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Meet Nav
27 Plays1 year ago
Continuing on a theme we started in our last episode, we've got another Spotlight on a beloved colleague. This time, it's our new Director of Human Resources: Navjot Parmar! Nav gives us some insight on her new gig, her 14-year journey through LCL, what to expect from our incredible HR team at LDML (Loblaw Digital, Media and Loyalty), her general thoughts on successful teams and workplace culture, and her favourite pizza toppings.
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Transcript
Introduction to The Commute
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Commute. I'm one of your hosts. My name is Noah. My pronouns are he and him. I am the GM for our PCO digital business here at La La Digital.
Meet the Hosts: Noah and Navjha
00:00:14
Speaker
um With me is the one, the only, Madam Nav. Hi, Noah. Hi, everyone.
00:00:23
Speaker
That was who you are, what you did. Hey, so I'm Navjha Parmar, pronouns she and her. um Everybody calls me Nav. I am now the director of HR, supporting LaBla Digital, Loyalty, and Advanced. Yeah, you are. Love it.
00:00:39
Speaker
um So, Nav, we've done a bunch of these. I hope you listen.
Spotlights on Individuals at LaBla Digital
00:00:44
Speaker
Yes. um And so we thought it was a good idea to start doing some spotlights. um We've heard from some folks at LD that they want to hear more about like what individuals do. ah So just jamming with the Jacob, Kiana, and Ko. We thought, you know, we narrowed down to a few people and Look at me. I said, lucky come on. How do we not how do we not
Navjha's New Role and Responsibilities
00:01:09
Speaker
include an av in this? And I think think it's great timing um with you taking on this new role. um So one, congratulations. Thank you. I appreciate that. think i've told you I think I tell you every day how proud and happy I am for you. Yes, every day. But it's so well deserved. Thank you. I'm really excited. You're like, it's like a new boss now. Yeah. Not like. It's like I have a new boss. Yeah.
00:01:32
Speaker
um because We'll run shit the way Jiggs did. yeah You will as well. I can't wait to see what you do. um So, but let's get into, you know, what your role is. Like, what is the remit of the director of HR? Yeah, or for sure. ld And I guess Lauren's horrible. Yeah, for sure. So um the remit basically is our people plan and ensuring that our colleagues are happy.
00:02:01
Speaker
ah We retain great talent and ensuring that our colleagues have the opportunity to grow um their careers um and learn new skills and support our businesses while they're doing it all.
Daily Life and Challenges in HR
00:02:15
Speaker
And then from my perspective, it's um more on the HR side. So any HR related employee relations, um any conversations in regards to performance, along with like you know programs that we want to um introduce um like Ezra as you are all aware of. We did manager 101. I hope all of our managers have been starting to take those courses and lift. So it's really investing in our colleagues um to make sure that they're performing at their best.
00:02:49
Speaker
of that. So what about day to day? Like I know for you, that's such a hard thing it is because it ends on the day. Like I was talking to you yesterday and you were telling me about something you did that day and like I was just having with you earlier this morning. I'm like, wow, that is a complete 180 what you did yesterday. Yeah. So day to day, there's really no day to day. You have plans and those plans change.
00:03:13
Speaker
um And it's ah honestly, it's just ensuring that our colleagues are taken care of and are happy, right? So day-to-day, say, um having conversations from our leaders, so our SVPs, BPs, all the way down to all of our other colleagues, having you know concerns,
00:03:32
Speaker
um or you know wanting to talk to ah us about career opportunities, career growth. What can they do um from a growth perspective or learning perspective? How do we help them build connections with the larger enterprise? And now with Lauren's larger portfolio, how do I dabble a little bit into advance and learn about advance? Or
Skills for Growth and Empathy in HR
00:03:53
Speaker
how do I learn about loyalty? And what are we doing as an organization to ensure that um our colleagues are up to par, getting the skills that they need to grow and make themselves better for our business. Very cool.
00:04:09
Speaker
um You know, there's also this, you know, you play like a bit of psychologist as well. Yeah, sometimes. um like What part of that makes it, you know, I'm sure there is, I don't want to say stressful, but there's times where it's like, that is hard, right? yeah Like, you know, people's emotions and feelings, you know, are near, are near and dear to them. And you want to make sure they feel heard and seen. Um, you know, this isn't a nav question. I think this is just more of an overall HR question, like dealing with that part, right? yeah and What's that, what's that like on a day to day? Cause you never know when it's going to come. No, for sure. And honestly, Noah, it's just the human empathy and sympathy, right? So we all go through stuff. um you know We have things happening at home that not everybody knows about, and sometimes with added pressures at work and all the stuff that we have going on at home.
00:05:03
Speaker
um it can make stress levels very high. So love to be a um person that somebody feels comfortable and um confident in speaking to um and knowing that I'm there, my team is there to support them and being able to help kind of and navigate through issues that they might be facing and provide resources that might be available, um you know, in regards to EAP or, you know, if somebody's having a tough time with a colleague, like how do I approach that conversation?
00:05:33
Speaker
if somebody's having a difficult um time with their manager, or a manager's having a difficult time with one of their colleagues. How do we support them in ensuring that the conversations are happening? Because we want to be transparent, um but at the same time, being respectful and sympathetic to what people are dealing with. I love that.
00:05:52
Speaker
um you know you've so I feel like most people know now, but you've been at the enterprise for Some time.
Navjha's Career Journey and Business Evolution
00:06:00
Speaker
Yeah, 14 years. 14 years. 15 in bed. Whoa, do you get a pen at 15? I think I get a pen. Do you still have all your pens? I do have my pens. Do you ever wear them? No.
00:06:11
Speaker
um So how, like, 14 years. Yeah. Always been in the HR practice. Correct. Like how have you seen it it evolve in your time? Yeah, it's evolved. um So I started off as a senior HR coordinator. I supported the Joe Fresh business, which is I know near and dear to your heart yeah and um home and entertainment. So at that time when I joined, we had two stores.
00:06:36
Speaker
Um, and they were unionized stores. Um, and then it was the growth and expansion of Joe, right? So, uh, standalone stores, New York, Barbados, like, I was part of all of that. And it was so excited. I did. I did. did New York Barbados was fun.
00:06:51
Speaker
Wasn't the office on this, like, off the beaten path? Yes, yes. Like, take Juany Road. yeah mean Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So got to be able to be part of that. It's fun and exciting, opening up stores. Then um moved over to the food side of the business, which is basically our bread and butter um of, you know, getting our customers in store. And that was a different um experience in itself, right? It's more of a stable, traditional business. so presenting new ideas might not fly sometimes. So it's how do you navigate that, right? um Then I went over to Choice, which is, ah you know, sister company um with the REIT. So learned a bit of real estate. um Yeah.
00:07:36
Speaker
We have stores, we need them, bricks and mortars. So I wanted to get an understanding of that. And then this opportunity came out, which is totally out of my comfort zone. Didn't know anything about tech, digital, new, like I can i can work a phone, right? Like that's what I knew. And so joined here and I can say that this has been the most challenging and growth opportunity that I've had. And I'm so excited that I made this move, able to learn a totally different side of the business, learn new skills and really got myself out of a comfort zone. So what's been challenging?
00:08:15
Speaker
Challenging, I think it's not challenging in a sense that um it's hard. It's more of, I was used to the status quo. So um here it was more innovative. I was able to come with ideas and new ways of doing things, whereas in the market division, probably went in a flaunt as well, right? So that was challenging because it's a different mindset. and Is my idea going to be accepted? Like, is it cool if I say something um that's out of the norm and different? um And I find that um the groups down here, the groups that I get to support are very innovative and forward thinking and um willing to try new things. And if it
Love for LaBla Digital and Future Aspirations
00:09:00
Speaker
doesn't work, it's OK. We can do something else. um Whereas in the past, it's more like, no, let's keep it safe. So I feel like you just answered my next question, but let's go for it anyways. What do you what do you love about L.D.?
00:09:14
Speaker
Okay, it was funny because I just did an interview and they asked me why I'm still here. And I'm going to say there's two things. One is the people. I love everyone that we work with. I think everybody has such positive intent and everybody wants to see your success. Second, the opportunities that I've been really fortunate to have. um You know, anytime I've asked any of my leaders for something outside of the norm, um they always supported me and were like, yeah, let's do it and made cleared ways for me to kind of do that stuff. So those are the kind of things that keep me around and really make me happy. I love that. I love that. um
00:09:59
Speaker
This might be a spicy one. Okay. What's one thing you would want to change? What's one thing I would want to change? That's a good question. um One thing I would want to change is um sometimes our business becomes too reactionary. um I'd want us to be more forward in strategy and forward thinking than more reaction and firefighting. I love that. See the forest beyond a tree. Yeah. yeah
00:10:29
Speaker
Yeah. It's hard. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. but hundred percent i get I hear you. I hear you. Um, okay. So let's, let's shift to teams. Um, you know, you help structure a lot of teams, like, you know, if there's one thing that is constant within.
00:10:49
Speaker
Not just Loblaw Digital, but LCL is change. 100%. You know, and so when you think about, you know, whether it's a new op model or, you know, like org structures are changing, you know, there's always the concept of a team that's being impacted. When you think about that, like what does a team, like at its core, what does a team need to have no matter what?
00:11:13
Speaker
So what a team needs to have to be able to be successful is to really be able to go with the change, right? Like change is uncomfortable. I get it. Um, and we do change pretty much every day, but being able to be a change leader, um, change advocate, um, goes a long way. So those are the folks that, you know, are going to understand why the change is happening. And those are the ones that you,
00:11:42
Speaker
kind of need behind you to rally the rest of the team because change is hard. It's hard for everyone, but you need those strong supporters and those that get it that will you know influence others and get them pumped and excited. I love that. I like that answer a lot. um it's ah It's always interesting. I love I respect the HR practice greatly. i think there's like it you know the it's the I find it so fascinating because it's the one area that, like you know like you said, you never know what the day brings um and like it keeps you on your toes. and like you got to change you You got to change your lens. You got to change the way you show up, depending on the type of meeting or type of situation.
00:12:30
Speaker
you know That's hard. I think that that's ah a a skill set that most people don't think about that's needed for HR. um As you think about your new role, do you want to spill the tea on anything you want to change or what's Nav's vision? Can we get into that? Observing right now, but we'll definitely share when I have more insight. I can't wait. I can't wait. Okay, let's do a quick rapid fire. Sure. All right. Your favourite food? Pizza. What's your favourite pizza topping?
00:13:09
Speaker
ah Anything vegetarian? Pineapple, yes or no? ah No. oh Sorry. That's fair. What makes you happy? Family, friends, the people I get to work with. What makes you angry? When people don't listen to me, Noah. You're saying you're like, I don't listen. No, you always listen. Hint, hint, hint, hint. Not all the time, but yes, I try to.
00:13:32
Speaker
um
00:13:36
Speaker
I suppose I just asked you, I lost my train. What makes me happy? One place you want to visit that you haven't yet. That's a really good question. ah I want to go to Fiji. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's a flight and a half. I know. yeah But I did India, so I feel like I can do that. Fair. Yeah. It's just the rest of the world. Yeah. and he has to Got it.
00:13:58
Speaker
um Okay, cool. This was so much fun. Thanks, Noah. Thanks for having me. And one more time, congrats. Thank you so much. So well deserved. Thank you. I think I speak on behalf of all of you. Thank you. I'm so excited to see what you do with it. Thank you. You definitely have a big choose to fill, but I do. I do. If there is anyone to fill, then it is you. Thank you. Let's go. Let's go. Let's go. Thanks, Nav. Thank you. Folks, hope you enjoyed this one. I hope you're enjoying your commute. We'll see you soon.