About this episode Top Insights
“Get attached to the idea of solving the problem, not the process.” — Bhavya Sharma

About the Episode

This episode is a bright speck of light for HR professionals who are undergoing rapid growth that has jostled the main contents of their company—clarity, communication, and culture. If you are currently facing high attrition, increased culture toxicity, spiked churn rate, or sub-par productivity due to organizational scaling, then this episode is a must-watch for you.

In this 28-minute episode, you’ll listen to Bhavya Sharma giving quick and effective solutions for business growth challenges like:

  • How to gather your people’s POVs on what’s making it unbearable for them?
  • How to onboard hundreds of employees without disrupting your company’s DNA?
  • How to create processes that bring both revenue and sophistication to your org?

So, if you are curious to know how to stay strong amidst the challenges during organizational scaling, then listen to this episode on Spotify and immerse yourself in it.

Watch This HR Podcast If You Are…

An HR who is working in an organization that’s undergoing rapid growth and scaling. This short, crisp, and insightful session will help you:

  • Create HR processes that align with your organizational growth pace.
  • Address the organizational growth challenges that usually occur during the process
  • Find out the early signs when your culture starts to stretch thin and becomes vulnerable

Top Three Insights You Will Find in This One of the Top HR Podcasts

1. Hire strong professionals rather than fixing skill gaps later.

According to Bhavya, hiring A players isn’t just about talent. They not only perform best but put a strong foundation and lead with example. Also, hiring professionals who are experts in their domains by default becomes a great fit to succeed as leaders.

2. Communication is the first point of breakage in a rapid growth culture.

In fast-growing organizations, communication is usually the first thing to crack, and when it does, culture and clarity start slipping too. That’s why HR leaders need to spot early signs of business growth challenges like disengagement and step in early. Regular AMAs, one-on-ones, and open office hours help ensure messages are heard, understood, and not lost as the organization scales.

3. Identifying early signs of a thin culture is better than covering the damages.

Two of the clear signs of challenges during organizational scaling are a spike in escalations and attrition, pointing out weak leadership or lack of accountability among managers. The most important thing is to detect these leadership flaws and address the issues on the spot rather than waiting for the damage to happen.

Ready to spot the early signs of challenges during organizational growth? Dive into our latest blog that helps you find the sneaky conflicts before they turn into damaging.

Mic Drop Moment

“Trade-offs are for people who can’t innovate.” — Bhavya Sharma

How clearly Bhavya Sharma broke the myth with this insight, “Tradeoffs are for people who can’t think out of the box.”

In the episode when Bhavya was asked about the tradeoffs that companies witness in their environment for example, Speed vs. Quality and Autonomy vs. Alignment, she explained, an HR professional can have both autonomy with alignment, and speed with quality, without missing out on the other one. All they must be ready to do is to think “Out-of-the-Box”.

According to her, when an innovative and fresh mindset is applied to a problem, it’s always a win-win outcome. So, as an HR professional, don’t miss out on speed because you want quality, rather come up with unique solutions that get you both.

 

 

The Rapid-Fire Round: No Prep, Only Perspectives.

Q1. One thing that always breaks during scale up.

Bhavya Sharma —Communication

Q2. Which is harder to scale? Trust or process?

Bhavya Sharma —Trust

Q3. A company you think scaled culture exceptionally well.

Bhavya Sharma — Google and Netflix

Q4. What book or thinker shaped your views on growth and culture?

Bhavya Sharma —Laszlo Bock, Google

Q5. Grow fast or grow right. What wins for you?

Bhavya Sharma —Both with “Out-of-the-Box” thinking

Q6. What’s one leadership behavior that determines whether an org. Bends on break under pressure?

Bhavya Sharma —Resilience

 

Food for Thought: Scaling your organization without stretching it thin


 
1. What does it mean by organizational elasticity?

Organizational elasticity is nothing but scaling an organization without stretching it thin. It’s basically the ability of teams, processes, and leaders to flex as the business grows, without snapping under pressure. Organizations that are elastic are resilient and absorb growth by strengthening people’s systems and decision clarity, not by pushing harder.

So, what exactly does it mean?

  • It means expanding capacity, not just adding headcount
  • Defining clear roles and ownership to allow teams to stretch without stress
  • Strong, flexible people systems help organizations scale without burnout

2. What are the common challenges of scaling an organization for growth?

Common challenges of scaling an organization include employee burnout, unclear responsibilities, slow decision-making, and manager overload. These problems often occur when growth outpaces people’s processes and leadership readiness.

Here’s how you can deal with it:

  • Modify your processes that are better aligned with your growing company
  • Bring clarity into roles and responsibilities to reduce friction and rework
  • Help your managers with training to scale smoothly

3. How can HR support sustainability during business growth challenges?

HR supports sustainable organizational scaling by improving workforce planning, designing scalable roles, empowering managers, and simplifying HR processes to match business growth.

Here’s how you can support it?

  • Play a strategic role in balancing growth and employee experience
  • Create a scalable role design to reduce pressure on teams
  • Be involved early HR involvement to prevents burnout and attrition during scaling

Meet the Guest

Bhavya Sharma currently works as the Senior Director of HR & Business Excellence in Zepto. With 9 years of domain expertise in talent management and development, succession planning, organizational design and effectiveness, change management, diversity, equity and inclusion and leadership coaching, she stands out be a progressive HR not just within the country but globally also.

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Bhavya Sharma

Bhavya Sharma

Sr. Director (HR & business Excellence), Zepto