Anish Singh, Co-founder of All Things People
By Anish Singh, Co-founder of All Things People
There was a time when HR focused inward—debating engagement scores, updating policies, refining frameworks. All essential, yet often disconnected from the customer. We were people-first, but too often, customer-last.
That’s changing—and it must.
The world outside is evolving faster than org charts. To build an agile, high-performing business today, HR must be rooted in customer understanding.
HR’s north star has shifted
In an age where digital platforms flatten hierarchies, feedback is instant, and customer expectations are relentless, many HR systems are still designed around internal efficiencies. But thriving companies are built on the 3Ts: Talent, Technology, and Transformation.
They ask not “What does HR need to do?” but “What enables our people to deliver more value to customers?”
This lens sees talent as value creators, technology as a frontline differentiator, and transformation as a working mindset—adaptive, responsive, customer-centred. It redefines everything: how we design roles, hire, reward, develop, and most critically, how we listen.
Because when employees are connected to customers, empowered by tech, and inspired to transform, they don’t just engage—they own their impact. And that shows up on the balance sheet.
Making the customer visible to every employee
At one organization undergoing transformation, we found functions like finance, supply chain, and HR running parallel to customer-facing teams. All working hard—but not together.
We shifted the lens. Leadership reviews began with customer stories. Teams shadowed frontline colleagues. HR redesigned incentives to reward behaviour that moved the needle for both customer and business.
It wasn’t just a one-time shift. We established a system to continuously tap into how employees experienced work—what helped them move faster, what slowed them down, and how connected they felt to customer purpose. This wasn’t just feedback—it was intelligence. Collected regularly, decoded thoughtfully, and acted upon quickly.
Soon, people asked different questions: Not “What’s our flexible working policy?” But “What structure helps our teams solve customer problems faster, better, smarter?”
That’s when transformation takes root. Because when people feel seen, heard, and connected to purpose, the customer becomes visible in every decision—and performance becomes personal.
Hiring for customer context, not just competence
Traditional hiring focuses on pedigree, experience, and skill-fit. But the game-changer? Hiring for customer-contextual fluency.
Ask: “Tell us about a time you solved something for a customer, not just your manager.” “When did you go beyond your job description because you spotted a customer pain point?”
It’s not about hiring customer service reps everywhere—it’s about ensuring everyone, from IT to legal, understands the ripple effect of their work on the end customer.
A Harvard Business Review study, “Putting the customer at the center of talent management”, found that customer-oriented hiring leads to stronger collaboration and innovation. The result? A more agile, responsive culture.
This shift in hiring reshapes culture. People don’t just do their jobs—they own their impact.
And when that happens, transformation isn’t a project. It’s how the organization thinks, hires, and grows.
Learning that mirrors market realities
In today’s fast-moving business environment, traditional Learning & Development (L&D) models—with fixed schedules and generic content—are no longer enough.
Indian companies are investing heavily in new-age skills like AI, data analytics, and cybersecurity. Organizations like HUL, PwC India, Mahindra Group, and Infosys are embracing leadership training and innovative platforms to stay competitive.
L&D today must align with market realities and customer needs. Integrating customer feedback into learning initiatives, and running cross-functional learning sprints based on real customer problems, ensures that learning is fast, relevant, and impactful.
This not only builds critical skills but also fosters a culture where learning is synonymous with creating customer value.
Rewiring performance and rewards
Perhaps the toughest shift? Redefining how performance is understood and rewarded.
Traditional systems focus on individual metrics—KRAs, ratings, annual feedback cycles. They measure effort. But customers don’t feel effort. They feel outcomes.
Forward-looking organizations are moving from isolated goals to shared outcomes. From internal checklists to customer-impact metrics. Recognition comes from peers, cross-functional teams—even customers. Imagine a tech team appreciated by sales for a platform update that reduced churn. That’s real performance.
Companies like Atlassian in Australia celebrate collective impact over individual brilliance. In India, startups are experimenting with “impact pods”—cross-functional teams with shared KPIs linked to customer success.
To build a future-ready performance culture:
- Anchor on shared outcomes, not just individual goals.
- Make performance visible through tech tools that track real-time wins.
- Celebrate behaviours—like collaboration and customer advocacy—that drive long-term results.
The result? Silos blur. Purpose aligns. And high performers are those who help teams deliver value that customers can feel.
It’s not just HR’s job. But HR can lead.
This isn’t about HR doing more—it’s about doing differently.
When HR becomes the steward of the customer voice inside the organization, everything shifts. We build companies that are aligned, adaptive, and deeply human—not just within, but in how they show up in the world.
Because in the end, systems don’t drive success. People do—aligned in purpose, anchored in impact, and energized by the world beyond office walls.
And HR? We can be the bridge that gets them there.
(Views expressed in the article are solely of the author.)
