Kriti Pradhan is the HR Manager at Quest Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd., bringing over a decade of experience to her role. Her career began specialising in one of the core HR functions: recruitment and selection. She joined Quest in February 2021 as an Associate Manager, spearheading Strategic Human Resource Planning and HR Development responsibilities, and was subsequently promoted to HR Manager in July 2025.
As she advanced, she adopted a more comprehensive approach to HR, undertaking complex roles that built upon her expertise in HR practices, employee experience, talent development, and influencing organisational culture holistically. Her career started at Growth Sellers Pvt. Ltd. in June 2015. She then moved to the Jawalakhel Group of Industries as a Senior HR Officer in September 2016, achieving promotion to Assistant HR Manager in July 2017.
Pradhan is also a member of the HR Society Nepal, the country’s central network for HR professionals. In a conversation with the HRM Nepal, Pradhan expressed that her current job is both deeply fulfilling and incredibly insightful. Excerpts from the interview follow:
Q: How would you reflect on your experience in Human Resource Management and Development?
A: My journey in HR spans over a decade, and it has been both deeply fulfilling and incredibly insightful. I began my career specialising in one of the crucial pillars of HR, i.e, recruitment. What started as a simple introduction to hiring processes to a fresher, quickly grew into a meaningful exploration of the art and strategy behind identifying the right talent. That experience sparked a genuine curiosity in me about people, the understanding of which became a guiding thread throughout the rest of my HR career.
As I progressed, I took on broader and more complex HR roles, which allowed me not just to grow, but to improve HR practices and employee experience, support talent development, and influence organisational culture in a more holistic way.
Every opportunity has truly helped me explore myself, challenged me to refine my approach and expand my perspective. Today, I carry forward those lessons to not only contribute to the organisation I work at but also contribute to the growth of people working in the HR fraternity.
Q: What inspired you to pursue HR as a profession?
A: My interest in HR actually began during my college years. I was naturally drawn to subjects like organisational design, development, and training; areas that required both analytical and creative thinking. The projects in these domains genuinely excited me, and I found myself crafting reports and presentations with a level of enthusiasm I didn’t feel for anything else.
It was during this period that I realised HR is a powerful blend of people, purpose, and strategy. It’s a function that not only understands individuals but also shapes the culture, direction, and long-term growth of an organisation. That realisation resonated deeply with me because it aligned with my own people-centric, purpose-driven, and performance-oriented nature.
Q: Does your company recognise HR as a strategic partner?
A: Quest is a 25-year-old company with a strong and respected presence in Nepal’s pharmaceutical sector. While our marketing and technical functions have been well-established for years, our HR department is relatively young. In its early phase, HR primarily operated as a documentation- and administration-driven support function. Over time, however, we strengthened our foundations, expanded our responsibilities, and built a clearer understanding of the full spectrum of HR functions. Today, HR has a meaningful seat at the planning table, contributing to key decisions and long-term organisational priorities. It gives me immense pride to say that with the growth of the company, the HR department is steadily and consistently moving towards becoming a strategic partner within the organisation.
Q: What key HR strategies and functions have you executed at Quest?
A: Our HR strategies have been executed focusing completely on enhancing Quest’s culture and overall employee experience. Our approach has been inclusive, strengthening existing processes while introducing newer ones mostly in areas of the following:
1. People & Culture: We’ve nurtured a learning-oriented, people-focused culture, strengthened our feedback culture, and enhanced Occupational Health and Safety practices. These efforts have helped create a workplace where employees feel supported, safe, and motivated to grow.
2. Talent Acquisition & Growth: We implemented competency-based recruitment and introduced competency-based promotions, ensuring that hiring and career progression are transparent, fair, and aligned with organisational needs. Initiation of succession planning and development centres have further strengthened our internal talent pipeline.
3. Performance & Capability Development: We rolled out a data-driven PMS to bring clarity and accountability to performance management. Our training approach now emphasises training effectiveness at the learning, behaviour, and outcome levels, ensuring that development initiatives translate into real, measurable impact.
4. Systems, Governance & Experience: We strengthened compliance and governance, advanced HR digitalisation, and consistently improved overall employee experience and engagement through more streamlined, supportive, and user-friendly processes.
Q: What major milestones has your HR department achieved? What are your reflections on them?
A: One of our biggest milestones has been the successful execution of the strategic HR initiatives I mentioned earlier. Many of these required reshaping habits, mindsets, and systems that had been in place for more than two decades. Introducing structured, data-driven HR practices in such a well-established environment was definitely challenging but rewarding at the same time.
This transformation required earning of management’s trust, persistence, collaboration, and a shared belief in building a more people and performance-driven organisation. I am especially grateful for the guidance and support of our leadership team whose trust allowed HR to take steps that drove meaningful changes.
Looking back, the journey has strengthened our department’s confidence and capability. It has shown us that with clarity, consistency, and collective commitment, even long-standing systems can evolve in a very positive direction.
Q: How do you ensure your performance management system truly enhances productivity?
A: In the beginning, we didn’t have a structured goal-setting practice, and evaluations were largely subjective. This made it difficult to truly measure organisational or individual performance. Recognising this gap, we redesigned our PMS with great intention ensuring it becomes a value-adding system rather than a routine compliance activity.
Today, our KPIs are directly linked to organisational and departmental goals and are translated into clear, measurable operational metrics. We’ve also incorporated leadership competencies and cross-functional collaboration indicators so that performance is assessed holistically, not just through task completion.
What truly distinguishes our PMS is our emphasis on ongoing performance conversations. Instead of depending solely on annual reviews, we promote frequent, meaningful dialogues that help employees reflect, realign, and improve throughout the year.
This shift has made performance discussions more honest, data-driven, and development-focused.
Q: How often do you assess skill and capacity gaps and how do you measure training effectiveness?
A: We follow a very structured and thoughtful approach to capability building. Every year, we conduct a comprehensive capability gap assessment with department and functional heads. This helps us clearly identify where the organisation needs to grow, both in technical expertise and behavioural competencies. Based on these insights, we design our annual training plan and execute trainings and development activities accordingly.
A big focus for us has been strengthening the learning culture within the organisation. One of the most rewarding initiatives has been developing and nurturing internal trainers. We empower and motivate them through recognition and support so they feel confident and valued in their role of sharing knowledge.
To ensure our trainings are meaningful and effective, we follow a structured TNA process and conduct pre- and post-training assessments. These assessments help us measure not just knowledge gained but also behavioural changes and real workplace outcomes. Evaluating training at the learning, behaviour, and outcome levels has allowed us to clearly see the impact of our programmes and refine them continuously.
Q: Employee relations are critical. How do you approach this at Quest?
A: Employee relations are a priority for us, not just within HR, but across our entire leadership team. We believe that an organisation can only thrive when its people feel heard, valued, and psychologically safe. That belief guides every aspect of how we manage employee relations.
We actively promote open and transparent communication, ensuring employees always have channels to share concerns, ideas, or feedback without hesitation. Creating safe working conditions has also been a non-negotiable focus for us. Our approach to care extends beyond the individual and we offer competitive compensation and benefits that support employees and their families, because we recognise the role family wellbeing plays in overall motivation and performance.
One of the things we’re genuinely proud of is that we haven’t had a single day of operational halt, which speaks to the strong mutual trust and stability within the workforce. Our periodic satisfaction surveys, coupled with healthy retention and stable turnover trends, consistently reinforce that we have been able to maintain a positive, respectful, and encouraging employee climate.
Overall, our goal has always been simple: to build a workplace where people feel supported, respected, and connected and the results so far have been very encouraging.
Q: How challenging is talent acquisition and what strategies do you use?
A: In the pharmaceutical sector, general technical hiring is fairly manageable, but certain specialised roles remain challenging because the talent pool is limited. These roles often demand a more targeted and data-informed recruitment strategy.
For high-turnover or frequently recurring roles, we maintain a continuously refreshed talent pool, supported by analytics on hiring trends, time-to-fill, and candidate responsiveness. This helps us anticipate manpower needs and reduce lead time significantly. For critical and leadership roles, we rely on data-backed succession planning; using performance analytics and competency assessments to identify and prepare internal talent for future responsibilities.
One of our key advantages is Quest’s strong brand image in the market. Being recognised as a reputable and stable organisation naturally attracts high-quality candidates. This reputation also strengthens our partnerships with universities, technical colleges, and recruitment networks, giving us early access to emerging talent.
Q: What do you think are the strengths of Quest?
A: Quest’s greatest strengths come from a solid foundation built over 25 years of dedication, trust, and continuous improvement. Our strong GMP-compliant manufacturing systems and robust quality framework ensure that every product we deliver meets the highest standards of safety and efficacy. This, combined with a diverse product portfolio, allows us to address a wide range of healthcare needs and build long-term credibility in the market.
What truly sets Quest apart is the people centric leadership along with skilled and committed team behind these operations. Their expertise and sense of ownership have created a culture where compliance, data integrity, and operational excellence are non-negotiable values. This mindset not only safeguards quality but also drives innovation, problem-solving, and efficiency.
Our evolution is further strengthened by progressive HR practices and a leadership approach that genuinely values people. With a strong focus on learning, development, engagement, and culture-building, we ensure that our workforce remains motivated, capable, and future-ready.
Q: Why do you think HR often lacks a strategic role in Nepali organisations?
A: In Nepal, HR often lacks a strategic role primarily due to mindset, on both sides. Many organisations still see HR as an administrative unit focused on hiring, payroll, and compliance. Priority is mostly given to departments that drive revenue and finance functions. In traditional organisations, decisions are mostly made by owners of the organisations without having HR on the planning table. This perception limits HR’s involvement in business planning, capability building, or organisational growth discussions.
At the same time, some HR professionals have not yet developed the level of business acumen, financial understanding, and data analytics skills needed to operate confidently at the strategic table. We are in the comfort zone of our core functions only. Without the ability to put forth the ‘why’s’ of every proposal and quantify the impact of people decisions on productivity, compliance, cost, and long-term sustainability, HR’s proposals can fail to gain traction.
However, this landscape is changing. Leaders have started to see culture, capability building, data integrity, talent pipelines, and employee experience as real competitive advantages especially in regulated sectors like pharma. To, therefore, be viewed as a strategic partner, HR must speak the language of business and align people strategy with organisational goals.
Q: What is the most effective way to manage HR and drive organisational development in pharma companies?
A: Pharma is one of the most heavily regulated and knowledge-intensive industries, and this places HR in a uniquely complex yet impactful position. Unlike many other sectors, HR in pharma must operate at the intersection of regulatory discipline, technical competency, and organisational agility.
A pharmaceutical company’s success relies heavily on its ability to maintain compliance with stringent standards such as GMP, GLP, GDP, ISO guidelines, WHO, USFDA and local DDA regulations. Every technical employee must adhere to these requirements with precision. This means HR is not just hiring people; HR is responsible for building a technically competent, compliant, and audit-ready workforce at all times.
However, compliance alone is not enough. The pharma landscape is evolving rapidly; new technologies, automation, digital quality systems, and the increasing importance of data integrity are reshaping the industry. To stay competitive, HR must ensure the workforce is future-ready, able to adapt to digital tools, advanced equipment, data-driven decision-making, and continuous process improvement.
Q: What gaps do you see among employers and employees in enabling effective performance?
A: One of the biggest gaps, in my opinion, is complacency. It slows decision-making, hampers communication, and creates a comfort zone where people settle for ‘how things have always been done’. Beyond complacency, there are several other areas that often hold organisations back:
a. Weak feedback culture where many employees hesitate to give or receive feedback openly because of hierarchical norms, fear of conflict, or discomfort with difficult conversations. This limits growth and reduces accountability.
b. Resistance to change is common, particularly where job stability is highly valued, as change can inherently feel risky. This initial reluctance often surfaces when implementing new systems, requiring the learning of new skills, or simply updating existing processes.
c. Digital transformation is advancing globally, but many Nepali organisations still rely heavily on manual processes. This affects efficiency, data accuracy, and overall agility.
Q: What differences do you observe between Gen Z employees and previous generations?
A: Gen Z brings a fresh, dynamic energy to the workplace. They are tech-savvy, curious, and purpose-driven always asking ‘why’ before ‘what’. They value flexibility, innovation, and environments where their ideas are heard.
They also seek faster growth, diverse experiences, and meaningful work rather than traditional, linear career paths.
For organisations, this means creating spaces that offer:
• purposeful and challenging work
• quick learning cycles and mentoring
• flexibility and openness
• visible recognition and two-way feedback
Q: What major workforce trends will shape the future of HR in Nepal’s pharma sector?
A: With the development of Nepali pharma landscape and its penetration to export markets, several major workforce trends are set to shape the future of HR in Nepal’s pharma sector:
1. Rising Demand for Technical & Specialised Talent: As pharma becomes more complex; advanced formulations, data integrity, automation, the need for highly skilled technical experts will grow. HR must strengthen capability-building and talent pipelines accordingly.
2. Stronger Emphasis on Compliance & Data Integrity Culture: With increasing regulatory scrutiny (DDA, WHO, USFDA, EU standards), HR will play a critical role in building a workforce that is audit-ready, documentation-strong, and aligned with ALCOA+ principles. This further extends when the Nepali pharmaceuticals want to expand their base to foreign land as well.
3. Digital Transformation of Pharma Operations: Automation, LIMS, QMS, eBMR/eBPR, and data-driven decision-making will require digital upskilling across all levels. HR must lead large-scale digital capability development.
4. Growth of Learning, Upskilling & Internal Talent Mobility: Technical and leadership skills will need continuous upgrading. Structured learning pathways, internal trainers, and succession planning will become more central.
5. Gen Z Integration & Multi-Generational Workforce Management: With more young professionals entering pharma, HR must adapt to expectations around purpose, speed, feedback, and digital-first communication while balancing this with senior workforce stability.
