Murali Menon

Global and national exposure with more than 15 years of high-level work experience in 5 different Public Sector organizations under the Government of India. Having served in IT/ITES, Mass Transportation, Manufacturing, Consulting, Biotechnology and Higher Education institutions, I bring to the fore diverse and strong experience in Human Resources, Administration and Office Management.

Human Resources Administration and Management:

• Work with the management to create a compelling people strategy and build an organizational culture that aligns with the management’s objectives and employee needs. 
• Continuous enhancement of HR procedures and policies. 
• Address key HR issues and avoid potential events that might interfere with company goals. 
• Periodically review and enhance compensation systems and benefits to ensure motivation, retention, and attraction of employees.
• Develop talent acquisition strategies, oversee the recruitment process, and implement performance management systems to attract skilled professionals.
• Address employee issues, implement and develop company policies, and promote engagement initiatives.
• Managing and running the HR team with the team members and direct reports.
• Foster effective communication channels across the organization to promote a collaborative and engaging work environment. With exceptional communication skills, enable smooth and productive interactions at all levels.
• Spearhead the recruitment process for front-line staff, officers, managers and team-leads by working closely with recruitment agencies, referrals, advertisements, head-hunting, etc. to identify, attract, and select top-tier talent. Your strategic approach will contribute to building a high-performing team.
• Administer, support, lead, and facilitate learning and development initiatives including training, international exchange, workshops, meetings, and events.
• Manage on-boarding of new recruits, time/ attendance system, payroll processing, MIS reporting, HR Policies, HR initiatives, Performance appraisals, performance metrics, benefits administration, HR database. 
• Devise recruitment, HR policies, Conditions of Service Rules, training manual for the organization.
• Manage and administer the payroll for organizations including statutory payments to agencies.
• Advise and source of information on all matters relating to HR.
• Assess training needs to apply and monitor training programs.
• Develop and implement HR strategies and initiatives aligned with the overall business strategy.
• Develop strong working relationships with all managers and department heads, offering coaching and leadership to assist with training and development.
• Coordinated activities of human resources team, distributing resources and personnel effectively across organization to meet HR needs.
• Investigate disciplinary matters and act as Inquiry Officer to initiate and probe the cases and duly provide the proceedings to the Competent Authority.
• Act as a point of contact for all HR Administration policies & procedures for all employees, and escalating issues or enquiries not served in current policies to specialized teams.

Administrative and Office Management:

• Optimize growth in profitability through effective leadership, planning, organization and control of functional activities, within agreed strategies and guidelines.
• Develop annual budgets and forecast in conjunction with the management and ensure budgets and targets are adhered to accordingly.
• Monitor business performance against budget and to undertake corrective action where necessary.
• Monitor departmental performance against KPIs.
• Represent the organization in establishing and continuously growing relationships with business partners, customers, clients and vendors.
• Attract, develop, motivate, deploy and retain staff in an effective manner and ensure effective succession planning is in place.
• Read, analyze, and interpret technical documents, procedures, or government regulations. Write technical reports, business correspondence, and procedure manuals. Effectively present information and respond to queries of clients and general public.
• Analytical, problem solver, team player with strong leadership, quality management, planning competencies.
• Forge strong relations by liaising with government departments and other agencies. 
• Provide full spectrum of secretarial and administrative support to the C-level offices.
• Handle variety of administrative and executive support tasks that are confidential and sensitive. Researches, compiles, assimilates, and prepares confidential and sensitive documents based on requirement. 
• Build relationships with various stakeholders both nationally and internationally for managing projects.
• Contribute to writing background documents, briefs and presentations, including carrying out or overseeing relevant landscape and data analyses.
• Making travel arrangements, preparing itineraries, processing visa applications, compiling and maintaining travel vouchers and records.
• Implement process and office management improvements by designing new systems, maintenance of official records/files by establishing and maintaining various filing and records management systems.
• Coordination for logistic and travel arrangements for various meetings and site visits.
• Technical and administrative management for programs and projects. 
• Project management and coordination of project grants worth USD 100 million.
• Coordination of programs with relevant stakeholders including Government, Academia, Industry, Philanthropies nationally and globally. 
• Liaise with the international stakeholders for project management, resource mobilization, events etc. 
• Serve as a point of contact for all the national and international stakeholders for administrative requirements. 
• Provide timely reports, data, updates to stakeholders as and when necessary. 
• Planning and coordination of all Advisory / Committees, meetings, conferences on small and large scale involving national and international stakeholders. 

Academic administration, Research Center management:

• Develop, plan, manage, execute and review student admission processes.
• Collaborate and coordinate with various offices for alignment in admission process.
• Plan and organize flagship events and other student-centric events
• Manage academics related activities such as admissions of research scholars, conduct of viva-voce, interviews etc.  and international scholar and faculty exchange programs. 
• Collaborate with relevant offices for faculty recruitment, induction, orientation etc.
• Manage logistics and administrative arrangements for Visiting Professors, Invited Speakers and visitors, such as booking air fare and accommodation, arranging temporary office and key card access, book venues and manage catering for seminar and arrange for Lab cleaning.
• Coordinate key meetings including but not limited to Management Committee, Faculty Meeting, Technical Advisory Group Meeting, Scientific Advisory Committee etc.
• Oversee the day-to-day operations of the Center of Excellence, ensuring smooth function of all activities.
• Coordinate HR activities, including recruitment, induction, deployment and 
• Oversee financial management, including budgeting, resource allocation, expense tracking, and procurement processes.
• Oversee the procurement of high value state-of-the-art technical equipment for the research center, including drafting of technical specifications, administrative approvals, tender process, installation of equipment at the research site, payments to vendors etc. 
• Manage research center’s administration, including project planning, coordination, and documentation.
• Develop and oversee projects and events, such as conferences, workshops, forums, webinars, and networking sessions.
• Effectively plan, execute, and evaluate the events for continuous improvement.
• Coordinate with internal and external stakeholders for successful event management.
• Liaise with industry, non-governmental organizations, Universities and institutions for sponsorships and collaborations. 

Information Technology:

• SAP HCM: Two full life-cycle implementation of SAP HCM. 
• Core team member from HR for SAP implementation. 
• Devised the workflow flowchart of the HR operations in the organization including Recruitment, onboarding, benefits, performance appraisal, discipline and appeal, separation, promotion and policy etc.
• Process owner for the implementation of recruitment, HR administration, onboarding, vigilance, payroll. 
• Coordinated with software developers to evaluate new technological tools, alternate processes and new designs to improve functionality and quality.
• Determined test requirements and built jobs to meet quality requirements and benchmarks in support of internal software developers.
• Collaborated with developers and project managers to assess program capabilities, features and testing demands.
• Created test cases and test scripts to maintain cohesive team approach to product development.
• Proposed development and testing improvements to positively impact usability, function and performance.
• Referred candidate resumes to customer account managers for evaluation and submission.
• Coordinated with IT team leaders to forecast hiring needs and department goals.
• Onboarded new hires and set up training.

MBA Human Resources Management

Master of Science in Electronics Science.