Up the ranks: Raman Sidhu joins AIA as Director, Group Leadership & Talent

Among his areas of focus, Raman is responsible for Group Leadership & Talent and designing solutions that meet business needs and objectives, address critical talent requirements, and improve the capabilities of AIA Group's workforce.

Raman Sidhu has taken on the role of Director, Group Leadership & Talent at AIA Group, effective July 2024.

Reporting to the Group CHRO, he is responsible for leading AIA's integrated, future-forward approach to leadership development and talent management. His main areas of focus include:

• Designing solutions that meet business needs and objectives, address critical talent requirements, and improve the capabilities of AIA Group's workforce.
• Being accountable for leadership development programmes and succession planning processes by collaborating with senior leadership team and local business units.
• Cultivating a strong pipeline of future leaders and optimising AIA's performance management system to attract, develop and retain top talent.

Raman joins AIA following a 30-year career spanning roles and functions at Shell, starting off in Sales & Marketing for the India business before moving to leadership roles in Supply Chain in India, UAE, and Oman, and stepping into his first HR leadership role as Head, Talent Sourcing for India in 2010.

In 2011, the leader began his specialisation in the COE function, where he was responsible for providing learning solutions to address critical capability gaps in Shell Lubricants Supply Chain across the Americas, Europe & Africa, and Asia Pacific. He progressed to the Chief Learning Officer role in Singapore for Global Commercial comprising global businesses such as Lubricants, Aviation, Marine, Bitumen and Sulphur. His final role at Shell was as Group Head of Learning Operations, based in Singapore.

Reflecting on his decades-long career with the organisation, while speaking to HRO, Raman shares: "My most fulfilling memory at Shell has been its culture of care and a sense of deep belonging to a global community. This assuredness pervades even when one moves continents and countries, time zones and cultures. I have been most fortunate to work with amazing colleagues across Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

"Shell is an outstanding leadership grooming school that nurtures you to be a caring, culturally sensitive, inclusive, well informed yet a curious professional", he adds, noting that it helped him "develop into a global commercial professional" and that he was "fortunate to be offered multiple leadership opportunities to deploy this commerciality across Topline functions, Supply Chain, and HR roles."

Aside from his past role at Shell and current role at AIA, Raman is a pro-bono psychotherapist whose expertise lies in deploying mental health solutions in an organisational context; and in supporting individuals, couples and families as they find fulfilment in their relationships and achieve inner peace & balance.

With his experience in mind, and as someone who is passionate about practising mindful living techniques, we ask Raman to share a quick message to his peers on always remaining open to new learnings as an experienced HR professional, as well as a few top tips on maintaining work-life harmony.

As a message to his peers, he says: "Gen AI and the dynamics of an ever-evolving global economy and supply chains offer amazing opportunities to HR leaders to embrace change, lead enterprises with courage and a humanistic mindset.

"Leadership development and integrated talent management sit at the heart of a strategic response to ensure people development matches, or better, still exceeds the pace at which the business ecosystem is changing."

"The role of HR leaders has become more critical than ever in fostering a strategic partnership with business in crafting a people strategy that fuels the business ambition."

Coming to the tips, he shares: "My personal learning has been to focus on getting the baseline health right first at the physical, emotional, psychological, and social level. What this meant for me was to go back to the basics of daily discipline of early morning yoga and meditation, vegetarianism, gratitude journaling, seven to eight hours of restful sleep, volunteering as a psychotherapist, and immersing myself in the profound wisdom of Eastern mysticism.

"Moving away from the arrogance of ‘me as a doer’ to ‘me as an agent of the divine will’ is humbling, liberating, and allows me to move towards my life goal of being ‘connected with everything and attached to nothing’."

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Photo: Provided