Passionate about HR, empowering people, and all things in between, Sonica Aron is the Founder and Managing Partner of Marching Sheep, an HR consulting firm specializing in strategic HR advisory, diversity and inclusion interventions, employee health and wellness, and capability building.
Sonica is an XLRI postgraduate who has worked with Pepsi, Vodafone, Roche Diagnostics, and ICI Paints, among other firms. She began her career with a solid grasp of business when she worked for Pepsico as a route rider and was a member of the team that introduced Pepsi 200 ml at Rs 5. She was the first female human resources manager assigned to a factory in upcountry Uttar Pradesh in India, and it was there that the roots of her diversity approach were planted.
The mother of two made the decision to start Marching Sheep in 2013 with the goal of impacting people’s lives and careers while promoting equality and respect for all. With more than 20 years of experience in the industry and consulting as a Human Resources and D&I (diversity and inclusion) specialist, she has created one of India’s most advanced “diversity and inclusion” frameworks with a deep understanding of the real issues faced by women, members of the LGBTQ community, and people with disabilities! When it comes to gender, generational, sexual orientation, and disability diversity, Marching Sheep works with clients across industries and geographies.
Ms. Sonica Aron, a seasoned human resources professional, created Marching Sheep in 2013. Originally a one-woman army based in a single city, Marching Sheep now boasts a diverse client base, a solid team of HR experts who are passionate about what they do, and their work and ideas are frequently mentioned and published in prestigious publications.
Having completed projects in more than 80 nations worldwide, Marching Sheep is currently the top HR company in the world. Their founder and managing partner, Sonica Aron, has received numerous awards, including being named Woman Entrepreneur of the Year by the Indian Achievers Forum at the 75th Atmanirbhar Bharat Summit in 2022, being among the top 10 women entrepreneurs in India in 2020, being among India’s Most Valuable People in June 2021 by Forbes India, being among inspirational icons in leadership by Fortune India in 2021, being among the top 100 digital influencers by Yourstory.
Marching Sheep is a provider of customised HR solutions. Their interventions don’t come in cans. They collaborate closely with their clients to conduct an in-depth diagnostic, analyse their needs, and together develop and provide a solution. Their high impact solutions and interventions are the reason that once a Marching Sheep client, always a Marching Sheep client.
In addition to their work with clients, Marching Sheep engages in extensive research and non-commercial campaigns. Their research includes extensive industry outreach, panel discussions with CHROs of leading companies, on relevant topics, and pulse surveys to understand what clients and today’s workforce need to remain relevant and meaningful.
Their on-ground awareness campaign, Marching with Pride, saw the team engaging with people from the LGBTQIA community in candid conversations about life, growing up, challenges, inclusion at work, and much more. Another campaign, 21 Marching, helped build awareness about the 21 disabilities covered under the Rights for Persons with Disabilities Act 2016.
The team at Marching Sheep believes that each day is an opportunity to live their purpose: to make a difference in people’s lives and careers and to promote respect and equality for all.
The 4 main services are:
- Diversity & Inclusion Strategies and interventions
Marching Sheep truly believes that inclusive organizations are more productive and it enables its client organizations to arrive at their Inclusion and diversity charter and strategy through a diversity diagnostic, executable plans, and also partner with the execution, drive mindset change, and culture building.
- Human Resource Consulting
Organizations need their HR strategy, processes, and policies to enable employees to deliver on the business strategy and goals. Marching Sheep works closely with client organizations to streamline the vision, mission, values, behavioral frameworks, HR strategy, policies, and practices, drive communication and socialization, and develop the internal leadership and managerial capability to enable the same.
- Bespoke learning interventions
In the last two years of the pandemic, the world has changed significantly. As the socio-economic fabric is evolving, the competencies needed to succeed at work are evolving. They work with clients to enable individual contributors, managers, and leaders to succeed by building the right competencies. They curate each intervention to drive the right behaviors through facilitation of insights, reflection, and practice.
- Health & Wellness Portfolio
Wellness today includes emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing. While policies and insurance can take care of the physical aspect, there still needs to be awareness and skill-building around dealing with issues like fatigue, anxiety, stress, and burnout. With programmes curated after research and with the help of clinical psychologists, they enable individuals to become emotionally resilient by identifying their own stress triggers, stress responses, and coping mechanisms, and hence more productive, personally and professionally.
Keeping Client First Approach
Marching Sheep takes pride in the fact that it does not provide off-the-shelf programs or services because it is a consulting service provider. Each solution or intervention is curated after a thorough diagnosis and consultation with the client team to identify the true requirement or problem. This guarantees effective solutions and results.
The company’s workforce is made up of industry professionals with expertise working as HR practitioners in a variety of sectors. Along with consulting experience, they also have a thorough awareness of what the business anticipates from HR interventions. The company states, “We are not just trainers, but HR professionals who have recognized their passion for contributing to client organizations in tangible ways and are realizing this passion through our work at Marching Sheep.” The team further adds, “We do not just consult, we also help in the implementation, and all our assignments are KPI linked. We truly help clients move the needle.”
Role as Managing Partner
Marching Sheep is a company with a clear mission. The main goal of Sonica is to make sure that every solution and every intervention reflects the company’s mission of improving people’s lives and careers while promoting equality and respect for all.
Her second responsibility is to create a growth strategy for the company that connects with the workforce and motivates them constantly. The team’s daily labor has significance, a greater goal, and an influence.
Her third responsibility is to make sure that each team member has the chance to learn, develop, and become a better version of themselves. She also makes sure they have the chance to take risks and venture out into the world fearlessly. She and the team celebrate each win, but they also laugh off losses with determination.
Instilling Integrity
Integrity is the core value of Marching Sheep. The team only takes on assignments that lie within the ambit of its expertise and works closely with the client team to determine the scope of the project, deliverables, and milestones. The company as a whole is also constantly updating itself on new trends and concepts in order to provide high-impact interventions to its clients. As per Sonica, every assignment has multiple consultants engaged so that balls don’t get dropped, and collective expertise is utilized. She adds, “We do not push off the shelf solutions but engage in consultative problem solving with clients, curate customized interventions, and deliver ROI driven programs.”
Keep Learning and Evolving
In the HR space, HRs are dealing with human beings and their expectations, and mindsets are continuously evolving. To meet the needs of the clients, their workforce, the team needs to keep reading, learning, and evolving. This includes the company’s service portfolio, the team’s own mindsets, and delivery methodologies. Sonica says, “We need to be flexible and adaptable.”
Every client is different, and one size does not fit all. One cannot apply one solution to all, and the Marching Sheep team needs to be ready to think of innovative and different solutions. For that, nurturing a diverse team and empowering them is key. The team at Marching Sheep is a set of experienced HR professionals with OD and facilitation expertise who marry their business acumen with consulting experience and come up with solutions that best meet the client’s requirements.
Sonica mentions that client obsession does not mean the client is always right. She asserts, “We build relationships of trust and partnership with clients wherein we ask meaningful and tough questions so as to arrive at the real need, and clients respect and value that. Once we align on what is the real need and how do we address it, the solutioning, implementation, and monitoring come as next steps.”
Wearing Multiple Hats
Sonica loves what she does, so work does not seem like work. Having said that, she is a mother of 2, a wife , a daughter, a daughter-in-law, and a friend to many, a pet parent, and she loves being all of these things. She loves her garden, green spaces, and listening to music.
Her son Kabir is 14, and fairly independent, but he extracts his pound of flesh for at least an hour each day when he wants to talk about his day. She shares, “We normally catch up at dinner time. My daughter Ira is 10 and she is my sunshine. She loves to cuddle, and all my clients and team members know her. She has fairly well integrated herself into my work life.”
Sonica tries to keep weekends completely for her family and herself. The two days have no agenda, and she takes them as they come.
Vision for Success
Success means different things to different people. For Sonica at Marching Sheep, she experiences success in many little ways.
- Learning something new every day is success.
- When a client comes back for more work, with new assignments, it is success because it means the team made an impact.
- When a participant who attended a session sometime back calls to thank or invite for their wedding, it is success.
- When clients treat the company as partners and friends, it is a success.
Written by Steve Sanchez.
