Women Achievers – Nazneen Husain , Cummins India
Could you tell us something about your professional achievements and career progression?
It has been an honor and a privilege to work in the field of Human Resources for more than twenty years, in industries cutting across both manufacturing and non-manufacturing, as well as conventional and new age. In addition to my regular roles and responsibilities, being part of the leadership team provided me opportunities to touch many lives – of employees and their families. Cummins has been instrumental in providing me with platforms to contribute at both regional and global levels, allowing me to influence the future roadmaps of the organization. Thus, I believe, I am continuously able to leverage my experience and potential progressively.
What are the attributes that helped you to reach where you are in your career?
At different stages of my career, there were different sets of attributes and competencies I had to focus on to develop and move to the next rung. The ones I always firmly held on included courage, being resilient, having vision and purpose, and building skills required for the future. The fact that few of these are also among the Enterprise Competencies of Cummins further cements my self-belief.
How far have you succeeded in challenging the stereotypes?
I have always let the work speak for myself and the stereotypes have always got challenged automatically. During the initial period of my career, folks inside the organization did find it strange that I was the only woman professional dealing with industrial relations and tough unions in a non-metro setting. By effectively managing my roles and responsibilities, and interest and passion to walk a few extra miles, I managed to break the misconceptions and incorrect notions over time. Eventually, the biases and stereotypes fizzled away, and I became an equal work partner having a real seat on the table.
In both essential and digital functions, women suffered the repercussions of the economic and social effects of the pandemic. Your comments.
Yes, women certainly suffered from the negative impact on economic and social fronts because of the pandemic. In times like these, if each one of us steps up to do our bit in preventing this in our circles of influence, both at work and in personal life, much can be achieved.
I was with Cummins when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and I am still here. Cummins is an equal opportunity employer and has a dedicated focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, including gender diversity. Thus, the organization as a whole and the leaders ensured that any negative socio-economic issues were prevented for our women employees. All compensation and benefits approaches, as always, were fair with no bias. We also brought additional focus and encouraged increasing usage of employee counselling services leveraging third-party professional agencies. The communication channels through the organization, to reach out to managers and colleagues were active during the pandemic, for anyone feeling the need.
What’s the message you want to send to young working women?
I would advise young working women to let their work and contributions speak for them. Let your excellence be driven by your passion, diligence, and commitment to what you do. Try not to deviate from your focus on work-life integration, physical and mental health.
