5 years and counting....

In an era where CXOs don't shy away from moving jobs in less than 3 years, I am a bit of a relic when it comes to longevity in an organisation. I still feel 5 years is not a long time and the idea of retiring from a company is also not passé. Although, if you work with a company where your colleagues have been contributing for decades at length, a 5 year stint may pale infront of that.

So today , I complete 5 years of working and contributing to the #futureofhealthcare. Little did I know when I walked into the offices at Unitech Cyber Park, Sec-39, Gurgaon on 9th Jan 2017 that I am going to spend 12.5% of my life and 26.3% of my professional life with UHG..... and counting. Not to say that I am a job hopper but still 5 years was never in the sight( one must be honest).

Last 5 years have been both a personal and a professional journey of sorts, I became a father 3 years back, saw 2 promotions and 3 roles changes as well in the past years. And none of this would have been possible if not for an organisation like @UnitedHealth Group. A company that stands on the pillars of its culture and values. For some of you are aware, we are a company that promotes diversity, flexibility and empowers its leaders. Now for past 5 years I have been working remotely and not even for a day I have felt any different than colleagues who are present in office locations.

As I look back, a lot has changed in the GCC arm of UHG, which I am a part of. I almost feel like part of the furniture as I look around and consider that during my leadership we have hired 50,000 people in the 3 geographies that I was responsible for from a TA standpoint. I feel elated to look back and note that I could contribute to Optum winning the first ever best employer focused on wellness in Total Rewards Conference in 2018, I could initiate our participation into the Avatar study of Best companies to Work for Women in 2017. The organisation supported my ideas of starting India's only campus event which brings engineering and business minds together in optum Stratethon, when we launched it in 2019.

I thank our DEI agenda and the team in supporting us in being the first geography outside of US in UHG to launch a returnee program- SOAR which currently boasts of 100 plus participants amongst both men and women. We became amongst the first 3 companies to have a formal veteran hiring program and a MOU signed with Indian Navy and I could even strengthen the Veteran presence in my team.

Our initiatives of RISE led to shifting entire hiring to become completely virtual, bring improvements in the way we consider candidate experience, and not to forget that I could lead the team in one of the most tumultuous year for the hiring function in 2021 to finish with a record hiring of 20,000 plus joiners.

Over these past few years the company gave me an opportunity to be master trained on our leadership model of 'Common Languages of Leadership', I have been trained to lead and facilitate the 360 degree feedback process and I also embarked on our coaching journey through investments into coach training and becoming part of our first ever Internal Coach Network.

After 10 plus talent reviews and launching two key initiatives of 'Know Your Talent' and 'Talent SpotLight', the organisation has given me tremendous opportunity to learn, experiment, implement and grow. It couldn't have been possible without the support and guidance of some of the leaders who were there to support me at each step.

As I look back these past five years, my heart is full of gratitude for support that has been provided by the organisation and the leaders.

What we are trying to do here is changing the landscape of healthcare and for many more years the organisation will continue to support the growth of its leaders.

Its important though to look back on your milestones, consider your learnings and thank everyone who has helped you grow. A special mention is necessary to my previous manager and the leader who has supported me the most. So thank you Anne! I have been supported a lot by our senior most leaders but a few will stand out , so thank you John, Raelyn, Gayatri, Linde, Lori and Nora!

I couldn't have been able to do half of these things without my team so thanks a lot to Rashid, Sandeep G, Sandeep B, Swati P, Aparna, Zai and the larger human capital team.