The unlock process has started across the globe, all the businesses have restarted their processes, in an attempt to get the economy back on track. And this process calls for new amends, change in policies, changes in work culture, and also people. In this scenario, the HR department is playing the most important part in any organization to revamp and motivate their workforce in context to accelerate the growth.
A visionary leader Nirali Shah Matalia, Vice President, Operations and People at Saama is setting examples and inspiring many career aspirants in the HR sector. We at The Enterprise World magazine feel delighted to feature Nirali Matalia as one of the most Dynamic Women Business Leaders to Watch 2021.
Nirali Shah Matalia is an energetic and devoted person, culture, and change pioneer who has confidence in showing others how it’s done. She is a major supporter of living by corporate qualities and an impetus for change for learning and developing organization. She heads People work at Saama driving Employee Engagement, Learning & Development, Performance Management, Total Rewards, Compliance, Systems, Analytics, and so on. She likewise heads Operations front like Risk Management, Immigration, Travel, lawful, Facilities, etc. Nirali has a post-graduation as well as Bachelors in Business Management and have worked in Healthcare, Technology, Banking, and Retail ventures. Preceding moving to the USA, she has worked at Planet Health, Adani Hypermarket, and so forth in India.
Nirali Shah Matalia has successfully reinvented the role of the HR @ Saama to build a high-touch culture of very involved and progressive HR function which is actively engaged with Saamaites for both career coaching as well as for day-to-day growth conducive work environment.
The Journey
There are memorable milestones in the last 18 years working at several organizations starting from successfully setting up & heading new chain stores during my retail career to being able to drive & lead numerous changes at Saama – be it career progression or employee engagement models or HR system implementations or legal & risk management strategies. No doubt, reaching these highest points was surely accompanied by some of the toughest deals such as a complete career restart from scratch, while moving to the USA from India back in 2005. She says, “The unconditional encouragement from my family throughout my career, amazingly supportive leaders and colleagues at Saama made my journey throughout possible!”
Nirali has been instrumental in setting and leading a culture of providing meaningful career paths to the employees. The span of work was ranging from career progression framework creations to devising policies and procedures to helping both managers and leaders to align their goals and aspirations.
She says, “My philosophy is very simple for engagement. If your workplace does not have fun and employees don’t enjoy what they do, it would be devastating to both organizations as well as employee’s personal growth. So keeping ‘work hard, play harder’ in mind, has nurtured a culture of collaboration and fun.”
She is a firm believer in diversity and inclusion as the right thing to do and not by force. For example, instead of shortcuts like giving mandates of diversity hiring, she would consciously choose a difficult path of influencing the mindset of leaders to address diversity concerns from root levels, minimize unconscious bias & influence inclusion as a choice made by pure willingness.
She believes in seeking inspiration from everything, be it other wonderful human beings or splendid nature! She feels God’s every creation has something unique to offer to us and it is up to us what virtues we pick. At the same time, she is equally self-motivated to bring her goals to completion. With her continuous learning belief, she doesn’t have one idol, but she seeks inspiration for different things from different people – from Swami Vivekananda to Sheryl Sandberg to Indra Nooyi – just to name a few. She gets inspiration equally from her mentors, family, friends, and colleagues.
About Saama
Saama dominates the industry with its position as a global leader in the solutions and analytics space. Their offerings deliver unparalleled results and experience as Saama focuses on enterprise development and growth.
As an organization, Saama Technologies went through a complete transformation from a traditional consulting firm of 40 odd associates to a ‘solutions & analytics’ organization of close to 1150 people leading data & analytics space. When a company goes through such a transformation, HCM plays a crucial role; because it is a company like a close-knit community. For a people company like Saama, it is all about changing mindset & evolving the right culture to be successful in the transformation.
I find myself to be privileged to be in a position to head people function which enabled me to carry out sound pioneering work in leading that change from the front.
Now, the company is at the forefront of being able to reduce clinical trial time saving millions of dollars and getting treatment early to the patients!
The company takes pride in having measurable organic growth in its diversity and inclusion KPIs year over year.
The pillars of success
The company is driven by its corporate values and they firmly believe that their long-standing success is a result of their adherence to the guiding principles they have set.
To name a few:
Saama’s entire leadership team and all their people are committed to work and deliver upon the great vision set by CEO Mr. Suresh Katta. So this talk about their value ‘Accountability’.
Additionally, they believe in ‘customer delight’ and take pride in solving their hardest problems. ‘Constant Innovation’ has been at their core and the team Saama has always stayed ahead of the curve due to this mindset.
For them, ‘Inclusion’ is a way of life and the company treats their employees, stakeholders, and customers with respect, integrity, and dignity. There are no compromises on the ‘Excellence’ at both individual and corporate level.
Saama’s comprehensive plethora of top-notched offerings
Saama’s unique and innovative solutions are cognitively ahead, more advanced, sophisticated, and easier to use than any other service in the space. In addition to Saama’s Life Science Focus, Saama Analytics offers solutions to various other industries as well such as Pharma, Insurance, High Tech, CPG, etc. that includes Operations Insights, Clinical Insights, Risk-based monitoring, Claim Analytics, Sentiment analytics, and so on; however, what makes Saama unique is their speed, specificity, and outcome-driven approach in all of their products and solutions. The company’s best-in-class offerings have proven explicit and transparent ROI in terms of saving their clients millions of dollars in terms of both direct costs as well as time.
Nirali Shah Matalia on the global market after pandemic scenario
No doubt, as humankind navigated through totally uncharted territories in 2020 and losses are innumerable at a Global scale, however, I believe the COVID-19S outbreak also has been a great teacher. It taught us to adapt and survive, it taught humankind to be flexible and humble and it taught us that the show must go on. I think, the way of working has surely changed and so does the future of the workplace. Some products became obsolete during pandemic v/s some businesses came up with innovative products/services. Businesses must learn to be agile and nimble even in the post-pandemic era and they will have to keep constantly reinvent themselves.
I find sheer joy in helping people realize their potential. When you choose a career that enables the success of your teams and organizations; you must play the role of catalyst & achieve your success by enabling the success of others. I love supporting and coaching people managers to help them manage their teams in the best possible manner. My goal is to touch as many human lives as possible and try my best to make positive impacts in their lives.
