"In HR, understanding the big picture, empathy, strong interpersonal skills, resilience, and ethical decision-making are essential for effective management and trust-building."
In this episode, we welcome Sapna Pathak, an HR luminary and co-founder of HRXcelerate. With a storied career spanning LatentBridge, Cogoport, PayU India, and Bank Novo, Sapna shares her insights on HR innovation, diversity and inclusion, and the impact of technology on the workplace. Her academic background from IIM and Delhi University adds depth to our exploration of the evolving HR landscape. Join us for a captivating conversation with Sapna, a visionary in shaping the future of work.
This episode showcases Sapna Pathak, HR visionary, discussing transformative HR practices in startups. She emphasizes diversity, empathy, adaptability, and the importance of mental health in creating effective workplaces. Sapna offers insights on scaling globally, talent development, and embedding DEI into HR strategies, providing a roadmap for HR professionals and leaders to drive organizational success and foster a culture of continuous learning and well-being in a dynamic HR landscape.
Episode Highlight
Follow: Sapna on Linkedin
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Ipshita Sharma
About Springworks:
Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes:
SpringVerify— B2B verification platform
EngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company culture
Trivia — a suite of real-time, fun, and interactive games platforms for remote/hybrid team-building
SpringRole — verified professional-profile platform backed by blockchain, and
SpringRecruit — a forever-free applicant tracking system.
Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.
"In HR, understanding the big picture, empathy, strong interpersonal skills, resilience, and ethical decision-making are essential for effective management and trust-building."
In this episode, we welcome Sapna Pathak, an HR luminary and co-founder of HRXcelerate. With a storied career spanning LatentBridge, Cogoport, PayU India, and Bank Novo, Sapna shares her insights on HR innovation, diversity and inclusion, and the impact of technology on the workplace. Her academic background from IIM and Delhi University adds depth to our exploration of the evolving HR landscape. Join us for a captivating conversation with Sapna, a visionary in shaping the future of work.
This episode showcases Sapna Pathak, HR visionary, discussing transformative HR practices in startups. She emphasizes diversity, empathy, adaptability, and the importance of mental health in creating effective workplaces. Sapna offers insights on scaling globally, talent development, and embedding DEI into HR strategies, providing a roadmap for HR professionals and leaders to drive organizational success and foster a culture of continuous learning and well-being in a dynamic HR landscape.
Episode Highlight
Follow: Sapna on Linkedin
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Ipshita Sharma
About Springworks:
Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes:
SpringVerify— B2B verification platform
EngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company culture
Trivia — a suite of real-time, fun, and interactive games platforms for remote/hybrid team-building
SpringRole — verified professional-profile platform backed by blockchain, and
SpringRecruit — a forever-free applicant tracking system.
Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.
Hello and welcome to the Shape of Work, a podcast series by Springworks. My name is Anoop and I am your host. Each week, we'll be talking to top people managers across the world on the future of work and how it's shaping our workplace. So sit back and get ready to find out more from these movers and shakers, as we have a no-holes bar. Anything goes. Conversation with them about their journey, their insights, their thoughts, most importantly, their ideas and vision for the workplace of the future. Join in on the conversation, leave a comment and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 2:Hi everyone. So today we have Ms Sapna Pathak with us. She is the co-founder at HR Accelerate. Hi, sapna. How are you? Hi? I am doing well, thank you. How are you, pritap? I'm good, too, thank you. Welcome, sapna. Thank you Thanks for having me Great. We are so glad you joined us today. So, sapna, you have a rich experience of working with industry giants in various leadership roles. Can you share more about your journey so far?
Speaker 3:Yes, so my professional journey spans over two decades, with a predominant focus on HR. For the past 17 years. It has been diverse. I commenced in the financial services industry and transitioned to HR, IT consulting, and then joined the startup world. So the initial decade my expertise primarily revolved around talent acquisition, where I honed my skills across various industries, but in the last seven to eight years I've been overseeing N2 and HR. I served as an HR leader in distinguished organizations like pay you bank, nobo, and a logistics startup was the last one. Presently, I'm in the startup, in a process of setting up my own HR consulting venture.
Speaker 3:My conviction stems from a deep understanding that high growth startups and mid-sized organizations face distinctive needs in establishing and optimizing their HR practices, and with my extensive experience in initiating HR teams from scratch and nurturing and enabling talent, I believe that I can empower startups with strategic HR solutions, and hence I set up HR Accelerate, where my focus is not just on setting up the entire HR functions but also on aligning these functions with founders and CEO's vision of culture and performance. So I recognize the common struggle that CEOs and founders face right. They are often driven by boundless passion, but they often grapple with HR intricacies while staring their startups towards success. So HR Accelerate steps in into streamlining HR processes. Enable founders to direct their attention more on the critical aspects of product growth strategies, and we take care of rest.
Speaker 2:So that's a great project that you have picked up now. All the best with this. I'm sure it's going to be a great experience for you.
Speaker 3:Great thank you.
Speaker 2:Also with almost two decades of experience, and you are someone who has been recognized as top 100 HR professionals under 40, what have been the key milestones and learning experiences that have shaped your approach to talent acquisition and management?
Speaker 3:Sure, so I think I've been very fortunate enough to be getting the career opportunities that I got, and not to forget some of the great managers I had where they were genuinely interested in my growth and learning.
Speaker 3:So if I talk about my initial 10 years of my career, where the focus was primarily on talent acquisition, I developed a keen eye for identifying and attracting top-tier talent. So this foundational experience laid the groundwork for understanding the intricacies of matching individuals with the right roles in an organization, and with that, I led various initiatives for improving efficiencies and effectiveness of tier function as a whole. Then, when I transitioned into HR, from talent acquisition, that actually helped in terms of broadening up my perspective and managing the entire employee lifecycle, which actually deepened my understanding of HR as an enabling function to the business. And when I worked as HR leader with the three startups, it actually exposed me to complexities of managing diverse teams and implementing strategic HR initiatives at scale. And now embarking on my entrepreneurial journey and setting up my own HR venture is the latest milestone in my career and I think with this I'll be able to create a bigger impact.
Speaker 2:Great. Also, from your experience, how did you approach the challenge of taking organizations from zero to one in terms of talent strategies, especially on a global scale?
Speaker 3:Sure, so I think this, first of all, in was understanding the organizational goals, the organizational objectives, and then also understanding the regional, local nuances and fostering a culture which is consistent and aligned across all the locations. This actually includes defining core values, defining core value behaviors, rituals that can help make those core values a part of the DNA of the organization. Then identifying skills or roles which are critical for global success is extremely important. And then setting up processes, sops to ensure consistency, and crafting a global brand story to become employer of choice. And then I think there are things like performance management, designing global onboarding, ensuring compliance with local regulations and continuous evaluation and adjustment based on KPIs and feedback. I think all of this really help in terms of scaling up organizations from zero to one.
Speaker 2:Right, definitely I agree and relate to all of your points here. Also, sabna, you are a diversity and equity and inclusion ally and champion. How do you integrate diversity, equity and inclusion strategies into talent acquisition and management practices and can you share a successful example where your efforts in promoting DEI have positively impacted organizational culture and performance?
Speaker 3:Sure, so I think, first of all, it's very important to embed DEI as a part of organizational DNA rather than just treating it as a one-off initiative, as it doesn't work that way Because a lot of organizations are used to treat it as an initiative and it never helped.
Speaker 3:But when I worked with one of the organizations, in everything that we were doing be it data practice policy, any strategy we were thinking of we made sure that everything is inclusive. We have rituals, we have policies. Everything is being built from everyone's perspective. So any program, any initiative really helped in thinking about a diverse perspective and covering all the employees, because it's a no brainer that a diverse workforce improves company products and thereby profitability. And then, in terms of an example, in one of the organizations I worked for, so, rather than focusing on specific hiring quotas, we actually prioritized building a diverse talent pipeline. So we were trying to fix the input so that we have the desired output. So, for example, incorporating diversity metrics into recruiters core cards helped in fostering gender parity, as was seen in our approach, and it resulted in a more diverse and an inclusive workforce.
Speaker 2:That is definitely an innovative approach. Also, as a part of a leadership role in talent development, we see that talent development is a crucial aspect of HR. How did you design and implement talent development strategies, especially considering the diverse roles within an organization?
Speaker 3:Sure, In my opinion, you know, talent development strategies involve identifying skill gaps, then crafting programs for learning, upskilling and providing mentoring opportunities, and also designing individualized learning journeys. This holistic approach not only addresses the current needs, but also fosters a culture of continuous learning, empowering individuals to grow in alignment with their unique career paths as well as aspirations. So I believe this is extremely important and one of the reasons why you're able to retain your top talent, because the learning and upskilling becomes continuous Right correct, Definitely.
Speaker 2:That is really crucial. You know that every employee should have the opportunities to learn and develop. Also, talent development brings us to culture. I wanted to know maintaining a good culture brings us to ensuring care of the mental health of employees as well. So we would like to know from your experience in leadership roles specifically, how can the firms integrate mental health support and awareness into the HR and talent management practices? Sure, sure.
Speaker 3:So I truly believe that employees mental health has a direct impact on their motivation and their ability to perform or give their best performance. Employers can be proactive in terms of providing safe space for employees to open up and talk about their mental health. I think that's the first one, which I think is extremely important. Secondly, providing them with tools that can help them identify early signs of depression, anxiety, stress, burnout, and then sensitizing all employees on how they can watch out or look out for their colleagues going through such challenges and how they can help them cope with it. What to say, what not to say. And in terms of providing support, can there be a 24 into 7 helpline? Can there be some therapy sessions that the employees can avail, or even meditation or self-awareness sessions that can really help them? And, lastly, I think providing unconditional support to employees and helping them in their journey to heal can lead to a more empathetic workplace.
Speaker 2:Definitely, those are some great practices we all should definitely incorporate to make sure the employees have all the support that the organization can provide. Also, sabna, I wanted to know are there any specific areas within HR or talent acquisition that you believe will become increasingly important for organizations to focus?
Speaker 3:on? Yes, I think the one I already spoke about, which is employee growth, learning opportunities that we provide them becomes very important in nature. Not just in nature, but it helps in terms of attracting top talent as well. Then, providing there was platforms, opportunities for continuous learning, not only aids in retention motivation, but also cultivates a culture of ongoing development and happy employees stemming from such initiatives become powerful advocates, they become brand ambassadors and attracting top talent becomes much easier.
Speaker 2:Definitely. I think we all should focus on this Also. Sabna, you have heard the positions of hair of talent acquisition, vice president, director and other leadership roles. I wanted to know. Leadership styles often evolve, so how would you describe your leadership style now and what certain changes have you made over the years to adapt to different organizational cultures?
Speaker 3:So, if I talk about my current leadership style, it leans more towards urban leadership, emphasizing empowering others, and over the years, I have refined my approach, incorporating a balance of empowerment and occasional assertiveness to ensure timely delivery and preventing complacency. It also involves genuine investment in terms of enabling, empowering, supporting team members, enriching experience, providing them more opportunities and enriching experience in terms of making decisions, and this can actually help in, you know, staring their careers towards success. So, overall, you know that has been my style.
Speaker 2:I think that's a great style. Great leaders often have great teams under them and bring us the organizational success we aim to achieve. Also, Savana, you have been recognized as LinkedIn's top voice for HR consulting. Can you share with us a quick tip or strategy that you believe has contributed to your success as a prominent HR voice on LinkedIn, especially in terms of engaging your audience and fostering meaningful connections?
Speaker 3:I think it's important to use LinkedIn not just as a platform to network, but also to influence others. That's what I've been doing, so consistently talking about issues involving more people. It not only helped increasing more visibility for myself, but also helped in engaging more with the right audience. It's a great platform also to build our own personal brand. Higher levels of engagement can be done through consistently writing blogs, posts, posts, sharing views on others' content and also contributing to some of the LinkedIn articles. So that has been the mantra for me. I would say that engaging more and engaging more people talking about issues which are ongoing. That has really worked.
Speaker 2:Great to know that and congratulations on being the top voice for HR consulting at LinkedIn Also, sabna. Before wrapping this up, I wanted to ask, reflecting on your journey, are there any lessons learned or insights that you would like to share with those who are looking to follow a similar path in HR and talent management?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. There are many lessons that I've learned, but a few key lessons that are standard for those aspiring in HR and talent management. First one is the ability to see the bigger picture, because it really helps in crafting effective strategies, having open communication, asking more questions and understanding the business priorities. That's very important. The next one, I would say authenticity. It plays a pivotal role in building fulfilling work relationships and that actually helps in achieving better results as well.
Speaker 3:Then strong interpersonal skills is very important for effective communication and relationship building, because, being in HR, you have to have high level of empathy to understand and address the diverse needs of individuals within the organization. Then there are things like staying oppressed with industry trends, technological advancements, staying on top of what's happening in the industry. Resilience is another one which is very important in handling challenges and adapting to dynamic work environments. Being adaptable, open-minded, enables you to navigate diverse organizational cultures successfully. Then ethical decision-making, upholding integrity and transparency to build trust and credibility within the organization. I think these are some of the very important lessons that I've learned and helps you become a well-rounded and effective HR professional.
Speaker 2:Those definitely are some great words of wisdom, sabna. Thank you for sharing those with us. I'm sure these will be very beneficial to our listeners. Thank you for your time today. Thank you so much for inviting me, thanks a lot.