- 1 week ago
Aanchal Popli, SOIL PGPM HR alum (Batch 2018-19), is now a Senior People Insights Consultant at Jaguar Land Rover, UK. In this conversation, she shares her inspiring journey, from studying at SOIL to building a global career in HR.
She talks about:
Her current role and responsibilities at Jaguar Land Rover
How SOIL’s experiential learning and leadership focus shaped her career
The key HR and analytics skills needed to succeed in today’s business world
Her advice for aspiring SOIL students aiming to make a global impact
Watch this insightful conversation to learn how SOIL helps professionals turn purpose into impact.
She talks about:
Her current role and responsibilities at Jaguar Land Rover
How SOIL’s experiential learning and leadership focus shaped her career
The key HR and analytics skills needed to succeed in today’s business world
Her advice for aspiring SOIL students aiming to make a global impact
Watch this insightful conversation to learn how SOIL helps professionals turn purpose into impact.
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LearningTranscript
00:00I'm the senior people insights consultant working with Jaguar Land Rover currently and I'm currently
00:04based in United Kingdom, West Midlands though. So I have been into people analytics for more
00:10than eight years now. I started my career with SOIL, have done my MBA in PGPM, Human Resources
00:17Leadership Management course and after that I got placed with Gartner Research and Advisory
00:23as an HR analytics and site specialist out there. So my entire career has been in the wavelength of
00:28people analytics domain and I have worked across different cross-functional teams,
00:33different regions, North America, India as well, Asia Pacific regions as well.
00:40And in terms of personal analytics, I would say the career has been so nice and so given because
00:46when I kind of enrolled into analytics and data domain, so it was kind of booming in that time.
00:53So I started it, I think back in 2019 or 2020. So it was kind of getting started, everything was so
01:00new, so fresh and the people were into data analytics, getting the sense of how we need to manage the
01:06data lake warehouses, what others, so many, you know, how to basically start and exploring the
01:12people analytics gamut when it especially comes to human domain. So it kinds of enrolled, payroll,
01:19you know, administration, getting into salary benchmarking, talent acquisition, talent management,
01:25performance reviews and altogether different other areas that I have explored so far in my domain.
01:32So being in, in my past experiences when I was working with Gartner, I realized that data is so
01:40critical to the industry, be it from the business acumen or be it from the human resources acumen.
01:45And it kind of gives a fresh perspective to what you see from a different lenses when it comes to
01:51business solutions, understanding critical strategies for the business to adopt. And that's where it kind
01:57of interests me altogether. And having that experiences, I think I also transitioned with
02:03Expedia Group, I started working with Expedia Group as program manager, again in people analytics domain.
02:08In that role, I was taking care of all the talent acquisition and the talent management process.
02:15So when it says talent management, all the performance reviews that happens for the employee,
02:20how the performance reviews happen, what other kind of quarterly conducts that you have to take place
02:25within the organization, how you kind of benchmark their performances and understand all of these key
02:31data matrices. From the payroll perspective as well, how you kind of providing bonuses to employees,
02:37what other different industry targets for giving the bonuses and the payroll. So I think in a nutshell,
02:44I would say from every aspect data is crucial. And it kind of gives us a sense that how critical
02:52things should happen in a business. And when it comes to from human perspective, I know that human,
02:59there is a need these days to understand human needs from a meaningful aspect, not just the numbers,
03:05numbers. So yeah, I think it would be a bittersweet of a sort of career where there were some challenges
03:12to get all of the things up and running, getting the system on board, setting up the people analytics
03:17team all together for some forms, working with different employee set groups, ENPS scores, working
03:23on their performance satisfaction levels, understanding the KPIs. So yeah, it was good. And in my current role,
03:30I would say it is kind of more challenging because now I have a, I have a company where we have 44,000
03:37more employees all over globally. So to have that something of a target and understanding employee
03:44sentiments, looking at different various lenses, I think it comes as a overall exposure and what you
03:51kind of see in an industry that that is relevant. So that's something in and all I would say was a
03:57bitter sort of my experience in terms of HR analytics. And that's where I am I currently.
04:01So ma'am, what does a day in life of a senior people inside consultant look like?
04:08Perfect. So a day in the senior people, people inside consultant role at Jaguar, something looks
04:13like with a lot of planning. So we kind of start our day where we kind of look at our calendars. What are
04:19the key meetings do we have in a particular day? How many stakeholders do we need to have a conversation
04:23with on a daily basis? And then kind of planning it all in a nutshell of what we are talking about
04:29in terms of our project, the capabilities, the resources allocatement. And then we do have our
04:35team standards on a daily basis. So we work at Jaguar Land Rover, we work in agile environment where,
04:42you know, on a frequent basis, we kind of have a collaboration with our team members to understand
04:46what are the three key priorities do they have on a daily basis? And if somebody from a new skills
04:52perspective or somebody from industry knows about anything else, they are kind of working on.
04:58So they kind of collaborated all together for the stakeholders. And different needs of the
05:03stakeholders are kind of studied and understand from a planning perspective. It's how you kind of
05:09work together in JLR. That's how my day gets started. How do you use data to influence,
05:16you know, workforce decisions at such a large global organization?
05:20As I said, you know, data is critical for every business. It's not just HR domain. It's entirely
05:26from the production, procurement, understanding of the motor vehicles, how many consumption they
05:31have on a daily basis, what are the key demands that we have in a particular region. I think data
05:37plays a very important role in every aspect these days, especially when we are kind of consuming it
05:42all from different various resources. And we are getting the data all at our back end,
05:48be it number of clicks, you know, number of suppliers, number of KPIs do we have for each
05:53businesses. So data plays a very critical role. And I think at Jaguar Land Rover specifically,
06:00we do have our data lake warehouse system, which kind of have a different kind of aspects all
06:06together to the businesses, be it for HR, be it for finance, be it for, you know, procurement,
06:12manufacturing, industrial operations. So we kind of work on the data sets on the back back end for
06:19the big query, applying some SQLs and run the Python code and provide the businesses, the teams,
06:24the dashboards that they need for their businesses to help it, you know, run smoothly.
06:30We do have a collaboration meetings with the stakeholders where we understand what are the
06:34critical projects they are working on, what are the kind of different data segments that would make
06:38sense for their businesses. For example, I would say gender equality is something a big indicator
06:46at Jaguar and they are kind of work with the diverse audience all together. So they work with different
06:51employees, different kind of segmentation. And we do have a target in here for women 50% for each
06:57senior leadership level. That's where data becomes important, not just from the hiring perspective,
07:03from attrition perspective as well, from the kind of promotion and, you know, performance engagement,
07:08um, looking at diverse audiences, understanding their segments, um, sentiments as well. For example,
07:15we do understand that how, you know, from the, if I take an example from the COVID aspect,
07:21when the COVID started hitting and everybody was working from home, we did understand some sentiments from
07:27a women side that how do they feel better if they are kind of, you know, calling and working from
07:33office, what are the kind of different sentiments that need to put together from the women perspective.
07:38So that's where I think a data play is a very important, the crucial road just to understand
07:42different aspects of the businesses in a nutshell, as well as to understand what are the requirements
07:47that different teams has in each of the scenarios. So it always a kind of, um, trade in position from the
07:55people analytics team as, as well as being in a data and senior as a data, you know, inside consultant
08:01that you need to put yourself in the shoes of the businesses to have an understanding of what sort of
08:07data do they need for their planning and how we can kind of accumulate in a way that is easier for them
08:13to interpret, easier for them to convey, easier for them to articulate their thoughts, um, in the business as well
08:21for the notion. With AI and predictive modeling advancing so fast, how do you see the future of
08:27people analytics evolving in the next coming five years? That's, that's a very intriguing question.
08:33So I was in a conference the last two last weeks in London and this question came up quite a bit of
08:40time with some of the, some of the senior stakeholders where the people were interested in
08:44knowing about the AI impacts in the businesses altogether from the data analytics perspective and how
08:50it should be replacing humans in future or not. And one of the thing that struck by me was, um,
08:58this thing said by the bolt people analytics leader, she said that be it anything in the world,
09:05nobody can replace human sentiments, be it a bot, be it any other thing, you know, how many technical
09:12tech advance we, you know, we are, or we become in the future, nothing can replace the human sentiments.
09:18It's me and you who are getting to know and understand the empathy, sympathy, and you know,
09:24the kind of different human emotions that these technologies cannot.
09:28Of course, AI is having a futuristic impact. It will create some of the technologies in a very
09:34streamlined way. It will reduce manual intervention of the work that we do nowadays with some of the
09:39businesses. But having said that, if it is used in a better way, it, it could be a, um, you know,
09:47beneficial thing for the company, but at the same time, it will not replace humans. When there are,
09:53when there is a person needed to the company to understand employee sentiments from the hiring
09:58perspective or from the exit interview that happens, you know, you kind of connect with that
10:02person in a better way, just to understand what are the hitting challenges they are having in the
10:07company. I don't, I don't think these bots can replace that. It's the connect that takes you on
10:13a longer way. The network that you have in the industry takes you on a longer way. Nothing can
10:18replace that. So I would say, of course, AI is futuristic. It will have a positive, positive and
10:23negative impact both if used, you know, carefully, but yes, um, there is nothing which can be replaced by
10:30humans. How do you handle ethical concerns like employee privacy and data protection in people
10:37analytics? We do, um, so specifically from the employee and ethical and data privacy perspective,
10:44we do have a team at Jaguar Land Rover that takes care of the data protection and data governance,
10:49uh, thing altogether. So every, um, you know, for the ENPS score, for example, if we kind of
10:56have a certain data point that takes into consideration employee sentiments, they are
11:00asked to fill the survey. There is a disclaimer on each of the firm that says, if you're kind of
11:05providing your details, um, relevant to any of the businesses, any of the sentiments that
11:10will be intact within Jaguar Land Rover privacy team, all the details will be anonymous at certain
11:16levels. We won't be just sharing any of the privacy concerns, sensitive information with the
11:20businesses. It just be with us. We do have a very particular team that takes care of all the data
11:27governance and the privacy and ethical concerns. So we do have these teams that work with different,
11:33um, onboarding teams as well in the talent acquisition that's, that takes care of the
11:38entire system behind it. And these teams work all together on their day-to-day basis just to
11:43understand the PBDD, which is, um, again, one of the activities which happens for the data ethical
11:49services. So any of, when any of the documentation is published, we do take place, um, PBDD certification
11:56and all of the governances happens at the backend and the disclaimers and the information is being
12:01shared with the employee on a pre-advanced basis. So that's where we kind of, um, happen, you know,
12:07our team just plays an important role with the data governance and the data ethical approach.
12:12And none of the information, to be very honest, within Jaguar Land Rover are shared with any of
12:16the customers and even the customer information is just being intact with the Jaguar Land Rover.
12:21We do have a very restricted team that works on the backend 24R7.
12:26You know what skills or tools are becoming must-haves for professionals in people analytics today?
12:32If you are interested in any of the field, be it people analytics or talent acquisition,
12:37payroll, there are some of the tools, um, that is specifically related to data. For example, Tableau,
12:43Tableau, Power BI, um, Vizier, these are the data visualization tools that kinds of aggregate all of
12:49the backend information and provide you with certain dashboard and the KPIs are some of the relevant
12:54aspects that the business, uh, businesses are kind of looking at in an individual these days.
12:59Um, these are kind of mandatory, mandatory sales. If you are, um, you know, beat any other field,
13:04if you have the attention to detail, understanding data perspective, if you have that, those lenses.
13:10So these are some of the data visualization tools that you need to learn. And this should be, um, a foremost thing.
13:17The another thing I would say, SQL, Python, so structured query language is how you get your data extracted from the big query.
13:25For some systems, um, we don't have dashboards at all available for some of the companies.
13:29They don't work at so much of data set. They do have the big query in place where you can get and extract
13:34most of the data set for the businesses. That's where you need to have the lenses to the big query as well.
13:40Um, so SQL, Python, R plus plus, if you are interested in data.
13:46Otherwise, there are these tools, um, which happens for the talent intelligence teams. For example, have you heard of talent neuron?
13:54So this is a talent intelligence tool, which is out there in the market, which, which kind of provides,
13:59it's just like LinkedIn, uh, premium, like the LinkedIn insight tools, uh, where we have all the candidates
14:06information. So talent, your kind of provides all the compensation benchmarking, talent supply and demand,
14:13understanding the gender diversity for each of the roles. What are the critical roles that the industry
14:17is hiring these days, looking at different kinds of skills and, um, skill segment and the qualities,
14:23um, specifically to different of the roles. So some of the talent intelligence tools out there in the
14:30market that actually helps you a bit, actually helps you at a great sense where you kind of, uh,
14:37enter to most of the details and understand the nitty gritty of the details behind it.
14:42So that's that. Horsefly is one of them, if you're kind of interested. Um, and I would say from the
14:49HRS perspective, it could be Workday, HCM, Oracle, Aviture. So these are some of the prominent tools
14:56in the industry that I have worked with so far based on my experiences, but yeah, good to have it.
15:01What's your most memorable classroom or, uh, classroom experience from soil that still stays
15:07with you today? That's a very good question. And you know, whenever I kind of remember my soil days,
15:14so this is one of the moments that stuck with me all the time. And I just be in that situation
15:18sometimes for a while in my dreams as well. So it was the happiness class. So in our case,
15:24this happiness class was taken by Anil sir himself. So it was, I think, um, one day a week sort of class
15:33that happens, um, on a weekly basis. And whenever we kind of attend this class, Anil sir comes and,
15:39uh, he, he, you know, plays the random Bollywood songs, the, the old hits, just to kind of bring
15:46that energy into the room with all of the sentiments, because on a weekly basis, we had so many
15:51assignments. We had so many projects, so many lectures to attend. And this class is actually
15:57a stress booster for all of the students. And they kind of look forward to attend the happiness
16:01class and all together for Anil sir. So most of the things were taught by him in, uh, in these
16:07classes specifically, they, he kind of shared his experiences of how he has worked with different
16:12industry leaders. What are the critical priorities that an individual should be looking at, not just
16:18from the monetary or the financial perspective or from the business perspective. It just, you know,
16:23um, understanding the employees, understanding the human at first, because that's where it becomes
16:30very crucial. If you are learning something into HR, it's like HR is a foundation where you need to
16:35have an understanding from the, from the sentiments and from the emotional perspective, you need to have
16:40a connect with the humans. So he shared all of his experiences and I really love that class. It's
16:47literally, you know, made me who I am today in terms of an individual, in terms of a human. So yes,
16:54all of the foundation that he has taught me literally has stuck with me so far.
16:58As you know, there are five pillars of soil and soil really emphasizes on values like
17:04mindfulness, compassion, ethics, awareness. So, uh, how have these shown up in your professional or
17:12personal life?
17:13I would say these five pillars have been there with me so far in my roles and I have kind of
17:19of abide by it in certain times. I would not say that a hundred percent I was there abiding at all,
17:25but yes, sometimes it actually happens when you are in a certain project or something challenges you,
17:31uh, you know, you knows that your foundation is strong and you are not going something. Um,
17:36you are not doing something against your values because in a, in a private environment,
17:43there are people that kind of, uh, takes advantage of you in a political sense as well. I would,
17:48if I would say in an organization politics that happens, but that's where you have the key faith
17:54in yourself and the work you have done so far with the different teams, different stakeholders.
18:00And that's what makes you as a person, I would say, be it mindfulness, be it, you know, being ethical
18:05to your work, be it creating an impact, um, from the work and the, from the people that you have worked
18:11with. And you are bounded by certain boundaries that you should not consider going out of it, be it,
18:18any matter. So I would say, yes, in a nutshell, it has made me the person who I am today, especially
18:24understanding the people, the individuals from their sentiments, from their emotions,
18:28having a connect with them, um, not judging the person at once, even if you are having a conversation
18:34because it takes so much of effort for anybody to share his or her experiences. And you are not
18:41sure you are not actually aware of the fact or the baggage that they are carrying. So that's something,
18:47you know, uh, has stuck by me as well. Looking back, what aspect of soils pedagogy do you think
18:54best prepared you, uh, for a global career and, you know, whatever journey you have had
18:59after soil? I think different, it depends, you know, different, um, from different segments to
19:05segments, but from the, from the foundational perspective, I think soil has literally built my
19:11entire foundation and not just in terms of the technical expertise, the exposure that I have
19:15gained from different faculties, but actually the kind of real wellbeing in a way that how you
19:21should conduct yourself with different, um, teams, different individuals. That's something,
19:26um, as, as an individual have built me all together. And in terms of pedagogy,
19:31there were different sort of assignments, different sort of faculties, compensation projects.
19:35Of course that will happen. And that will be there so far in your career.
19:39When you are kind of learning something, you need to have different sort of understanding from the
19:42subject matter experts as well. So I think, um, from the pedagogy aspects, there are sort of
19:47different things that happen. So now, uh, that stuck by me, but yet again, there were some crucial
19:52things in terms of exposure that was into real life and the real life sentiments from the people.
19:58For students who are aspiring, you know, uh, for careers in HR and analytics,
20:04what competencies should they start building right away?
20:08Who is kind of starting their current into data analytics or data perspective? I would say they
20:12should, um, look at their interests first. If they are kind of start working with something,
20:19you know, on a bit small projects into datasets, um, start understanding how numbers play an important
20:26role into the businesses, understand the businesses. First of all, understanding the businesses P and L,
20:33the banking statements, the balance sheet, that would actually give you a sense of how business
20:38run in terms of different asset liabilities. What are the kind of different stakeholders do you have?
20:42What are the kind of, um, capital workflow happens? So I would say start understanding the business
20:48critical, um, financials first. If that kind of interests you, you should be able to understand what
20:55are the kind of different metrics, metrics, uh, metrics that goes behind into the balance sheet or the P and L of any businesses.
21:00So there are so many firms, for example, if you are interested in any of the data aspect,
21:05um, there are so many firms, Netflix, Pandora, they are on the SEC filings, um, on Google worldwide.
21:13So these are the public companies, you can view their financials first, understand that that data
21:17and having the, having attention to all of these key numbers, I think is relevant. Um,
21:23when you kind of pull it all together from a different lenses. And if you are specifically
21:29focusing on HR, I would say, start understanding the compensation numbers, start understanding the
21:34talent acquisition numbers, be it, what is the hiring numbers look like for a company?
21:38What are the attrition percentages that, um, have been trended so far for a company?
21:44How attrition is calculated? Uh, what are the giant agenda perspective looks like? What is
21:50ENPS scores? How do the companies calculate these sentiments? What are the averages look like? So
21:55start building on, on building up on those ladder, I believe would really help, uh, in terms of
22:01meaningful way. When you understand these, my new details, uh, you'll be able to help yourself and be
22:07there in a better position to answer the facts that have been raised by the company leaders,
22:12because you know, the data behind it. Soil actually emphasizes a lot on, uh, experiential learning
22:18over traditional methods. Uh, do you think that gave you an edge in your, uh, career?
22:24I would say yes. Um, of course, because in some of the other way, experience, experiential
22:30learning is always better from the bookish knowledge that we have. Uh, of course, uh, the subject
22:35matter experts and the book knowledge and the foundation is essential in, in certain, um,
22:40scenarios, but having learning from different peers, you know, understanding the key, uh,
22:47key business practices from them and, um, working with different stakeholders and making it all
22:53practical to our work world makes it much better in terms of understanding. Is this as an individual
23:00I'm talking about this work for me and experiential learning, I would say that really had an impact in
23:05all of the different domains that I have worked with, be talent acquisition, management, talent
23:09acquisition. Um, so yeah, I think it really creates an impact when learns, when learned and gained
23:16an insight from different leaders in the industry that have such exposure.
23:22One piece of advice to the incoming, uh, students, uh, who are planning to pursue PGPM and PGPM HR.
23:30I would say based on my experiences so far. So I, I, I have worked with industry for more than eight
23:36years now. I have seen it all in, in, in a nutshell, but if one piece of advice, I would have,
23:43I would be giving to, to the people, to the new students out there who are kind of pursuing their
23:49careers. I would say that work on your work on your key skills, try to understand what makes you happy.
24:01Don't go and don't rush into things where you think, you know, everybody, this is kind of booming.
24:06Everybody will be benefited. Don't go in that way. Just work on the fact, what makes you happy,
24:12what kind of individuals that you work with makes you happy. And that can create an impact in your life.
24:19Also, I would say, uh, if, if any of the thing is important in your career, I totally respect it.
24:25But at the same time also takes care of your family because family comes literally important.
24:30I have seen in my career where you have given, you know, like you have given a hundred percent of
24:36yourself. You have dedicatedly attending all of the meetings you have been in, you know, there for
24:41the people that you need, um, that needed you in the business prospect. But there are times when your
24:48family needs you, you are not there for them. So I would say in my advice, gives priority to your
24:55family first, works come second. Works will always happen. Um, if you are passionate about it, it will
25:03flow in your career. It will have an impact. You kind of connect with certain individuals in a
25:07certain way, and that will talk about you. But yes, family time is family time. And don't
25:14de-prioritize your family. Always have the, have prospect and understanding from their emotions as well.
25:19So that's what I had in my learning because I have seen people quitting their careers, um, and
25:26people being laid off by the companies, even when they have achieved so much in their lives at the,
25:32at the, at the cost of, you know, they have granted so much of time. They have not taken some time for
25:38the families. They have not taken into consideration their time. They have not been there for them for
25:43certain moments when they, their family needed them. So I would say, yes, balance. The art is always
25:49balancing. Don't rush into things until you are a hundred percent sure. And the, those things create
25:56an impact in your life. What are the skills apart from the technical skills that actually made you
26:01achieve and, you know, uh, the role that you have taken up today? How, how did that happen? What is it
26:08that, you know, made you achieve all this? You know, firstly, I think that I haven't achieved so,
26:14so much in my life yet. It's, it's still a learning phase for me. And I never say that I have,
26:20I have achieved a certain position. I have not, I have always been so grounded, but some of the key
26:26things that I have learned in my career so far, Bharti, and I think for every other student, it is very
26:32important just to know few things from my experiences. Number one is never say no to any opportunity.
26:39So even if you are getting an email from your LinkedIn, from any of the recruiter that you are
26:44not instructed to work with for any of the location, for any of the role that is not relevant to your
26:50profile or, you know, offered you less compensation, never say no to it. Even for the sake of getting an
26:56experience of what is happening in the market for the interview prospect, just say yes to the, yes to any
27:03of the opportunity, be in that position, go to attend those interviews, you know, meet the people
27:09around you that are taking these interviews or, you know, just be there in the moment. So I have never
27:17said no in my entire life to any of the opportunity that has striked my door. So that is one of the key
27:23learning. The another one is that what made me today at my position is the second is confidence.
27:30So I understand, and you should also understand that, you know, in this world, you cannot get
27:37100% of the knowledge to each of the every feed that is ever not possible, because everything is
27:42keep on updating, you have to upskill yourself, you have to learn along the way. But what makes you
27:48different from the people who have applied for this role, like one role, and you stood apart,
27:53you kind of been selected. So it's the confidence that you could achieve, you could learn, you can be in
27:58that shoes, you can help the people around you to build whatever they want, you could be that
28:04supporting system. Of course, there is no matter that you have to learn, you have to learn it in
28:09100% in a right way, you will do mistakes, that is fine. But never say no to it. Keep on striking it.
28:16And I, I tell you that if you're determined, if you have clear intentions, you will get it.
28:21So there is one superpower that is guiding everybody's future. And the doors will open
28:29for you in a certain way, I would say for all the students who are listening to this interview.
28:34I think one of the conscious factor that always, you know, builds within that, will I be getting
28:40placement? Will I be landing in a good position? Because I have studied so much, my parents have
28:45space, all of these financials all together. And some actually take loans while kind of studying,
28:52you know, they have their financial priorities to handle. Just believe in yourself. Because
28:57everybody has their own destiny, you will land up in a good position, but make sure that you are
29:02learning along the way. You are learning with the people, you are picking up the right things from
29:07the people around you, you are not kind of criticizing it, criticizing anyone, not taking any of the
29:14the position with the wrong intention. Because that are the some foundational things that goes along
29:19the way. And if you are doing it all positively, I think God will make sure that all the things will
29:24happen for you positively at the right time at the right place.