Satbir Bains was appointed as the CHRO of SHL Medical in February 2023. SHL Medical is a pioneering leader in self-injection devices.
Headquartered in Switzerland with locations across Europe, the Americas and Asia, SHL Medical employs close to 6,000 employees.
Satbir started her career in Engineering and then transitioned to HR. Having held business partnering, project and CoE roles at global companies in a variety of industries, she has built up 20+ years of experience in shaping the strategic people agenda.
Why did you want to become CHRO? What fuels your drive?
“It was never about the title for me. Transformation and change are what excite me and at SHL I had the opportunity to really shape and influence the whole People agenda with an organization that shares my values.
What I really loved and made me take the leap was that they wanted to look at everything with a fresh pair of eyes. To set a new precedence of what are the right things to do that are meaningful for the business and drive growth, rather than follow the pack and copy what other organizations are doing.”
“You need a safe space where you don’t have to act like you’re a superhuman, where you can talk, show your vulnerability, and be yourself.”
Is there anything that has surprised you about the role? Something you didn’t expect?
“The most significant surprise has been the importance of having the right team around you. Not only in terms of competencies, but to have individuals who have the same kind of ethics, integrity, values and resilience. Who bring their best every day. Because as a CHRO you are not going to have a great day every day and if you don’t have the right people around you, with whom you have a trustful relationship, I think you can feel very lonely in this role. You need a safe space where you don’t have to act like you’re a superhuman, where you can talk, show your vulnerability and be yourself. The fact that I can be myself with my team gives me a huge amount of strength.“
When do you know you are making an impact?
“When the business is not seeing HR as something separate but as part of their team. I like to work with the business in tandem and have just developed the next 5 year People Strategy with the business, not separate from it. In HR, we have so many specialist functions that don’t always connect that a change in business strategy, may impact the way we need to source talent, the competencies we need to develop in the future and how we engage our Team Members etc. We need to build the connections between these different topics and translate it into something that’s meaningful for the business and not just do things for HR’s sake.”
How do you inspire the next generation of leaders?
Something that is really important to me is about staying true to who you are. We all have different backgrounds – our own story and journey – and it’s important to not try to replicate or copy what others are doing. For me, it’s very important to be in an environment where you feel you do not need to compromise your values. You have to stay very close to who you are and stand up for what you believe in. Because when you find the right place then you’ll know you can fly!
“It’s important that people know who you are and what you stand for. From there, you can build a network of authentic connections you can trust and tap into for support and ideas.”
How important is your network in your role as CHRO — any tips for making connections that last?
The way I have developed my network during my career is by getting things done and then when people see the results I get approached by people because they know I’m someone who will move and change things when it is required to get the business to a better place. Not just because I am posting something on LinkedIn every week, which can be a bit artificial. I think it’s important that people know who you are and what you stand for. From there you can build a network of authentic connections that you can trust, talk to and tap into for support and ideas.
Interview by Joan Beets
Joan Beets, in her global corporate career that spanned 15 years, worked across industries (Oil&Gas, Staffing, Food Ingredients) and functions (HRBP, Talent, Change Management and HR Strategy) for large multi-national organizations. Joan have opened and closed offices in Asia and Europe, led the development of a contingent workforce framework to support multi-year Engineering projects, drove the HR aspects of a business transformation of a Global IT organization, developed and implemented a Global Mobility strategy and led the change management process of the transfer of on-site HR services to a shared service model in Europe and North America (incl. roll out of a new SuccesFactors platform).
