Human Resources accidentally happened to this HR Leader!

It is said, whatever happens, happens for a reason and all our past experiences actually bring us to where we are today and it is always for our good.

Something similar happened with Rucchi Awasthi, Director – People Success, Shipsy, when she was exploring options just after completing her Master’s in English. With no prior experience in Human Resource, her move into the HR field was actually a “happy accident”.

It so happened that there was a consultant who was in touch with Awasthi’s husband and was working in the IT sector. Awasthi being very vocal with her thoughts gave some ideas to the consultant during a conversation which actually impressed him.

Just after this, the consultant offered her a role in the field of recruitment. “I thought it was a great idea, and that’s how HR happened to me,” said Awasthi.

At the very start, she joined an IT company as a Sourcer in Recruitment. Because of no prior experience as an HR, her initial professional journey was exceptionally challenging. “It was very difficult, if you do not understand the IT industry. It was pretty hard for me to understand the job description too!” said Awasthi.

Elaborating more about it, Awasthi cited an example by saying, “For example, if somebody says they want a storage engineer. I will not understand what the storage engineer is or if they want a solution sales person. So, it was a little challenging to understand these terminologies.”

Awasthi further shared that despite having many similar challenges in her journey, she was blessed with very good mentors in that organisation which helped her a lot.

After this, there was no looking back for Awasthi. Her prior educational background also contributed to this journey as she was able to carry out conversations, interviews in an excellent manner.

Setting foot in HR

Awasthi said she read a lot and whenever a JD came, she researched every word or terminology she couldn’t understand. These habits helped her sail smoothly through her journey.

With almost 20 years of experience so far, Awasthi is not only an HR professional but a certified POSH trainer and diversity and inclusion (D&I) advocate too.

Awasthi shared numerous studies that validate the importance of workplace diversity. “For instance, diverse teams are 87 per cent faster at decision-making and 70 per cent more likely to capture new markets. Inclusive companies are almost 2X more innovative. The same applies to the upper management as highly gender diverse leaderships are 21 per cent likely to outperform on profitability. More than 80 per cent of CEOs with D&I cultures notice increased profits. Clearly, diverse teams perform better. Having vivid viewpoints widens our perspective, and we must ensure this as HR professionals,” she said.

Connecting all the dots, she now strongly believes in the famous quote of Billionaire Richard Branson which says: ‘If somebody offers you an amazing opportunity, but you are not sure if you can do it, say yes – then learn how to do it later!’

Book recommendations for every HR Leader

Being an avid reader and traveller, Awasthi recommends every HR professional to read books like ‘The First 90 Days’, ‘Eat That Frog’, ‘The One Minute Manager’ and ‘Start With Why’.

Her favourite book is ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ by Paramahansa Yogananda.

To unwind, she just takes a few books on a nice solo holiday. “I love to do that, especially amidst the tranquil mountains of Bhutan or Himachal Pradesh,” Awasthi said.

Maintaining the perfect work-life balance

Despite being super-busy, Awasthi aces her work-life balance pretty well. With WFH in effect, she has blocked a dedicated time with her family for meals. “It is strictly a no gadget time. Another thing I try to follow is not to schedule meetings after 7 pm. Conversely, to ensure better collaboration with teammates, I take a small water cooler break at least once a day, wherein I call a colleague to check on how they are doing,” added Awasthi.

Awasthi feels inspired by Bill Gates. She feels as an HR professional, there is a lot to learn from Bill Gates. “His deep-seated humanitarian values, his constant pursuit of equality, and him being a strong ambassador of leaving the world a better place than we found it has always moved me,” she said.

She further said that with everything she does as stakeholders of ‘people success,’ she tries her best to imbibe Gate’s principles in her policies, values and employee engagement drives. “This has played a crucial role in fostering inclusion, eliminating bias and creating a company culture that’s bound to help people thrive,” Awasthi added.