Amir Bharwani is the Head of Human Resources at eClerx Services Ltd. With over 20 years of global HR leadership experience at companies like WNS, Bank of America, and SITEL, he brings a deep understanding of diverse industries including BFSI, healthcare, technology, consulting, travel, shipping, and logistics. His expertise spans business HR, talent acquisition, M&A transitions, compensation, process optimisation, and metrics.
Amir has a proven track record of building world-class HR functions. At eClerx, he has rapidly established a robust HR ecosystem, fostering significant growth, increased learning investments, and enhanced employee experience since joining in 2017. Additionally, he oversees the company’s quality function, driving business impact and process improvement through a data-driven approach. In conversation with People Matters, he shares his expert insights on how new-age technologies will impact HR, how organisations can strategically build a robust talent pipeline and so much more.
Here are some excerpts.
How do you envision the role of AI, technology, and automation evolving in HR over the next five to ten years?
As technology intersects people practices, we will see innovation and changes, which not many can predict. While technologies such as cloud, automation, and metaverse continue to make an impact, it is AI which has opened a world of possibilities. At eClerx, we have successfully used AI in HR in areas of candidate screening, learning, retention insights and employee support. Chatbots are now integral in making HR services more accessible and creating simpler ways to get things done. Similarly, AI training simulators are becoming extremely helpful to new hires. As HR professionals, it is essential to understand this space and pivot to scalable platforms, as these technologies mature.
Upskilling and reskilling have become crucial in the modern workplace. How is eClerx addressing the need for continuous learning and development among its employees?
We drive transformation in our client’s organisation as part of our services, therefore it becomes imperative for us to invest in talent ahead of the curve. We build scale, by hiring talented candidates with strong fundamentals and investing in their learning to plug any last-mile skill gap.
Secondly, with emerging technologies, we undertake large organisation-wide programmes via our ‘skill of the year’ initiative. We have prioritised skills such as data visualisation, RPA, and LCNC in the recent past, and are currently channelling our efforts on Gen AI. Leadership development is another exciting area – it’s more global than ever, with a focus on a growth mindset, understanding the implications of emerging technologies and executive coaching.
How has your experience in leading talent acquisition and development at global companies influenced your approach at eClerx?
Talent acquisition is about your ability to adapt to evolving business needs and expand the talent pool with a focus on quality. At eClerx, we hire for varied businesses in the areas of digital, technology, financial markets, customer operations and analytics. So, for example, for financial markets, we have partnered with graduate and MBA colleges to infuse our capital markets curriculum, ensuring the availability of a large ready talent pool. For digital and technology businesses – it’s more about our ability to brand and onboard experienced specialists.
The talent acquisition space has seen a change with the emergence of social media as the fastest-growing channel to hire specialists, and each recruiter now being an active brand advocate. The adoption of AI in screening, using metaverse technologies to improve the onboarding experience is allowing recruiters to spend their core time on the quality of hires.
How can data and analytics be utilised in HR strategies to drive business impact and process transformation?
HR owns a wealth of data about employee performance, lifecycle and wage costs. HR analytics plays a significant role in driving the cost strategy and identifying areas of investment and optimisation. HR owns end-to-end employee insights, which can be used to improve the effectiveness of various people initiatives, for example, timeliness of career conversations, retention programmes or understanding drivers of performance.
Since joining eClerx in 2017, you have focused on improving the employee experience and fostering growth. What initiatives or programmes have been most impactful in achieving these goals?
Our people strategy is aligned to the businesses we support. By deploying innovative employment models, and hybrid working where it’s effective, we provide employees the flexibility and enable the business to scale. Secondly, we increasingly look at talent through the lens of skills, using a skills taxonomy, curated learning paths linked to career mobility and transparency in rewards.
As we grow more global and diverse, employee communication is becoming more strategic to drive inclusion and one-company themes. Investing in the leadership pipeline will also be a key growth enabler.
Drawing from your experience, what advice would you give to HR professionals looking to navigate the evolving landscape of HR?
As HR, we are pivotal in shaping and executing business goals. Therefore understanding the business, our customers and the industry environment becomes important. Together with this, appreciating employee perspectives will help in aligning your people practices.
Further, I believe organisations thrive on a culture that values diverse thinking and the inclusion of under-represented voices. There is an opportunity for HR to be the steward of such a culture. Lastly, with tech transformation all around us, it is imperative to understand the changes and build scalable systems.