Quick 5 Interview with Ascend Telecom Infrastructure’s Bina Belani

Team AdvantageClub.ai

January 9, 2026

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As workplaces evolve and expectations shift, leaders like Bina Belani are redefining how organizations approach engagement, recognition, and employee well-being.

For Bina, wellbeing is not a competing priority but an integral part of strategy, achieved through careful planning and prioritising. She believes engagement is deeply personal and must be co-created with employees through trust, receptivity, and a genuine understanding of individual needs.

Here is the excerpt from the candid conversation with Bina Belani, Chief People Officer at Ascend Telecom Infrastructure. With more than two decades of HR leadership across Mining, Manufacturing, Technology, and Telecom, spanning platforms, products, and services, Bina has driven Transformative Human Resources, Talent Strategy, and Technology Implementation across industries. Beyond her professional pursuits, Bina is a multifaceted individual with a deep passion for continuous learning and innovation, with diverse interests.

She is the recipient of the Most Admired Women Award 2025 by AdvantageClub.ai in the Leader category.

Read below

Q1: On any given day, HR leaders are pulled in multiple directions. How do you prioritize the well-being of your employees while ensuring your strategic objectives are met?

A1. I use planning to my advantage. This can be a calendar, a to-do list, time blocking, everything that’s available to me. I get back to the basics, I list out 3-4 priorities that cannot take a backseat, and I follow them through. The well-being of those I work with will definitely find a place there. Well-being is a part of my strategy, so I don’t deal with 2 differing priorities there.

Q2: What does an engaged workforce look like to you? How do you embed engagement into daily culture instead of treating it as a one-off initiative?

A2. An engaged workforce, to me, keeps the engine running always. Engagement is personal; neither can one force it, nor create it without the involvement of the other. Even in times of passivity, an engagement drive has to be received by someone; hence, what we can work on is receptivity. How many people actually trust you, enjoy what you do, and then want to co-create along with you is a good metric to know.

Embedding engagement is not going to be as easy as finding a one-size-fits-all approach. You have to understand people within your teams, and then offer what is most valuable to them. This can range from empowerment, direction, support, resources, intellectual stimulation, or help, being a sounding board, providing assurance, whatever it takes. A deep understanding of people will help one stay grounded and successful here.

Q3: How do you integrate feedback from employees into your leadership decisions, especially when it comes to enhancing workplace culture or recognition programs?

A3. Feedback is data with a heartbeat. By simply asking them, I make it a two-way loop – listen actively, act visibly, and close the loop publicly. That builds trust and ensures employees see culture and recognition as something they shape, not just receive. I also find that tailored programs work well when designing workplace culture and recognition programs.

Q4: Personalized rewards are becoming the norm. How do you see the next generation of rewards and recognition systems evolving, and how can AI-powered tools help companies stay ahead in this space?

A4. AI-powered tools can ask intelligent questions and gather valuable data on what our people want. Depending on the organisation’s culture, one can then choose to offer a basket of rewards that the employee can choose from.

AI can also help understand best practices from the outside world, match them to employee sentiment through AI-powered surveys, and offer solutions that meet everyone’s needs.
These, however, should be real-time, predictive, and hyper-personal.

Q5: With all the advancements in HR technology and data-driven insights, where do you see the future of employee engagement and recognition going, and how do you plan to lead the charge in that space?

A5. The future is about precision and personalization powered by data, coupled with speed to execute, humility to change, and trust in data. Engagement will move from reactive pulse checks to predictive insights, with recognition seamlessly woven into day-to-day workflows. My role as CPO is to champion technology with empathy, while ensuring the right success is celebrated, right behaviours are recognised, and goals are aligned at all times.

Conclusion:

Bina Belani’s insights underline a future where engagement is not reactive but predictive, and recognition is not one-size-fits-all but hyper-personalized. As organizations adapt to rapid change, Bina’s approach shows that well-being, trust, and personalization will remain at the heart of successful engagement strategies.

We have many more such interesting conversations lined up for you. Stay tuned!

**This interview was conducted during Bina Belani’s tenure at Ascend Telecom Infrastructure.