It’s always We over Me

With over two decades of experience as an HR professional, Amit Sachdev. Chief People Officer, TATA Insights and Quants (Tata iQ), believes that in the world of customization and super-specialisation, professional institutions have key roles to play, not just in terms of ramping up the curriculum to generate industry-ready now talent but also youngsters that take on a whole new world with a deeper understanding of age-old ethics, the all-important demarcation between what goes and what doesn’t. And even as he discusses his wish list for talent, he is firm about grounding it in the eternal TATA ethos: Community first. Simply put, skill counts-but so do empathy, communication and an ability to reach out. So yes, individuality is a great thing, but so is the willingness to give back.

"Think, Build, Execute, Maintain and Community (give back) are the key elements as our capability. In short, it’s all about the community-the very foundation of the Tata legacy"

- Amit Sachdev

Corporate Citizen: Please walk us through your early years-upbringing, childhood, family etc. What made you take up a corporate career?

Amit Sachdev: I come from a business family background, from the city of Jamshedpur. I graduated from Pune Symbiosis, followed by my PG in personnel management from Bharatiya Vidyapeeth, an MPM degree, so to speak. I was working parallelly-so a corporate career was always on the cards since I left home for higher studies. I happened to move into my first job 22 years back when the placement scenario wasn’t that great. But I was picked up on off-campus and started my first stint in the field of Human Resource for textile manufacturing with the Trident Group, Abhishek Industries. It was a learning curve in many ways, and I never looked back. After those first 2 years in manufacturing, I have always been in sun-rise industries namely Business Consulting, ITeS and It Product – Hardware and Cloud Computing and then Big Data Analytics organization ABC Consultants followed by Dell and then VMWare and now setting up a Big Data Analytics Centre of Excellence for Tata Group in Bengaluru. While we are Bengaluru based, we are by the Tata and For the Tata – our aim is to be present in all possible industry/domain.

CC: The focus of your Center of Excellence-in a nutshell.

This is very unique opportunity as organizational set up. We are the group’s data office incepted with the simple belief in mind that we are ‘by the Tatas, for the Tatas’. Our work is spread into three formats: Analytics as services (AAS), analytics as solution (AAS) and analytics as an asset (AAA). Our go to market is to focus within the Tata group which is over 100+ companies, a diverse industry representation broadly clustered under assorted fields right from automobile to software. Think, Build, Execute, Maintain and Community (give back) are the key elements as our capability. In short, it’s all about the community-the very foundation of the Tata legacy.

CC: How rewarding/challenging has been a career in HR? How do you see it changing in the days to come?

As I look back, I can see that the term which lately seems to have acquired great traction in the corporate world-VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world has been something I have been dealing with since my first job. (smiles.) Every job I change, I change the business and the landscape. So VUCA is a challenge I have always lived and thrived on. Every change simply reinforces the purpose to thrive and that has been a very rewarding journey- as it kept me to be ahead, rather than catching up-something I personally believe in.

CC: What were the learnings in the pandemic-a time that saw a very significant and strategic role in HR’s role?

This is exactly what I discussed in the seminar today. Last year, even as we discussed the impact on the people side of things, myself and our CEO and our leadership think tank team, reflected on the way we were engaging with employees. So, the first thing we started with was: how to live up to the core ethos that has always defined the brand Tata, namely Community First. As we know, the community cannot thrive without people in it. To that end, I am not just an HR person but Chief People Officer-that in a nutshell, reflects the change in my role and purpose. With that came new responsibilities and challenges-as well as opportunities to change. We made a lot of changes in our people processes and policies. For example, I believe-open to correction if I am inaccurate (smiles)- we are the first organisation to implement holidays for father’s birthday, mother’s birthday, and spouse’s birthday-inarguably meaningful and significant days in a person’s life. Like that, we have also simplified the people reimbursement processes. Instead of asking for documentation which can be a long-winded process, we have converted them into allowances. We have the highest-ever medical cover policies for our employees and above all -with a zero-discrimination approach: be it a fresher or the leadership, all of us have same medical benefits.

CC: That’s amazing. The Tatas have always been a class act, a breed apart. What does it mean to work for Tata? Was it something you always wanted to do?

There are two aspects to it (Money Or Meaning) . In any career, you need one of the two: either it’s money leading the way or the quest for meaning that’s keeping you grounded. All the work I did prior to joining the Tatas was all about managing my financial stability along with purpose to compliment. Once that was achieved, Tata brought in the deeper meaning to my career. And that sort of defines and demarcates the journey pre-Tata and post-Tata.

CC: What challenges do you see before HR in the days to come?

A large part of it is attracting talent that can deliver results, and not just focus on efforts: that’s the challenge. I am very positive that in the years to come we are going to get result driven talent and not just effort driven talent thanks to the new age institutions – Engineering, B-schools that have been alert and agile in adopting the latest collaboration tools to mitigate the pandemic, mindful of keeping their engagements with the students, focusing on deliverables and submissions without hampering quality. So, institutes have also played a key role in riding the change positively, a lot of result-driven acumen has come in. What’s more, the agility brought in by the pandemic has a lot of benefits for industry to exploit and leverage-because the focus of students and industry is now on technology and platforms (apps). Another aspect of the changes brought in by the recent challenges is that aspiration of talent has become very specific, but industry has not yet grown to a stage where a specific career can only be provided to a master in that space. For example: somebody who would want to join as a Compensation and Benefit (C&B) specialist may not get that role from Day One; an HR would have to be a generalist for a first few cycles of their career path before specialization can come in-wherein talent is currently aspiring to be that specialist from the outset.

CC: So, do you mean to say they need a reality check, a slowdown of aspiration?

This is neither of those-rather an opportunity for organisations to mature. Honestly, no one wants to be a generalist now. Look at it this way: everyone wants customised solutions. And who other than a specialist can give you a customized solution? You don’t expect that from a generalist, do you? So, the need of specialists will increase as will the need of customized solutions to deliver. So, here’s this gap to be addressed because the curriculum and academic are still on the generic or holistic side. Interestingly enough, we see some B-schools offering super specialisations. Earlier, we had dual specialisations-from mono to dual, but now the trajectory is moving towards super specialisations. This lead and lag need to be addressed-no question of a reality check. This where talent needs to be. This is where the future is and will be.

CC: Could you elaborate on what kind of super-specializations we are looking at?

HR is transforming just as business is: from process to product to digital. The more we will be engaging HR in transformation and digitalization, the super specialisations will look at bringing generational gap through customization in terms of algorithm driven customized policies. For example, in the days to come facial recognition /Voice Recognition for attendance will be the emergence than RFID/ Bio Metric, so the HR fraternity needs to build the capability and agility to understand different technologies and relate to ease of business purposes.

CC: Speaking of the current market situation, there was much talk of the Great Resignation-young talent resigning across the board looking for work that would bring them greater satisfaction. But then, rather quickly, the Great Resignation was also followed by the Great Disappointment as people discovered that a change in organization would not necessarily bring in the meaning that they seek. What do you have to say to this?

There are three aspects to this. The first is the employee, the second the corporates/ employer and the third, educational/professional institutions like Shri Balaji that have a key role to play. Corporates do not have a direct relationship with talent-it’s up to institutions to get them ready for the reality of the working force. Also, it’s up to talent itself to hop on the culture of the institution. So, talent on one side, industry on another and professional institutions on the third, playing a critical pivotal role. Even as businesses transform, institutions need to change the curriculum to make it industry-ready. The sooner the institutions do this, the better Gen Next will be ready to connect their aspirations with the business world. With the Great Resignation, the focus is back on a hundred-year-old debate: that of ethics. As I asked the audience during my talk: how many of us have done a course or internship project on ethics at the workplace with regards to decisions that impact one and one? I can’t stress enough how important this is frankly-and the institution is the first place that can work towards building this very important conversation.

CC: What are the qualities that you look for whilst hiring a technical person?

From a process point of view, we look at three things: the individual fit, the team fit and the organizational fit. If I put this together in an equation, technical talent needs to possess a problem-solving mindset-an ability to synthesize the information, put customer at the centre of the problem and solve the issues irrespective of customer demography. Second, empathy is very important given the brand Tata’s emphasis on Community first. Like we always say: It’s we over me. ability to articulate solutions/POV as communication skills are very important. Last but not the least, a long-term solution approach is important, not a one-time fix.

"Even as businesses transform, institutions need to change the curriculum to make it industry-ready. The sooner the institutions do this, the better Gen Next will be ready to connect their aspirations with the business world"

CC: What are the qualities it takes to make a good HR Professional? What are some of the misconceptions associated with being an HR person?

Honestly, this is a tricky question given it’s over 20 plus years since I started out. To address this, it’s fair to answer keeping the current circumstances and talent pool in mind as well as the needs of the future. First, an ability to deal with talent and people is of essence-as employees are the customers for an HR fraternity. Each person is unique, and a one-size-fits all is not the approach that will work. Thus, the HR fraternity / profession must have a problem-solving mindset with agility. Second, the ability to come up holistic solutions are important in two categories: one to run the business, one to transform the business, because business not only has to run today, it has to sustain 10’s and 20’s years hence. Lastly, it’s very important to possess the skill to relate compliances and governance to address the changing dynamics of government laws, especially when you are dealing with the needs and expectations of different generations. Similarly, HR qualities for a manufacturing set up would be different from HR qualities for Tech enabled companies. Thus, versatility keeping contexts and circumstances in mind are important.

To speak of misconceptions, frankly, I do believe the current generation is a very balanced one, relying on a judicious mix of transparency and open communication-despite the belief that they are not as respectful. If they are dealt with honesty and openly, respect is both ways and a bridge between generations.

CC: What else do you like to do beyond work? How do you relax and unwind?

My all-time favorite hobbies are playing cricket-that too in the role of opening bowler. That’s one of my passions. I have recently started trying my hand at golf-the very opposite to cricket, because cricket is all about wrist work and golf is about swing. So, this is a key change-and something I am adapting to. My newest hobby, though, is learning to be patient with my kids during their exam preparation.

CC: Do tell us about your family, sir.

My wife Vandana is an IT professional working with IBM, now Kyndryl. My elder daughter Adya is 12, named for Adishakti or the Goddess Durga and the younger Aarna- 8- named for the Goddess Lakshmi.

CC: This entire conversation about a work-life balance-would you say it’s a worthy cause to strive for?

Oh yes. I am totally in favour of it. We have not only reflected on it but also taken a few steps in that direction. Being an engineering organization focusing on big data we have introduced a hybrid work culture with Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday working-knowing that Tech engineering community don’t much like to be in office on Monday to attend meetings (smiles)-in fact, no meetings on Fridays and Mondays-both these days are work from home. The engineering community -which is 85 per cent of the company population-loves their weekends-Sundays tend to be late nights, so Mondays are not the days for coming to work(laughs.) Thankfully, a lot of festive occasions and key public holidays this year, just happen to be falling on Mondays and Fridays, so people will have good work-life balance. We have one of the highest leave benefits in the industry; our operations echo ‘Quality of Life’ mantra at the work place.

CC: What is the philosophy that you work and live by?

It’s always We-never Me.

CC: Isn’t that quite simply the Tata way?

Oh yes, it is.

TATA IQ AT A GLANCE

Tata Insights and Quants (Tata iQ), incubated as a division of Tata Industries Limited in April 2015, offers multi-sectoral advanced analytics and data engineering solutions using sophisticated predictive analytics and machine learning algorithms. As the website says, challenging assignments on offer to those who aspire to solve complex business problems.