In an exclusive interaction with CXOToday, Sumeet Doshi, Country Manager- India at UKG (Ultimate Kronos Group), talks about how the company helps other organisations prioritize employee welfare through its HR management tech solutions. With a strong focus on employee retention, UKG’s core belief is ‘Our Purpose is People’, and it continuously tries to achieve that by making truly inclusive tech products that promote DEI&B values. Sumeet also discusses about how UKG is assisting organisations transition smoothly into hybrid workplaces while maintaining flexibility.
- Can you tell us a little about UKG and its presence in India?
UKG is one of the largest HR software management organisations providing human capital management (HCM), payroll and HR service delivery to companies worldwide with global revenues of roughly over 3.2 billion dollars. Our workforce management solutions are designed specifically to meet the demands of employers and employees across various industries, allowing them to efficiently manage their workforce, increase productivity, and reduce labour costs and compliance issues.
Over the recent years, we’ve grown rapidly, now employing over 14,600 individuals across our various functions globally. India, currently, is a significant focus for us in terms of growth opportunities and is well-positioned both from a market and talent standpoint. Having set up shop in 2007, we’ve recently crossed the 2000 employee milestone in our 15 years of operations in India.
- What are some workforce-related challenges in India, and how are you meeting customer expectations through technology?
The Covid-19 outbreak and the consequent shutdowns have accelerated India’s digital transformation from corporations to small and medium businesses. However, there is significant scope for improvement. Today, employee attrition is higher than it’s ever been, and unfortunately, Indian businesses have learned it the hard way. Not only is it increasingly difficult to attract and hire great professionals, but retaining them has been a whole other challenge. Then there’s the added impact of employee turnover in terms of money.
Transition to hybrid mode of working has been a great learning experience for most organizations. As a provider of workforce management solutions, our whole business has been built around assisting our customers in making the necessary transitions. During the early days of the crisis, we focused on enabling organisations seamlessly transition to a remote working environment. However, as businesses prepare to resume physical operations, certain roles continue to work in a hybrid manner. We have been helping organizations, as they continue to mature their role specific polices, manage the resultant complexities by leveraging our advanced process automation technology.
On the product side, we continue to innovate. For example, we just launched the UKG HR Service DeliveryTM, designed to meet the distinct and growing requirements of HR departments across organisations. As a part of our offerings, we work on automating nearly any manual procedure, such as responding to employee requests, actively managing all employee documents, tracking effectiveness with simple, visualised data, boosting productivity, and providing an exceptional employee experience.
While workforce technology tools are gaining popularity for lowering costs, increasing productivity, and reducing compliance risks, newer and more exciting opportunities are around the horizon. One such example is how employee engagement can be improved and attrition controlled more effectively with the use of technology and data analytics. Another significant technological intervention is in the use of digital tools to enable far better staff forecasting, planning, deploying, and tracking solutions, allowing for greater workplace flexibility.
- How is attrition impacting the IT/ITES sector, and how is the adoption of new tech-focused strategies enabling the sector to tackle attrition?
With the changing digital world, the demand for IT/IT-enabled services companies continues to grow, yet the significant workforce turnover remains a major worry for IT firms. Employee turnover affects productivity in general. Recruiting, hiring, onboarding, developing people, and getting them up to the same level of productivity as the prior employee all come with a price tag. For example, months of work may be lost due to the time spent recruiting, leading to a decrease in output.
Companies cope with attrition in different ways to combat the talent exodus, including strategies to keep employees, particularly those with high potential, on board. IT companies offer salary adjustments, appealing pay and perks, stock options, numerous employee engagement activities, and invest in workforce management tools. As a result, there is a significant increase in the uptake of workforce technology adoption in the Indian IT/Ites sector.
Businesses can adapt to a more modern and equal workplace with the support of innovative workforce technology that harnesses AI, digital analytics, and other modern digital tools. These investments help yield a higher return on investment in terms of empowering and motivating employees to control and manage their work-life balance with greater flexibility. Because of this fluidity, employees are able to build a career rather than hopping jobs to find something that fits their commitments. In the ongoing war for talent retention in the IT/ITes sector, the winners will be those who bear in mind the evolving needs of the employees of today and tomorrow.
According to the recent survey by Workforce Institute at UKG, globally, more than two out of every five employees believe they would have been better off in their previous job because they encounter many of the same challenges at their new employer but without the familiar faces and routines. In fact, one in every five people has already returned to their previous employer, with millions more considering it today.
- What can help companies have a more straightforward approach to prioritising employee welfare?
Most organisations treat the retention of workers as a critical metric that decides the robustness or health of a firm. Typically, the top drivers of employee turnover include salary, career advancement, work environment, and flexibility. Flexibility has become a necessary component of the developing workplace of the future. As a result, organisations have a tremendous chance to change work, workforce, and workspace as the globe shifts away from totally remote work settings and toward hybrid solutions.
According to the research study by The Workforce Institute at UKG, the great majority of Indian (93%) and worldwide (86%) employees believe their colleagues are not treated fairly or equitably at work – More than a third (35%) of Indian employees and nearly half (47%) of all employees worldwide think that companies undervalue underrepresented voices.
It has been proven that companies that actively engage their employees have greater business success. Furthermore, when employees feel heard, engaged, and have a sense of belonging, organisations are far more likely to perform well financially (88%). Today, workforce management solutions assist companies in listening to their employees, understanding their issues, and communicating with them on a regular basis.
- How are organisations bridging the gap between meeting organisation requirements and the employees’ expectations?
Although the number of Covid-19 instances is dwindling, corporations continue to offer remote working choices to their employees, and some are even hiring for permanent work-from-home positions. Employees want flexible work alternatives such as working from home, working flexible hours, or working in a hybrid work arrangement. Thus, it’s vital to have effective employee mapping measures in place to guarantee that productivity levels are maintained across the board.
With a majority of employees dispersed across numerous workspaces, it is critical to make them feel connected to the organisation and each other. In addition, employers must ensure that their employees have the same experience and opportunity regardless of where they work in the new normal.
Organisations must create a better work environment as employees balance working from home and in the office under the new Hybrid culture. Workforce management utilises digital tools and technologies to eliminate biases and automate mundane processes like scheduling. As a result, employers can more effectively use their resources for strategic activities while mapping the efficiency of employees who operate from home or other remote areas in this manner.
