UNCONVENTIONAL & INCLUSIVE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE!
Dr. Grace Samson, a reforming human resources expert at employee engagement, growth, proactive retention. Shares her story on leveraging data analytics, pro-active problem solving and more humane aspects of recruitment.
Dr. Grace is a new age, divergent, and an unconventional Human Resources leader who loves experimenting, exploring, inventing, reinventing and problem-solving, all of it with the magic of human touch. Reflecting in her personality is the ‘Get it Done’ attitude, value-based HR advocacy to business leaders, a proven People & Talent professional, an amazing Thought Leader, a Passionate and Motivational Speaker, a driving force focussed on building a Diverse and Inclusive work culture, a strategic risk-taker and an ongoing Explorer! She is constantly striving to infuse the Human aspect into the Human Resources Function across Levels and geographies. Social Responsibility has led her to cross geographic borders and ignite the spirit of doing good regardless of stature.
Dr. Grace Samson was born in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Her father served Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore, designing aircraft for over 4 decades. Her mother was a teacher at St.Joseph’s Convent for over 4 decades, nurturing young minds. From her parents, she learned the value of hard work, the importance of integrity, attitude of straight talk and the art of being unique. Dr.Grace graduated in Commerce from Bangalore University along with a Post Graduate Certification in Human Resources from XLRI, Jamshedpur and is now a doctorate in Human Resources from Azteca University, Mexico.
As Head of HR for Informatica India, Dr. Grace Samson is responsible for people and the culture of the organization in India. Dr.Grace comes with over 23 years of HR experience with extensive accomplishments in strategic HR areas, and a huge focus on managing organizational change. Prior to Informatica, she worked for several companies like IBM, Sonim Communications, TriVium Systems, and Hical magnetics. She has spent the majority of her experience with IBM, for over 14 years and carries very fond memories of it. She has redesigned several aspects of the people’s agenda and management systems to shape a culture of innovation, continuous learning and agility, all of it with a human touch. She has devised and implemented coherent HR strategies, whilst improving internal processes and procedures in a highly complex and demanding environment, constantly trying to manage costs and delight, internal customers.
Dr.Graces’ people focus has addressed questions on how organizations add value to customers through both leadership and strategic human resource practices. In the human resources space, she along with her colleagues have worked to redefine and deliver work-class employee experience. In addition, she has helped shape thinking on how to transform HR practices to align/realign with customer needs and integrate this across organizational capabilities. In the leadership area, she has strived to focus on the outcomes of effective leadership, showcasing how leadership will increase customer share by creating
a leadership brand within the companies that she has worked for. She has defined organizations as capabilities and often talks about culture change and adapting to change, continuous learning, seamless collaboration, and innovation becoming a habit.
The future of Human Resources will have a tremendous impact not only on the workforce but also on the societal and business sphere. Dr.Graces’ mission is to build an agile workforce that is multi-disciplinary in experience, capability, skills and business acumen. She aspires to be a guardian of every organization’s most valuable asset -‘Talent’, especially in a growing GIG economy, where she envisions employees accessing HR over mobile technology or on the cloud. She strongly is focussing on predictive analytics, building a growth mindset amongst the workforce, strengthening leadership core competencies and believes it to be the core attributes of code of work in the future.
Dr. Grace has been a recipient of multiple recognitions over the years and was often recognized for her exemplary contribution to Human Resources, Focus on Diversity and Inclusive Skills Development, which includes IBM Corporate Services Corps Alum, Mexico October 2017, Women Achiever’s Award for HR Excellence 2019 by We-LeeD, facilitated by GWFM with for Inspirational Leadership amongst Women and awarded Honorary Doctorate for Excellence in Human Resources.
