Talent acquisition leaders can make all the difference to an organization’s growth as they are the minds behind any business enterprise’s direction and people behind their success. In recent times, India has witnessed a huge demand for talent recruitment services. These trends have been further propelled by the developments in the post-pandemic period, with innumerous global corporates setting up bases in India. Talent acquisition is not only about filling up vacant positions, but it is more about hiring the cream talent taking in view of the long-term goals of the organizations at the same time.

In this edition of the Women Entrepreneur Magazine, we are proud to share with our readers the story of a visionary women entrepreneur and a talent acquisition leader with a knack for head-hunting critical talents across diversified industries – Padma Luhana. Backed by a solid experience of 10 plus years working for some of the leading executive search firms, Padma Luhana, with her sheer diligence and vast pool of accumulated knowledge, started her own entrepreneurial journey by self-funding her recruitment consultancy company Heads Quest back in 2016. Overcoming all the challenges associated with such a humble beginning, Padma Luhana would grab the prevalent opportunities in the recruitment services industry. Within a short span of two years - the visionary women entrepreneur would transform Heads Quest from a ‘one-man-army’ to a global recruitment firm. “I have been always a person who sees challenges as an opportunity, and I grab such opportunities to convert it into success. The biggest challenge was maintaining my professional and personal life as I was in a maternity break with a 3-month-old child when I initially started”, reveals Padma Luhana.

“Led by a women entrepreneur, heads quest brings in a unique and innovative approach to talent sourcing. The firm uses a method for hiring, which is heavily inspired by talent mapping and landscaping”

Today, Heads Quest is acknowledged as a global search and selection firm with core expertise in seniorlevel recruitments for various industries ranging from pharmaceuticals, Biotech, EPC, Construction to Oil & Gas, Automobile, Heavy Industrial manufacturing, and IT. The firm serves as an exclusive vendor for global corporates, top-notch in their own respective fields in the regions of India, South-East Asia, and Africa. "Heads Quest is known as “Engineering Hiring” Company since 80% of our business comes from technical hiring across industries" shares Padma Luhana.

Bringing Forth Innovative Methods Of Talent Acquisition And Sourcing

Led by a women entrepreneur, Heads Quest brings in a unique and innovative approach to talent sourcing. The firm uses a method for hiring, which is heavily inspired by talent mapping and landscaping. This involves detailed screening and evaluation, which offers a lot more beyond the typical forwarding CVs process. With detailed recommendations and even video recordings of interviews conducted, Heads Quest makes sure it is always ahead of its competitors. We are always the “ONLY” preferred vendor and enjoy exclusivity on each mandate we work on. More than 50% of the requirements are closed with the first 4 profiles submitted to client. The detailed screening and evaluation process to ensure “Quality” is the key to our success. To this end, the firm is working on the development of a ‘one of its kind ‘application for talent mapping, which is something new in the recruitment industry, according to Padma Luhana. Apart from the distinctive recruitment approaches, Heads Quest offers a complete umbrella of offerings in the Talent Acquisition and Sourcing Segment, which includes the likes of Search & Selection, Contract Staffing, Recruitment Outsourcing, Project Recruitment, and Talent Mapping & Landscaping.

The persistent need to improve and evolve according to the changing need of time has resulted in Padma Luhana to utilize the COVID-19 induced lockdown months to build an even stronger exclusive database for the industries that Heads Quest is operating and targeting.

Post - pandemic period has witnessed a lot of employment opportunities, with many multinationals setting up greenfield projects in various states of India. The firm is prepared to consult new entrants in India with respect to Talent Solutions. In fact, Heads Quest is currently consulting two greenfield projects - Japanese MNC in Automobile and Taiwan based Non-woven fabric manufacturing company. The company is offering customized talent solutions to these companies that includes Recruitment & Selection, RPO and Contract staffing services. Over the years, Heads Quest has evolved as one of best Talent Solutions firm for greenfield projects.

Building The X Factor Team To Achieve Our Goals

As an emerging player and competing with the best in the industry it’s essential to build a team that breathes the same dreams. More than the skills one need to look for characters and charged up enthusiast who believe in the same goal as the Founder. At Heads Quest, within a short journey, have been able to build a successful team that has industry knowledge and is charged up to smash any goal or targets. The team has qualified engineers and Management graduates with a zeal to excel and a vision to be best in the industry. Along with everything else that Padma Luhana has achieved at Heads Quest, being able to build this successful team has been one of the biggest achievements according to her.

“More than 50% of the requirements are closed with the first 4 profiles submitted to client. The detailed screening and evaluation process to ensure "quality" is the key our success”

Piece Of Gratitude

A major challenge for any woman entrepreneur is to maintain balance between family responsibility and work responsibility. “I must say I am blessed with very supporting family who has always motivated me to take a step forward each day as an entrepreneur. My husband always shares equal responsibility at home so that I can invest enough time in Heads Quest.”

Before delivering success at Heads Quest, Padma Luhana had an inspirational journey where she climbed up the corporate world ladder from a recruiter to senior managing roles in the operations side of things. To this day, Padma luhana attributes a huge part of her successful entrepreneurial journey in the form of Heads Quest to her previous professional mentors.

At present, Padma Luhana, in a bid to return back to the women community, has been part of women empowerment groups, where there are all women entrepreneurs from various businesses. She is avidly involved in imparting training programs on soft skills such as public speaking skills and how to present oneself in front of clients and maintain a relationship with the clients; these are some of the topics where she has been imparting training for women empowerment groups.

As her concluding remarks to us, Padma Luhana says – “I would give only one suggestion that one should focus on quality and should have long term vision. Short term benefits are always attractive but we should not be running after that”. She further adds, “In the 5 years of my entrepreneurial journey, I have been very patient and following my dreams rather than running after short term goals. Everyone should focus on quality, and should have long term vision. We should have a clear focus and positive mindset.”

“At heads quest, within a short journey, have been able to build a successful team that has industry knowledge and is charged up to smash any goal or targets”

Padma Luhana, Founder - Heads Quest

Backed by abundance of accumulated experience of over a decade working for some of the leading executive search firms in India, Padma Luhana spearheaded the successful growth of her venture heads quest to a globally recognized search & selection firm through her sheer diligence and perseverance. As the founder, Padma Luhana takes care of managing the overall operations at heads quest. She is a team player and believes firmly that team is all about together everyone achieves more.