Kaushiki is an HR professional with over 13 years of experience in multicultural environments across varied industries like Manufacturing, Metals & Mining, Alcohol beverages, Media & Entertainment, and Gaming & Hi-Tech. She has piloted the workplace and people agenda for dynamic global organisations like Vedanta Limited, Essar Group, Allied Blenders & Distillers, Pernod Ricard India, Sony Music Entertainment and Ubisoft Entertainment. She has been an advisor on local HR policies and market practices to other global affiliates, has played a key role in the organizational redesign strategy, reinventing the Talent & Employer branding and leading the DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) charter, as well as championing CSR initiatives for organisations.
Kaushiki is a member of the HRM Committee at Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BCCI), Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), and National HRD Network (NHRDN).
Kaushiki holds a Management degree in Human Resources from Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS, Ranchi), and Diploma in Talent Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur. She graduated with Bachelors in Sociology & Anthropology from Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR), at Delhi University.
Kaushiki is a certified FIRO-B® Practitioner, Certified Recruitment Analyst and is a practitioner and trainer in Competency Mapping, Behavioural-Events Interviewing, Assessment Centers and DE&I.
Q. Tell us about your vast experience as a Human Resources professional spanning over a decade.
I started my career in Personnel Management and Industrial Relations with Vedanta Aluminium Limited (Sterlite Industries) in their plant in Jharsuguda, Orissa. I was responsible for the revamp of Systems & Policies, HR Analytics and Manpower Planning for the expansion site and smelter. Albeit for only a year, I had a very enriching stint there, getting my hands into initiatives around Talent-Identification and Management, Manpower planning & Compensation Benchmarking, Employee Engagement, Expatriate management, and HR process automations.
I then moved on to working with Essar in a Corporate HR role, which brought me to a city where I was a stranger, which eventually became home – Mumbai. Here, I was an HR Business Partner to various stakeholders over the years, parallely working across transversal assignments like Employee Engagement, Career Development & Succession Planning, Job Analysis, International HR, HR Shared Services automation, Rewards & Recognition, Data analytics and workforce planning. My time with Essar remains to be a strong foundation for my professional journey.
Eventually, I made an experimental shift in my careergraph by moving to the AlcoBev industry as Head of Talent Development with Allied Blenders & Distillers Private Limited. In the time spent with ABD, I have had a very fulfilling experience driving many new-age innovations in people practices, networking with erudite professionals who remain good acquaintances till date, and adopting a lateral thinking approach to solutions. My role evolved to Talent Management in a short time – and it gave me an even bigger canvas to paint. I was fortunate to have gotten the opportunity to work with Pernod-Ricard India Private Limited (erstwhile Seagram’s) in the next chapter of my career, where I once again entered a domain I was only partly familiar with – Sales HR. In my time with Pernod-Ricard, I truly learnt what being catalysts and custodians of a great culture feels like and the importance of HR in shaping strategies and employee experience. There was never a dull moment in my stint with the Alco-Bev industry and I strongly feel a part of my personality has been shaped by this supercharged environment.
I took on a leadership role with the leading music label – Sony Music India – as Head HR & CSR for India & Middle East, once again jumping right into an industry I had no earlier experience of. What tied it all together for me was the lens with which I have been conditioned to look at business and people over the years. I was entrusted with the responsibility to set up the HR vertical from scratch, and redefine the CSR strategy and operations, working closely with other affiliate countries and organisations under the conglomerate. In this role, I felt like the time had finally come to put the decade of cumulative learnings and experience prior to Sony Music, to practice – and I have to say, what a journey it has been!! From music to Gaming, I have journeyed to a new sector and am currently leading HR for Ubisoft Entertainment India Private Limited.
Q. In your opinion how has the industry evolved since the time you entered the field to present day? What have been some of the most impactful change agents for this evolution?
I began my HR career in the aftermath of the recession and journeyed through different sectors through the last 13 years as businesses worked to shake off the inertia of slow growth. The growth of MNCs quadrupled in the country by the time I was halfway on my journey till now – giving way to many more opportunities for job-seekers to explore beyond traditional domains. With evolving policies & laws, regulations and technologies, companies and their HR frameworks have had a very dynamic development in order to stay relevant and be preferred. Each industry / sector I have had a chance to work for, went through its peak and trough through the same time as my tenure – and I had the opportunity to be part of incredible teams that facilitated the change and helped organisations transform through those chapters in their history. Some of the most impactful catalysts for evolution have been the economic recession, recovery and pace of economic growth, tax reforms, new laws and regulations around products, services, supply chain, e-commerce, sustainability & responsibility, protection of employee rights and social security. Add to this the profound shift in digitization and the technology boom which have impacted the job market and paradigm shift in businesses’ approach. Up until a decade ago, India Inc. was still being seen as a homogenous market, whereas now we are recognized for the agglomeration of diverse states, cultures, identities and skills. These growing acknowledgements have further fueled globalization in corporate cultures and strategy and increasing our footprint in the international market. Of course, the pandemic is yet another chapter to go down in history as we all buckle up for the ride.
Q. What role does digitization play in the HR industry currently? Are there any specific technology trends that you deem will have a lasting impact on the hiring process?
The pandemic has accelerated an ongoing pivot from the traditional recruitment format to Virtual Recruitment, with innovative digital and AI-led solutions for screening candidates, scheduling and coordinating the overall recruitment process, to Onboarding a remote workforce. Similarly, a big change was seen in the way payroll, paperwork, compliance-led activities and reporting were transitioned to Digital and Cloud-based HRMS and solutions for e-signatures, e-filing, e-nominations, data management systems etc.
Another significant digital trend in play has been in the area of Workplace Assessment Tools & technologies to standardize candidate selection criteria, remove bias from processes around hiring, career development, performance management to create equitable practices, and ensure job & culture fit more strongly. Gamification around induction & onboarding, policy awareness, and other people practices also saw an upward curve. Online Learning became an effective introduction to virtual onboarding, while also provided continuity to capability-building, engagement and retention efforts amongst the workforce. Data-driven recruitments & feedback mechanisms with the help of new and upgraded technologies has helped businesses and HR rationalize their Talent Acquisition strategies more effectively.
The surge of cost-effective digital solutions and automation in areas of job-posting, candidate sourcing and screening, database management, onboarding, learning & development, feedback management and data analytics on recruitment metrics has made it easy for companies to handle the talent-relationship cycle promptly and proactively in a fiercely competitive talent market.
Q. With the global pandemic setting in circa end of 2019, every industry has had to adapt accordingly. In your opinion how did the HR industry deal with the challenges brought about by the pandemic? In your opinion are these changes temporary or permanent?
HR was at the helm of everything that unfolded since the pandemic began, reinventing its own approach and facilitating change management across the organization. Through the years 2020 & 2021, HR became the one place every employee, manager and leader turned to for solution-building, planning strategies, organizing & developing workforces, and retaining talent. The HR industry has had to don multiple hats in these years – from facilitating the shift from physical working to remote working, crisis and change management, nurturing employee wellness and work-life balance propositions in the face of WFH-led long hours and boundary-less workplace cultures setting in. HR professionals across all sectors have played the role of change catalysts, while at the same time being the center of workforce stabilization strategies and efforts. Every HR professional I know has rolled up their sleeves – regardless of the position they occupy – and partnered with the business to react effectively to the events that ensued in the year, and quickly learned from shared experiences to devise proactive systems and processes for an agile approach to future circumstances. While being employees themselves, HR has had to practice self-care and self-development at its utmost, so they could provide the care the business and its people need. The reinvention of HR is not a temporary phase – it has happened through many macro-environment triggers in the past and will continue to evolve as we learn more of the New Normal.
Q.Give us an overview of major changes that will emerge in the Recruitment Process in 2022. What the sector has in store for the coming year?
We are in a War for Talent across industries owing to the digital shift and the rise in need for tech skills, startups leading to an uptick in job creation, surge in gig economy trends and the hybrid / remote working models, resulting in stiff competition. Talent Acquisition strategy will see an evolution along:
- Virtual Recruiting as a consequence of blurred geographical boundaries, remote and hybrid work models will continue for some time as the world settles into the new normal.
- Proactive Talent Pipelining, ahead of its recruitment needs by engaging with the “ideal” candidate(s), almost like a sales funnel. This will be an effective way for companies to manage the hiring costs and time compared to the traditional way. As businesses engage in talent wars amongst a limited talent pool, this will serve as a key differentiator.
- Leveraging the Internal Talent Pool more strongly than ever, will prove advantageous to organizations in many ways – from engagement to retention of talent and culture.
- Social Recruiting will continue to evolve significantly with the rise of the metaverse. Social media as a recruitment channel has gained popularity, as is evident with many businesses and recruiters posting job ads on their socials because of the sheer reach it can get. If you don’t want your competitors to out-recruit you, you should incorporate social media into the recruitment process.
- Diversity and Inclusion strategies in recruitment have been on the rise and will continue towards increased prevalence in 2022. With AI and workplace assessment tools providing innovative and easily adaptable solutions to remove unconscious bias in the recruitment process, this will become an important lever in building inclusive workplaces.
- Employer Branding will become an equally important part of the recruitment value proposition as candidates thoroughly research about a company's vision, values, reputation before applying for or saying yes to a job.
- Hiring for Soft Skills as a strong driver for candidate fitment will emerge as recruiters and companies answer the call of diversity, inclusion, flexibility, social responsibility and culture. In return, employers will look non-transferable qualities such as right attitude, communication, trustworthiness, cooperation and integrity.
- Measuring the Recruitment Experience will continue to enhance, with more and more metrics built around the complete Talent Acquisition process and candidate experience. Data-led recruitment decisions will see a segue into data-backed recruitment process improvements/enhancements.
- Referral Programs will become a conducive proposition to hire, especially for roles that are niche or business / product-sensitive. The cost implications of these programs are relatively economical in the long run, candidates come pre-screened and are more likely to align with organizational goals and values.
- Background Verification for candidates will become an important part of recruitment quality, as we move to hybrid / remote working.
