The Shape of Work

#57: Gagan Arora on employee engagement and, the future of hiring in the BPO industry

August 07, 2021 Springworks Season 1 Episode 57
The Shape of Work
#57: Gagan Arora on employee engagement and, the future of hiring in the BPO industry
Show Notes

On this episode of The Shape of Work podcast, our guest is Gagan Arora, the CEO & Strategic Growth Leader at Vertex Global Services. He is the Chairman of Foreign Investors Council, India and the recipient of Forbes India List of Top 100 Great People Managers and Leaders 2020.

Having more than 18 years of experience in enhancing organizational productivity, Gagan started Vertex Global Services, a growing business optimization solutions Provider in 2016. It has today expanded to three different continents and ranked 19th out of 50 most innovative companies all over the world.

In this episode, Gagan talks about the significance of employee feedback in business growth, employee engagement strategies for remote teams, and ways to overcome information overload in the workplace. He also shares his insight into the future of hiring in the BPO industry and the core skills of remote leaders.

Significance of employee feedback in an organization:

Happy employees turn into happy customers. In Gagan’s organization, all employees are treated as brand ambassadors. In this scenario, they have 700 brand ambassadors globally, and thus the impact has become huge. The organization has been certified as the best place to work in India in 2020, and they received an employee satisfaction survey score of 94%. It showcases the care and importance given to the employees. Gagan feels that feedback is one of the best ways to know if they are doing something right or not.
They have rewired the HR function into an Employee Care department. This department specifically caters to the requirements of the employees.

Effective employee engagement strategies:

Communication is the basis of any healthy relationship, personally and professionally. There are few strategies that Gagan’s organization follows:

The more the team asks questions and gives their opinions, the more they feel empowered and trusted.
The organization should show that they are listening. There is nothing better than seeing ideas and work practices being praised and followed. 
Hearing the employee voice through an employee satisfaction survey. Having this survey monthly is a much better option than on an annual basis.

How do people manage to ensure that there is no information overload?

Gagan talks about improving just 1% every day. It leads to being 365 times better in a year. He talks about improvement by subtraction by doing less of what does not work, eliminating mistakes, reducing complexity, and completing the essential. The first rule to be followed is the two-minute rule. Tasks that can be completed in less than two minutes should be gathered and completed at once. It will eliminate distractions and improve efficiency. The second rule is named “eat the frog”. It is a productivity hack where tackling the most dreaded task is a priority.

Changes in the BPO industry:

Work from home was not considered an effective way of work before the pandemic. Now, the viewpoints have changed. It has helped a lot of clients to reduce their costs. There will be more employment in India. Many people are physically challenged and cannot travel to the office even though they are wonderfully talented. Similarly, remote work has opened up opportunities for housewives and women in their maternity phase. Hence they are coming up with a model where everyone, having a decent internet connection and technology, can join their gig model. So this will help a lot of people who are currently not working or trying to resume office.

Follow Gagan on LinkedIn

Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast host: Yashwanth Jembige