Redesigning Talent Management To Suit The Futuristic Needs of India INC.
Renowned for her transformational leadership style that aspires to build a strong work-place culture, Anjali Raghuvanshi, Chief People Officer at Randstad India is one of the brightest minds in the staffing fraternity. In the year 2016, Anjali took over the reins and stepped forward to contribute to the incredible growth story of Randstad India. Her drive to build a high-trust and high-performing organization has propelled the creation of policies and programmes that not only accelerated the wheels of the organization but became game-changers for India Inc. She is a mentor to her colleagues, a strategic partner to all stakeholders, and a revered thought leader amongst industry peers.
Having mastered the art of human forward leadership, Anjali actively partakes in discussions of national importance like HR strategy, L&D, Talent Management & ED&I across industries in the Indian job market. Moreover, Anjali has championed multiple causes outside of her current role at Randstad India. She has made dedicated efforts towards making coaching accessible in India as the President of the WICCI coaching council, a nationally recognized body. Besides, she has succeeded in creating an ecosystem that redefines employee and stakeholder engagement by introducing modern-day work-life concepts like psychological safety & mental health in India. Her people-centric intellect also gave rise to the “Be kind to your mind, body, and spirit” movement for employees and the clientele of Randstad India.
Her perspective on holistic employee experience and focus on hyper-personalized employee engagement brought about several new initiatives like Randstad Radio, Randstad Carnival, Be Kind to Your Mind (unique mental well-being program – including being kind to your mind leaves, clear your calendar Fridays, Virtual Happy Hours, etc), True Self Forward (equity, diversity & inclusion agenda on the philosophy of being one’s whole authentic self at & outside work) which were deeply appreciated by the employees.
Recently recognized by Great Place to Work in the HR leader category, Anjali has disrupted the staffing space with her unique thoughts and strong opinions on the Indian staffing industry. She advocates mindful introspection into the untapped needs of the changing workforce to help induce employee stickiness. Given the current challenges, Anjali believes that a flexible workplace that identifies the need for employees to have a ‘purpose’ is the way forward for employers across the world. She remarks that employees are growing increasingly conscious of their health, productivity, and growth prospects in an organization. This drives them to make choices that are readily available in the market due to the rise of startups and young leaders in the country who accept new ways of working. Many companies are now open to flexible working, paid vacations, and regular incentives that go beyond paychecks and bonuses. Some companies have also allowed their employees to venture into tasks and responsibilities that go beyond their traditional job roles. This practice encourages the employee to stay proactive and productive, especially during uncertain business cycles.
Over the years of her practice, Anjali has learned that Talent Management is evolving into design thinking at a very fast pace. This means that the future will be led by talent and organizations need to curate a system that hyper-personalizes employee engagement and experience. The employee life cycle is getting shorter causing quiet quitting and moonlighting which can easily go unchecked due to blanket HR policies. Hence there is a need for face-to-face feedback, regular recognition, and compensation so that the employees do not need to look elsewhere to have their financial and professional needs met. Meanwhile, leaders must involve themselves in day-to-day employee experience management to derive practices and policies that boost happiness at work. As employee disengagement can happen across age groups and business functions, the leadership must closely identify causes for employee turnover in the company. Some of the best practices are creating peer groups, mentor/buddy programmes, and workcations that prevent employee burnout. The growing focus on work-life balance and burnout culture showcases the need for quick action from the business leaders across India Inc. to explore possibilities of profit-sharing and cultural re-alignment to keep attrition at bay.
Anjali also strongly affirms that employers across the country must invest in strategies that help women employees get back to work. The current women’s participation in India has seen a sharp decline due to a dearth of flexible working policies post-COVID. Various sectors including the IT industry have seen a great percentage of women talent leave organizations due to mandatory work from the office, rigid work timings, and fewer paid leaves. Moreover, she has observed that many women staffers are denied promotions and growth opportunities due to fewer hours put at work and less presence in the physical workplace. This situation can be addressed by redefining parameters of performance and productivity and by ditching old metrics and adopting project/task-based assessment practices.
India Inc. has seen a great transformation in how they recruit, engage, and retain their workforce due to the growing importance of human capital. As a progress-focused HR leader, Anjali envisions the possibilities of creating Indian workplaces that are flexible at the core, growth-based, and people-centric.
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