Recruiting talents for a bright future

Humans yet have to devise a successful formula to hire the right candidate for an organisation or develop an immaculate business plan. However, what forms the premise of any business or an organisation, are its employees, who, in reality, are the company’s greatest asset. And Sunita Nair, Vice President, Boyd and Moore Executive Search, takes pride in recruiting the best suitable applicant for organisations. “It’s an art, to hire the perfect candidate,” she smiled. Sunita recently graced her presence at a recent business meet in Pune. Corporate Citizen caught up with Sunita to know more about her journey, technology vs recruitment, her passion and much more

When you worship your work, maintaining a balanced life, finding the inner peace and being successful at whatever you are doing becomes a piece of cake. Of course, one would need to reach that stage where work becomes their passion and they no more treat their job as a duty or responsibility. Rather their work becomes the space that provides them nothing but happiness, peace and growth. For Sunita Nair, her work has provided immense courage and lead her on the organic path of success. From being sceptical of being in the recruiting field to touching to a new height of success in the same realm, Sunita has indeed come a long way. In conversation with Sunita...

Even after a hectic schedule, there’s a con-tagious smile on your face. How do you manage to do that, I mean continue with your passion for work and keep going?

Well, when you love what you do, happiness shines on your face. I enjoy what I do, as I never think of it as work. This is what I love doing-meeting new people, recruiting, grooming the young generation and spreading all the knowledge that I have accumulated so far. My passion for this field is immense. It would be fine to say that my work is engraved into me. You cannot disassociate my work from my soul. And the best part is, it comes to me naturally to love my work. Each day, I can’t wait to get up and go to my office. I am always happy while I am at work because I am doing something meaningful. And once you achieve that Zen mode at the workplace, it starts to reflect on your body-you are more agile, joyous and peaceful.

That’s indeed great! And it goes well with the saying – work is my happy place, an emotion that only a few get to feel. Moving on...Can you introduce yourself to our reader? Tell us a bit about your education, career and family

I am a Keralite and have spent most of my time in Pune. What I take pride in is my father’s background who has served the Defence. He was the part of the General Reserve Engineer Force (GREF), a Border Roads Organisation (BRO), that develops and maintains road networks in India’s border areas and friendly neighbouring countries. With a great family background, I al-ways had this at the back of mind to make my parents proud, and more importantly, I wanted to work in a field that would make me happy. After finishing my basic education from Fergusson College, I pursued my MBA from Indo German Training Centre. And after that began my tryst of painting my career with beautiful colours.

"When it comes to assessments, the human interface is crucial. Despite the fact that today we are moving from the mechanical world to an automated world, but when it comes to hiring or assessing people, the human interface is a must"

Learning and growing

My first job with a telecom company showered me with the greatest experience of my life. It was during those days when mobiles weren’t even heard of. I was a part of paging service, a one-way communication agency, for almost four years. A few months down the line, the HR saw a spark in me. They noticed my communication skills, and me being a people’s person was paying off. As the HR said, and I quote, “You have a knack of convincing people (in a good way) which could prove beneficial for any company.” I took their suggestion of working in the recruiting function to heart and joined the band-wagon of Boyden in Pune, here my responsibilities grew leaps and bounds. Frankly, before joining Boyden, I was in two minds, for obvious reasons. After having a word with my Boss, I made it clear that I would stay back only if I am able to sustain, or else I would quit and move to my original job. In a jiffy, those six months turned into 11 years with the same franchise owner and I have never been this happy.

Getting technical

My responsibility included handling an array of activities such as-market survey, research activities, scouting, screening profiles, head-hunting, networking, counselling candidates for interviews, interviewing candidates, and PR activities. This job made me well-versed with the entire cycle of recruitment. It aided me in my exposure with the top management people.

I handled responsibilities of recruitment right from taking a brief from the client to understanding the requirement, preparing a position spec for both client requirement and candidate briefing, source candidates from job portals, in-house databank or headhunting, matching the profile vis-à-vis client requirement, speaking to candidate to understand their profile, their aspirations and their fitment with the client, short-listing the candidate, preparing a report of short-listed candidate. The work kept me busy and the tight schedule got the best out of me.

This experience, in short, was riveting. That’s when I got my grip on executive search. Unfortunately, the franchise decided to shut down, or else I would have never thought of leaving the company. Since the last four years, I have been serving Boyd and Moore Executive Search, as their Vice President. Our clients range from startups looking for a market-entry solution to both Indian and multinationals going through expansions or realignments of their operations. We cover most industry sectors and work with our clients to create tailored strategies. We have market-leading talent mapping capabilities and have established a very strong track record of successful search execution, while consistently providing the highest levels of service. I lead our Retained Search Practice focused on India and the APAC region. Here, I also got exposure to the holistic HR function where I have helped organisations in a variety of areas including development centres, policy making, competency-mapping, compensation bench-marking, preparing organisation for market strategies etc.

"I am quite a passionate person when it comes to my work. And I feel that without passion, the output of your work has no soul. For me, every day is a learning experience"

That sounds quite an exciting journey. With more than 20 years of experience, how do you reflect on your career path?

I am quite a passionate person when it comes to my work. And I feel that without passion, the output of your work has no soul. For me, every day is a learning experience. Frankly, I don’t believe in doing a post-mortem of a situation. I feel that I have done justice with work and whatever I have done so far has been relevant. So, when I reflect on my career, I see that I’ve had a beautiful journey a voyage that has had its ups and downs and was filled with rainbows and sunshine that undoubtedly sparkles on my resume. I have thoroughly enjoyed my work and I have zero regrets. I’ve majorly been into recruitment and I’ll die recruiting. I love meeting new people. Love analysing people and I love everything about recruiting.

With your kind of experience, would it be right to say that there’s a foolproof plan for hiring employees?

Yes, that would be viable only if we are hiring robots or machines (laughs). Here, we are dealing with humans, who are a complex being. And frankly, to devise a common hiring formula for all is highly impossible. Because everyone is unique. Where I think I’ve excelled well, could fall flat tomorrow, as I’m dealing with humans

Agreed, coming with a plan could be difficult. But you must have some sort of criteria when you are hiring.

I only say, I hire for attitude. You can teach functions, you can teach skills, but attitude cannot be taught. If the person has the right attitude, he or she possesses the precise skillsets to lead the company to its goals. For me, before looking into anything else, attitude matters. After that, the stability and mentality of the person come into the picture.

Do technology and recruitment go hand in hand?

I feel that you cannot automate recruitment till the time we are hiring humans. The time we start recruiting robots, automation can play a big role. Basic things like psychometric tests, getting resumes, looking at skills sets and other functions could be automated. But when it comes to assessments, the human interface is crucial. And there is no substitute for that. Despite the fact that today we are moving from the mechanical world to an automated world, but when it comes to hiring or assessing people, the human interface is a must

A company would do wonders if they have a great working culture. So how would you build one?

I always say, with independence comes responsibility. The moment my team says they want to be independent or they do not want to be told what is to be done, fine, I would give them that. But with that comes responsibility. Delegate it then! Today’s kids are very smart. They exactly know what is to be done. Give them the right tools, environment, make them comfortable and the sky is the limit. They come with endless possibilities that we can’t even think of. Simply empower and ask them to envoi. And that’s what today’s generation is looking for and I am happy to say that, that’s what our company is doing.

In a layman’s term, can you tell us what does business development mean and what are its key aspects.

You need to understand the pain of the person, who you are going to sell the product to. You need to know the client in and out. Understand the client’s needs and what you are exactly selling. Create a need in that person. If you do that, you’ll be a successful business developer. Understand the need and position your product in the right way and to the right audience.

When I was growing up, there was just one channel, and we still loved it. Today, I have 100s of channels. And tomorrow if I create 50 more channels there would be a need for that as well. That means the needs of people keeps on changing, we need to cater to that.

What’s the social impact of carrying out CSR activities? Why is it important for a company to manage it?

We are living in an era where the status difference between rich and poor is uncanny. We need to bridge the gap or bring the underprivileged to a platform where they can have a decent quality of life. Each organisation needs to contribute. As much as you contribute to the industry, one needs to realise that they have a certain kind of responsibility towards society as well. If you are looking to hire good people, you also need to create them. And that can be done by giving opportunities. Most of the big-wigs today have started from scratch. Hence, give opportunities to make more of such people. Which is why for a company, CSR becomes important to bring out the best in the people.

You have played a great role in managing CSR activities. How has that made an impact on your life?

Quite frankly, I am an emotional person. I begin to relate to every situation that happens around me. One of the most important things that I’ve learnt by being with these people is to remain grounded. Wherever you reach in your life, don’t leave your ground. I’ve seen many people who are successful but they have lost the path that they have traversed. If you remain grounded, you don’t have the fear of the fall. That’s when you give your best without any baggage. When you know you have nothing to lose, you will shine the best. I know two things in life. What I’ve come with and what I’ll go back with. What I’ve created, I’ve to leave it back here. Happiness doesn’t lie on the periphery of the things you’ve created around. What you do to make the environment happy matters. And I really work around that.

What are your views about the term ‘boss lady’?

I strongly believe that we should disassociate our-selves from this gender bias. We start differentiating it in the wrong way. Regardless of your gender, one should be given the right opportunity to lead. When I began my career, it was completely a male dominated arena. But today things have changed. In fact, I feel there’s a brighter tomorrow.

"You can teach functions, you can teach skills, but attitude cannot be taught. If the person has the right attitude, he or she possesses the precise skillsets to lead the company to its goals

An idea that changed your life?

The hunger in me to meet people and to make memories gives me a chance to make my life better each day. The people I’ve met at any point in my life, whether they are young kids or senior-most officials, I’ve never hesitated or shied off from taking advice from them. I’ve learnt from them and applied the learning in any way I could. You can donate eyes, but you cannot donate vision, is a very strong and a true statement. Everything that I learn makes my day worthwhile.

Apart from work what keeps you busy?

The kid in me is still alive and kicking. I love dancing and travelling. As a matter of fact, I still love to go out and play with the kids. I can proudly say that I am getting trained in Bharatanatyam, and my inspiration is none other than my beautiful daughter, Arya. I want to travel as much as I can, both India and other countries.

Any quote or a saying that you swear by?

Someone had once enlightened me with this theory...Your customer is your God, as they are ones who let you earn your bread and butter. But you have to remember that you are not their slave. I take it very seriously. I will raise my opinion whenever it’s required and I’ll never hesitate to guide my customers through.