In celebration of International Women’s Day (8 March), HR Magazine recently talked with Rajni Sharma, Managing Director, SAP Hong Kong & Macau to discuss what it means to be a female leader in the male-dominated tech space and how cloud-based technologies are helping HR teams to eliminate gender biases.
Rajni Sharma rose through the ranks at SAP, a global business solutions provider, to become the Managing Director for Hong Kong & Macau last October. Sharma’s leadership comes at a time where female workforce representation in the technology sector is on the rise. Females account for 32.9% of the total workforce in large technology organisations according to Deloitte’s Women at Work report. Ruminating on her career Sharma commented, “I never intentionally planned to be in the world of technology when I was in school however, I stumbled into it through a great start as a marketing intern at another multinational technology company. Since joining SAP, I have had endless opportunities to travel the world, work with amazing colleagues and most importantly, make the world run better through empowering global organisations with our technology.”
Moving in sync
Sharma disclosed what it means to her to be a female leader, “Being a female leader in a male-dominated industry is incredibly important to me. The significance and responsibility of this is not something I take lightly, and I carry it with me in everything I do. Many female leaders have paved the way for me to fulfil my role and I know I need to be a role model so many more can follow in my footsteps. People often ask me, as a woman in business, how I set an example for other young female leaders and my response always remains the same.
“The best possible example I can be is by being.”
By working hard to get as far as I can so others can aspire to that. I know for sure seeing strong female leaders from all different backgrounds throughout my own career journey has inspired me to think I can do it too. I once read a quote inspired by Michelle Obama ‘you cannot be what you cannot see.’ To me, it means ‘belief’ and ‘representation’ and has stuck with me ever since. For a young graduate or intern starting their career like I was not so many years ago, thinking if she can do it then I can do it too.”
Certainly, that importance carries its weight into all that Sharma does. Sharma does not shy away from the challenges that she has faced throughout her career and rather than succumbing to self-doubt, Sharma instead channels her energy into something positive and productive. “When I am making tough decisions, I often pull together all background information, risk analysis and my team’s thoughts, then align with the best-case scenario and find the best way to reach it. The most important thing is to see it as an opportunity for growth—for my team, for our businesses and myself. Having this type of growth mindset enables us to focus on tackling the challenge, learn from it, and ultimately deliver the results. Sometimes we may have to find some middle-ground with our expectations, so it is also very important that we constantly communicate our progress, changes and that we move forward in sync with our customers and partners.
Digitally enabled operations
As the effects of the pandemic linger, they not only have taken a heavy toll on workers but have continuously put pressure on organisations to be agile and responsive in managing their workforce. Combined with a shift in expectations towards corporate ESG initiatives, businesses are now required to be more transparent and strive for greater diversity, inclusivity and focus on their employees’ well-being. Sharma commented, “For me, inclusiveness in the workplace is all about leading by example. The best way to encourage people and create an open environment is by embracing inclusiveness in your own team to ensure each person feels comfortable to be their true authentic self. The reality is that nowadays, business continuity relies heavily on how organizations manage their teams to juggle multiple challenges, including disrupted supply chain and manufacturing, managing a remote workforce, ensuring employee safety, and fulfilling online orders.”
Sharma nods to how businesses can leverage technology to achieve greater inclusiveness, “A digitally-enabled HR is usually the first place that organisations turn to on their digitalisation journey. SAP SuccessFactors, as a cloud solution, enables organisations to detect gender-biased language in job descriptions so that they can equally attract talents from both genders. SuccessFactors also provides data analytics of key HR metrics including KPIs, learning completion, high performer growth rate, attrition and operating expenses. This gives decision-makers a panoramic view of their employees and by having data-driven visualisation of human capital metrics, they can formulate appropriate initiatives to better support their employees.
In terms of human experience management and employee development, SAP SuccessFactors can facilitate teams’ communication and collaboration as it is a cloud-based platform that can be accessed by all employees whether they work from home or in the office. Additionally, progress of projects and tasks is tracked in real-time enabling transparency across all levels. Team leaders are able to easily identify where help is needed and can adjust resources as required. During their downtime, employees can find tailored learning and development materials to ensure that their skills are up to date. Line managers can track their progression and suggest further learning content. All these processes can be accessed on mobile devices or desktops, providing a much-needed digital gateway to their workforce.”
“A digitally-enabled HR is usually the first place that organisations turn to on their digitalisation journey.”
Sharma also points to how SAP’s solutions are enabling businesses to surmount recent obstacles, “We have supported organisations across sectors to chart their cloud transformation journey. RISE with SAP, our business-transformation-as-a-service offering, has enabled our clients to zero in on digitally optimising their operations and growing their business with SAP S/4HANA Cloud (our next-generation enterprise resource planning application.) RISE users are also tapping into our Business Technology Platform that provides them with the necessary business insights through AI, data modelling and visualisation.”
Reflecting on her SAP journey, Sharma adds, “There are so many highlights however, for me, the small moments are what matter. The people I work with, the purpose and impact we have in what we do and ultimately the change we are creating for future generations. I am encouraged to see gender equality movements in the technology industry that are helping create an equal footing for women. By working together with technology, I believe we can reshape the game's fundamental rules.”
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
