Leadership Speaks

Rendezvous with Sushil Baveja – SightsInPlus

June 22, 2026    

– By Mr Sushil Baveja, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Jindal Stainless

Sushil Baveja is a seasoned HR leader with over three decades of experience in human resources. He currently serves as Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Jindal Stainless, a role he has held since January 2023.

Before joining Jindal Stainless, Baveja worked as an Independent HR Professional and spent more than 18 years with DCM Shriram Ltd, where he served as Executive Director – HR, driving strategic people initiatives and workforce transformation.

Earlier, he was Director – Human Resources & Administration at Alcatel India Limited, contributing significantly to HR strategy and organizational effectiveness. He also held senior HR leadership roles at Gillette.

Throughout his career, Baveja has been recognized for building high performance cultures, strengthening leadership capabilities, and aligning HR practices with business growth objectives.

1. How do you strike a balance between monetary rewards and non-monetary recognition in keeping employees motivated and engaged?
   I feel rewards have to be well blended because motivation is rarely one-dimensional – what drives someone at the start of the career may be different from a senior professional. What remains constant, though, is the need to feel seen and know that your contribution matters to the people you work for in the organisation and alongside. An effective recognition design must speak to that reality. At Jindal Stainless, we work through a layered approach. Our quarterly Reward & Recognition programme combines meaningful monetary rewards with something that is often underestimated — senior-level, public acknowledgment. When an employee is recognised in the presence of our MD, and senior leadership that visibility carries a weight no voucher alone can replicate.We also have an on-the-spot mechanism where HODs can recognise their reportees in the moment, close to the impact because we believe timely recognition only strengthens the value of the contribution. And then there is peer recognition, embedded in our internal platform. It builds a culture of appreciation that is genuinely shared, not just top-down.

   The balance is not a fixed formula. It is a system that creates multiple opportunities for people to feel seen — formally and informally, monetarily and relationally.

2. What measures do you take to ensure that recognition is fair and reaches employees across functions, levels, and locations—not just top performers?
   We strongly believe that the process of recognition has to be objective, dispassionate, consistent and fair so that the credibility of the system is upheld.  Our R & R program is designed to ensure the same across the entire organisation. The most important choice we have made is to keep the nomination process completely open, where anyone can nominate – a peer, a reportee, a team lead, an HOD, or the individual themselves. That openness means standout contributions are far less likely to go unnoticed simply because someone lacked visibility or the right manager.The selection process reinforces this. We use a two-jury model – the first jury is cross-departmental but within the same location and the second is cross-locational. The jury composition is of senior leaders who cannot be subjected to any influence. No single function or geography dominates the outcome. Nothing better to ensure that the process is fair and objective.

   R&R programmes often default to recognising the most visible roles; our design deliberately disrupts that. A shop floor employee who solves a persistent operational problem deserves the same quality of recognition as a senior manager who closes a major deal. Building the structural conditions for that is, to my mind, is one of HR’s more important responsibilities.

3. What role does technology and AI play in your Rewards & Recognition strategy, and how is it helping create more personalized employee experiences?
   Technology is the operational enabler of our R&R programme. The entire workflow, from nomination to jury review to final recognition, runs on the digital platform and the system infrastructure is fully leveraged. This brings consistency and scale that a manually managed process simply cannot guarantee.Where technology becomes particularly meaningful is in reward redemption. Every recognised employee can choose how they redeem their reward, from a broad catalogue spanning vouchers across multiple brands and categories. Such personalisation tells an employee that we are not just recognising your performance, but doing so in a way that is meaningful to you specifically.

   Organisations that invest in intelligent R&R infrastructure today will have a real advantage in the employee experience they can deliver.

   

4. Beyond employee satisfaction, what metrics do you track to assess the effectiveness and business impact of your R&R programs?
   Satisfaction and engagement scores, I believe, are a starting point. The more important question is whether recognition actually changes behaviour, and whether that change shows up in business outcomes.Our Star Awards and Super Squad Awards are designed with this in mind. Recognition is tied to demonstrated, measurable business impact, and not to tenure or visibility. This creates a positive loop: employees understand that exceptional outcomes are what earn recognition, and that understanding itself sharpens performance orientation. It ultimately is about reinforcing behaviours that the organisation wants to see repeated at the work place. We also have project rewards within our incentive architecture, where the metric is clear – successful project completion or major milestones within a long-term project, and recognition follows accordingly.

   Beyond satisfaction, we watch whether R&R participation correlates with retention trends and team performance over time. When recognition is working well, it does not just make people feel good but shapes workplace norms. The goal is a culture where people are motivated not just by what they receive, but by what the recognition represents. When recognition is timely, authentic, fair and aligned to values, it drives rational and emotional commitment, high performance or discretionary effort, talent retention and ultimately business outcomes.

5. Any final comments?
   Recognition, at its core, is about a very simple human need — to know that what you do matters. It makes one feel valued, accepted and respected. Organisations that get this right do not treat R&R as a periodic ritual but as a continuous act of leadership. The process has to be robust, fair with a strong leadership sponsorship.What I have come to believe is that the most effective programmes are those where the culture of appreciation is so embedded that formal structures simply reinforce what is already happening on a day-to-day basis. That is the culture we strive to build at Jindal Stainless—a workplace where managers take the time to notice and acknowledge contributions, colleagues celebrate one another’s successes, and leaders consistently demonstrate genuine respect and regard for people. When appreciation becomes a daily habit rather than an occasional event, recognition carries far greater meaning and impact.

   In my view, investment in recognition and rewards reflects how deeply an organisation values its people. The behaviours that are acknowledged are the ones that gain momentum, and over time, those behaviours shape the culture of the organisation.

   This article was published on SightsInPlus in June 2026.