From observing learning to leading the people function

Mandate

Connect recruitment, capability and working conditions to the responsibilities employees are expected to carry.

Outcomes

• Secured six additional weeks of practice for 29 colleagues, with a planned ₹18 lakh cost
• Revised a promotion exercise applied to 53 candidates; fourteen ultimately appointed
• Funded seven return-to-work pilots with an annualised ₹9.6 lakh cover provision
• Maintained senior hiring checks despite an influential referral and a longer vacancy

Decisions in context

As CHRO I have to decide when a people measure is sufficient for a business decision and when it leaves an essential question unanswered. Course completion, a promotion score or an approved working pattern can each conceal a responsibility that someone still needs to carry. I lead through four functional heads rather than personally administering every case. The CEO and operating leaders retain their authorities, and I present significant people matters to the board's people committee. I am neither a director nor a member of that committee. The cases here occurred in this appointment and retain the cost of choosing a more defensible course. Our staffing timetable changed, assessments took longer and a senior vacancy stayed open. The role has taught me that a people function needs the authority to explain those consequences clearly, as well as the discipline to remain within its own remit.

Reason for the move

Current executive appointment; exploring a limited first board contribution after preparation and consent.

Mandate

Provide a consistent employment process while recognising the different demands of branch and central roles.

Outcomes

• Established a shared evidence record for senior selection
• Required an operating owner for changed working arrangements
• Developed people partners able to explain exceptions without exposing private employee details

Decisions in context

The director title described my functional seniority and did not appoint me to the company's board. I reported to the COO and coordinated recruitment, development, people operations and partnering. The central challenge was making our processes consistent without pretending that an office serving local clients had the same daily constraints as a central support team. I asked colleagues to document the actual reason for an exception and identify who could approve it. That work included senior recruitment, where informal introductions could otherwise obscure the evidence still needed. It also included changed working patterns, where a sympathetic promise could move work to another employee without agreement. I learnt to discuss the operating consequence before describing a policy as successfully implemented. The subsequent CHRO appointment expanded my reporting relationship and accountability; it did not erase the responsibilities of the managers carrying out the work.

Reason for the move

Promoted to CHRO as the company gave the people function direct executive-level accountability.

Mandate

Bring employment decisions closer to the work, coverage and supervision requirements of each office.

Outcomes

• Introduced role-specific coverage reviews for leave and staffing changes
• Connected recruitment requests with available supervision
• Made reasons for appointment and development decisions easier to explain

Decisions in context

Moving into business partnering made me responsible for conversations that could not be settled in a classroom. Managers wanted people quickly, employees wanted a clear explanation of decisions and the organisation needed service to continue while colleagues learnt or took leave. I spent time in offices to understand how the work moved through a day. That helped me distinguish a genuine coverage constraint from a habit that nobody had revisited. My team supported recruitment and employee relations, but managers remained responsible for their operating decisions. I became more careful about the promises we made to candidates and returning employees because those promises needed a supervisor and a workable timetable behind them. The appointment also taught me to record a decision without recording every private detail disclosed in reaching it. That balance later became central to my approach to board reporting on people matters.

Reason for the move

Promoted to lead the wider human-resources function.

Mandate

Translate role requirements into useful practice while keeping regulatory and operating decisions with their accountable functions.

Outcomes

• Replaced attendance-only reporting with observed role exercises
• Developed language-sensitive practice for branch service situations
• Documented the handover from learning to supervised operating work

Decisions in context

This was my entry into financial services, and I had to learn the boundaries of the people function before claiming expertise in the business. Compliance colleagues explained the qualifications and obligations relevant to different roles. Operating managers showed us where a misunderstood instruction or an incomplete record could create a problem. I used that knowledge to design practice, not to issue my own interpretation of permission to perform regulated work. Our small team also worked across the languages used in the offices. I wanted an exercise to reveal a misunderstanding that could be corrected, rather than reward a participant for memorising our preferred wording. Over time we improved the record passed to the receiving manager, showing the situations practised and the support still needed. The next move grew from seeing that learning could not be separated from the staffing and employment choices surrounding it.

Reason for the move

Moved into business partnering to connect development with recruitment and employment decisions.

Mandate

Organise practical learning and give adult participants usable feedback on their work.

Outcomes

• Added observed tasks to course feedback
• Coordinated employer discussions about the capabilities behind entry-level jobs
• Progressed from session administration to programme coordination

Decisions in context

I joined the institute four months after completing my psychology degree. At first I organised rooms, materials and attendance records, then observed exercises and helped trainers prepare feedback. The participants brought different levels of formal education and confidence. A fluent answer did not always mean that someone understood a task, while hesitation did not necessarily mean that they could not perform it. I learnt to ask for a demonstration and to make feedback specific enough for the learner to act on. Later, employer discussions exposed the difference between a course completion document and a hiring decision. The institute could describe the work a participant had practised; it could not promise how an employer would assess suitability. I wanted to understand that next stage more closely. Moving to Dovareli allowed me to work inside an organisation that had to live with its selection and deployment decisions.

Reason for the move

Joined an employer's development function to follow preparation into actual workplace responsibility.