Question 1: If you could choose a fictional HR character from a movie or ATV show to join your team, who would it be and why?
Answer: Sure, this is a fascinating question. To kickstart the conversation, I’d lean towards Doctor Strange. Why Doctor Strange? Well, because he wields these higher-order abilities, particularly magical powers like mind reading. And in HR, empathy is crucial. It’s about grasping what others are feeling and experiencing, which greatly influences how we shape our people’s practices to ensure exceptional experiences. So, Doctor Strange would definitely be a top pick for me.
Question 2: Talk to us one lesson you have learned from a mentor or a role model that has influenced your leadership approach.
Answer: I’ve had several mentors throughout my career, but one individual who truly stands out for me is someone I worked closely with during my engineering days before transitioning into HR. What really struck me about this leader was their humility, groundedness, and their consistent prioritization of the team’s success over personal accolades. Witnessing this form of servant leadership profoundly impacted me, and it’s a principle I’ve been deeply passionate about ever since. It’s something I’ve strived to embody in my career journey thereafter.
Question 3: Please talk to us in what ways the principles of design thinking be applied to enhance talent attraction and retention throughout the employee experience initiatives.
Answer: Yeah, it’s a great area for Pulkit to dive deeper into, and I’ll try to do my best to see whether we can address some of the questions out there. First and foremost, I think design thinking talks about keeping the person at the center of all your design practices. And I think in the HR field, keeping the employee at the center upstream while you even strategize your practices in terms of whether it be culture, process, any other intervention that you’re doing is going to be super important. So that’s a very key, I would say, principle that you can actually transfer over into the HR world.
Second is if you think about employees, often we sweep everything with a fairly generic sort of a brush. But if you think of employees, they’re not the same. Every employee, like a human being is going through different life stages. There is an employee who’s a returning mother. There’s a there’s an employee who has become a manager for the first time in their career.
So the second principle of design thinking, which is not only keeping the employee at the center, but secondly defining personas which are unique and these personas have different expectations or needs is the second pick. I would say principle that can be carried over.
Third is designing the success criteria upfront. When you’re solving for a particular persona and I gave the example of a returning mother, what are some of the needs and expectations? Clearly delineate all of these and once you do that, can you transfer these over to use cases? And in your strategy design, are you making sure that you’re addressing these use cases?
And how do you know that you’re successful at addressing these use cases? Are they clear, measurable criteria that you’ve defined upfront? So, I think some of these principles in design thinking can beautifully actually transform the way we think about the world of HR, in fact.
Question 4: How should one infuse design thinking principles into the ideation and execution phases of, you know, the HR strategies that one wants to create in pursuit of, you know, having a more human centric approach.
Answer: Yeah, Pulkit, the key phrase you mentioned, the human-centric approach, really resonates. A lot has been said about that area.
Continuing our earlier conversation, once you define all these personas upfront, you gather relevant data for each one.
Now, how do you do this?
You actually talk to the employees in these personas. It’s interesting to note that many organizations struggle at this step.
Do the Centers of Excellence within HR deeply understand the problems faced by each persona?
Take, for example, a new joiner. Their biggest concern is often, “How can I be successful in this organization?”
Every organization has its own culture and set of rules. When we analyzed Flipkart, we found that the biggest need for new joiners was understanding what it takes to thrive here.
We addressed this need by rethinking our new joiner assimilation process as a strategic initiative. This approach is crucial upfront, rather than downstream.
Secondly, employees are not all the same. They go through different life stages. There are returning mothers, employees transitioning into managerial roles, and so on. The second principle of design thinking is to define unique personas with different expectations and needs.
The third principle is designing success criteria upfront. Take the example of a returning mother. Clearly outline their needs and expectations. Then, translate these into use cases. In your strategy design, ensure that you address these use cases. Define clear, measurable criteria upfront to gauge success.
These design thinking principles can truly transform the HR landscape.
Question 5: Walk us through some instance while you have already given a view into the onboarding process, but please walk us through one more instance where design thinking not only influence but actually reshape the traditional HR process for for the better.
Answer: Absolutely, I’d love to delve into the benefits space a bit. As we engaged with various personas across Flipkart, one resounding sentiment that echoed loudly was the recognition that while our benefits package was comprehensive, it lacked the flexibility to cater to the diverse needs of our employees.
Individuals at different life stages, whether they were single parents, caregivers to in-laws, or facing other unique circumstances, expressed the need for a more tailored approach to benefits.
These insights prompted us to reevaluate and completely overhaul our benefits program. Thus, the Flex Bend program was born. This innovative initiative allows employees to customize their benefits using points, tailoring their package to suit their individual needs and life stages.
Whether it’s selecting from various insurance options or allocating points towards specific benefits, employees now have the autonomy to shape their benefits package according to their preferences.
The reception to the Flex Bend program has been overwhelmingly positive, with employees embracing the newfound flexibility and personalization it offers.
This transformative approach has not only met the evolving needs of our workforce but has also fundamentally shifted our perspective on how benefits should be designed and delivered.
Question 6: What strategies do you employ, or should one employ to ensure the employer brand aligns with the company’s values?
Answer: Transitioning to another crucial aspect, I believe it’s essential to take a moment to delve into the fundamental elements that shape every company’s journey – its origin story and values.
Every company, regardless of its size or industry, has a unique origin story, a reason for its existence. Along the way, most companies establish values, which I like to refer to as guiding principles. These values embody the behaviors expected of every employee, aligning them with the overarching purpose of the organization. It’s important to note that values are not interchangeable between companies; they are deeply intertwined with each company’s distinct purpose.
Why am I emphasizing purpose and values? Because your brand, in essence, is an external representation of these values. Think about renowned brands like Apple or Nirma. When you hear these names, specific attributes or characteristics immediately come to mind, reflecting their values and identity. If your employee brand fails to resonate with or align with your values, it can lead to significant challenges. All stakeholders – customers, partners, employees, and even alumni – should associate your brand with these values.
Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) serves as a powerful tool to communicate and reinforce these values consistently. When your EVP echoes your values, it strengthens your brand identity. It becomes a versatile communication tool, applicable across various interactions with stakeholders, whether they’re other brands, partners, customers, or sellers.
In essence, building a robust brand anchored in an authentic EVP is paramount. It establishes credibility and fosters trust, driving long-term success and growth.
Question 7: How should one measure the success and effectiveness of the current EVP program?
Answer: Yeah, so we briefly discussed the process of how brand EVPs come together. If we were to evaluate the effectiveness of an EVP, I would gauge it based on its ability to drive tangible business outcomes for various stakeholders. Let me illustrate this with an example. Imagine you’re engaging with a prospective candidate who is considering joining your company.
Through the EVP, you’re conveying a specific brand identity to this candidate, highlighting the reasons why they should choose your company. However, mere communication isn’t enough; the real test comes when the EVP translates into measurable impacts on key metrics. For instance, does it reduce the time taken to fill positions? Does it enhance the candidate’s Net Promoter Score (NPS) based on their experience during the interview process? Do they recommend your company to others, regardless of whether they were offered a position or not?
Quantifying the impact of the EVP by comparing metrics before and after its implementation is crucial. It’s essential to analyze if there’s a positive shift in these metrics post-launch. This approach allows us to assess the EVP’s effectiveness across different audience segments and personas, ensuring its relevance and impact are maximized throughout the organization.
Question 8: What is your perspective on the connection between employee engagement and overall business performance?
Answer: Pulkit, indeed, this is an area where there’s a wealth of literature available, isn’t it? It’s become an undeniable truth that happier employees directly contribute to happier customers. This isn’t merely a cliché; it’s a reality that we’ve witnessed firsthand in companies like Flipkart. At Flipkart, we prioritized employee engagement and continuously monitored employee experience through a process we called continuous listening, rather than just once a year assessments.
By closely observing the moods and sentiments of employees within specific functions or groups, we could strongly correlate their engagement levels with factors such as disengagement and attrition. Metrics like top talent attrition, overall attrition, and diversity attrition were directly impacted by employee engagement levels. A lack of engagement translated into higher attrition rates, resulting in tangible costs for the business.
Conversely, teams with higher levels of employee engagement consistently outperformed those with lower engagement levels in terms of key business performance metrics. We’re talking about actual top-line and bottom-line results here.
This correlation between engagement and business performance is well-established across various industries. So, regardless of the business you’re in, greater engagement invariably leads to more positive outcomes.
Question 9: Please walk us through how should one address the balance between professional growth opportunities and work life balance?
Answer: Pulkit, that’s another excellent question. One of the key insights we gained at Flipkart revolves around understanding what truly drives engagement. While factors like compensation are important, the underlying issue we identified is the need for a sense of belonging. Employees want to feel connected to their workplace and see it as a place where they can build a long-term career while continuously learning and growing.
So, how do we ensure that employees have ample opportunities for growth while maintaining a healthy work-life balance? In my view, it boils down to empowering the employee to a great extent and giving them the autonomy to make choices. At Flipkart, we defined careers as employee-owned, manager-facilitated, and organization-supported. This means that while the organization provides support in terms of coaching, mentorship, and various developmental tools, the ultimate decision-making power lies with the employee.
Our programs at Flipkart were intentionally designed to be opt-in, rather than mandatory. We wanted employees to feel empowered to participate based on their own career aspirations and personal circumstances. By adopting this approach, we not only enable employees to chart their own career paths but also respect their need for work-life balance. It’s about giving them the freedom to make choices that align with their individual priorities and goals.
Question 10: Please walk us through how generative AI assists in identifying potential skill gaps within an organization. I’m super sure this is causing a lot of headaches both on HR and people trying to train all the employees on the floor.
Answer: Certainly. Let’s delve into a concrete example to offer clarity. At Flipkart, we encountered a significant challenge: How could we develop a talent marketplace that accurately identifies an employee’s aspirations and guides them through the necessary steps to achieve their goals?
Consider this scenario: Imagine an engineer who wishes to transition into a data scientist role. Once this aspiration is declared, the next step is crucial: How can we surface relevant content, experiences, job opportunities, and skill requirements tailored to facilitate this transition? This is where generative AI can play a pivotal role.
Generative AI, with its expansive language models and vast repositories of data on various competencies, can be instrumental in identifying skill gaps. Instead of relying on manual curation by the learning and development team, which often draws from their own experiences, generative AI can dynamically generate insights based on comprehensive data analytics.
For instance, it can analyze the career trajectories of individuals who have successfully made similar transitions in the past. By leveraging this data, generative AI can recommend the most effective paths, highlight relevant experiences to pursue, and pinpoint the essential skills to acquire.
The beauty of this approach is its scalability. While I’ve provided one specific example, this methodology can be replicated across a myriad of scenarios within the broader context of career development. Whether it’s transitioning between roles, exploring new fields, or advancing within one’s current domain, generative AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we approach talent management and career progression.
Question 11: Talk about any piece of literature or any book that has shaped your leadership journey.
Answer: So, there’s this one book that I always find myself coming back to in conversations. Among many great reads, this one truly stands out for me in my professional journey. I’m referring to “Good to Great” by James Collins. What I really appreciate about this book is its comprehensive approach. It delves into various case studies and doesn’t focus solely on one aspect. It covers a wide range of topics including business strategy, leadership, culture, team building, and even IT.
The breadth and depth of insight offered in the book is remarkable. I believe its principles can be applied to any company, regardless of its stage of development. Particularly for companies transitioning from achieving product-market fit to striving for long-term sustainability, “Good to Great” provides invaluable guidance. Sustainability here isn’t just about environmental concerns but encompasses all aspects of business. It explores what it truly takes to establish enduring, exceptional companies.
There’s a certain magic in the book, in terms of its practical applicability and transformative potential.
Closing Notes
After listening to this discussion, it’s clear HR professionals face complex challenges in creating inclusive workplaces and boosting company success.
But using design thinking and AI could be game changers in how they manage talent and make employees happy.
So, what’s next?
HR pros need to think about how they can put these ideas into action in their own companies.
By focusing on keeping employees engaged, being open to change, and giving people the tools to grow, they can tackle these challenges head-on.
We’ve got plenty more episodes with amazing HR leaders insights coming your way to help you thrive in your HR career.
Subscribe to our newsletter for instant access of these episodes.