PROFESSIONAL LIFE OF SHANTANU DASH
The Worlds Times: Explain your background in detail.
Shantanu Dash: I am a dynamic and seasoned global HR leader with extensive experience in driving world-class human resource initiatives, establishing policies & procedures and robust development programs with innate managerial expertise in HR solutions including digital enhancement that has been the key to a litany of impressive achievements to my credit.
Having worked in many multi-national companies (including many start-ups) across continents and industry verticals like Real Estate, Construction, Facilities Management, Retail & Hospitality, Education, Professional Services, IT etc. gives me an advantage in driving organizational effectiveness, evaluating structure and resources to facilitate change management & organizational redesigns with quality delivery of HR Operations in any business.
A high-performance HR activist, with expertise in aligning culture and strategy to support the company vision and mission thereby contributing positively to the bottom-line coupled with having managed diversity, inclusion and equity for a workforce of different nationalities, genders, ethnicities, sexual orientations, religions, disabilities, and ages with aplomb and success.
Adding to my credentials, I have been adjudged as one of the Top 100 HR Professionals in UAE by Arabian Business and Global 200 Power Leaders of HR (2022-23) by Whitepage International.
The Worlds Times: Give us one word that describes you the best.
Shantanu Dash: DASH D – Digitally Dynamic; A – Adaptive Learner; S – Service Oriented Leader: H – HR Professional with a big heart
GOAL & STRENGTHS OF SHANTANU DASH
The Worlds Times: What are your goals?
Shantanu Dash: At this stage in my career, I am focusing on Mentoring budding professionals from across the globe, helping start up and SMEs to establish robust and modern processes and systems, I am a professional CV writer and I design resumes that are top of the world standards at a fee.
As his personal CSR he mentors budding professionals and it has always endeavored to share skills, knowledge, and expertise by organizing informal meets at his personal time & cost.
Additionally, I am a founding member of an NGO called Samagraa in New Delhi that helps children from the EWS (Economically Weaker Section) for empowering these kids to strike a balance for a better socio- economic development in their lives and to bridge the academic and social gap of EWS children.
The Worlds Times: What do you feel is the biggest strength of yourself right now?
Shantanu Dash: A global HR professional with 20+ years of rich experience in driving world-class HR initiatives, establishing policies, procedures and robust development programs. Cultivating HR Business Partnership with senior leaders, adept in using strategy, business and organizational psychology principles to successfully lead and manage large-scale corporate change and performance initiatives. Empowering organizations to become their best by fostering a culture of excellence, continuous improvement and DE&I management.
WORK & VISION OF SHANTANU DASH
The Worlds Times: Why did you start profession?
Shantanu Dash: My passion for Human Capital Management, Talent Development and emerging technologies in the field of Human Resources Management.
The Worlds Times: What do you value the most about your vision?
Shantanu Dash: My vision is to be an honest, empathetic and impactful leader and to be recognized internationally within the business community. I am committed to growing as a leader and delivering value-added HR Services to the corporates
PATH & CHALLENGES
The Worlds Times: What was the path you took to get to where you are today?
Shantanu Dash: Persistence, keeping myself updated with changing legislations, ensuring I am up to date in the ever-evolving digitalization in HR, finding time to be well networked within the HR fraternity globally, attending conferences and seminars, grabbing opportunities to be a key note speaker as well as participating in round table discussions that are by exclusive invitation plus ensuring that I have time for myself to relax, rejuvenate and be with me myself.
The Worlds Times: What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome during the journey towards your dream?
Shantanu Dash: It has been a tough yet enjoyable journey thus far and there are umpteen examples like racial discrimination, not being an MBA from a premier institute, not being able to speak couple of European languages, gender bias, working under immature high profile younger managers, when working in family-owned businesses it was a nightmare to manage the internal politics between the owner and his children or son in law etc.
Self-belief with sole focus on the organization’s wellbeing while ensuring statutory compliances are not compromised coupled with being passionate about the job and bulldozing best practices of HR for the organization and adhering to the approved budget have been few of the reasons for my continued success.
The Worlds Times: What are the key values which helped you to overcome the challenges in your path? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership?
Shantanu Dash: Too many examples, I can share a video interview or you can see it in my LI profile in the Featured section and you will get lot of stuff there to pick up (https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7054851268044832768)
STRATEGIES, COMPETITION & FUTURE
The Worlds Times: What are the strategies of you and how do you stand unique from others?
Shantanu Dash: A HR professional from the Indian sub-continent with a rare combination of having worked across diversified industries (Real Estate, Construction, Facilities Management, Retail & Hospitality, Education, Professional Services, IT, ITES, Education, Manufacturing, Investing, Consulting, Professional Services etc.) across countries. Have managed work force of more than 15000 from 120+ countries with extreme cultural diversity speaking 150 plus languages
The Worlds Times: How do you see yourself changing in two years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?
Shantanu Dash: Focusing primarily on giving back to the society, both personally and professionally.
The Worlds Times: What benefits are clients getting from you in this competitive world?
Shantanu Dash: A ‘Digital HR Leader’ with strategic focus and understanding how HR will change by anticipating future needs and by understanding business requirements, knowing the business revenue lines, having market focus, and not being process or policy-centric while firmly believing that a HR leader has to be transformation & change-oriented with a business-focused output which is defined by data and leads to a positive revenue impact.
I have successfully collaborated directly with the C-suite executives and leaders to create, revise and/or align employee communications strategy based on the organization’s strategic priorities while learning the techniques to educate the leaders on the value of effective employee communications.
On the Talent Acquisition & Retention side of the business as a HR leader I have always adopted a dynamic approach to reskilling and redeploying talent, one in which all impacted stakeholders work together to sense shifting skill needs and find ways to develop skills.
Recognized for creating a set of proactive and repetitive processes utilizing different methodologies like Kaizen, Balanced Scorecard principles for continual improvement, I have worked on the concept that creativity comes before capital and large budgets are not required to manage successful employee engagement and diversity programs.
With the right mix of positivity, the ability to tap into others’ strengths and thinking outside the box, I have been able to create and sustain a set of widely successful programs.
ADVICE FROM SHANTANU DASH
The Worlds Times: Would you like to say anything else to our viewers?
Shantanu Dash: There might be various ways to meet your goal. But you should choose the best way to reach it. Work smart and hard to fulfil your goal.
For this, you should: Define your goal, Develop the required skills, chalk out the probable challenges and determine the required steps followed by making an actionable plan and follow your plan. Work Smart and Hard plus always remember Change is the only constant.
Connect Shantanu Dash on LinkedIn