Good day, Surabhi Dave. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Hello.

Please start by introducing your professional journey in academia.

Any side image of working?

I cannot provide or discuss images. Let's stay focused on your academic journey and experience for this interview. Could you proceed with introducing your professional journey in academia, please?

Hi, Yeah, surely. So first of all, I come from a vast background of total 7 plus years experience predominantly from IT sector.

With respect to academic background, in my previous in my past organization which is wise I've India Private Limited. This is basically a US based SAS IT company which has which has its so far or only one office in India.

Which is in oh indoor city of Madhya Pradesh. So over there this company basically or this organization basically deals with the providing software solutions to NGOs, to NGOs as well as to all the varied educational institutions like colleges, universities of Madhya Pradesh. So over there I have catered along with my core job of. Of hiring talents, which includes lateral hiring as well as camp campus recruitment. So for particularly for for my past organization.

And as well as a little bit, I would say a bit of introduction like bit of experience I have got from my from my another organization which was before wise I that is the Capgemini India Private Limited based out of Chennai. So in both these organizations I have I have handled as a single point of contact for the entire campus recruitment where I have reached out where I have made my personal meetings with the.

With a very, very varied colleges and universities particularly of MP of course and I have met with with the HR placement heads organized the entire recruitment for freshers which mainly mainly catering to the engineering background students because being of being coming from IT background. These are the core responsibilities that that we look for. The various texts basically if I go in bit more.

Delete, uh, detail of it. So I have catered to, uh, these, uh, campus recruitments. So from there we used to, uh, we used to conduct recruitment tests for them, uh, which generally used to comprise of 2 levels. First level used to be aptitude test. So this entire of entire arrangements, I can say that. So basically this end to end recruitment right from conducting or organizing the aptitude test over both the.

Till till the time any uh candidate beat uh, a fresher or beat a person who is experienced. So till that point I have I I am the sole contributor in sole point of contact to to perform the end to end recruitment of it. So these this this is my core responsibility. Apart from this, the I have also. I have also handled labour compliances. This, this, this job, this, this job. I got this opportunity to work.

For labor compliance for in my past organization, which is wise, I've been your private limited. So over there it was a core, core basically demand of our client, of our US client who wanted to set up such sort of Labor compliance, which is not, not only in accordance with our nation like not not only with India, but as well as it also takes care of the US counterpart because for them what? As per their as per their vision.

For them, it was very important that they are all employees are getting benefits and all the perks of it as per their country as well. So that was a kind of challenge for us because wisely being a startup for India, that was actually a challenge.

Setting up all the core necessities right from scratch and uh, while keeping in mind and understanding that how it is so how we can make it useful for our Indian employees as well. So they're also have I have worked. Yes, of course, I have done along with my HR head. So like I was not alone over there. I have done along with my HR head. So we, we used to be over there and from scratch we have built.

For setting about setting out all the core.

The framework of the entire labor, labor law compliances, which will help not only uh, to the, uh, employees as well as it is in accordance with our US stakeholders. And basically they should be content about content regarding what we are delivering to them. So these are the core job roles and responsibilities with which I have taken care.

Thanks for sharing that!

Thank you.

You're welcome. Let me verify your skills. How do you approach performance management in a way that aligns individual goals with organizational objectives?

So for aligning performance the best way I can, I can share the perspective from IT sector which will directly implement, which will be directly implemented to any education institute, particularly with with a vast.

Hub Basically I I can say that VIT is a vast engineering hub of India.

Uh, so it is directly implemented or can be implemented over there. So this performance measurement can be done by first of all, uh, setting up of the KPI, which is key performance indicator. So, uh, over here now, as, as we have evolved with this performance management, so over here we cannot, we cannot assign same goals, same objectives for every employee. Irrespective of their field, irrespective of their department.

Or line of business particularly this is this is the term which is used in IT sector. So we cannot have a single KPI design for all. So this one for all approach does not do not work to to mitigate properly and to evaluate a candidate or or any employee particularly. On individual basis, we can categorize all employees based on departments in which exec department they work or basically in short. In other words if I say.

Uh, it must be it. It can be said that every employee are categorized based on their respective skill sets. So based on that we can have the a pre, pre stated or preformed KPI's. Based on this KPI's there can there are quarterly reviews and and feedbacks which are given on quarter based quarterly basis. So this. With this quarterly basis and a customized.

KPI this directly, this is directly linked with not only employees upliftment, but when, when, when, whenever an employee learns new skills or is adapted well to or to his or her job, it directly benefits the organization as a whole. So here it's kind of a win win situation where not only the employee is happy, but with with with a happy employee, it ultimately leads.

A greater satisfaction score for the organization's benefit, the overall benefit of from business point of view and this this is what this is the primary approach which we can do when we are evaluating the performance appraisals. Along with this, we can also have management by objective method with this method.

This is somewhere also integrated with KPI at at last over ultimately it is included with with that as well. So with with all these strategies we can evaluate and employ bring up, bring up what is already good in that employee, which which is indeed utilized by organization in day-to-day life by the employee. This ultimately gives out the.

What an organization is expecting because the primary, primary ladder, I would say the primary ladder for any organization to achieve its goals is what his, what its people are doing. It should be aligned straight away aligned with the organization's goals. And, and every organization has its own goals. So I think we should have a varied predefined and very well stated clearly.

KPIs for employees in this manner.

Indicated.

Thanks for your detailed insights. How do you ensure that employees understand their KPIs clearly and feel motivated to achieve them?

Uh, to unders, to make the employees understand their KPIs, uh, the first thing is that there we have, uh, we have various software tools where all these KP is, are presented in detailed form first of all, and not just in detailed form, even even every, every KPI point which is being included, which is important for any employee. Let's take an example over here. So for any employee who is working.

Let's say is working for Java skill set. Let's see just for an example. So for a person who is working in Java, he must be well, well well tuned with with the basic Java libraries of it. He must be he must be a profound employee with respect to the front end technologies as well as the back end technologies. If we are talking about a full-fledged. Developer so for him.

Uh, these KPIs are listed 1 by 1. And in that KPI also, uh, percentage, uh, percentage is also denoted that, which KPI has the, uh, highest percentage in, in his day, day-to-day, uh, job role. And if, if, if any employee is not able to understand, then during, during this process, which, what we call like right now, we have, we have evolved a lot and now we are not sitting.

For an annual appraisal, performance appraisal where every understanding level would be done once a while. So we have stopped this practice. Right now we are into quarterly basis performance appraisal. So in a, so in a year there are three, there are three times where there is a direct interaction between employee and the employer. And if if at all an employee is not able to understand like what exactly is expected from him or if, if the employer feels that.

So my this particular employee is not generating me, is not giving me the right, the right object. Sorry, my this employee is not giving me the right output, which is expected that that can be made clear, crystal clear then and there itself in the first let's say in the first quarter meeting of Gen. 2.

Uh, March. So this way, uh, we can ensure that our, all employees have not only understood, uh, what is expected from them through their KPIs as well as we can also have a constant and, and a regular monitor of their, of their work. And if at all this gets stuck up, they are not, they're, they are, they get lost or if they do not understand that what, what is there in the KPI? In this way, we can have a human interaction.

One-on-one to make them understand that this is what is expected, this is where we are right now, so please fix it. And in this way we can we can ensure that our KPI's are very well understood by all our employees.

Got it. How do you address situations where an employee consistently fails to meet their KPIs despite guidance and quarterly reviews?

In this scenario, so as I have just spoken that this is the first thing, this is the primary objective that every employee must understand what is expected from them. In this scenario where any employee consistently fails or not rather fails but consistently there is a poor performance from his side, it clearly means there is a greater hindrance be it either from his from his professional.

Work front.

Or from his, uh, or from his, uh, personal, uh, uh, personal life, uh, front. So the first step which I would be taking, uh, it would be an open, open hearing. Uh, there would be a chance, which I'll be, I'll be giving to him to be open enough to, to discuss with me. Uh, so a fair hearing would be, would be given from my side so that I can, so that I can deduce better. What, what.

Exactly is stopping him from performing well What what is there that is because of what because of that reason, he is lagging behind and he's not able to give his 100% potential. Sorry, he's not able to provide his 100% into his work. So this is this would be the first step which I'll be giving him from my side from this discussion or whatever the meetings or whatever the important notes would be there. That I'll be actually be noting it down.

So that I so that I can use it further and in what way it can be used further that in that part I'll come later.

Then second would be what is the root cause? So, so, uh, in such situations, identifying the root cause is very important. If he's facing any issue from, from his, let's say any, his coworker or from his, any peers, then that that cancellation can be done by understanding that what, where he stuck up, what problems or what challenges he's facing versus what the other person is facing. So with.

This open interaction, this can be deduced and at last a joint cancellation can be done where the employee who is stuck up for XYZ reason as well as the employer who is expecting, let's say he's expecting X output while he's getting Y output. So based on this understanding, we can have a joint consolidation where we are stuck up and what mitigation or what negotiation can be done which which is in the best interest of both employee and.

Lawyer so basically over here our strategy should be to, you know, to create.

Compassion, empathy, as well as a sound work environment for both the parties. So it's not just one because, uh, an, an organization, an organization grows continuously when it's staff, it's, it's clients are happy over there. So this directly provides a great turnover ratio. It reduces, it reduces attrition and that ultimately gives the best.

Results which any organization can get about it. So these are the few steps primary few steps which can be taken. This is from the professional work front. Second is if he's facing any personal issues. So that personal issue can be or can also be mitigated by open hearing and and as that would be personal. So it has nothing to do with any of the other coworkers or employer. So on personal front whatever relaxation.

More flexibility is practically achievable. That would be given so that he is so that that so that the employee has got more trust and he is more content that that the person with whom he, he or she is working are caring for him and they really want to help her, help him or her out. So that basically a trust would be built between the employee and employer. And in this way we can overcome the challenges.

Now now I also mentioned about why it is important to document certain certain. Points or certain things that this documentation is very important not just to resolve this particular issue, but whenever such such instances occur.

Are repetitive instances in coming future, it is very important to go by documented resolutions. So this really helps in the near future. And it's very crucial for any organization to have such instances documented, such incidences documented so that, uh, the person, mainly the HR who works, who works as a bridge, who acts as a license between, let's say staff and faculty. So they have, they have.

We as a human being, we train ourselves by by practical usage, correct so so to so to prevent such instances.

Uh, they have something in return kind of SOP we can say over here. So they have an SOP with which they can understand what, uh, what are the practical human interactions, uh, when humans are interacted with each other, what, uh, what possible incidences can occur. So this documentation will help in the proactive measurement so that such similar instance instances can be avoided in a better way in, in coming future.

Understood. Let’s move to the next skill. How do you ensure fair and competitive compensation while staying within budget constraints?

OK, so for fair compensation, first thing would be the what is the clarity? The the clarity of the requirement with respect to that particular position is a must is must to understand because if if the person who is responsible to cater this particular job, if that person is not clear what exactly is being asked, what is important to have, what is a basically.

What is a mandatory skill set that that the organization is looking to fill fill that particular position versus what he's what he is doing, what he has done or he is doing if they if this gap or if this understanding gap is not. Eliminated properly there are there are 100% chances that the this target cannot be achieved so to so to reverse this unfortunate situation.

So oh, basically an unwanted situation. We the person who is working over here.

He or she must ensure what is being asked as the first step now with respect to budget constraints when we when we know clearly when the person knows clearly that this is what are these are the mandatory skill sets and based on it for these mandatory skill sets.

We can we can very well inform the stakeholder that these are the mandatory skills and for this mandatory particular skill sets market market rate is XYZ. So let me take let let me take an example over here from my past experience or from my past work experience, which directly comes from my 7 plus years of IT experience over there. I I worked for one supernatural skill which is Pega and.

The market market is is either compromising or market has that has that place to accommodate it.

It is very, uh, very difficult, I would say, uh, very difficult to get uh, uh, to get the candidate pool in the market, but irrespective of the, irrespective of the state, uh, within India, uh, because it's also manager skill. So what I did.

Being a supernatural skill.

I made AI extracted MIS report and in that report they were hardly 5 to 6 people and because of the because of the reason they were super niche skill and and definitely yes, every skill set, every every text tech or every or any skill set which which we are working into it has a specific budget. Budget band which is pre decided so we have to work in that given.

Uh, budget itself, uh, little bit shuffling, uh, can be done, but uh, that difference should not be too much. So when I had that clear data in front of me with respect to market understanding, I uh, I had AI had a one-on-one interaction with my stakeholder. I gave him all the required data which was there in the market and based on that, this, this basically helped the help my stakeholder to understand what.

Bracket or what budget he or he should keep it so that he's able to fulfill the fulfill the requirement. So this way I try to make my stakeholder understand the market situation. But here it was definitely this particular example is for Supana skill Now if I talk about in general scenarios so for in general scenarios when there is already.

A budget, a budget given then I'll be very specific what sort of profile should I go into with respect to the JD which which is being given to me. I'll have a thorough understanding of that JD and based on that I will go to the the best fitting candidate based on the based on my initial screening and my initial interaction. With the candidate from there, I'll reduce. OK, these are the set of candidates who.

Are best fit to my.

A requirement with respect to salary bracket as well as.

At the requirement which which I have got from my stakeholder. So in this way, I'll come down, I'll drop down my ample amount of work to a limited number of candidates who will short short fulfill the requirement within the given budget within the given salary bracket. I hope I have sufficed the question of yours.

Thank you for the detailed explanation. What steps do you take to ensure that your compensation structures are aligned with industry standards?

OK. So to ensure our compensation structure alignment, we can have.

Uh, we can have the, uh, uh, the market data, uh, uh, done. So, so for, for having a market rate of our competitors there, this can actually be purchased as well as if, if any organization, let's say, let's say, if there is a small scale running organization who cannot afford to, you know, keep on paying for every skill set for every skill set. To just to understand, just to get the data.