“The essence of technology in onboarding lies not in replacing the human touch but in enhancing it. Pre-onboarding tools like chatbots serve to address the curiosity of new hires guiding them through the initial queries about office locations, documentation, and team dynamics. However, the true essence lies in the human connection, be it through updates about the company or the anticipation built through periodic communications before joining."
In this episode of The Shape Of Work, we have a stimulating discussion with Adwitiya Tiwari, Human Resource Business Partner at YASH Technologies, who sheds light on his journey from IT engineering to leading HR. Adwitiya boasts a rich professional tenure spanning over a decade, adorned with pivotal roles across distinguished organizations such as Star India, BeJobbed Incorporation, and I-PAC. His academic prowess shines through his BTech degree from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, complemented by an MBA earned from the esteemed XLRI Jamshedpur.
In today’s episode, our conversation took an enlightening turn toward the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with an emphasis on the critical commitment required by leadership. We tapped into the essential practice of onboarding new employees, revealing the importance of personal connections and the increasing role of technology in creating successful assimilation.
Episode Highlights
Follow Adwitiya on Linkedin
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Riddhi Agarwal
About Springworks:
Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes:
SpringVerify— B2B verification platform
EngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company culture
Trivia — a suite of real-time, fun, and interactive games platforms for remote/hybrid team-building
SpringRole — verified professional-profile platform backed by blockchain, and
SpringRecruit — a forever-free applicant tracking system.
Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.
“The essence of technology in onboarding lies not in replacing the human touch but in enhancing it. Pre-onboarding tools like chatbots serve to address the curiosity of new hires guiding them through the initial queries about office locations, documentation, and team dynamics. However, the true essence lies in the human connection, be it through updates about the company or the anticipation built through periodic communications before joining."
In this episode of The Shape Of Work, we have a stimulating discussion with Adwitiya Tiwari, Human Resource Business Partner at YASH Technologies, who sheds light on his journey from IT engineering to leading HR. Adwitiya boasts a rich professional tenure spanning over a decade, adorned with pivotal roles across distinguished organizations such as Star India, BeJobbed Incorporation, and I-PAC. His academic prowess shines through his BTech degree from Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, complemented by an MBA earned from the esteemed XLRI Jamshedpur.
In today’s episode, our conversation took an enlightening turn toward the importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace, with an emphasis on the critical commitment required by leadership. We tapped into the essential practice of onboarding new employees, revealing the importance of personal connections and the increasing role of technology in creating successful assimilation.
Episode Highlights
Follow Adwitiya on Linkedin
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Riddhi Agarwal
About Springworks:
Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes:
SpringVerify— B2B verification platform
EngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company culture
Trivia — a suite of real-time, fun, and interactive games platforms for remote/hybrid team-building
SpringRole — verified professional-profile platform backed by blockchain, and
SpringRecruit — a forever-free applicant tracking system.
Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.
Hello and welcome to the Shape of Work, a podcast series by Springworks. My name is Anoop and I am your host. Each week, we'll be talking to top people managers across the world on the future of work and how it's shaping our workplace. So sit back and get ready to find out more from these movers and shakers, as we have a no-holes bar. Anything goes. Conversation with them about their journey, their insights, their thoughts, most importantly, their ideas and vision for the workplace of the future. Join in on the conversation, leave a comment and don't forget to hit that subscribe button.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to another episode of the Shape of Work podcast. In this episode today, we have with us Adhavitya Tiwari, who is Human Resource Business Partner at Yesh Technologies. Hi Adhavitya, thank you for coming and joining us today. How are you?
Speaker 3:Thanks, Reddy. Thanks so much for the invite and great to be here on this platform with you for this podcast. How are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm great Adhavitya, and it's pleasure having you here. So just to set some context about you and what you do, can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and your career journey?
Speaker 3:Sure, I am an engineering graduate. I did my IT engineering in IT in 2012. I worked one year in the middle and in the meanwhile I made up my mind to do an MBA and I decided to do an MBA. I think it was a very clear choice. I wanted to get into in HR.
Speaker 3:The reason for that in my graduate days, I used to be a placement coordinator and you get to interact with several HR leaders and placement managers themselves in your role. When you meet them, you get to understand about the function and you used to understand the intricacies of HR and what you're called involved to be in a human resource role. So when I decided to do an MBA, HR was a very clear choice for me. So when you have the site for HR, Accelarai happens to be the right institute for yourself and I was very lucky I was able to back on Accelarai. I completed the two year course. My first offer was with the MEDA giant. I spent hours. This was Star TV and I joined a very interesting phase of growth of an organization where digital was just catching up in India.
Speaker 3:The company also started up on words broadcasting and other features. So very interesting time to be in. My next role was with HR startup, where I spent a year and a half learned a whole lot of things from recruitment, senior executive recruitment, team management and various other functions. After that I moved on and took a slight bit of a not a career switch, but I moved to a political consulting organization where I spent again about nine months. This was again purely in a talent acquisition role, but also helping out on HR projects, which leads to my current journey, my current organization. I'm currently with yes Technologies, based in Indore.
Speaker 1:I'm an HR business partner.
Speaker 3:I support a business group of about 1300 people.
Speaker 2:Wow that's amazing, I'm based in Indore.
Speaker 3:I have a young daughter of one and I spend my time reading a book, a bit of quizzing, a bit of sports whenever you get time, and I think so. So one of the things that I really appreciate about having, one of the things I really enjoy about being in HR, is you have that real flexibility to really divide your time between family and family and work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's one of the reasons that really decided me and me to take make that decision. But I have time to pursue my hobbies and also focus on work. So yes, that's about me.
Speaker 2:Definitely. I must say it's a great journey so far and, of course, you know, let her off experience in each and every domain of HR, so definitely we'll get a lot of insights for our listeners today. So so, as you mentioned, you are working as a human resource business partner and an expert in people and culture management. So I just want to ask you, like how has the role evolved over the years and what do you think of the future growth of this role as a profession? So what will, what is your insight on this?
Speaker 3:Right. So first of all, I would not consider myself to be a people expert on people and culture. There's a long way to go for that. But, yes, good amount of time in my current role and in HR profession. You get to meet, to get to be on this side where you get to decide on policies, you get to help making the culture, you get to interact with employees a lot more often, right, if you talk about how the role has evolved, right, I'll probably speak about how I see the role involved in my last eight years of my career and I think the HR function role of people partner role really depends on organization to organization and that also depends on how much of a say you have in HR.
Speaker 3:Partner with the leadership and that's say really comes in where you are able to bring in a lot of thought process, a lot of insights. You have an understanding of the business, you have an understanding of the stakeholders and you bring out insights about how do you improve the efficiency or how do you improve the business altogether. That's when you really get a seat on the deciding table.
Speaker 3:And there are organizations where you work in the old way, where you execute, whatever the management tells you, but there are organizations where you are working, step in with the leadership without management, with the CX source, where you haven't seen the table and the reason for that. Again, you have to bring in a lot of thought process, you have to be bringing your insights into this decisions and I can remember, I can highlight probably some cases where you have to once you develop that level of understanding with a particular leader they will look at you, sometimes as a second opinion, for a second opinion, whenever they are in the decisions.
Speaker 3:they'll want your opinion, they'll want your insight. They'll want to see, want to see what you think about how to execute a certain process, some. Similarly, when you have a smaller business units, then I expect the HR in front of the leadership and they usually assume that, since you are an HR partner, you will be helping them understand what has been made. They consider you the eyes and the ears of leadership. They consider you a part of the decision making process. You are the people, or an HR partner is the person who will be bringing latest policies into execution.
Speaker 2:You know you are the executor of change.
Speaker 3:And an executor of change. You have to have again the current environment is a very database environment which is coming in.
Speaker 3:So, whatever decisions are being made, you have to bring in those insights. You have to bring those data based suggestions. What are the cost impact? What is the ROI of a particular decision that we need to work with? That we benefit policies, whether it be return to work with a lot of power a lot of companies are planning these days. That's where you as an HR partner, you as an HR leader, have to sort of help the business in making that decision. Sometimes you have to take a leader.
Speaker 1:Sometimes you have to just suggest.
Speaker 3:this is the way you go and let the business follow or let the business come to an agreement into what you're suggesting. So, the way I've seen it, you HR functions really evolved as a function which used to sort of deal the management of the leadership to a function which is now in step with the leadership decision making, and sometimes you are helping out with leadership in a certain way. So that's how and, as I said, it really depends on people to people, organization to organization, how much of a buy-in you have in the distance. And by that buy-in, as I said, again comes in when you bring in a certain understanding of the business, you bring in certain understanding of the stakeholders, and that's how it's really important.
Speaker 2:Definitely. Of course, as you mentioned today, it's all about shaping workplace culture and driving employee engagements. So definitely very well said and, of course, exciting time ahead for people and culture management now. And, as you mentioned, about the future of HRBP, definitely I see it becoming even more integral as business focused on data-driven approach or said diversity and digital transformation, so everything is coming into play. So, as we have mentioned about the diversity and inclusion, so let's discuss about the workplace culture. What organization are nowadays looking for? So, in your experience, what do you think? What are the key factors that contribute to a positive workplace culture? What do you think?
Speaker 3:So the key factors that I could suggest that contribute to a good workplace or positive workplace. Point one practice what you preach Having open and transparent policies is something that's really really critical as a leader. If there are certain principles that you always say in your speech, those principles also have to guide your decisions. If you're saying you're an employee centric company, your policies have to be employee centric. They have to keep employee in focus. That is really really key. People lose the trust when the company's policies divert from what they were originally intended to. I think that's really important. Next, which is again an old principle which I always suggest to people recognize before a larger team, a larger audience, and criticize or give feedback in private. Nobody likes when they're scolded or nobody likes when their shortcomings are pointed out before a larger group. Always do that in private. But recognition whenever somebody has done something good, whenever somebody has been recognized, always has to be done in public. Whether we throw an email, whether we throw in person before team conversation, let's always recognize. People appreciate that.
Speaker 3:Third, I think again very important point, which is to make sure that everybody's efforts are recognized and the results are important. It's not always possible to reward efforts, but once the efforts have been recognized, people will make sure or people will try to go over and about their roles and responsibilities to achieve the right results, to achieve the team goals. It might mean sitting in the office for one hour more to make sure your project is completed on time, because that sort of creates again a very positive vibe around the amounts of team. Fourth point, which I think is more applicable to a more mid-to-senial leadership level, is your involvement in the decision-making process.
Speaker 3:Now, that could be decisions you're making for a team level or a functional level or for an organization level. Once you have more involvement in that process, you feel you're involved with the company, you feel there's a stake here. You feel whatever decisions are being made, you have a stake and you're more invested. And that really gives you an uplifting feeling that when an organization is making these kind of decisions it takes my thought process into consideration. That really builds up a strong workplace. I mean, if these three or four factors are being taken into consideration, a good culture really develops. That really percolates to people managers, that really percolates to large teams, small teams.
Speaker 3:Even one employee manager relationship really gets improved. Some of these principles are practiced and I think doing today's very diverse kind of an organization, very diverse work culture, people need to be recognized, people need to understand that they are being heard, people need to trust that whatever policies and policies are announced, they are being practiced. So I think that's really important.
Speaker 2:Definitely. I must say like you have bought some great points. So to summarize whatever you have said definitely a positive workplace culture hinges on trust, open communication and, of course, criticism in private, but of course the recognition in public, so that will be really appreciated. It's a very small thing, as you mentioned, but of course if we look into such minute and small things, then definitely we can create a positive workplace culture in any organization. So even employee feels heard and supported and when it happens, definitely it contributes to a thriving culture. So those factors are crucial for the healthy workplace culture. So yeah, we have talked about the workplace culture and how the role has evolved over the years. I just wanted to move into the next question, which is diversity, equity and inclusion, and wanted to ask about some of the insights, because it has becoming increasingly important in the workplace and we have discussed about the workplace culture. So what do you think Like? How do companies integrate these principles into their strategies for fostering a diverse and equitable workforce? What is your insight on this?
Speaker 3:Wonderful, riddhi. I think I really appreciate that question. This was actually one of the first projects I did back in 2014 as part of my internship, so I really enjoyed hearing use as this question See diversity and inclusion, dni as we used to call it. It's always about having the level of acceptance and commitment from the leadership. They should not think of DNI as just another tick box. They should agree to the principles of, or to prove, diversity in the organization, to making a more inclusive organization at a workforce level. That commitment if there's a genuine commitment the leadership level to get transferred to mid-level, to junior levels and managerial levels, that actually matters because that's what manages other ones who are managing the most diverse workforce. It also helps and if you ask about how do you convert a diversity principle, dni principle, into a strategy, it always helps if there's a sponsor at a senior level, if there's a champion who's championing the cause, who always agrees to this cause, who's personally involved in this cause, and that having such a leader at a senior level really helps because they will help the agenda keep pushing on and onwards.
Speaker 3:So if I talk about the India scenario, say, at an international level, you have multiple kinds of diversities that you practice. You look at multi-generational diversities, you look at LGBTQIA diversity, you have race-related diversity. In India, we predominantly focus on gender diversity and differently able community and that diversity into the organization. So there are obviously several steps, there are several methods or processes in there, but the key focus, the key focus area which really helps again these practices become a part of the organization strategy, is having the right attitude, having the right commitment. Whether you talk about the differently able community and their involvement or they're making the organization inclusive for them, whether it be through just the physical infrastructure, whether you talk about labs, whether you talk about audio or video facilities, or whether you talk about gender diversity right in terms of supporting women from an early career to mid career and senior leadership phase right. It's always is important that you have a team which is there to really guide people, managers. There has to be a sensitivity training. There has to be that right attitude sometime which has to be guided and developed right Because, as I said, most of diversity is being managed at a manager level and manager probably who has five members in the team, he has to know if I have a different cable person in my team, if I have a probably three-way employee in my team.
Speaker 3:How do I make sure that everybody is treated, everybody is given the right responsibilities in the team, and how do I sustain that team? I will focus, probably take a minute more and probably speak about gender diversity, because that's something I've done a lot of research on during my years as well. Right, so at most organizations, gender diversity is never a problem at hiring level. Most organizations have a 30 to 40% hiring where they hire a female candidate, especially at an entry level. It's actually sustaining this ratio at a senior, mid-term to senior level which becomes a challenge and that could contribute to multiple reasons.
Speaker 3:Right, but if you have a sustained focus, if you made that an agenda where you plan to support women leaders by giving them again mentors, by giving them a sponsor to this program or keeping a special focus on how we want to develop those women leaders, that is really, really critical. You hire, obviously you try and hire women at an entry level, but sustaining them, that really comes and I'll come back again to the point I made earlier right, has to be driven down by the leadership. It's all about leadership, commitment to the section of having the right sponsors and having the right sensitivity training and that really develops the entire strong attitude in the organizations. Then supports and includes agenda.
Speaker 2:Definitely. I must say like you have explained a tree very well and that was some great points brought up by you. So I think like creating a company culture where diversity, equity, inclusion and belongingness is infused throughout is no longer nice to have, but it's of course it's necessary for business success and employee affinity.
Speaker 3:Okay and, as I said, it has to really come from the heart, right, so you don't have to, or people don't want to, or should not think of it as a tick box.
Speaker 2:Exactly, so definitely. Now companies are even being more encouraged to think more holistically. Talking about DEI, so definitely it's increasingly important in the workplace, so like a journey worth taking, indeed, I must say, as we have talked about the various kind of things. So finally, let's talk about onboarding, a critical aspect of bringing a new talent in the organization. So what are some of the best practices for onboarding new employees and ensuring they quickly adapt to the company culture? Because, of course, technologies are coming into play and there are many AI advancements. So definitely there are many things which have been changing altogether. So what is your insight on this? If you could give some insights for our listeners, it would be very great.
Speaker 3:Definitely. Again, this happens to be one of the areas that I have worked on extensively in my career journey. I always believe onboarding starts right from the day you get the offer letter from the organization and it carries on probably three to six months post you join. It probably carries on till the time you actually get assimilated into the new organization. It's always about making sure your potential employee or your current employee is really comfortable with the company culture. He feels himself to be a part of the team and part of the larger organization.
Speaker 3:If you talk about technology, technology definitely helps, but it's all about human intervention, Always about human intervention, especially because onboarding, or making somebody as an assimilation process, has to be a human endeavor. I'll start by probably mentioning some of the practices that are being followed now for pre-onboarding. Pre-onboarding is when somebody has got their offer but they have still not joined the organization. A lot of the companies are now using technology tools like chat boxes Chat boxes to simply respond to people's queries Where's the office, for instance, or one of your office times. Maybe people want to know what will happen on the first day. What kind of documents do I want to carry?
Speaker 3:Those queries are more important for your junior to mid-level employees because they're the most curious. They want to know what will happen on the first day. Who's my manager? Who are the right kind of teams? Those are simple. This is where the online chatbot can really help. A lot of times, where you have to just feed in some basic information. It can help solve all the queries with a very minimal fast.
Speaker 3:Another good thing that a lot of companies are now doing is some companies are trying to send in updates, probably once a fortnight or probably once a month, to help the incoming employee know who we are and this is what we do.
Speaker 3:It could be just about, let's say, there's a leadership town on which is happening. It could be some about the latest technology update, that company has sent out, the latest product release, but then that builds up the anticipation of the incoming employee about the new organization. Pre-onboarding has many other steps, but I move on to what happens on your day one.
Speaker 3:Day one what really helps is if you meet the right senior leaders of the organization probably the management, probably the CEO if that's possible. And it's best if you meet them in person. So I've worked in multiple organizations and when you meet the leadership on the first day, that really creates a lasting impact. They talk about what has led them this far on the career journey. They talk about what this company means to them and that really helps set the agenda for you. You want to aspire to be there and that's what leaders do. Both leaders aspire people to be like them. You want to see a leader. You get an understanding of the company.
Speaker 3:Next, which is again really critical, is having a formal or informal connect with the team. It could be over lunch, it could be over coffee. First day, first week, you're settling in, you're getting your laptop, you're getting your formalities done, you're settling into the team, your team, probably some member of your team who introduces you to the office, who gives you a small tour of the office, who shows you where other breakout areas, where can get your coffee, where can you find the facilities, where's the lunch area? All of these small human endeavours. I said again, onboarding is the best important thing is the human endeavour that really helps. I mean helping people. First of all, you meet the leaders. On the first day, you understand what the company's principles are and these leaders, their actions and behaviour, speak louder than words. Next, you meet your team. Next, if you have a buddy assigned to you, probably somebody at your own age group, probably somebody couple of years, two, three years older to you but similar in age group, who has similar, who's going through a similar life state, right, so that they are able to best guide you about the organisation. Right, that's one important thing, I think, in terms of onboarding and, as I said, it's a long process right, it could be three months, it could be six months before you actually settle up into the company.
Speaker 3:What are the group you want to be действ engages, for that's really critical because the right manager will make sure they set up, they make the employee understand what is the right role and responsibility for them. The right manager will help put up some goals for the employee in readiness. They'll probably talk about a three month plan or a six month plan or a 12 month plan. They'll tell you these are the things you need to do. They'll probably have a few six months down the line. They'll probably have a discussion 10 months down the line. But when you're a new employee, you want to know what should I do?
Speaker 3:And having that first chat with your boss, probably early in your career, really helps set up the expectations. It could be a simple release, expectation setting chat. It could be as simple as what time does the boss get in and what time does you know what time or how do you really communicate with your boss? Is text the best channel? Is WhatsApp the best channel to communicate? Or is email the best channel? Right, it could be as simple as that. But having those expectations set is really important because that's how you you know, that's how you get into your new team and your organization. I feel that those are the three steps. Right, you have a strong, you have a good human endeavor. You have to have that human connect to make sure you meet the leaders, you meet your team, you meet the right people manager. Also, meet the right manager for yourself who helps you settle out into the company.
Speaker 2:Definitely, I must say you have explained it really very well and to summarize what you have said, I can just say that for employees to have a good onboarding process, when you make them feel more connected with the organization in a short period of time, is, I think, the great way to have the good onboarding process, whether it's meeting with the top leaders in the first year, having formal connect with the team or having the right manager, as you mentioned. So yeah, that are some of the great or successful onboarding experience, if we can, those practices really help.
Speaker 3:I mean, as I said, it's all about having the right people connect in your first days, because people are the ones who will help bring up that experience, that organization, for you. Technology helps people help even better.
Speaker 2:Exactly, so that makes a lot of sense. Very well said, adwitte, and I'm sure there's a lot of take away from the content you have shared today. So this brings us almost end of our conversation. Before we leave, can you tell our listeners where they can reach out to?
Speaker 3:you Definitely so. I'm active on my LinkedIn. I connect with people on LinkedIn and discuss formally and formally about people, about work and non-work related things on LinkedIn very often. So that's very valid way to reach out to me. A second way to reach out to me would be through my email, which I can share with the host of the first cast. I respond best on those two avenues. So any questions, any suggestions, happy to be there, happy to discuss and connecting for me.
Speaker 2:That's great, and thank you, adwitte. It was really lovely hosting you today.
Speaker 3:Same here, Adwitte. Thank you so much and I really enjoyed having the conversation with you. All the best and I think Springworks is doing an amazing job with this podcast. So a great, great platform, great for a free.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for being here.