Kavita Nigam: Enhancing Employee Welfare To Ensure A Supportive Work Environment
Kavita Nigam
Chief Human Resource Officer
A dynamic HR leader, Kavita Nigam, Chief Human Resource Officer of KARAM, has over two decades of extensive experience ranging from accounting to recruitment. In the early stages of her career, she had a wide array of exposure that included operations, purchases, marketing and much more. These roles helped her to understand the importance of HR to drive organizational growth.
Engaging in a compelling interaction with CEO Insights magazine, Kavita shares her strate-gies, leadership guidelines, and future roadmap for KARAM. Let’s delve into it.
How would you define KARAM as an organization and its current position in the market?
KARAM has a rich legacy of over 25 years in manufacturing and servicing high quality industrial Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). With our Manufacturing which is completely backward integrated and fully indigenous, KARAM boasts of an extensive product range of internationally certified products and a distribution channel spanning the entire globe. The people in our team, whether on the Shop Floor, in Sales, SCM, IT or Marketing, share a common passion to save lives.
KARAM is an undisputed leader of PPE in the Indian market. Globally, we are among the top ten companies in fall protection. We have been able to achieve this through the combined efforts of our three self-owned distinguished brands - KARAM in India, Africa, and Middle East; K-Strong in North America, South America, Southeast Asia, and Australia; and Kratos in Europe.
Articulate the importance of HR’s Opera-tions Being in Sync with an Organization’s Strategy.
At KARAM, we have witnessed consistent growth, and this is a result of a well-crafted strategy. I have learned that Human Resource plays a crucial role in helping people align with the overarching goals of an organization.
HR is a bundle of policies and processes designed to propel a growth-oriented organization for-ward and are aligned to the organization’s vision. This includes transparent communication, recruit-ment of the right talent, training, building leadership skills, feedback mechanism, and timely rewards and recognition. These elements form essential pillars of HR operations and help fuel continuous growth.
As the CHRO, what are the latest industry trends and methodologies that you have adopted in the company to train the employees to extract the best out of them?
Our training prioritizes short learning modules of 40- 50 minutes, addressing focused learning and better efficiency. We also schedule compliance, safety and soft skills trainings, and as per the Training Needs identification done post a PMS cycle.
We embrace mentorship for leadership development. New hires benefit from a comprehensive buddy system, while Managers gain valuable skills through various leadership development workshops.
What are the major challenges you have encountered initially while establishing yourself as a successful leader? How did you overcome them to emerge as a successful professional?
When I had joined KARAM, it was still in the nascent stage, and we were expected to wear multiple hats. I was involved in several aspects such as purchases, recruitment, marketing and much more. I believe that this phase was instrumental in my growth and the only challenge we faced was that 24 hours often felt insufficient for our tasks.
Having experienced many of these jobs by personal hands-on working, I was able to help define job roles and expectations with better clarity,while also empathizing with the personal
HR is a bundle of policies and processes designed to propel a growth-oriented organization for-ward and are aligned to the organization’s vision. This includes transparent communication, recruit-ment of the right talent, training, building leadership skills, feedback mechanism, and timely rewards and recognition. These elements form essential pillars of HR operations and help fuel continuous growth.
At KARAM, we are poised to manufacture & provide industrial per- sonal protective equip- ment of the highest quality, to safeguard workforces across the globe
As the CHRO, what are the latest industry trends and methodologies that you have adopted in the company to train the employees to extract the best out of them?
Our training prioritizes short learning modules of 40- 50 minutes, addressing focused learning and better efficiency. We also schedule compliance, safety and soft skills trainings, and as per the Training Needs identification done post a PMS cycle.
We embrace mentorship for leadership development. New hires benefit from a comprehensive buddy system, while Managers gain valuable skills through various leadership development workshops.
What are the major challenges you have encountered initially while establishing yourself as a successful leader? How did you overcome them to emerge as a successful professional?
When I had joined KARAM, it was still in the nascent stage, and we were expected to wear multiple hats. I was involved in several aspects such as purchases, recruitment, marketing and much more. I believe that this phase was instrumental in my growth and the only challenge we faced was that 24 hours often felt insufficient for our tasks.
Having experienced many of these jobs by personal hands-on working, I was able to help define job roles and expectations with better clarity,while also empathizing with the personal
challenges being faced by the team. This has been a critical factor in my development as a professional.
What is the future destination that you have envisioned for the company?
We envision to establish ourselves as one of the frontrunners in the field of PPE in the global market. And we are confident on achieving this through our nonnegotiable commitment to providing superior quality products to our customers.
We have expanded our product line through the recent acquisition of the India business of Midas Safety - a leading safety gloves manufacturer in the country and envision further growth in India and overseas through both organic and in-organic path.
Additionally, we will be setting up targets to help alleviate our carbon footprint, as part of our contribution towards the society and the environment.
Based on your experiences, what is your advice for the upcoming industry leaders?
I would advise aspiring industry leaders to embrace humility and hunger for knowledge. Remain curious and open-minded because opportunities are all around us, and all situations bring to us much to learn.
Kavita Nigam, Chief Human Resource Officer, KARAM
Kavita Nigam is a medical graduate from Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi. After a six year sabbatical devoted to raising her family, she joined KARAM in its startup phase. Starting with multiple functions, she evolved into an administrative and HR role. Currently working as the CHRO of KARAM, she also spearheads CSR and ESG initiatives.
•Favorite Hobbies: Reading
•Favorite Cuisine: A veg Buddha Bowl
•Favorite Books: Books by P G Wode house, Yuval Noah Harari, Dalai Lama
•Favorite Travel Destination: Any where in India-for the amazing hospitality and great cuisine
Awards & Recognition:
•Uttar Pradesh Vikas Samvad Women Leader’s Award in 2018
•Uttar Pradesh’s Women Leaders Award in 2021 by CMO Asia
•Fempreneur Rising Star Award in Feb,2024 by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh,
Anandiben Patel
•The Economic Times featured Nigam asa jury member in their event to evaluate
‘Future Ready Organizations’in June 2022
What is the future destination that you have envisioned for the company?
We envision to establish ourselves as one of the frontrunners in the field of PPE in the global market. And we are confident on achieving this through our nonnegotiable commitment to providing superior quality products to our customers.
We have expanded our product line through the recent acquisition of the India business of Midas Safety - a leading safety gloves manufacturer in the country and envision further growth in India and overseas through both organic and in-organic path.
Additionally, we will be setting up targets to help alleviate our carbon footprint, as part of our contribution towards the society and the environment.
Based on your experiences, what is your advice for the upcoming industry leaders?
I would advise aspiring industry leaders to embrace humility and hunger for knowledge. Remain curious and open-minded because opportunities are all around us, and all situations bring to us much to learn.
Kavita Nigam, Chief Human Resource Officer, KARAM
Kavita Nigam is a medical graduate from Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi. After a six year sabbatical devoted to raising her family, she joined KARAM in its startup phase. Starting with multiple functions, she evolved into an administrative and HR role. Currently working as the CHRO of KARAM, she also spearheads CSR and ESG initiatives.
•Favorite Hobbies: Reading
•Favorite Cuisine: A veg Buddha Bowl
•Favorite Books: Books by P G Wode house, Yuval Noah Harari, Dalai Lama
•Favorite Travel Destination: Any where in India-for the amazing hospitality and great cuisine
Awards & Recognition:
•Uttar Pradesh Vikas Samvad Women Leader’s Award in 2018
•Uttar Pradesh’s Women Leaders Award in 2021 by CMO Asia
•Fempreneur Rising Star Award in Feb,2024 by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh,
Anandiben Patel
•The Economic Times featured Nigam asa jury member in their event to evaluate
‘Future Ready Organizations’in June 2022