Leading from the Front

The journey to the top is never easy. But success, like many things in life, depends more on the mettle of the individual than anything else. In an era where job-hopping is the norm rather than the exception, Ashish Bhalla, General Manager – HR at HCL Technologies Ltd., has blazed a phenomenal career path in his 15-year stint with the company. Corporate Citizen chats with Ashish about his career journey, what it is like working for an avant-garde technology company, and what it takes to succeed in your corporate career

"The base level jobs are going away. That is a reality. Everybody knows that. It’s about skilled roles now. People need to upskill themselves”

Take us through your early career.

I have been with HCL for over 15 years. This is my first job. I joined at the base level and have risen up with time. I moved into different roles and gradually moved up the ladder. While I was moving upwards, I also focused on upskilling myself. I started with delivery projects, have handled multiple projects. Transitioned lead projects from the US and UK. In 2010 I moved into HR. At one point, I was handling the complete recruitment for India for our division which has approximately 15,000 employees. I did that for around three years. I then moved to HCL hiring in the US. We were setting up a new model where we planned to increase our sourcing capability for HCL America Hiring. I handled that for a couple of years. After that, I moved into the workforce planning team, as I wanted to expand my horizon as an overall HR professional rather than just a recruitment professional, whether it was workforce planning or deployment planning of the resources. I did that for around a year and a half. In my current role, I am Heading recruitments for HCL Tech Corporate function globally. Along with Lateral recruitment, I also head campus hiring and engagement of B-Schools and E-Schools. The organization’s focus is on building talent and obviously acquiring talent is one aspect but you can’t just keep on acquiring directly from the market, you have to also create leaders internally.

HCL is an iconic company. I have heard that the Founder and Chairman of HCL Technologies, Mr Shiv Nadar likes to be personally involved in the decision making process. How is the experience of working for a legend like him?

Mr Nadar comes with a very different vision of moving the organization from where it started in 1976. We moved from the humble beginnings to clocking revenue of $8.6 billion in revenues now. We operate out of 44 countries today, which shows how diverse our business is.

HCL is also acquiring some of IBM’s businesses...

Yes. We have established ourselves as a service provider. We wanted to build our capabilities as a product company, which is why we acquired IBM Products for $1.8 billion. Now, we have the products and platform capabilities as well. That matches with HCL’s strategy of Mode 1-3, where Mode 1 is our core services, Mode 2 is where we have new technologies coming into a place like artificial intelligence, cyber security and cloud and Mode 3 is creating that capability of product and platform. That is the overall strategy and even a long term strategy of HCL where we adapt to a fast-changing environment.

HCL is at the cutting edge of technology. We have seen AI, robotics and automation change the entire technological landscape. How do you see these changes impacting jobs in the future?

If I had to put it in a simple way, the base level jobs are going away. That is a reality. Everybody knows that. It’s about skilled roles now. People need to upskill themselves. Just JAVA or .NET is no longer valued. You need to add new technologies towards your skills. That’s why for the people who are currently working as well as the new generation which is getting into the organization, they need to upskill themselves with the next generation technologies and prepare themselves for the next-generation changes that are coming their way. There are core jobs like the BPO sector, there was a time when you used to call up a call centre and someone would pick up the phone and answer your queries. Now, most of the time, your queries are answered via recorded messages on the IVR. But still, the intervention that is required to do Level 2 of problem solving, that is still required. That has not gone away. The artificial intelligence required to read human questions, analyze them and ask leading questions to get to the root of the customer’s concern, that level of capability is upskilling. This is across domains, whether it is delivery, manufacturing, financial services, HR or any other area. Every domain requires employees to upskill themselves to next-level roles so that they always stay ahead of automation.

"When I interview people, the first thing I look at is how much the person understands about himself or herself, how much the person understands his own capabilities”

You are correct in saying that people need to upskill themselves. You mentioned that you also handle B-School recruitment. In your experience, have you noticed a gap between what the industry requires and the output of the educational sector?

In some pockets, yes. We provide good knowledge in academics through books, case studies, etc, but technology is changing much faster on the ground. Books were designed much earlier. Case studies and contents may have been written five years back and you will see that the case study comes from a different perspective than a real-life scenario using contemporary technology. Today, millennials will have an entirely different perspective on the topic. Their strategy to arrive at a solution is changing. Similarly, the way of teaching must change. Faculties must be aligned with the real-time needs of the industry.

There are a lot of institutes, to give them credit, who are training their faculties for precisely this requirement. They are doing this through corporate interventions, they are partnering with the industry to train the faculty on the expectations of corporates. There are some key things which need to be built in into the course itself, to make students more job ready. There are some specific trainings, which naturally institutes won’t be able to provide on their own and the industry would gladly provide the same but there are few skills which now need to come as a pre-requisite, like analytical skills and problem solving capabilities. There are other supplementary skills like stress management, multi-tasking, team management, time management, effective communication etc. which need to be taught during the course itself so the students are ready to start their roles. Currently, the company has to invest in building the behavioral aspects of the new employees. Even the case studies must be made more real-time and more practical. A lot of institutes are now taking up these initiatives, which is great. The institute-industry relationship must be a partnership, a talent partner and not like a hiring consultant.

You were part of the hiring process when HCL set up recruitment centres in the US. What is the key difference between the talent you have encountered abroad and talent in India?

If you talk about talent matching to the role, then it’s same logic across. We evaluate talent based on the skill and role requirement. There could be geographical and cultural difference but HCL is well-diversified organization in culture, countries, languages.

What do you look out for when you hire people?

When I interview people, the first thing I look at is how much the person understands about himself or herself, how much the person understands his own capabilities. I don’t go by what is written in the CV. I want to know if you have evaluated yourself, what are your strengths and weaknesses, and what you have done to cover those weaknesses. If you can’t do self-evaluation, if you can’t be objective enough to critically analyze yourself, then the time is changing so fast and you will be left behind. If you don’t adapt to the change then you will struggle not just in your career but in your life too. You need to develop that learning capability and that zeal to learn more, that hunger to learn more. You must keep upskilling yourself so that you are not left behind five years down the line. That is what I look at. I want to know whether the candidate has the behavioral aspect to succeed. On the job training specific to the skills, role and technology can be given but the behavioral aspects should have been developed during Graduation & MBA. Another thing that is crucial is the values of the individual. The person must have strong values and must be a professional. Integrity is a must.

If you look at the millennial generation, they job hop every couple of years. You have stuck to one company throughout your entire career and you have achieved much success. Do you think this new trend of job hopping is detrimental to an individual’s long term success?

I would say it’s about priorities. People need to set their priorities right. I can completely understand that some people have financial pressures and for them, compensation is the priority. They have loans, they are paying EMIs, and they are looking after their families, so they may choose financial aspects more. That is completely their prerogative. But as an overall professional, you need to set your priorities as per your long term goals. If you want a strong career, you should be doing a role that matches your career aspiration. If you focus on your career, the money will ultimately follow you. The problem is that people run after money, and put their careers on a backburner. If you keep your focus on your career, then your growth and compensation will move at the same pace. If you try to focus on compensation by neglecting to learn, then it’s a problem. It’s a short term goal which may pay off initially but in the long term you will become a liability for the organization, and you will also be non-hirable in the market if you are not skilled as per your compensation. Your learning, growth, compensation and career all should move together.

"Youngsters need to be more adaptable, they need to adapt to the changing environment. They should have a hunger to learn. They should look at their career, look at the right brand”

You have held many roles in HCL. What are some initiatives you have taken that you are proud of?

I have been into operations. I think it’s a great thing that I started with operations. I still recall the day when I applied for an HR role. A lot of people had told me that I shouldn’t apply for HR and stick to operations. But I still appeared for the interview. The panel asked me why I wanted to move to HR. I said that even when I was running projects, I was doing HR. I had a team of 100 plus people and for them, I am the first HR. The manager is the first point of contact and nobody know more about the employee other than their manager. The expertise that I carry in my delivery projects is outcome and process-based. That is what I implemented in my journey into HR. I made everything more process-oriented, streamlines, structured, accountable, SLA and compliant. Compliance, especially, is very important these days. Compliance has to be there in each and every task. You must ensure that you have strong processes to get the right talent into the organization, Every task is essential to be target based. I have done other interventions, for example, during the US hiring process, I created a level of the outcome-based model which demonstrated how each demand was prioritized. There was a lot of analytics which we put into place. Each of the roles I got into, I introduced more focus on processes, transparency, and analytics in each area.

How do you strike the ideal work-life balance?

Striking work-life balance is indeed tough because corporate life is not easy. It is not a 9-6 type of job, especially when you work for a global organization which has a presence in 44 countries. You need to have a level of flexibility in your mind to work. I do not look at the time to start and stop my work. When tasks are done, then it means I can rest. Work prioritization and time management are a very important aspect in today’s corporate life. I still try to ensure that I give enough time to my family, to my kids. I take them out every 3-6 months, In December, I keep about 10 days for my family. That is our holiday time.

What is your idea of relaxation?

My idea of relaxation is watching movies. These days, I am watching a lot of courtroom movies, which I lately find very interesting. I also like action movies.

What advice would you give to students and young professionals who are just starting out in their career?

Youngsters need to be more adaptable, they need to adapt to the changing environment. They should have a hunger to learn. They should look at their career, they should look at the right brand, the brand stability before they leap into a job. They should prepare themselves for new challenges that may come their way. In today’s world, communication skills are very important. The jobs today are not roles where you can sit in one corner of the office building and just do data entry work and go home. It’s all about communication now. It’s important to understand that you work with people, you don’t work with machines. You have people around you. That interaction, that positive vibe that you create around you when you enter an organization, is invaluable. You should create value for yourself in the organization. You should be valued where you work. You too should value the organization. If you respect your job, you love what you do and you love going to office I think that is where you will find a long career.