The Challenges Faced By Recruiters In Startups & SME’s And How Empathy Plays An Important Role!
Headsup Corporation conducted a session on Human Resources Business Partners and the world they have to navigate. Three gems of the HR fraternity, Abhishek De from BrowserStack, Kushal Bhat from Myntra, and Ramasubramanian K from Swiggy were invited to discuss the topic. Here’s what Mr. Ramasubramanian, Director HRBP, Swiggy had to say about the challenges faced by recruiters, dynamics of an external & internal ecosystem, and how empathy plays an important role:
“When you have a product in the engineering team, there’s the business to be done. How do you understand the entire life cycle of a business? How do you connect your business strategy towards product strategy towards tech strategy? Once you have a strong understanding of the life cycle and figure out the levers you have control over, then you go back and understand the potential factors that will affect the levers. There are more external factors that affect the levers than internal factors and all of these factors affect hiring.”
“The fundamental part of the challenge is to see if recruiters are able to connect the dots between all three levers and if they are able to see how value generation happens. Once they get this done, the next step is to have empathy towards the engineers and other employees. Recruiters have to see if they are able to listen to them and understand their language. If they are able to create strong partnerships with your employees and ensure the value creation process is tight. HRBPs have to ensure that they stay intact to the core vision of the organization. When the core vision is intact when they know that everyone is going towards the same goal. Recruiters have to see if you understand their employees enough to be able to solve their problems. They have to understand what the life of an employee is about to be able to add value. Solve problems in a slightly personalized zone, approach the solutions in a customized way not a standard way for everyone.”
“After scanning the internal ecosystem, we move to the external ecosystem that seems to be slightly shifting. Talent density scarcity is real. The biggest challenge is the ability of HRBPs to empathize with their consumer and stay in the problem space. Try to solve the problem rather than bringing in your playbook. You are always in partnership with your business, you are always co-creating these days, gone are the days of doing things on your own. You should be able to forge these partnerships. Today there is a disconnect between connecting the levers and empathizing with your end consumers like engineers and product managers. This disconnect needs to be improved.”
“HRBPs are always trying to prove themselves, trying to showcase that they are functionally strong, solve problems and establish their credibility. This is not as important as aligning and arriving at a sweet spot between what drives the business and helping your business. HRBPs see what business partnerships really need and then go back to the fundamentals. Try to have a playbook that is rooted in consumer understanding.”
“Today HRBPs have the luxury of hiring people who are as passionate as them and then they should channel them towards the common vision. Don’t do something fancy, do something that resonates with the consumers, start thinking community first (think of tech as a community), and solve community problems. Do this in the contours of what the business can provide. Simplify the problem statement as much as possible, focus on the things you can do well. Employee life cycle management is very similar to consumer life cycle management. Leverage the technology as much as possible. Look for opportunities where you can get inspired, pick and borrow ideas and you will do well.”
Can you relate to his thoughts? We’d love to hear what you’ve got to say. Feel free to share your views in the comments section.
