If something doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you and most certainly, it does not contribute to your growth, learnings, achievements and success. While it may look difficult and an unachievable task at the start, most challenges pose themselves as opportunities to do something bigger and better. They always help an individual to learn and develop.

Interestingly, one feels challenged only in situations s/he has never faced before and so was the case with me. In one of my previous organisations, I was heading the Compensation & Benefits department for the first time and while the role was big and posed various opportunities to learn and grow as a profession, the challenge was that I had never managed this area before and didn’t have a complete team at the outset.

From an organisation’s point of view that has thousands of employees spread across locations and various types of businesses, managing comp and benefits for such a diverse set of people can be very complex.

With a firm belief that every challenging situation comes with a host of learnings, I approached this responsibility taking a step back and thinking of the guiding principles and the intended impact. Some of the key ones being performance orientation, motivating and engaging employees effectively, ensuring internal balance and taking the business heads along. Having a common agreement with all business heads in terms of philosophy and principles of what is the target was another important aspect that needed attention.

Once the basics were laid, came the phase of learning, experimenting and implementing the ways to execute. Deep thinking, reading and seeking insights from peers with more experience, was instrumental during this journey. This helped in better understanding of the role and streamlining the approach further. However, most of the challenges were unique to our business considering the approach and philosophy we had and believed in.

Hence, many of the options and tools available did not fit as is and needed necessary re-alignment to see how best it can meet the requirements of the organisation and its people. I managed this responsibility for a couple of years and built a capable team over time. The role grew to encompass more than one country which furthered my professional development and helped me learn a lot through trial by fire.

Interestingly, the current role at Tally Solutions, also has a set of exciting challenges to solve. We, at Tally, firmly believe that our strength is our people and to further it, we are looking at ways to further invest and develop our talent. The company has set audacious goals for the next decade and we realise that our people will be key to us achieving those goals.

Tally as an organisation, has a purpose to make everyone who touches Tally, happier so it’s important for us to enable our people to develop, travel the distance with us and reap the benefits of the success together with us. This directly meant relooking at our already good people practices to see how to make them great with this objective in mind. Starting from how career levels are structured in the company, empowering functions and recognising the right behaviours in our R&R, restructuring comp to encourage long term thinking and finally revamping our performance management process. We have revamped our High Potential Development programs which will assist our people make the leap at junctures in their career where there is a major shift, like a host of new competencies being expected.

Another important aspect that we are currently focussing on is the capability development of our managers as they hold the key to people’s career and facilitate the development of their individual team members. We envision our managers to be the ambassadors of Tally’s philosophy towards developing people and be the guide for their team members in their development journey. By providing right support upfront from managers & leaders along with sources to acquire knowledge, we aim to facilitate, and support people grow in their career, rather than be the gatekeeper approving / rejecting people.

There is a very famous saying that one should learn from the mistakes of others. But having said that, one should never refrain from having newer experiences. To the young HR professionals, I would suggest taking up new responsibilities which they haven’t in the past or maybe are uncomfortable with. You will be amazed to see the learnings they give. Get exposure to the business by working on the business side, identify organisation’s goal and align yours to it, find the philosophy or principle that guides you to reach your targets and always- Be ready to try new things!

(Chetan Yadav, Chief People Officer, Tally Solutions)