PolicyBazaar HR Head on How Careers are Built with Purpose

The recent session at Masters’ Union featured Shambhavi Solanki, Group Head of HR at PolicyBazaar. The discussion centered on careers, culture, and leadership in rapidly growing companies. She discussed how HR is central to business outcomes and why students should consider factors beyond pay packages and job titles when shaping their professional paths.

Careers Should Start with Purpose

Shambhavi highlighted that early careers often begin with a race for higher pay or big-name roles. She urged students to step back and ask a sharper question: what problem do I want to solve? At PolicyBazaar, her team aligns career growth with company outcomes, ensuring employees see meaning in their work. For students, her message was to pursue roles where impact and autonomy matter as much as designations.

Purpose-first career building

1. Start with clarity on what you want to solve

2. Look for roles that combine autonomy with accountability

3. Don’t reduce early choices to just salary or brand name

Human Resources as a Business Driver

Far from being just an administrative function, Solanki described HR as a strategic driver. At PolicyBazaar, people's policies are directly tied to how the company grows and adapts. Decisions on hiring, culture, and leadership impact not only employees but also the organisation’s ability to compete.

She noted that trust between teams and leaders is critical, especially in hybrid setups where transparency becomes the foundation of performance.

Strategic role of HR

1. HR decisions shape business performance

2. Trust and transparency drive collaboration

3. Agility in people policies is key to scale

Culture Built to Scale

Solanki explained that culture cannot be reduced to values written on a wall. It must be practised consistently by leaders and reinforced through systems. At PolicyBazaar, culture is built by empowering teams to take ownership and by ensuring feedback loops are part of daily routines.

She pointed out that scaling culture means combining structure with lived behaviour, documenting processes, but also modelling values visibly.

Scaling culture in organisations

1. Processes plus behaviours create a durable culture

2. Empower teams with ownership at every level

3. Feedback loops keep organisations adaptive

Leadership with Balance

When asked about leadership, Solanki made the point that empathy and accountability must go together. Empathy without accountability, she said, weakens performance. Accountability without empathy burns teams out. Her own approach at PolicyBazaar balances both, rewarding outcomes while ensuring employees feel supported.

For students, her perspective showed that leadership is not about authority but about fairness, consistency, and clear decision-making.

Balanced leadership approach

1. Pair empathy with accountability

2. Reward results while listening actively

3. Lead with fairness and consistency

Careers Shaped by Real Choices

The session with Shambhavi Solanki gave Masters’ Union students a direct view of how purposeful careers and resilient organisations are built. The sharper lesson: titles and paychecks can’t be the only compass. Careers that endure are built on purpose, trust, and alignment.

For students preparing to enter competitive industries, the session underscored that HR is not on the sidelines of business; it sits at the centre of strategy, culture, and growth.