A true Punjabi woman- happy, determined, bold, courageous and over everything, always positive, as her father used to say. This is the story of Divya Dang, the Chief Happiness Officer of Cloud Analogy, who never showed her back to work, even during some of the worst days of her personal life.

Divya started young. At the age of 20, she was already the HR of a startup. And unlike a lot of people, she always wanted to be an HR, it was her calling and for all the right reasons. She kickstarted her career with ContentFlow Technologies handling the product development and marketing department. She was the key component in launching a skill development program called ‘School of Convergence’. During her tenure here, they launched a digital marketing course for college students in association with ILFS. Her journey to becoming an inspiration for thousands of women across the country took off from there.

Nobody remains untouched by life’s ups and downs, neither was Divya. But even when life hit her hard, she refused to fall. She was laid off from the third company she worked for. And right when she thought her 6 months of patience had borne fruit with Evalueserve, she had to drop everything in a second. Her family needed her.

Divya’s mother suffered a neuro attack, leaving her body half paralyzed. Things came to a standstill. Sadness engulfed her. The feeling of never being able to continue her career haunted her; there couldn’t be anything worse than this, or so she thought.

After the covid pandemic’s first wave, things took a turn for Divya as she was offered the role of an HR manager in Cloud Analogy. Within a year, she was promoted to Global HR Head and recently as the Chief Happiness Officer.

She recalls her CEO Ajay Dubedi telling her, “You are a person who never got the right opportunity. You always had the potential, but you were not the right person at the right time and in the right place. This is where you exactly belong.”

Divya co-founded a CSR arm called LearNowX, an initiative of CA. Having worked with the School of Convergence in the past, she saw tremendous potential in LearNowX and helped college students bridge their skill gaps. The training program has already completed 10 batches with 7000+ people- All within a year.

Three days before launching the said program, Divya was all set, preparing the speech she would deliver in front of 200+ people in attendance. But as they say, happiness is often short-lived. However, it is within you to let the upheaval push you down or help you rise. She had to bear the news her father’s death due to covid.

Despite going through the rush of emotions and the gut-wrenching pain, Divya turned up on the launch day, stood there on the dais and gave the presentation. She said that is what her father would have done and wanted her to do as well. “I harnessed the power from him. He will be proud of me for keeping the integrity of my commitment,” she told her colleagues.

With a heavy heart yet a brave soul, Divya awaited her next set of challenges. She dint have to wait long as ‘changing people’s mindset’ stood tall. Change takes time and requires immense patience. And Divya had oodles of that. She was able to change the culture because there was a mindset shift in the people who were managing everything, the ones at the top. With each passing year, the company witnesses a tenfold change in the mindset of leaders, which trickles down to the people who are starting afresh in the organization, she said.

HR professionals are people-managers who primarily need to connect with them, Divya stressed. The first activity she introduced after joining Cloud Analogy was ‘HR-my friend’. Sounds common but way too successful to be ignored. An engagement expert, Divya sits down with every employee once a month asking them to share anything they would like to. This could be about the office, their career, personal life, right from their parents to their significant others. Discussions on anything and everything are welcome during this bonding session. Got any suggestions for the company? They are very welcome too. In fact, this activity highlighted a lot of things that were left unattended and could then be changed. In exchange, the employees get goodie bags as thank-you gifts.

From at least 3 engagement activities every month, over and above leadership training and soft skill programs, to changed salary structures, EPF, family insurance provisions and more, Divya made sure her company was listed under the highly sought-after ‘Great Places to Work’ directory.