Abha Verma

Strategic HR Business Partner with 3 years of experience driving workforce strategy, organizational effectiveness, and culture transformation across manufacturing and exploration environments. Proven ability to partner with business leaders, influence decision-making, and deliver measurable impact across engagement, diversity, and productivity. Known for building inclusive workplaces, scaling talent strategies, and aligning people priorities with business growth.

CHRO North-East - Cairn Oil & Gas, Vedanta Ltd - Jorhat, Assam

(2025-06)

• Serving as CHRO for North-East exploration operations (~300 employees), aligning people strategy with business priorities
• Partnering with leadership to drive talent strategy, retention, and workforce readiness in remote, high-risk environments
• Advising on industrial relations, compliance, and stakeholder management, ensuring operational continuity across districts
• Re-engineered manpower contracting strategy, achieving cost-neutral rollovers while enabling ~10% income enhancement
• Driving people experience initiatives (housing, ESG, leadership programs) to improve retention and field engagement
• Led rollout of Crossover leadership program (200+ employees), strengthening internal capability and succession readiness
• Acting as a strategic advisor to leadership on workforce planning, culture, and long-term capability building
• Led multi-stakeholder engagement with labor & district authorities (RLC, CLC, DFO, SP, DC) to drive compliance, risk mitigation, and business continuity
• Re-engineered manpower contracting strategy, achieving cost-neutral rollovers while enabling ~10% income enhancement for Business Partners
• Supporting TACO and the Anil Agarwal Foundation to build staff dwellings near Kaziranga, improving field comfort and boosting retention of park rangers

Head HR WireRod Al. & HRBP Growth - BALCO, Vedanta Aluminium Ltd

(2023-06 - 2025-05)

• Acted as strategic HR Business Partner to plant leadership for a workforce of 380+ employees
• Partnered with business heads on workforce planning, expansion strategy, and productivity targets (2.44:386)
• Drove employee engagement strategy, achieving a 9% increase through targeted interventions
• Advised leadership on people risks, performance challenges, and org design, enabling data-driven decisions
• Built and tracked HR dashboards (engagement, productivity, training impact) to influence business outcomes
• Led diversity & inclusion transformation:
• Hired 20+ LGBTQIA+ employees
• Secured approvals for women in night shifts
• Launched Gender Reaffirmation Policy
• Delivered capability-building programs aligned to business needs, improving shopfloor productivity
• Acted as a bridge between leadership and workforce, improving trust and grievance resolution
• Focused on expanding workforce planning and productivity for a major plant expansion

MBA - Human Resources, Marketing & Business Strategy - Indian Institute of Management – Sambalpur (2021 - 2023)

BBA - Human Resources & Marketing - Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies - Pune (2018 - 2021)

10+2 - Nand Vidya Niketan, Jamnagar, Gujarat (2016 - 2018)