“When you stand-by your employees, when you empathize and support them, they reciprocate”, says Sanjay Mathur, HR Development Director at Systra. 

Sanjay mentions that over his career he has seen the evolvement and growth of the HR function by leaps and bounds. From ‘Industrial Relations’ to ‘Personnel Management’ to ‘Human Resources’ and now “People and Culture’, a lot has changed in how the workforce is driven and encouraged. 

With his experience across industries and over the years witnessing this shift, he believes the key for success for HR professionals is to ‘keep pace with the change’. 

His valuable advice for early career professionals would be: 

➡️ To be open to learn – Reading is particularly helpful he says – whether you read offline or online. 

➡️ Always seeking help, guidance and feedback from peers, juniors and senior management.

➡️ Keep child-like curiosity to know more, understand better. 

➡️ Constantly upgrade your knowledge – don't wait people to nudge you, you would risk getting left behind. 

➡️ Have trust and faith in your organization – don't resort to quick fixes – look for quality and sustainability. 

➡️ Fundamentals are important so keep your foundations on any subject in your industry strong. 

➡️ Become an expert is more lucrative rather than being a generalist these days so develop deeper domain knowledge.

We at Athena Executive Search & Consulting (AESC) are a global consulting firm with vast experience in supporting organizations looking to onboard leadership talent across critical business functions. We commenced a series that seeks to highlight some of the most distinguished leaders in human resources. This series will bring a spotlight on their journey, learnings and perhaps answer some pertinent questions for aspiring HR leaders.