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Nirmal VaqreshiChief Human Resources Officer

Personal correspondence

Make career opportunity possible inside the company

Chief Human Resources Officer India

I make career opportunity workable inside a manufacturer, connecting internal movement, job evaluation and technical progression with the resources managers must release.

The internal application process required a manager's approval before a colleague could interview for another role. I had supported that condition because manufacturing teams needed continuity. In a 2022 review, nine of twenty-one eligible applicants had been stopped at that point. Their managers described them as too important to release. The reason sounded complimentary, but the effect was to make their value in the current job a barrier to development. It made me question a policy I had helped preserve.

A company cannot promise a career beyond someone's current job while allowing that job's manager to close every exit. Nor should it tell a skilled technician that supervising people is the only way to progress. I want the opportunity to be real, the assessment to fit the work and the transition to have an owner.

Nirmal Vaqreshi

Open to Board appointments · Executive opportunities

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Company employees
360
March 2026; fourteen people-function colleagues through three leads
Company revenue
₹148 crore
FY 2025–26; ₹11.2 crore operating profit
People-function experience
30 years
Personnel administration to enterprise industrial people leadership

Career opportunity needs a route through the organisation, not only a statement of intent.

Nine of twenty-one eligible internal applicants were blocked from interview because their managers said they could not release them. Our internal vacancy process looked open on paper, yet access depended on the person who would carry the resulting vacancy. I had supported that approval step as a practical protection for production. The review showed how easily a short-term resource concern could become an indefinite limit on somebody else's career. We separated permission to enter assessment from the later decision about a workable transfer.

I lead the people function at Pelqethi Industrial Gaskets in Raipur. We manufacture cut industrial gaskets and converted sealing-sheet products, with 360 employees in March 2026 and ₹148 crore FY 2025–26 revenue. My fourteen colleagues work through three leads within ₹3.9 crore annual function expense. I report to CEO Sonal Derqathi, while operations head Vivek Nalqeshi and specialist teams retain authority for production, technical suitability and safe deployment. People policy has to work with those responsibilities without making them an unexplained veto over opportunity.

The other cases examine how the organisation describes work and progression. Fourteen of 118 job evaluations had relied on the incumbent's tenure rather than the job's requirements. A separate review found seven of eighteen experienced technicians wanted technical development rather than a supervisory role. We reconsidered the evaluation basis and built a small technical progression route, accepting the expense, the work needed to assess candidates and the cases that remained unfinished. I do not treat a revised framework or an invitation to apply as evidence that every colleague has received an improved outcome.

Eligibility reached the interview without deciding the transfer

All twenty-one eligible internal applicants entered assessment after the release veto was removed. Seven were selected; five transferred and two still needed an agreed transition at the twelve-week review.

A job grade needed the work behind it

Fourteen of 118 evaluations were reviewed because personal tenure had influenced the role assessment. Nine remained in their bands and five changed after job-based evaluation, with individual pay handled separately.

Technical progression did not require becoming a supervisor

Seven of eighteen experienced technicians preferred a technical route. Two senior technical role types were created; five colleagues were appointed after assessment and two still needed further evidence.

Current focus

I am making career discussions more precise about what can change, who decides and what resources a transition requires. A sending manager needs a workable handover, a receiving manager needs evidence of capability and an employee needs an intelligible route that does not depend on an unspoken favour. My own earlier support for manager permission is part of the record because a CHRO should be able to revisit a policy once its effect becomes clear.

Conversations I welcome

I would explore a people-leadership mandate or a first compatible outside board contribution in an industrial business examining its workforce capability. I hold no equity or statutory seat. Further governance preparation, relationship review and employer consent would be required, with twenty-four proposed days assessed against the actual work.

The leadership record

Trusted with consequential decisions.

Formation

  • Bachelor of Arts in SociologyTerqashi Social Studies College · 1996
Nirmal brought us the employees who were still waiting for a transition, alongside the policy change. That made the remaining responsibility visible instead of treating the announcement as completion.
Sonal DerqathiChief Executive Officer, Pelqethi Industrial Gaskets
The full record ↗

Contact

I would explore a people-leadership mandate or a first compatible outside board contribution in an industrial business examining its workforce capability. I hold no equity or statutory seat. Further governance preparation, relationship review and employer consent would be required, with twenty-four proposed days assessed against the actual work.

  • Board appointments
  • Executive opportunities
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