Soumya (Som) Acharya

GCC Setup - Divestitures & Entity spinoffs

• Head for special projects like entity spinoffs that involve setting up HR functions for divesture GCCs – HRBP practices , HR COE, TA, Org. Design, Change Management .
• Successfully established the HR function for DESRI , a renewable energy GCC & spin-off from D. E. Shaw worldwide – Change Mgmt. Efforts, Policy designing, setting up ER frameworks and compliances , long term strategic and tactical components like Competency Frameworks, workforce planning, talent budgeting , setting up HR systems ( HRMS, LMS, PMS, time & attendance, ATS, onboarding & offboarding, data migration ). DESRI went live on April 1, 2025.

HR Vertical Head

• Responsible for four HR verticals for the company - Performance Management & Progressions, HR Systems, HR Analytics & HR Operations.
• Benchmarking and designing benefits for the India entity, strategizing associated change management programs; creating long term mission maps for HR Technology platforms for the firm and company-wide HR analytics. Added responsibilities included various firm and country wide programs like ESat surveys and action planning and providing direction to HRBP teams for India for downstream execution.
• Corporate Communications – Additionally, I also led both the interconnected communications priorities – internal & external comms.

HRBP Head – Financial Services (2018 till 2020)

• Headed HRBP team for the largest industry vertical for IBM India (~8k employees) – Financial Services; HR advisor for 23 business leaders.
• As a part of BU Leadership Team, I provided HR related strategic & tactical advice, specifically around Talent Management, Succession Planning, Compensation investments, retention strategies, talent acquisition, leadership coaching and performance management.

Special projects:

1. Lead - Performance Management Work-stream (2019 till 2020)

• Through a team of experienced HR Partners, I was responsible to drive the Performance Management Programs for the 50k+ employees.
• Part of the design team for IBM India's GBS Executive Assessment Center – creating batteries of assessments and frameworks that ensured top executives are selected to drive organizational priorities.

2. Lead - Compensation Work-stream (2015 till 2019)

• Led the team responsible for all Compensation Programs execution for IBM India GBS Unit . This included creating BU level strategies for planning investments and budgets for various work force pools, based on principles of pay competitiveness, performance and skill differentiation.

3. Attrition Analytics Workstream (2013 till 2015)

• Led the attrition analytics team for IBM GBS Unit.

- The IBM journey started as an HR BP, where I handled multiple business portfolios. The role gradually evolved into the latest role of HR Group Manager. From 2016 onwards, the roles also had deep angles of regional and country level ER and HR strategic interventions.

- Highlight project: I directly oversaw an SO (Strategic Outsourcing) deal between IBM India and a large Indian conglomerate . This involved rebadging of ~300 employees from the client side onto IBM roles.

HRBP

• HRBP for one of the key Business Units of the company, with 200+ associates. Instrumental in monitoring of critical indicators like Satisfaction levels, engagement levels of HIPOs (High Potential Associates) and BU Attrition rate.

Policies, Governance & OD

• Responsible for policies conceptualization, revisions, benchmarking and establishment.
• Org Design - Spearheaded project on Career Path Architecture, Technical and Behavioral Competency Framework, and Skills Assessment Program for SHI (Sears Holdings India).

Employee Relations

• Responsible for establishing important legal drafts for the organization, like Onsite Deputation Letters, Show Cause Notices, Revision of Employment Agreements and revision of the Associate Handbook. Directly liaised with organization's legal advisors for establishment of various policy documents and legal check points, from an HR Perspective.

HRBP (2009 – 2011)

• HRBP for two Independent Delivery Units, managing 700+ employees ; managing employee life-cycle and critical HR activities.
• Program co-ordinator for the Global Leadership Cadre (GLC) & Management Trainee (MT) programs at Tech M. This involved overall policy formulation, designing competency frameworks, selection through Assessment Centres, induction & quarterly performance reviews for various GLC & MT batches.