so many fads and fashions in HR that have changed in the past four years. It’s been insane. So, because of all of this, I think this is coming from the fact that employees’ needs are constantly changing. So, how do you think HR leaders should navigate, or what steps should they take to address these changing needs of their employees? 

Manvi: So, Smiti, of course, as far as process is concerned, to implement new changes is different, of course, for each and everybody, depending upon which organizations they are catering to. However, when you talk about the important steps, the important thing to know is the pulse of people. And we say this nowadays that an important ingredient in that particular pulse is listening to understand. 

Some of us listen for the sake of it, just taking up in your to-do list that yes, I’m done with the connection, and so forth. But it is really, really important to listen, to understand because people do share once you give them forums, once they give you give them platforms that, “Hey, you can talk about anything.  What are your goods? What are your lows?” They get to open up. Because that safety environment, as I said, is really essential. So once they’re speaking about it, you should listen to understand. And based on that, you can churn out everything. 

So it’s a recent example that I am very sure a lot of organizations are facing. They are asking all of us to come back to the office. We are converting from work from home to work from the office. So, cascading this particular decision and process, by saying that, “Hey, everybody should reach the office by tomorrow,” instead of that, have connections with groups. Understand that within groups, you will have diversity. You will have people who might be sitting in the outskirts of Chennai to the outskirts of Uttarakhand. So give them enough time. Understand what they need from you, what they need from their environment to support them to come back to work from the office. Because this work from home sounds good for people, but it is important to let them know that, “Hey, it was, it was a privilege, not your right.” So it is also important for HRs to let people know and then advocate for people that, “Hey, this particular person or this particular group would need time, time for one month, could be one month, could be weeks, could be fortnightly.” 

So, I think that listening to understand is the key factor that helps them to navigate through all the latest things that we have on our plate. And trust me, Smiti, for every HR, I understand, their bucket is full floating because of all the XYZ factors. ChatGPT is here; people are insecure about their contributions, their presence. So  that is where HR plays a very crucial role altogether. 

Smiti: You’re absolutely right. And I think one of the main points that you made here was a two-way communication as well. So we always talk about taking feedback from people, which is of course very very important, but if you are making major changes in any way you’re functioning, it’s also important to do a reverse communication, where you’re actually explaining what the impact is and why. Say if you’re calling people to the office, why are you calling them to the office? What is the business impact that will help if they are here versus if they are at home? So if you have to make that call, it need not be just a one-sided communication or just a memo which is being sent out to people saying, “Okay, from tomorrow, you’ve to come here.” It needs to be a two-way communication. There needs to be consent. Everybody might not be happy with it, but at least if you can explain the reasons for what you’re doing, it will give a lot of acceptance for employees to be part of that change as well, and come with probably more zeal than what they were doing earlier. 

So, lastly, I also wanted to understand, like,  we’re talking about employee experience and engagement and different forms of communication strategies. How have you innovated employee recognition or engagement programs at  Compunnel to drive a better employee experience? 

Manvi: So, for this particular year,  Compunnel is focused on the overall experience. When I say overall experience, client experience, and for me, my client is my internal employees. So, when you talk about all of that, there are important catalysts that I generally prefer, is optimism. Now what is that? 

Creating that positive environment, you always say. But what are the key factors that contributed? Optimism is something that you can create by being tolerant. Being tolerant of people making mistakes, encouraging them to accept their mistakes, and encouraging them to accept their scope of improvement areas.  All of these things do matter when you are actually talking about engagement. Especially whenever you think of engagement, you think of their training needs as well. Improving them, increasing their skill sets, and so forth. But where the acceptance comes in, it will actually be reflective for you. So yeah, optimism is one important factor,  through which we are innovating here. 

Another thing is safety. As I mentioned, the concept of ChatGPT is way too broad to talk about. But, trust me, in Compunnel, everybody has that safe feeling to talk about. And why is that so? Because it’s from top to bottom. People are communicating with people. They have my folks, they have accessibility to reach out to anybody across the organization, starting from Andy, to Rakesh, to Himangshu, to Sam, to Amit, to Milind, all of those people. They can access those people, talk about their concerns, talk about their insecurities, and about their presence overall; they are not going to go anywhere. 

And, I think, the kind of programs that we are doing plus and minus could be related to health engagement, giving them a platform where they can think about themselves as well, their families as well. And, the most crucial part of it is our D&I process, the kind of hiring that we do, the kind of people that I have on board, they are all diversified. Trust me, Smiti. Through work from home sort of environment, because of COVID, a lot of organizations have that D&I. Everybody’s talking about it,  and the overall reason is because we have hired people from Kashmir to Kanyakumari. So this is the reason. 

Today, you do not have people who are regionally based; they are from different backgrounds, and regardless of their sexual orientations, marital status, whether they are single mothers, single parents, or whatever. They are here because of their talent. They are here because of their skillset. And it is one important part of my code of conduct in Compunnel, that people have to respect each other. They might have disagreements. I’m not saying that they should agree that Black is auspicious for them and Black is not auspicious for them. But what is important for them here is, the important mantra here is to agree to disagree and be respectful in every way. So that is helping me to create that engagement sort of activity as well. It’s no longer limited to my festival celebrations. But, even if a training has to happen, it will happen across the board for all of us,  and considering the fact that what is actually needed by us, what is the need of the hour to kill the elephant in the room? 

Smiti: That’s amazing. And I think the efforts that are being put in, especially across diversity, equity, and inclusion, are amazing. And, for Compunnel, I think it’s not just diversity from an Indian perspective, it’s also diversity from a globalized perspective. 

Manvi: Absolutely. 

Smiti: And you go to other regions, you go to other countries, it’s very different, in terms of cultures as well, and the flavor of diversity also changes out there. So it’s great that the company’s so focused on that, along with driving optimism in the company and making people feel secure about their role in the organization. 

Awesome. And, I think, we’re also at the end of the whole podcast, and I only have the last question. I wanted to understand if you would like to give any piece of advice for the HR leaders of tomorrow, especially from a woman leader perspective, what would you like to advise them? 

Manvi: So, let me start with the women first of all. Because I think,  to all the women who are working, it’s very complicated for them, okay, to pick and choose their presence. Because trust me, everything is important and urgent, and it’s overwhelming. So never ever feel guilty. Whether you talk about your domestic course, whether you talk about your professional course, pick a thing which is the need of the hour. Kill the elephant without the guilt. That’s one piece of advice that I call out for each and every working female. Regardless of your role, regardless of your designations, regardless of their presence and contributions across, they are making that difference. And do it without the guilt. 

And, when you talk about HR leaders, I think today we are partnering with businesses. We are no longer limited to hiring or firing people. We are not limited to just processing the payroll of people, doing LNA for people. We are partnering with businesses, and for that, you need to keep on honing your skills, to encourage the curiosity of people. When I say, “Pulse check,” do it in a manner that gives platforms to people where they are encouraged to speak up. When you are driving, in sales, we generally have some sort of engagement plans wherein we create campaigns, wherein people can innovate new ideas., define a new way for doing something or the other. And we appreciate them by giving them either vouchers or  planned vacations and so on and so forth. Like these things have been picked up. 

So what is the basic agenda of doing all of these things is giving them appreciation and opportunity to build up and provide new ideas across. So the curiosity part of it, the new innovation part of it, these such things actually help HR to partner more with business. Have a basic understanding of your business so that you can partner with it, so that you can understand the red flags and the green flags. Having a PDCA for your entire organization is one of the steps that are required for all of us to do. When you talk about another one is understanding the versatility of the challenging competitive environment that we have right now. 

Smiti: I totally agree. So,  curiosity, the hunger to drive innovation, and, of course, not being guilty about doing so many things at the same time. I think that would be the three-pronged mantra by Manvi Bhalla today. So thank you so much, Manvi, for your time. And this was really amazing interacting with you. And, I really had a lot of fun listening to you. Thank you so much for your time today. 

Manvi: Thank you so much, Smiti, especially for this platform where I can be heard. That’s the biggest opportunity for me, trust me. So thank you so much.