Month: July 2021

The Founders of Ad Astra get Featured on Forbes for creating a Global Recruitment Firm

Diversity, women empowerment & leadership have always been sought-after topics globally. Today, the participation of women within the economy has been a matter of concern, especially for Leadership levels. But this is gradually changing as some women do take the plunge to set a personal example. Nirupama and Jayanthi have been such leaders who have overcome all odds and set an example that is close to being unparalleled when compared to many industry leaders. They are one of the top full suite recruitment firms which started in India in 2007.

About the Founders

Nirupama has been the mastermind behind Ad Astra. She is an industry veteran & serial entrepreneur with more than 2 decades of experience. She co-founded 3 of India’s largest HR firms which were later acquired by world-renowned organizations. She has been an integral part of the setup of various multinational firms and also serves as a board member to the executive council of various prestigious organizations. She is a passionate professional who has set a trend for women entrepreneurs in the Recruitment Industry and has scaled organizations with elan. Jayanthi has been the catalyst and co-founder of Ad Astra. She comes with more than 2 decades of experience within the banking and financial services sector. She has been instrumental in building marquee clientele and imbibing quality delivery which has been a differentiator for Ad Astra. She has made Ad Astra a Global Company of repute. Jayanthi, apart from running the business, is always searching for ways to make a difference through CSR. She has been a promoter of diversity, women’s health, girl child education, and women’s empowerment.

Success Story

It is not an easy task to build something from scratch and take it to the next level. This is where Nirupama and Jayanthi created magic in the form of Ad Astra. Indeed, they took an oath in reaching the stars and worked hard to take the organization forward. From 2007 till now, Ad Astra has seen stupendous growth not only as a business unit but also as a company that cares for society. For them, it has always been about institution building, wherein, clients have superior importance and employees are the collaborative builders of the organization. “With our in-depth knowledge of the positions and the markets we operate in, we have sourced some of the best candidates for our clients, ranging from inspirational leaders to strategists across verticals. Our focused search, supplemented by our research activities, gives us the edge for analyzing the candidate community and identifying the best fit,” says Nirupama V G, Managing Director, Ad Astra.

Today, Ad Astra is serving customers across 40+ countries around the world and continues to expand.

Ad Astra has successfully executed massive Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPOs) Projects with some of the prominent names within the industry globally. Ad Astra has expertise when it comes to CXO level deployments, RPOs, contingency, and temp hirings. They have been pioneers in building management teams at CXO levels from Fortune 10 firms to start-ups. Their temp staffing business has set gold standards when it comes to best practices. They have “zero defect” on the compliance front. They are known for providing bespoke full-suite recruitment solutions to all firms.

Challenges & Opportunities

Jayanthi says, “The industry is very fragmented, and therefore, remaining focused and scaling consistently has been a challenge for us. It has not been easy to work within multiple geographies as each country presents varied work ethics and culture. However, with an exceptional leadership team and guidance, we have overcome the obstacles in our way to achieve success. There have been tough times especially during the pandemic, but we made sure that we were there to support our employees in every possible way. Within no time, we have achieved remarkable growth in the international market. I feel very proud of our employees as they have been the pillars of our success.” They have 76% of women in their firm and have won several accolades for diversity hiring. They have set a personal example to ensure the participation of women in the economy. They still feel they can do a lot more. They strongly believe that women can overcome any odds and bring out their entrepreneurial talent to the forefront. As they say, “miles to go before we sleep”.

Are you future-ready?

Written By Ms Vandana Shejwal ( Group CHRO, Capital India Finance )

India’s unemployment rate was 6.52 % in March’21 which was a slight decline from 6.9 per cent in February 2021 and 6.53 per cent in Jan’21, according to the latest data released by a private think-tank, Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE). The data showed that the unemployment rate in urban areas declined despite a rise in the joblessness rate on a national level. The rural areas, however, saw a surge in unemployment during the month under review. The urban unemployment rate dropped to 6.99 in February 2021 from 8.08 in January 2021, while the rural unemployment rate rose to 6.86 per cent from 5.83 per cent during the same period.*

Isn’t this scary and challenging? But if we have assessed the situation well and have been proactive, this is not all that problematic.

The covid situation in the last one year has thrown huge challenges to economies, societies and people all over the world. This in consequence has brought about a sea change in the skills landscape, the way the jobs are viewed and productivity vs. cost parameters. In the last year, we have been hearing the words like digitization, innovation, reskilling, upskilling, sustainability, agile workforce, resilience like never before. The questions we have to ask ourselves now are: Have we prepared ourselves for these changes in the last few months? Have we learnt from the situation? Are we future-ready?

As both employees and organizations we have to now think, where do we stand in this situation? The organization needs to make optimum utilization of the skills available by creating a skills inventory and the employees need to do their own self-assessment in terms of what are their skills and their relevance in the current times. The organizations have already started taking stock of the current skills Vs future requirements. The non-traditional jobs and skills will be more important than ever before. People will stop indulging in the rat race of going for only popular careers. The concept of employability will take more prominence over employment.

Some of the key trends that we already see are as follows:

  • Every day some survey or research throws out a list of hot skills/jobs that will trend in future. It is important not only for freshers/college/B-school graduates to keep track of it but even the experienced people need to check where they stand vis-à-vis the new skills required in the market. SWOT analysis of self from time to time will not only avoid any surprises but will prepare themselves to adapt to changes and make them future-ready. What is relevant today and in demand may not be relevant tomorrow and hence people will need to keep track of the latest in the talent space, keep updating their knowledge and upgrade themselves with newer skills
  • There is no such thing as free lunch. Anyone who gets paid will need to justify every penny that they get. The Compensation structures will undergo huge changes for paying for performance. The trend had already started towards more variable and less fixed pay a few years ago. Now the percentage will tilt all the more towards variable. Not only ESOPs but Performance Shares would be the thing of the future.
  • Contractual Vs permanent jobs – Organizations more than ever before will decide whether it wants to Buy or Build talent. Because of the uncertain situation, organizations don’t want to add permanent costs to their books. We are already used to the contractual employment of blue-collared / feet on street (sales) employees but now we hear about contractual CXOs who come and do their work on a project basis. Lifetime employment and retiring from the organization is a thing of the past. More and more people will work on an assignment/project/contractual basis and it will no longer be taboo not to have a permanent job
  • Digital and innovation is the way to go – everything digital and digital everywhere would be the new mantra. Digital is the buzzword right now. We not only see more and more digital payments happening but also see all activities pertaining to the entire life-cycle of employees getting automated. Differentiation in the products and services offered by organizations will help them survive the tough competition. People who can think out of the box and help differentiate the products and services will have a lot of demand. A lot of jobs being created in this space and more will be created in future as more and more organizations go digital.
  • Soft Skills of the future – it would no longer be enough to work hard, add qualifications or experience to your profile. Certain soft skills like adaptability, flexibility, emotional intelligence, coaching skills including listening and teamwork would be non-negotiable not only for employees but even for leaders/managers.  

There is a lot of effort taken up by the government is doing for skilling. Skill India Movement and National Skill Development Corporation and their initiatives are few steps in this direction. In a country like India with a huge population, it’s going to be a mammoth task to skill the entire population. It is not going to be possible without a public-private partnership. Industry – Government collaboration can make it possible. It is important that we make the general public aware of the courses offered under various skilling initiatives by state and central governments. This is not easy and will take few years for the entire population to be covered or get skilled.

We don’t know if this Covid situation is here to stay or will go away in near future. It is not enough to have savings for few months. But looking at the current layoffs/unemployment rates, it would be wiser to have as many savings as possible and live a minimalistic life. 

We already see lots changing on the ground as far as the business world is concerned. Are you ready for the challenge? Are you future-ready?

* source – Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE)