Rajendra Ghag is the new CHRO, Blue Dart

Rajendra Ghag is a senior HR leader whose career spans over three decades. Changing his tracks early this month, he has moved from HDFC Life (financial sector) to Blue Dart (logistics).

Ghag joined HDFC Life in September 2009 as Sr EVP and CHRO. Operating out of Mumbai, he worked there for 10 years and in the last few months also played the role of chief value officer. He was ranked amongst the top 100 most influential HR professionals in Asia by CHRO Asia.

Before joining HDFC Life, he was an employee of DHL and led the HR department as head-HR, India, and senior advisor business excellence, South Asia. At that time, he had been working with DHL for a little over six years.

Before DHL, he was with Cadbury, where he served the longest innings of his career so far— almost two decades— as head of personnel at manufacturing locations.

We can safely say that Ghag has had an illustrious career and comes with an all-round experience in human resources. It is but natural for him to have received an offer from Blue Dart because during his stint at DHL, he was awarded the title of ‘employee of the year’!

Ghag is presently on an industrial travel, and will be visiting Blue Dart’s work stations across all locations. Having started with the Mumbai region, he will be spending time with shop-floor employees in Bhiwandi area, regional offices, airport and then move on to other locations.

Speaking to HRKatha from his tour, an elated Ghag admits, “I have always been interested in mergers, demergers and other transformations, in addition to taking companies to the next level through IPOs. Most of this involves change management, influencing people and modifying people practices and processes during change. All of this comes very naturally to me, and that is why, the management at Blue Dart thought that I am fit for this role.”

“I am not here to simply do a job but to contribute to the next cycle of growth. It is good to be a part of this organisation, which values people’s contributions, and I am not saying this just for the sake of saying,” adds Ghag.

As soon as he joined the new organisation, on the first of this month, and even before reporting to his manager (the CEO), Ghag got down to work, visiting the various locations of the organisation across the country so that he could spend time with the shop-floor employees.

“I wanted to witness the employees’ work life at different locations first hand, to be in a better position to start creating employee strategies. Many a times, we at the management level start thinking very bookish while designing policies and practices for the employees.”

These visits will allow Ghag to observe the actual hard work that goes on in the shop-floor and the constant challenges faced by the employees.

Ghag believes that CHROs are not merely second last officers in power, but are supposed to be closest to the employees, especially to the ones at the lower-level of the organisational hierarchy.

A graduate from Mumbai University and a postgraduate from Pune University, Ghag has also completed a certificate course in HR & business excellence from XLRI.