Welcome to another inspiring episode of the AdvantageClub.ai podcast, where we explore leadership journeys that are both transformational and deeply human.
Today, I’m excited to be joined by Seepika Singhal, Senior Director of Global Talent Rewards at Brillio. With a career spanning some of the most dynamic organizations—HCL, Capgemini & Luminous—Seepika brings with her a refreshing blend of strategic insight, personal grit, and authentic leadership. On behalf of AdvantageClub.ai, a platform focused on rewards, recognition, well-being, and employee engagement, I’m eager to delve into Seepika’s story and her valuable insights on HR practices and leadership.
A Chat with Seepika
Here is the excerpt:
Girish:
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Inspiring Leaders and Leadership. I am Girish Bindal, the Chief Marketing Officer of AdvantageClub.ai. And today we have with us Seepika Singhal. She’s the Senior Director of Global Talent Rewards, Brillio. Welcome, Seepika.
Seepika:
Thank you Girish, thank you so much for having me. It’s a delight and honour to be here.
Girish:
It’s a pleasure for us. So this podcast series is about meeting our loved leaders and knowing their journey, and learning a little from them. And before we get started, I would like to know a little more about you and your journey. How did you get to this position?
Seepika:
The journey has been filled with twists and turns, and if I start with the beginning, I was born and brought up in a humble and grounded family setup. I never ever thought in my childhood that I would end up in HR as a profession. So I was good in studies, but I always wanted to prove myself in what I picked up, whether it was academics or co-curricular. So we were thirteen people cohabiting in one single household, and all the key decisions were taken by the head of the family, who used to be my grandfather, and those were my affirmative years. And I take a lot of pride in saying that I have imbibed all the values that have saved me today, the values of coexisting, adaptability, and respect that have come from the upbringing that I had. So there has been a continuous desire to prove myself and grow. And when I was in a small town, career services were very limited.
So, being a good student, I had only two options that everyone expected me to do: either engineering or medicine. But I was kind of a challenger to that status quo. I wanted to do something different. I didn’t know at that time what difference it could make. But my parents trusted in me. I said that I want to be there where a lot of innovative and creative minds will be. So I wanted to come to Delhi University and do my graduation in humanities from here. And I pursued that despite everyone around me saying that toppers like you are not doing engineering or medicine, who else? Why are you not writing the engineering entrance examination? I said, no, I’m not interested in doing whatever everyone is doing. That’s not my cup of tea. I came with the mindset of doing civil services but eventually I saw towards the final years of my graduation that a career in management was something that attracted me more.
I generally started to explore how admissions take place and all about it, and I appeared in all management exams and was admitted. And finally, I ended up taking admission in Sri Ram College of Commerce to do my master’s. So this was my educational journey, and this is a very interesting concept that I share with a few of my folks. I learned this concept of return on investment very early in my life. And I got admission in Narsee Monjee, Hyderabad, Amity Law School, and all these colleges. But I thought, let me see, what is the end outcome? So the line of sight was very clear to me. And I compared the statistics of placement. I saw that all these students who come out of these colleges end up in nearly similar companies and with similar packages.
So I thought, I am investing in a college where the teachers, the kind of environment, the university environment, SRCC being the prestigious one, and at a very nominal fee. It was minuscule in comparison to what other colleges were charging, and also the travel and accommodation costs. I thought that if I ended up getting a package of similar lines, why invest more, so I thought of the return on my investment. I didn’t want it to end up where, from my first salary, I start giving EMIs. So I thought, let me do this, and then I was fortunate to be selected from the campus. I was one of the very first students who got campus placement at the beginning of the journey. Then HCL happened to be a very fulfilling 5 1/2 years of differentiated experience. In HCL Technologies, I got a lot of leadership positions, worked in multiple geographies, multiple assignments, and different roles. Then from there I moved to Capgemini.
Capgemini was totally an international organization; from my IT pure play Indian company to Capgemini was completely different altogether. And the geography for me also was different. There I was taking care of North America as a compensation leader, and post-Capgemini again, I had fulfilling years of learning and delivering, and proved myself in that organization.
Then I acquired the leadership position in Luminous Electric, where I was leading the rewards function. That was again kind of a challenge for me because from my IT setup company to manufacturing, dealing with blue-collar employees, white-collar employees, and Indian payroll and coming up with benefits, you have to think about policy, think about the blue-collar worker who’s able to understand that policy. So that was totally a challenge to me, which inspired me to take up that position, and I enjoyed that also.
I seamlessly worked with the leaders and created differentiated rewards platforms and brought in experiential R&R practices at Luminous. So I was instrumental in bringing experience-based rewards in Luminous at that time. So from there, moving the employee EVP, working to an EVP in Luminous and then working in HT Media, which is totally a different company, very creative people, different talent mindset. From ST Media, I moved to R1 RCM, which was in healthcare and had a very huge presence in India as well as the US. So I had all these differentiated experiences. And then finally, I’m in video technologies, a very insurgent organization, with new ways of working on digital superpowers, CI, and dealing with very talented employees here.
So I’m feeling grateful that whatever opportunities I have had in my career journey have made me what I am today. And I have learned from the leaders across geographies and a lot of industries, different industry segments that I worked in. And one thing that keeps me honest is that because the context is different, so one thing that you have created as a success in one company may not be replicated in another. So it always keeps you challenged, keeps you continuously engaged. And so, I keep reinventing myself with these talents.
Girish:
Superb. Great. I think it’s a fantastic journey and even at a young age you decided to figure out the ROI and pick a college. I think that’s very inspirational and even the choice of your career from IT giant HCL to Capgemini to manufacturing, and then again healthcare and now Brillio is so inspiring. Thank you for sharing this with us. You know, challenges are sort of our stepping stones to success.
And you did mention that you’ve moved from so many different industries and companies. Can you recall any time when you faced major challenges, and how did you overcome them? Or any part where you felt you had to face failure and then you overcame and came out strong? Anything that you want to share with our viewers?
Seepika:
I will say that in my profile, which is managing rewards, a lot of projects and initiatives that we do, everything is about managing change and managing challenges, and it’s a challenge in itself. Any change, if you talk about even if it’s a change of your workplace, you have to ask somebody to change your seat from this to that. So even that small amount of change unnerves you because we are all individuals, and we like the status quo. My role itself is so challenging because it involves state management.
Whether I’m designing a comprehensive pay design, pay program design, or introducing any holistic benefit, or coming up with any performance program, everything requires people to change their current way of working, motivates them to imbibe something better, something new, or change the way they are working on things. So these challenges may include a lot of small challenges, whether it is balancing budgets, adapting the programs to changing market dynamics, because you have thought something, but the market dynamics have changed, and then the entire planning has gone for a toss. What will you do then? There is an interesting and continuous challenge that we all face in the field of rewards, and that is addressing the issues of pay equity, pay fairness, and nobody is ever satisfied with their compensation. And they should not be, and I am a firm believer that why should you be satisfied? It’s the means to reach growth. So, you can’t make people satisfied with the compensation, but yes, you can create processes that are fair and integrative.
So, any organization that I work with, I bring in that kind of sensitivity and increase the adoption of the programs. Leadership adoption, people adoption, and bringing in alignment with leadership and stakeholders, and most importantly, the sensitization towards the need for change. Because whatever the status quo is, we are working with a lot of people in organisations who may have been there, have done that in a certain way at an appropriate time, whatever the companies have done that may be right in that context in that time period. But as the same scenario is changing outside, you know, external FPC, outside in perspective, a lot of things are changing. So bringing in that perspective and being able to bring everyone on board with you and creating that stakeholder analysis alignment that makes you work in a challenging environment.
And I would not call it a failure per se, but sometimes, if you are always on your toes and you keep testing the programs that you’re trying to do, then it is not a failure. In a sense, it will always be your new cause to analyze the situation if you see that it is working or not. There are a lot of positions that you have around you. There are HR business partners and senior leaders whom you can take and put strong faith in that it will work or not work right. Keep testing yourself, and if you think that this may not work, be open to being flexible, be open to listening to other people’s points of view. When we redefine, we actually work on redefining and pre-implementing the strategy that may be successful. So that way, you can reduce the chances of failure and keep experimenting with what you want to achieve.
So that is something that I would add to and, maybe, like every warrior in a war has some or the other superpowers. So my superpowers that have been dealing with such challenges will be that I always try to keep myself updated on industry trends, and I have very strong data we have at our disposal. So I try to leverage the data to make decisions. Through the data, I can prove that this can bring an ROI into that investment and why business leaders can be assured of the outcomes that we plan to get from these decisions. And creating an environment of trust and transparency in the system and in the process. That is also very important, I would say. And if you align all the stakeholders, then the chances of failure are reduced a lot.
And finally, the most important part is the communication part. So, it’s very important for dealing with any kind of challenge, whether it was pre-COVID and then dealing with COVID and the pandemic, communication is the only thing that has helped us sail through. And in the post-COVID era, also the post-pandemic era, any new thing that we are doing, whether it is asking people to come to the workplace, open communication and socialization of the thought process, reinforcing the culture, plays a very important part in dealing with these challenges and being successful.
Girish:
Great. I think that’s a very good pragmatic approach to dealing with challenges and a very positive take on life. I’m so glad that you shared with us, all our viewers will be so glad to take points from there. So, as you said, you always have to have a brave front. You’re always fighting, but there is always a support system that is backing you up. So what’s your support system? Who’s been your greatest mentor or a support system that has kept you going and made you reach where you are today?
Seepika:
That’s an interesting and difficult one at the same time, Girish, because I believe that in my quest for excellence, there’s so much to learn at every stage, in every role, that it’s very difficult to zero down or rely on one mentor or one supporter. So you have to have a cohort of supporters, a bouquet of people, and an army of people whom you can look up to. So I have imbibed this value that I carefully observe people around me, whether it is my junior subordinates, peers, seniors, or teachers, and I grab some good things from anybody around me. And so I look up to these people for strength and see how they have handled a particular situation. And if I find that they have a better way that I was missing out on, I keep learning from it, I keep adding that to my dictionary or my behavior, and I try to follow that.
And one constant supporter, I will say, is that I am a believer in the Bhagavad Gita’s philosophy. And I think that has answers to every dilemma that we will come across. But if I have to name one person who has been out and out throughout the quarter, that could be my husband, who is a pillar of strength for me and who brings a lot of psychological safety to me. And I think he’s the biggest critic, also. So I typically resort to him in case I hit any crossroads for advice, so that he will be my biggest supporter in that case.
Girish:
But that’s so nice, and that’s a great approach to have. I’m learning from everybody, from your peers, from your juniors, from your seniors. I think that’s the way to be. So you’ve seen a lot of changes happening. You were mentioning that your job itself is challenging because there are different employee needs, and these employee needs keep changing.
Are there any steps or tips that you want to give to other HR professionals on how to address these changing needs of employees?
Seepika:
See, the role of HR today has changed drastically, and you all have seen how it has transformed, and that HR has been the only function on which every function holder or business person has relied to think about how to make people sail through difficult times. The challenges before our HR leaders today are multiple.
I think there are many challenges, not a single one, whether it is making a multi-generational workforce work together, whether it is embracing diversity in workplaces and creating inclusive workplaces, or whether it is enabling people to adapt to technology at a much faster pace, which has never been presented with the speed of change. It is so fast today that to keep up with that and make your people adapt to those technologies for changes is a challenge. There is this element of fear about what artificial intelligence will do, managing all these perceptions, these fears, also at the same time managing engagement and productivity where multiple work arrangements are in place, whether it is hybrid, remote, fully in-office, and all these co-exist side by side.
So, HR is supposed to be a business enabler and a team champion all the time, whether the external environment is changing or not. And there is an age-old challenge that HR leaders have to face, a role that they have to play in attracting and retaining the top employees or critical folks at all levels. So that has always been there. Now, to address these challenges, HR leaders have to wear multiple hats. They should keep in mind that employees today no longer belong to the school of thought of conformity.
Rather, I say that employees today are coming from their talents and mindset. They’re very curious. They have existing information; they are questioning the status quo. They have ample choices about their career. They are curious about their well-being, about what the culture of the company is, and whether their futures are secure or not. And I think this is a good problem to have. We wanted our employees to be like that. We wanted the challenge of mindset. So, one thing actually leaders should keep in mind, and we all have to stay tuned for, is that no one-size-fits-all approach works with everyone. Every individual comes from a different context, and we have to create an environment that respects and embraces everyone equally. An environment where the uniqueness of an individual is ok to have. We appreciate that we are dealing with every individual with the same warmth.
So the progress that we are creating is not unique to a particular Gen. Z or a gig worker, but it is taking into consideration those baby boomers or Gen. X employees also. So creating more choices is maybe the solution. The moment we create more choices, we enable people to pick whatever is suitable for them. When designing benefits, we think that we can pick for everyone, but you know whatever you are thinking for the individual may not be their need at that point in time. Every individual may be in different life stages. Someone will be looking for a good lifestyle, whereas someone is looking to get married and for some small benefit. Someone is planning to have a family, they are looking for child benefits, or someone has elderly parents to take care of. They are looking for what kind of dependent care benefits we have.
So you have to create more choices while staying true to needs. But HR leaders also complain that we have a budget limit that keeps us grounded. We are limited by those things. So if we think beyond that, whatever is possible within the relevance of your scope of work. We are empowered, and we are in those positions and those places where we can influence people and can influence the business decision makers. If we start doing that kind of hat that you are in the influencer space, a lot of change can happen with that mindset. So I think that is something that HR leadership should always keep in mind to be able to meet all these multiple challenges.
Girish:
Superb. So let me get a little specific.
And the reason why I’m asking is that you’ve made your name for yourself for your great strategies, employee engagement rewards, and Brillio has become an employer of choice. So, is there anything specific that you want to tell how you have innovated your employee engagement programs at Brillio to create a better employee experience at your workplace?
Seepika:
See, I think that we are still working towards it, and everything that we are doing, we are trying to make it better than the year before. So there are a lot of things that we are working on, whether it is creating an environment that lets an employee be free to take up current choices that are not limited to their current role. So we are creating a complete talent reverse and tool that we are calling full Compass, which enables the employee to see all the job roles that are available in the organization, and he’s free to aspire for any cross-functional role as well.
And there are all kinds of roles; we have come up with a job architecture in place, which is a global job architecture as well as the competency framework that is associated with every role. Every unique role requires a set of technical, functional, and legal competencies. Every role also requires a set of proficiencies to be able to do that role effectively. So while an individual can assess where he’s currently having what kind of proficiency in the current role he’s doing, he’s also able to see what the gap is between the aspired role proficiency that he may want to do. So with that gap analysis, there is a lot of L&D work, learning and development initiatives that we are taking that help the coaching, the mentoring, and the job assignments that will help the employee to bridge those gaps in the proficiency that are there in the aspired role. So that is the enablement or capability enablement side.
On the same side, on the benefits part, we are celebrating the uniqueness of employees. We recently launched a benefit program globally, and we thought this year might be tough on the budgeting side, so we worked on creating more choices. We have brought in a lot of services for employees, whether it is telemedicine or financial wellness. So, recently we have started a program on financial wellness that enables employees to withdraw a part of their salary anytime in the month. We thought maybe all the good pay packages we are giving. But despite that, everyone’s needs are unique. So, whatever the context of an individual, why is he falling short before the end of the month? So it’s just a click of a button, and within a few seconds, you can withdraw some portion of your salary. You can also take on top of it if you have some potential emergencies.
At the same time, we have strengthened the overall insured benefits and non-insured benefits and provided a lot of add-on benefits, which are in the form of pregnancy care, elder care programs, parental insurances, and some OPD insurances and OPD benefits. We have brought these in for the first time with Brillio. And because we always keep listening to our employees, it’s not just one-way traffic; we listen, we ponder what can be done about it, and we go back to them with the solutions that we can do and the context that we are in currently. So, based on the employee feedback, we have come up with a lot of employee benefit programs. Now, on the engagement side, a lot of town halls and communication focus have been increased a lot, which is on the employee communication side. On the RnR practice, we are also in the process of revamping the complete RnR practices currently in the organization.
So far, we have been very generously doing the rewarded recognition, but it is still leadership-driven. What is happening is that some leaders have been really proactive in doing the recognitions, and some managers are really proactive, while some do appreciate employees, but they’re not able to express it. And probably that is the first moment of truth for an employee as the manager is dealing with his team. And so those experiences we are working on. We are working on creating first-time manager training and first-time manager programs. So that the cultural sentiment that we haven’t believed is an organization that has a very insurgent and entrepreneurial mindset in the organization. So that is replicated in every layer of the organization. So that is the cultural belief that we are working on. Also, we have very important values, that is, we care here.
So true to the sentiment of we care here, whatever we are doing, we keep that sentiment as a guiding North Star that keeps guiding us that it’s like employee care that we have to take care of not only for the employees, but for their dependents as well.
Girish:
That’s nice. That’s a very comprehensive benefit package that you’ve created. And even at AdvantageClub.ai, what we’ve seen, and we work with 1000+ corporates across the globe, is that you have to give them a choice. And that’s when actual utilization of a program begins. I think that’s wonderful work that you’ve done. We’re almost at the time, but I need one last thing from you. It’s like a quotable quote that I need from you, a mantra that you want to give to the young HR professionals, the HR leaders of tomorrow, that you want to leave them with and say, ” Hey, listen, follow this, and you will become a leader tomorrow.”
Seepika:
As I said, HR leaders or HR folks today are in a very empowered position. They are the change agents.
So we should utilize that spot very effectively. If not directly, use your superpowers to influence people around you to make that change happen. If you’re determined to do things differently, you can, and you will be able to be different from whichever domain of HR you’re working in. Instead of asking what organizational support I can get, you should ask how you can add value. And if you stay, if you try to stay relevant and stay hungry to do more, to keep learning from your employees, from your peers, from your surroundings, and what best practices other companies are doing, then you can always and obviously make a difference. So be excited to deliver results and outcomes and be in that frame till the time you’re in that spot. Utilize it to the full value and full potential of your own search. So keep adding value and keep learning. That could be my mantra.
Girish:
Super, this session has been so wonderful.
There are so many nuggets of wisdom that we can get from them, and I’m sure our viewers will love this. Thank you for taking the time to speak to us and share your journey with our listeners.
Seepika:
Thank you so much, Girish. I really enjoyed being on your show.
Concluding thoughts
Our conversation with Seepika Singhal has been a masterclass in adaptive leadership, grounded values, and continuous reinvention. From growing up in a humble household to leading global talent strategies across industries, Seepika’s story reminds us that no professional journey is ever linear—and that’s where the beauty lies. Her approach to rewards, anchored in fairness, flexibility, and data-driven impact, provides HR leaders with a clear framework for creating meaningful employee experiences. And above all, her emphasis on learning from every role, person, and situation is a lesson for all of us striving to evolve in the ever-changing world of work.
**This podcast was recorded during Seepika Singhal’s tenure at Brillio and published on YouTube (2023).
