<div><strong>Aparna Ballakur</strong> joined <strong>Flipkart</strong> as the Chief People Officer (CPO) in 2012. Before Flipkart, the Cornell-educated Ballakur worked in Yahoo India, Adobe Systems, McAfee Software and Sasken Communication Technologies. Starting as a R&D engineer, she soon realised that passionate people rather than perfect processes drive success and that set her off on the way to aligning people’s motivation to organisations' desired outcomes.<br /><br />A firm believer in you are only as good as your team, Ballakur thinks HR needs to be participatory rather than dictatorial and be willing to challenge current thinking and own the talent agenda.<br /><br /><em>Excerpts</em><br /><strong>What made you choose HR as a profession?</strong><br />In my first job as an R&D engineer, I had to work very closely with shop floor workers to build my prototypes. There were many instances where just relying on the process didn’t work. Collaborating closely with the workers to fine-tune my design and get the prototypes built opened my eyes to the fact that passionate people rather than perfect processes drive success. In hindsight, I think that was also the start of my learning journey on how to align people’s motivation to an organisation/ team’s desired outcomes.<br /><br /><strong>What has been the biggest achievement in your career?</strong><br />Every company I have worked with has offered me the opportunity to contribute and do things I hadn’t done previously. There are a couple that I am particularly satisfied about.<br /><br />I helped build a world-class technology team in a start-up I worked for. We were able to attract top-notch technologists from the US back to India, at a time when returning to India was not yet fashionable. I’ve also been able to support the successful integration of a big acquisition at a company that I worked with. In acquisitions, retaining top talent from the acquired company is always a challenge. We were able to do that very well and these people are still at the company and doing very well.<br /><br /><strong>What have been the primary traits/qualities that have helped you attain your present position?</strong><br />I have an insatiable curiosity, which drives me to constantly learn - be it about the business, HR, science etc. I also have a high risk appetite- the willingness to do different things and things differently. Above all, I believe that you are only as good as your team. So building and growing a talented team is something I work on all the time. <br /><br /><strong>What sets your company apart from other companies as far as work culture goes?</strong><br />Flipkart offers a fabulous combination — the flexibility and freedom of a start-up and the scale and vision of a large company. This, combined with a young, vibrant workforce, is helping us create a unique work culture, which is both transparent and participative.<br /><br />We are a great fit for people who want to build/ create and want to change the world. <br /><br /><strong>What are the challenges you are facing in organisation?</strong><br />As a rapidly growing company with a young, talented workforce, one of the areas that we are focusing on is to build leadership capability across all levels in the organisation. We believe that this is particularly important as we scale exponentially. We want to be able to create leaders internally to take up larger responsibilities in the organisation as we grow. <br /><br /><strong>How do you retain talent in your company? What is your rate of attrition?</strong><br />People come to Flipkart because they see the opportunity to build an organisation that is changing the face of e-commerce in India. This gives them the learning and growth that they would never have got anywhere else. <br /><br />Our transparent and participatory culture combined with freedom and flexibility to contribute and grow is what retains people who join us.<br /><br />Of course, continuing to keep the environment informal and engaging is extremely important - especially given the young employee base. <br /><br /><strong>What is the biggest challenge you face when selecting people?</strong><br />E-commerce is a new industry in India and we are the leaders in this space. Given this, our biggest challenge is getting people who have the right domain experience in all functions within the organisation. For many senior positions, our search has been global and we have been able to attract people outside of India to join us.<br /><br /><strong>How do you track employees' satisfaction or dissatisfaction?</strong><br />We do multiple things to build a workplace that employees feel is a great place to work. For example, we do an annual engagement survey to get deep feedback on critical aspects. We also work on constant employee round tables to get feedback from employees. Leaders do town halls; skip level meetings and many other informal interactions to keep a finger on the pulse of the organization. <br /><br />Employee participation is an important aspect of our culture. For e.g, we asked employees to vote on the holiday list for the year, instead of letting HR decide the list. Before we roll out a policy we ask for employee feedback – this helps us ensure that the policy addresses employee needs.<br /><br /><strong>How HR has been important to the bottom line of the company?</strong><br />For a young company that is growing at breakneck speed, our talented workforce is a key differentiator for our success. This is where HR plays a significant role - we enable the on-boarding, development and engagement of this workforce, which in turn drives our growth and success. <br /><br /><strong>How has the downturn affected HR?</strong><br />I am a firm believer that both in in good times and bad, a company must not lose focus on its talent. We must always hire the best fit talent, invest in them and create an environment where there is respect, transparency and flexibility. If an organisation is consistent with this, people will stay and help the organisation grow. A company can never take a short-term view of people and it is the HR leader’s responsibility to ensure that this happens.<br /><br /><strong>How should HR be integrated with the core line of business?</strong><br />Any business that relies on the talent of its people for its success needs to make people its priority. This is where a good HR team is able to add value to the business and be a core function. On-boarding, developing and engaging employees is where HR can add significant value by being a partner to the business. <br /><br />HR also needs to understand the priorities and language of the business. HR cannot be driving process or ideas just because they are cool or they are the latest fad. We should be driving what’s right for the business we work with - we have the responsibility of helping business leaders balance people priorities in the context of business priorities.<br /><br /><strong>What are the steps a company should take to develop and motivate future leaders?</strong><br />An organisation needs to be continuously on-board, develop and engage its leaders as much as its other employees. At senior levels, impact, visibility and development are key motivators. Organisations need to invest significantly in doing all these three things well. We not only need to design roles where leaders are able to create maximum impact for the organization- but we also must provide these leaders visibility both within and outside the organisation, so that they are able to build credibility and a strong personal leadership brand. It is important to continuously invest in our leaders to help them build on their strengths and work on their areas of development.<br /><br /><strong>If you could change three things about HR practices, what would they be?</strong><br />Looking at HR practices from 3 perspectives-<br /><strong>Employee:</strong> be participatory rather than dictatorial.<br /><strong>Business:</strong> solve real world business/talent issues rather than chasing fads<br /><strong>HR Community:</strong> Be willing to challenge current thinking and own the talent agenda<br /><br />(As told to <strong>Poonam Kumar</strong>)</div>
