“Management is nothing more than motivating other people.”

– MANASI RATHOD

• Tell us a bit about yourself? What exactly you do?

Well..!I am very passionate and an innovative Human Resource Professional with an experience of more than a decade in driving strategic HR business partnering and organisational transformation to make it a better place to work.                   

As an HR, I have been involved in recognising talent within the employees, organising various strategic development, organisational transformation, employer branding, multiple employee engagement programs.

Having HR qualities within me, meeting people and solving their problems have become an important part of my life.  Listening without judging is what I personally follow.

Other than work, I love to play adventurous challenging games, travel, meeting new people and experiencing their culture is also what I crave for…. J

I praise Lord Shivaand have deep inspirational attachment towards Lord Shiva since my childhood.

• Why is HR important for start-ups?

 Startup itself means it’s a new start and when you are doing anything new, you always end up facing various challenges, be it any business in any market.

In such challenging phase HR helps the entrepreneurs to attract and manage the best talent for the organisation and focus in setting up themselves in the market by supporting in various factors like talent acquisition, organisation structure, programs and policies and creates the right fit for the organisation.

My best strategy is to connect the dots between the hearts and minds of the people within an organisation and have seen tremendous successful results as an outcome.

• Have you worked globally, how important is cross-cultural understanding?

Yup, I have worked for global organisations and dealt with people having different culture, values and attitude towards their work.

According to me, knowing various cultures and people needs around the Globe is very crucial. This has a major impact when a business or an organisation wants to expand themselves with diverse locations. 

Every country has their respective rules and regulations for any organisation to initiate a setup. Having knowledge of the localities culture and their interests would be the basic need and key factor that can help any organisation to kick start.

A Human Resource specialist plays a vital role in connecting these various locations by implementing global strategies, in turn helping the firm/organisation/employees to sync globally and smoothly perform the success story of their business.

I personally have worked with people from various locations with different mindset’s and believe me it’s very important to understand the differences and utilise it in a correct way to help a business have an impact in the Market.

• Tell us something about your first consulting project?

Hmm!! Interesting question… this reminds me of a great opportunity I came across in the HR world. 

I was quite young and just graduated, and this was my very first project, I was excited and nervous too as I had to work in transforming the organisation for 15 employees.

I started meeting the employees and understanding their work, expectations and various other details. After all these details were gathered, I sat back and prepared a strategy and it took me almost a week to create an action plan.

Later, I explained the issues and discussed the broader action plan with the owner of the company which included implementation of few new HR policies & programs, working on the incentive percentage & such meaningful changes. He was quite happy and excited with the strategy. 

After an hour of discussion, we decided to implement the action plan I had prepared.

Upon the announcement of new strategy, slowly and steadily the atmosphere in the work place was changing. People were happy with new policies and the smiling faces made the environment more cheerful and sparkling. In just two months, the business achieved the highest sales in record.

This opportunity gave me confidence that I am walking on the right path and the owner appreciated me for the effort I put into his small firm to get the unexpected results.

• Can HR help with employee engagement?

To be honest, HR role one of the important functions is to ensure employer- employee engagement. 

HR plays a vital role in connecting these ends to each other, finally resulting to a strong base. According to me, it is very important to know how much an employee is engaged to the job. 

Yes!! Employee engagement is not just the fun outing, that’s just the part of it, but it also includes the different programs, policies and other initiatives which help employees align with the business objectives. 

Every Individual wants to contribute, a HR helps them to align and understand their role in an organisation.

• Finally, what advice do you have for aspiring HR Professionals?

Per my experience, I would say Human Resource group is a Pillar of any organisation having ability to enhance a positive work culturewhich would be beneficial for both, the organisation and its employees.

With power comes responsibility, use this opportunity in the right direction to benefit the individuals & organisation you come across. 

As rightly said by Doug Conant: 

“To win the marketplace, you must first win the workplace.”