Strategic HR Business Partner

About Company - With over 7500 stores, it is the largest pharmacy Omni-Retail chain in India. They have been serving their customers dedicatedly for over 40 years while touching the lives of over 36 Crore customers annually with genuine quality healthcare products. Build your career with a strong purpose to serve communities by joining their vibrant workforce of over 50,000 committed personnel spread across the country.

Designation– Strategic HR Business Partner

Reporting to – Regional HR Lead, Karnataka (solid line), with a dotted line to Head – Human Resources (Corporate)

Department – Human Resources – Karnataka Regional HR Team

Role Type – Individual Contributor

Work Week- 6 days with Sunday off.

Location –   Bangalore (Regional Office)

Experience - 8–14 years in HR, with substantial experience in strategic HR or HR business partnering roles. Senior Manager: typically 10–14 years. Manager: typically 8–10 years.

Role Purpose

To be the strategic HR business partner for the Karnataka region, with a strong focus on organisation development. The role works with regional business leadership to understand the business and operational challenges of our pharmacy retail network, shapes people strategies and OD interventions that address them at an organisational level, and acts as the liaison between the business and the HR functions so that people initiatives are aligned to business goals and deliver measurable outcomes.

Key Stakeholders

• Business: Regional Business Head and Operations Managers
• HR: Regional HR Lead; regional functional leads for Recruitment, Training and HR Operations
• Central: Corporate HR Head and HR COEs, as required

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Business Partnering

• Partner with the Regional Business Head and Operations Managers to understand business strategy, operational priorities and the people challenges facing the region's pharmacy retail network.
• Identify the people factors behind business and operational problems, such as pharmacist and frontline attrition, workforce capability, productivity and leadership pipeline, and build region-level strategies to address them.
• Bring a people and organisation perspective to regional business reviews and planning discussions, and act as a thought partner to business leaders on people decisions.

HR Strategy and Business Initiatives

• Translate regional business priorities into a clear set of HR initiatives with defined objectives, owners, timelines and success measures.
• Take ownership of existing strategic HR initiatives in the region, understand their intent and current status, and run them to achieve their intended outcomes.
• Drive new business-linked initiatives from design to implementation, and report their progress and impact to the Regional HR Lead and business leadership.

Organisation Development Initiatives

• Diagnose organisational effectiveness issues using data, surveys and structured discussions with leaders, and design OD interventions to address them.
• Lead org design and structure reviews for regional functions, including role clarity, spans and layers, and ways of working.
• Shape culture and engagement strategy for the region, using survey and diagnostic insights to drive focused action plans.
• Design and lead change management for major regional initiatives, including stakeholder alignment and leadership communication.

Capability and Leadership Development

• Identify critical capability and leadership gaps across key roles in the region, including pharmacy, operations and managerial roles.
• Partner with the Training lead to design and drive leadership development, capability-building and high-potential programs.
• Drive succession planning and talent reviews for critical roles, supported by competency frameworks.

Liaison Between Business and HR

• Act as the link between business leadership and the regional Recruitment, Training and HR Operations leads, making sure their plans support business priorities.
• Translate business requirements into clear asks for each HR function, and coordinate across them so initiatives are delivered end to end.
• Identify recurring gaps in HR delivery and work with functional leads on lasting, root-cause solutions.

People Insights

• Use people data covering attrition, vacancies, tenure, engagement and productivity to identify trends and inform strategy.
• Set up dashboards and review cadences to track the health of the region's people priorities and strategic initiatives.

Out of Scope

Day-to-day HR operations and store-level employee matters are handled by the Regional HR Lead. Compensation and payroll, statutory compliance, and recruitment execution are handled by the respective functions. This role partners with them where strategic initiatives require it.

First-Year Expectations

• Integrate and understand: build a working grasp of organisation's business model, retail operations, HR systems, processes and culture, and build strong relationships with business and HR stakeholders.
• Take over and deliver: take ownership of existing strategic HR initiatives in the region and run them successfully in line with their intended purpose and success measures.
• Build credibility: become a trusted strategic HR partner for the Regional Business Head and Operations Managers.

Desired Profile

• MBA/PGDM in HR or equivalent.
• Experience in strategic HR business partnering, with hands-on exposure to OD interventions such as org design, change management, culture and leadership development.
• Experience in retail, pharmacy, healthcare, QSR or other multi-location, frontline-heavy businesses preferred.
• Track record of linking HR initiatives to business outcomes and running them end to end.
• Strong business acumen and the ability to influence senior business leaders without direct authority.
• Comfort with data and Excel; exposure to dashboards is a plus.
• OD, coaching or psychometric certifications (e.g., ISABS, Hogan, MBTI) preferred.
• Knowledge of Kannada is a plus.

Key Competencies

Strategic thinking · Business acumen · Stakeholder influence · Consulting mindset · Change leadership · Execution discipline · Problem-solving · Adaptability and learning agility