Conversations with the Career Doctor
In this candid conversation with Dr. Saundarya Rajesh, Founder, Avtar Group, Sudhakshina Bhattacharya, President and CHRO of HDFC Ergo, emphasizes the importance of serendipity in career choices, transitioning from a desire for marketing to a fulfilling role in HR. She highlights her experiences, beliefs and leadership values that led her to where she is. Her approach towards inclusion encompasses understanding the system, it’s flaws, mending it, and accommodating changes in order to constantly re-work and restructure for a smooth, working whole.
Supportive Ecosystems for Women: The Love All Movement
Bhattacharya describes her nation-wide campaign, the Love All movement, that she now leads. The movement centers around a critical gap that she has identified, the lack of women allies for women. She recognized that women needed to support each other more actively in workplace settings. While men typical bonded during tea/smoke breaks, women found it difficult to network in these ways due to juggling multiple responsibilities and having therefore different lifestyles. To combat this, Love All was born. She highlights the general importance of coming together and forming such support circles that can be a great source of strength, compassion and support, very positively aiding workplace experiences and inclusion.
The initiatives she has led to enable this, from an organizational standpoint, involve creating regular sharing circles to enable women to come together, focusing specifically on new mothers, young mothers and women going through peak life events. She believes in enabling women to be a 100% at home and a 100% at work, rather than taking depleted energy between spaces and scrambling to integrate them, and all her initiatives are guided by this goal.
Career Challenges and Inclusion Philosophy
To Bhattacharya, a primary career challenge was to become ‘truly’ inclusive, and to appreciate diverse backgrounds, value systems, and expressions without judgment. This reflects the deep dive that Bhattarcharya has taken into the cause she champions. To her, career heartbreaks are an inevitable part of any professional journey, especially when organizations or people don’t align well. She suggests a ‘Monday morning test’ – when one loses excitement about going to work, she believes that it signals space for a change that needs to be made, or a challenge that needs to be addressed.
Workplace Culture and Generational Dynamics
Bhattacharya views Generational intelligence as a crucial diversity strand, while also observing that younger employees often make older employees feel like outsiders. She believes that Organizations need to drop sense of entitlement and adapt to what new generations bring rather than expecting them to fit existing culture. She highlights the need for a Reverse perspective, that can be brought about by realizing that new employees are choosing the organization, not just being welcomed by it.
The Importance of Receptiveness, Advice to Women Professionals
Bhattacharya highlights that women professionals could benefit from being open to receiving – both opportunities and blessings. She understands that women say ‘no’ to many things, to say ‘yes’ to workplace participation and this very real truth must be understood and recognized by employers, who must enable ecosystems that make women’s sacrifices worthwhile. The workplace should not be a battle, and she believes that organizations must work harder to enable and retain women in the workforce. From personal grit to shared glory, Sudhakshina’s story is a celebration of many journeys. Click Here
