Personal correspondence

Employment terms must survive the working day

Chief Human Resources Officer India

Employment terms should explain what the company owes a colleague and what that colleague is authorised to do.

I completed a sociology degree at Pernuli Arts College in May 2002 and joined Nerquvi Field Services in Cuttack the following month. The business coordinated regional installation and maintenance teams. I worked in personnel administration under an HR manager, maintaining joining records, answering routine questions and following unresolved items with payroll and supervisors. My first lesson was that an employee's difficulty could sit between two functions. A manager could have approved a journey while finance had not released the money, leaving the person expected to travel to solve the gap privately.

I look for the practical obligation behind an employment statement. Service credited in an offer should survive entry into a new system. Required travel should not depend on an employee's private cash balance. A job title should help a colleague understand their responsibility rather than invite work they are not qualified to perform.

HR colleagues: 19; Three managers; ₹3.8 crore annual function expense
Company employees: 420; March 2026; eleven centres and outreach support
People-function experience: 24 years; Field-service personnel work to hearing-care CHRO

The employment record should carry the promise all the way into the working day.

I lead people work at Talquri Hearing Services in Cuttack. Our eleven centres and outreach teams support hearing-care services in Odisha. I lead nineteen HR colleagues through three managers and manage ₹3.8 crore annual function expense. The company employed 420 people in March 2026 and recorded ₹78 crore FY 2025–26 revenue. Its ₹28 crore compensation and benefits expense is distinct from my delegated function budget. I report to CEO Ranjan Mervqali and work alongside clinical director Anjali Zerquni. Professional assessment and care decisions remain with qualified colleagues under her leadership; my role concerns employment arrangements and the clarity of responsibilities.

I began in field-service personnel administration in 2002. I learned that a person's ability to complete an assigned task could depend on details absent from the formal job description: a travel advance, a manager's explanation or the way an earlier promise had been entered into a system. People partnering and learning administration broadened that view. I moved into hearing-care services in 2012 and became CHRO in 2022. I now have to make sure that a change in ownership, process or title does not quietly change what a colleague was told to expect.

Three decisions illustrate that responsibility. We restored agreed past-service credit for 29 of 84 employees entering through an acquisition. We introduced a controlled travel float after 32 of 75 reviewed field colleagues had personally advanced an aggregate ₹3.6 lakh for company travel. We replaced an ambiguous title used by 16 administrative colleagues with a description of their actual navigation and support work. Each change had a cost and required cooperation beyond HR. None establishes that the whole employment system is fair or that a title change proves professional competence.

The agreed service history had disappeared during transfer

Twenty-nine of 84 incoming employees had their service date reset for specified contractual company benefits despite written transfer terms. We restored the agreed basis and disclosed ₹18 lakh recurring cost plus ₹7 lakh of corrections.

Required travel was being financed from personal balances

Thirty-two of 75 reviewed field colleagues had advanced ₹3.6 lakh in aggregate. A controlled ₹8 lakh revolving float and a clearer approval route reduced the need for that arrangement without describing the float itself as an expense.

A shared title obscured different responsibilities

Among 36 roles described as hearing consultants, 16 were administrative navigation roles and 20 were qualified clinical posts. We separated the descriptions and retained clinical authority with the professional team.

Current focus

I am making employment changes traceable from the agreed term to the employee record, the resources supplied and the responsibilities communicated to colleagues and service users.

Conversations I welcome

I welcome people-leadership mandates in specialist service businesses and an initial board conversation where employment promises and professional boundaries deserve careful oversight.

The leadership record

Trusted with consequential decisions.

Formation

Bachelor of Arts in SociologyPernuli Arts College · 2002

Sasmita asked us to show the cost of the transfer terms we had agreed, even when the receiving system and integration budget suggested a simpler answer.

Ranjan MervqaliChief Executive Officer, Talquri Hearing Services

The full record ↗

Contact

I welcome people-leadership mandates in specialist service businesses and an initial board conversation where employment promises and professional boundaries deserve careful oversight.

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