The reviewer’s hours belonged in the account

I am Thomas Jorzethi, CHRO of the fictional Velqemi Power Studies in Dehradun. A utilisation report I had supported made our technical reviewers look less productive because it counted chargeable work and left essential assurance elsewhere. Across twenty-four reviewers, 1,180 of 1,600 recorded hours were chargeable and 420 were assurance. The 73.75% figure was arithmetically correct. Presenting it as a complete assessment of their contribution was my mistake. We changed the performance discussion rather than ask engineers to make necessary review disappear from their records.

My career began in staffing coordination in July 1997, after study in psychology and HR. I moved into power-engineering consultancy in September 2009 and became CHRO in January 2022. Velqemi now has 430 employees, seven offices and ₹137 crore FY26 fee revenue. I lead seventeen HR colleagues through three leads, with ₹2.9 crore FY2026–27 operating expense and a separate ₹1.1 crore approved change programme. CEO Anita Zarqani is my reporting manager; qualified engineering leaders own technical methods and acceptance. I have no statutory directorship or shareholding.

My cases concern the employment practices that support a professional firm's credibility. We replaced recruitment requests for previous clients' work with a common fictional exercise, recognised assurance effort without calling every hour efficient, limited named bid biographies to supported availability and consent, and revisited a hiring deferral after people had already accepted offers. These choices incurred costs and left some questions unresolved. They did not establish a power-system outcome, a universal employment rule or a causal retention gain. HR's contribution was to make the company's treatment of people compatible with the professional promise it expected them to deliver.

Current focus

Aligning employment commitments, professional review and commercial staffing claims before they become incompatible demands on the same people.

Conversations I welcome

One external board conversation about professional-service people practices, subject to consent, relationship checks and an achievable calendar.