ASIA PACIFIC BENEFITS DESIGN AND STRATEGY LEADER AT IBM | HARSHAL RUIKAR

What is your name, job title, and workplace?

Harshal Ruikar PT, MPH

Asia Pacific (APAC) Benefits Design and Strategy Leader at IBM

What is your educational background?

Bachelor’s of physiotherapy (BPTh) – K. J. Somaiya College of physiotherapy. The graduation year 2007

Master of public health (MPH)- Tata institute of social sciences. The graduation year 2011

What did you do soon after graduation?

I worked at Cheshire home for 1 year managing the community rehabilitation center. Where I treated a lot of children with neurological impairments at that time. I also double-hatted as an associate project manager in the same institute. 

When and why you decided to choose a non-clinical career path?

I always enjoyed patient care. I wanted to do something broader than rehabilitation. Public health is something that encompasses everything, primordial, primary, tertiary healthcare, and rehab. So it covers the entire spectrum. 

Although the work was extremely fulfilling, the money I earned in my initial years as a physiotherapist wasn’t sustainable. I had other financial obligations. Some of the senior physiotherapists advised me that If I had a drive to treat patients, then I can continue as a physiotherapist, But if I had financial obligations, I should look for something more. 

How did people around you react when you decided to leave the patient care?

Some of my professors from physiotherapy college, my friends & colleagues were really surprised. My family supported everything that I wanted to do. 

Tell us more about the Master of public health program.

After doing research for 1 year while I was working, I came across the Master of public health (MPH) course at Tata institute of social sciences. I had to give the entrance exam. The process is very rigorous since there were just 15 seats. 

Another thing that appealed to me about this course was data science. Even in physiotherapy college, I had an analytical mindset. I enjoyed analyzing my research data in my fourth year and internship. 

So the master’s program included epidemiology and a research-oriented outlook. I learned a lot about SPSS, R programming, Strata for qualitative analysis. 

The course was for 2 years, full time. We had a lot of work to do. Our internship postings were in the urban slums, rural areas & in industrial set-ups. It was all related to epidemiology. We had to calculate different health risks for the population with the data gathered. 

2 years master’s course was a wonderful learning experience. At the end of our program, I got campus placement in UnitedHealth Group. It is one of the largest health insurance companies in the USA. 

What other qualifications/ certifications you earned to date?

Insurance Institute of India has three levels of qualifications: Licentiate, Associate, and Fellowship. So one by one I completed all. I am now a Fellow of the Insurance Institute of India.

I did a post-graduate diploma in risk management from the Institute of Insurance and Risk Management (IRDAI). That is a one-year contact course.

A few years later, I started learning about actuarial science. It is a science about quantifying risks and is used to make predictions and projections. Insurance companies need this information to price their products accordingly. 

Some certifications in quality management were helpful. I am a Green belt in Six Sigma.

I also learn languages. I completed level three of the Japanese language (JLPT). There are 5 levels of that qualification. 

How will you describe your current role to someone from a physiotherapy background? Someone who doesn’t understand technical and business jargon

I work as an employee benefits design and strategy leader for Asia – Pacific (APAC) region at IBM. We have 17 countries in the APAC region and about 1,50,000 employees. 

IBM wants its employees to be happy and productive at work. To make their life easy, the company provides its employees compensation and benefits. 

Benefits help to improve quality of life. Benefits include leaves, medical insurance, life insurance, pension benefits, wellness programs, etc. These are basically peace of mind benefits for employees to be engaged in work. 

In my role, explore benefits. I look at the data of employee engagement and historic claims to understand their needs. Each country has different legal, cultural, healthcare & insurance ecosystems. I match employee needs with the local context of each country in the APAC region. Based on that I customize the benefits package for employees in each country & negotiate the premium with insurance companies. We later track the performance of our benefits package based on data of employee engagement & financial metrics. 

What is the typical day of work for you?

At IBM, we are known for remote work. So even before the pandemic, 50% of the time I was working from home. 

Depending on the ongoing projects, my timing changes. So for example, if we have projects in countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan. My day can start very early at 5 am. 

On the other hand, my reporting call is in the US. If I have to discuss or report something with my manager I need to do that as per USA time. That happens after 8:30 pm.

So it is quite dynamic. Most of the time though, we don’t have projects in all the countries so it is manageable. I work for 8 hours or maybe even more than that. 

Currently, IBM is undertaking a spin-off. A part of the company is becoming a stand-alone company. We have benefits related work for that in all the countries. So the schedule has been hectic since last October. 

What are the skills learned in physiotherapy college that you are still using now?

Human skills or the soft skills that we learn in physiotherapy college. We are never formally taught those. Usually, those skills are picked up by us by observing our teacher, seniors. Soft skills such as empathy, communication. 

In my role, I have to convince the IBM country leadership about certain things. There are debates, differences of opinion that happen. At that time you should be able to understand their perspective but also communicate your side. This is where the soft skills come into play. 

Having medical background definitely helps. When it comes to health-related benefits, I can implement this knowledge. For example, maternity benefits, what benefits we can provide for high-risk pregnancies, etc. If you know a health condition better, you can design the benefits better.

What is the pay like compared to clinical roles?

I think it’s multiples. After completing a Master’s of public health, I enjoyed a boost in my salary . I am definitely earning a lot more than I did when I just started out as a physiotherapist. Although I am not aware of the current remuneration for physiotherapists in India or in abroad. 

Do you treat patients?

I used to do some home visits before the pandemic. I am not doing any currently. But I would like to pick up on home visits or some clinical practice as and when the pandemic gets over. 

I was not practicing for a few years after my masters. But I felt that hole in me and craved for that human connection. So I started doing home visits. 

What do you like about your work?

It is quite appropriate for my skills & qualifications. I am using almost everything that I learned over the years. In a way shaped my career through what I learned. Thankfully, I was able to get a position where I can apply those key skills.

I like that the benefits strategy we design can have a positive impact on employees’ life during the times of need. It is fulfilling to see that happen. 

What are the challenges you face?

We have a limited budget to design all these benefits. There are also competing priorities in different countries. It can be difficult to balance that sometimes. Sometimes convincing the business leadership about the benefits strategy can also be a challenge.  

The country’s legal framework & insurance infrastructure is different for each country. We need to keep that in mind and also think about short-term and long-term consequences. 

What is the typical career path for someone in your role?

Each company has an HR function. Benefits is one of the verticals under HR function. Another vertical under HR that comes closest to benefits is compensation. 

Typically people from benefits or compensation will merge their career paths into compensation and benefits under the Total Rewards. Employees in total rewards can become country HR managers or regional HR managers for a given company. 

Employee Benefits itself is a strong career path. There are specialists in benefits. 

What is next for you?

Frankly, I just wish to keep learning on & off the job. As you can see, I have been picking up skills along the way and implementing in my career. My current favourite topic is actuarial science. I may pursue that in the future.

What is your advise for physiotherapists who are thinking about transitioning to the non clinical role?

You need to be very sure about the transition. It is a big change. You should introspect and ask some questions to yourself. Such as “Am I satisfied in my current role?”, “ What is my true calling?”. If the answer is no, or you are not sure then think about the transition.

Think about it holistically. What are your current interests, Does physiotherapy really appeal to you or does something else appeal to you more. You need to be honest with yourself. Answer shouldn’t be only about money.

Whatever you choose, the knowledge you gained in physiotherapy will always be useful. 

Where can people reach you?

You can reach me on LinkedIn.