When it comes to job applications, the top half of the first page of your resume is where the battle is won or lost. If you have 5+ years of experience or a salary package above 25 LPA, this article is for you.

A recruiter typically reviews 50 to 100 resumes a day and spends no more than 20 seconds on each, unless something grabs their attention immediately. To make sure you’re in that shortlist pile, your pitch needs to be upfront and impactful.

Yet, many candidates miss this golden opportunity simply because the top half of the CV is filled with irrelevant details, and critical information only shows up on the second page. This is a big mistake. Recruiters may not get there. If at all, they would have already lost interest by then.

Here are some key tips to make sure your resume pitches you effectively from the get-go:

1. Avoid Irrelevant Information at the Top

Many resumes waste valuable space with oversized names, contact information, and generic objectives. While these details are necessary, they shouldn’t dominate the prime real estate on your resume. Keep your contact info concise, ideally in the footer with only your location visible in the header for quick shortlisting.

Ditch the lengthy objective statement; recruiters already know why you’re applying. Instead, use that space to make a direct, role-specific pitch that highlights your strengths.

2. Skip the Unprofessional Profile Pictures

If you choose to include a profile picture, make sure it’s professional. Ideally, wear business attire, use a neutral background, and keep the image small. Avoid casual, glamorous, or overly expressive photos unless you’re applying for a role where appearance is directly relevant. Remember, your resume is about showcasing your skills and experience, not your looks.

3. Be Specific in Your Executive Summary

Fluff words like “experienced,” “dedicated,” or “hardworking” add little value. Instead, use this section to share tangible metrics and achievements. Highlight your actual impact on projects, such as:

• Revenue generated or growth achieved
• The scope of projects handled (e.g., number of downloads, user engagement metrics, NPS scores)
• Key clients or industries you’ve worked with

For example, rather than saying, “I’m highly experienced in business development,” say something like, “Generated a 25% increase in revenue through strategic partnerships with clients in tech and finance sectors.” This not only demonstrates your experience but also showcases your contribution in a quantifiable way.

4. Avoid Canva Resume Formats for Mid-Senior Roles

While Canva and other design templates might look visually appealing, they are often better suited to junior roles. For mid-senior positions, a clear, professional layout is more appropriate and ATS-friendly.

Many Canva templates also have generic names like “blue wellness counsellor resume,” which can be distracting or irrelevant to recruiters. Stick to straightforward formats that highlight your accomplishments without overwhelming graphics.

5. Highlight Core Educational Qualifications

In India, full-time degrees from recognised institutions carry weight. While additional certifications, online courses, and part-time programs can add value, they don’t usually replace core qualifications in the eyes of recruiters.

Make sure your primary educational qualifications are clearly visible at the top. Additional courses that are relevant to the role can be highlighted, but less relevant credentials can be placed towards the end.

Think of Your Resume as a Marketing Tool

When writing your resume, imagine you’re creating an ad for a consumer. The resume is your advertisement, and the interview process is the trial. The goal is to communicate your value effectively and make a compelling first impression immediately.

Here’s a sample resume top section that has proven successful for many candidates we’ve guided. We hope it serves as inspiration for crafting your own.

Best of luck with the job hunt, and remember: capturing attention in those first few seconds can make all the difference. Make every word count!

Zomato-owned Blinkit, which is currently leading the quick commerce race with a 45% market share, has scrapped its Zero Notice Period Policy amid an intensifying battle of talent in the industry.
Now, the employees, particularly the senior executives, will be subject to a 2-month notice period. 💼

The report cites a source stating that “Blinkit’s actions are both pre-emptive and a response to current market conditions. With well-funded competitors like Zepto and InstaMart or larger players like Flipkart capable of offering attractive packages to lure talent away from Blinkit, the company is taking steps to prevent this.” Another source mentioned in the report adds, “In some instances, when Blinkit is certain an employee is leaving for a direct competitor, the employee is either placed on a two-month garden leave or relieved immediately to prevent sensitive information from being shared.”

Having a Zero Notice Period is not a usual practice. Zomato’s philosophy was, “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘰𝘯 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘯𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘴𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘳, 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘺 𝘴𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘧𝘧 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘥. 𝘉𝘺 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘩 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘥, 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘶𝘱𝘴𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘰𝘺𝘦𝘦𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘢𝘨𝘦𝘥.” 💻

However, by acknowledging that it might be a disadvantage to the company in the current competitive landscape and retracting a publicly lauded practice, Zomato has again made headlines for being an HR pioneer.

Zero Notice Period Is Only One Of The Many Visionary Practices

1. No Probationary Period

Zomato does not have a probation period because it believes that new hires should not be treated differently during their first six months, nor should any employee, regardless of position or seniority, receive special privileges after six months. From the first day, new employees are fully integrated as part of Zomato.

2. Six-month Parental Leave For Both Parents

The company offers a 6-month paid parental leave policy, available equally to both primary and secondary caregivers. There is no pressure on employees to return early from parental leave.

The policy is flexible, allowing secondary caregivers to choose when to take the leave, either during the child’s birth or later. Many fathers prefer to take the leave when their partner returns to work, making the policy more practical.

Since the policy’s launch in June 2019, 917 male employees have taken advantage of paid parental leave.

3. Period Leave

In August 2020, Zomato introduced a period leave policy, offering female employees 10 days of paid leave per year for menstruation. Since 2021, around 64% of female employees have used these period leaves.

4. DEI Enabled Workspace

Zomato’s office premises are designed to be inclusive, with ample ramps and wide aisles between desks to accommodate wheelchair accessibility. In some of its dark stores in Delhi-NCR, Zomato employs hearing and speech-impaired staff. These “Silent Stores” are fully digitized, with labeled infrastructure for smooth communication between employees and delivery executives.

To accommodate LGBTQIA+ employees, there are gender-neutral washrooms and gender change surgery covered in the medical insurance.

5. All growth lies in discomfort

Zomato takes a unique approach to employee growth.

Employees who remain with the company for 3+ years gain experience in at least 3 different roles. The company promotes horizontal growth, encouraging employees to develop skills across various functions. The focus is not on KPIs, KRAs, or on resumes, as it believes these measures limit growth to vertical progression — restricted to job titles or salary increases.

For example, someone in sales might be encouraged to try customer service for six months.

Hiring Philosophy — You Don’t Come and Apply; if you’re good, Zomato will find you

1. Hiring at Zomato is done exclusively through referrals — No traditional campus recruitment system. It also doesn’t have a formal application process for external candidates seeking lateral entry into the organization.
2. Reading the CV from bottom to top to focus on a candidate’s behavioral traits rather than qualifications, academic performance, or previous experience. They assess a candidate’s learning temperament and aptitude to determine if they’re a good fit for the company.
3. Zomato hosts festivals called ‘Zomaland’ in various cities, where they recruit young talent. Last year, Zomaland was held in eight cities. During the event, recruiters engage in casual, unscripted conversations with attendees, without reviewing their CVs or backgrounds. Based on these 5–10 minute interactions, they assess whether the person is a good cultural fit and make offers on the spot.
4. The company does not have a dedicated recruiting team — any employee can participate in hiring.
5. Each candidate is interviewed by two people simultaneously to minimize bias.
6. Candidates are also given the opportunity to request a second interview if they feel they didn’t perform their best on the initial interview date. As interviewers have the flexibility to cancel or reschedule if they’re not at their best, so offering candidates the same chance ensures fairness.
7. Zomato employees often recruit candidates at events and in random locations if they feel someone is a good cultural fit. For example, instead of attending fancy networking events to find warehouse staff, they visit ‘mandis’ (wholesale markets), where they are more likely to find suitable candidates for such roles.

In a troubling incident yesterday, a Bengaluru-based man was fired after his message threatening to throw acid on a woman over her ‘choice of clothes’ went viral.

Nikith Shetty, a former employee of Etios Services, a digital media company, allegedly made the threat in response to a woman’s attire. The tweet, shared by the woman’s husband, Indian Express journalist Shahbaz Ansar, quickly caused public outrage, leading to swift action by Shetty’s employer.

The message, sent by Nikith, urged Shahbaz to ask his wife to dress “appropriately” in Karnataka, or face the threat of an acid attack. Alarmed by the violent nature of the threat, Shahbaz reported the incident to the authorities and put it on X, tagging Etios Services official handle. Just hours later, the company fired him to uphold its values.

People and their social media cannot be viewed separately in this digital era

This is the age of social media, where platforms like Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook have become extensions of our daily lives. According to a report by Delhi-based NGO The Esya Centre and IIM Ahmedabad in 2023, Indians spend an average of 194 minutes daily on social media. This means nearly a fifth of their waking time is dedicated to these platforms, where they engage with content, share their opinions, and build their digital personas.

Social media is no longer just a tool for entertainment or communication — it has evolved into a reflection of one’s identity.

For businesses, the social media presence of their employees has become just as crucial as the company’s own online reputation. With the growing prominence of personal branding, an employee’s online actions can directly impact the image of their employer.

If an employee shares views or engages in activities on social media that are not aligned with the company’s values or mission, it can create serious complications. In extreme cases, it can tarnish the company’s brand and lead to financial or reputational damage, as happened in the case of Etios Digital Solutions.

It is not just employees but all associations — brand ambassadors, vendors, and business partners.

A prime example of this occurred in 2021 with the Indian ed-tech giant Byju’s and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan (SRK), the brand ambassador. When SRK’s son became embroiled in a highly publicised drug scandal, Byju’s faced immense backlash. Social media erupted with criticism, and the company’s association with SRK suddenly became a liability. Byju’s was forced to halt its deal with SRK temporarily to mitigate the damage caused by the scandal.

The lesson here is clear: companies must be cautious about the associations they make, not just with high-profile figures like celebrities, but with their own employees.

The online behaviour of all such associations reflects back on the company. This makes vetting an individual’s social media presence just as important as more traditional background checks, such as criminal record screening or reference verification.

What may constitute as unacceptable social media behaviour?

1. Hate speech against any demographic(s): Racial, gender, caste, regional, or age slurs are distasteful and almost always invite backlash. Last year in August, a PhysicsWallah (PW) teacher came under fire for using casteist slur in his online class. The video was circulated on social media platforms and the users directly pointed fingers at PW.
2. Explicit sexual content: Engaging with content remotely related to sexual offences or activities is inappropriate.
3. Allegiance or support to extreme political ideas: In 2023 October, Citigroup fired an employee for posting antisemitic content displaying support to the Holocaust.
4. Damage to company property or brand: In 2015, a US-based Taco Bell worker posted a picture of himself urinating on an order of nachos, asking his followers to guess where he worked. Needless to say, he was fired. While this was an extreme case, employees have been fired for seemingly less. A mental health startup in India fired a woman for liking a LinkedIn post about toxic workplaces.
   A good example is a PETA employee engaging with content around animal cruelty, which is against the core values of the company.
5. Showing support to competitor brand at the stake of company: Engaging with the competitors’ content is not wrong in its own, but in some cases, it might be. For example, an Amazon leader reposting Flipkart’s Big Billion Day Sale post during Amazon’s own Great Indian Festival is not the most welcome move.
6. Revealing confidential company information: In the popular American sitcom Brooklyn 99, there is an episode on workplace chaos resulting from an employee posting his selfie with the branch’s (in this case, precinct’s) quarterly stats in the background.
   With regard to confidential info, use of Open AI platforms like ChatGPT needs to be regulated as well. Samsung employees put confidential company code on ChatGPT in three different incidents last year. It means the data, which Samsung would have spent thousands of dollars on, is now ChatGPT’s to feed on. Post this incident, Samsung decided to develop its own AI application.

What to do?

• Check digital footprint while hiring — the ghost of a person’s social media past follows them: It is not just what they do while on the company’s roll. What they did before also matters. For instance, a person found to be engaging with discriminatory posts in the recent past may not fit well in the company’s culture.
  And no, it is not a violation of the candidate’s privacy. Background checks are a standard practice in the hiring process already. In the digital age, background check cannot be complete without the digital footprint check.
• Establish clear social media policies that outline acceptable online conduct: These guidelines should specify how employees can talk about the company, interact with sensitive topics, and represent themselves on public forums. A well-defined social media policy can serve as a preventive tool, protecting both the employee and the company from unintended consequences.
• Social media training program: However, policy creation alone isn’t enough. Companies also need to foster a culture where employees understand the importance of aligning their personal and professional identities online. Deloitte provides social media guidelines and training to its employees to ensure they are aware of how to represent the company positively while building their own personal brands.

Social Listening

Companies actively monitor social media channels for mentions of their brand or employees. This practice, known as social media listening, helps organisations track public perception and identify potential issues before they escalate.

Tools like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Sprout Social are popular for monitoring brand sentiment in real-time. While there is an ongoing debate about employee privacy versus company reputation, many organizations argue that monitoring public posts can safeguard the brand from reputational harm, especially in the era of cancel culture.

The speed with which online communities rally against perceived misconduct can have a devastating impact. Whether it’s an offensive post, a discriminatory comment, or even a misunderstanding, businesses are often left scrambling to contain the damage.

Conclusion

To conclude, in today’s hyper-connected digital world, companies and employees are closely intertwined through social media. Employees are not just representatives of the company in the workplace, but also in the virtual world.

Their online actions, whether intentional or not, can influence public perception of the company they work for. For businesses, this means that social media risk management must be taken seriously. From setting clear guidelines to actively monitoring brand reputation, companies must adopt a comprehensive strategy to navigate the complexities of the social media era.

As the line between personal and professional life continues to blur, companies that prioritise alignment between their employees’ online presence and the organisation’s values will emerge stronger, with fewer PR nightmares.

We knew it was serious when even Zoom Video Communications Inc., a one-time darling of the WFH era, the one that made it all happen, mandated in-office work twice a week in 2023.

All major companies — Amazon (5 days a week in-office from 2025), JPMC (full in-office), Goldman Sachs (full in-office), Citi (full in-office), Apple (3 days a week in-office), BlackRock (4 days a week in-office), Google (4 days a week in-office), etc. put out memos mandating workers to come to the office. They made WFO a part of employee evaluation criteria to enforce it further.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to return to being in the office the way we were before the onset of COVID. When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being together in the office are significant,” said the Amazon CEO.

The employees were quick to note that this is not “going back”, this is “going backwards”.

Study after study shows that WFH leads to more efficient workers, less staff turnover, higher quality work, and it’s cheaper for businesses and their workers. So, why do so many companies want people back in the office?

Before COVID-19, high-tech companies were already experimenting with the advantages of remote work. A peer-reviewed report from an unidentified NASDAQ-listed company ran a trial where half of their call center workforce was randomly selected to WFH, while the other half remained in the office. The WFH group had higher customer satisfaction, took 13% more calls, and suffered 50% less staff attrition, which is a big issue for call centers, as they typically struggle with high staff turnover.

A follow-up study, done on workers in a wider selection of roles including finance, marketing, and software development, had similar results. They compared staff working full-time from the office with staff working hybrid schedules from home and the office. That study found that hybrid workers were 8% more efficient at their jobs and had turnover rates 35% lower than those working in the office full-time. If businesses want to get the most out of their workers, the results are clear: more work from home is better.

Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan Chase said in a 2023 interview, “It (remote work) doesn’t work for young kids, doesn’t work for spontaneity, doesn’t work for management.”

Working from home is also cheaper for businesses. Companies that require all their workers in the office will pay more for utilities like electricity, maintenance, security, and internet — costs that workers would happily cover themselves if allowed to work from home. It’s rare that companies turn down better results for less money, but in this case, there are 6 reasons more businesses are demanding their staff return to the office.

1. Give a reason to workers to resign so they do not have to layoff

Companies are struggling. Interest rates are high and investors are not throwing money around like they were in 2021. Companies need to make cuts.

The largest ongoing expense for most service companies is human resources. If a business is receiving less work than usual, laying off staff is a seemingly obvious business decision. If a company can cut expenses at the same rate as lost revenue, it may be able to maintain profits and keep shareholders happy. Less revenue means less work, so fewer staff are needed.

However, laying off staff signals to the market that the company is struggling, which can affect the share price, make it harder to generate new business, and complicate future hiring efforts. No one wants to work for a company known for frequent layoffs, and customers may avoid businesses that appear on the brink of collapse.

What companies really need is a way to get rid of staff without formally laying them off. Business leaders are aware that forcing people back into the office increases staff turnover, which is exactly what they want in some cases. As one business leader put it, at some point, you have to decide to enforce your policy and accept that some employees may quit as a result.

Investment banks like JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, which have seen declining revenue due to less corporate deal activity, are now requiring all staff to return to the office full-time. Their official communications emphasize the importance of face-to-face interactions with clients and colleagues. Senior bankers from both firms, who often reflect on how much harder they worked as young analysts, accidentally revealed the real motive in media interviews: Goldman doesn’t want to hire people who prioritise how many days they can work from home.

However, this strategy could backfire. Even in a competitive job market, high-performing employees can easily find new jobs. Relying on this tactic means risking the loss of the best workers and being left with only the average and the worst.

2. Access to Large Talent Pool is no longer needed

Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a May 2020 interview that remote work allows the companies to tap into a wider talent pool from small cities, that would not have been available otherwise.

That was the reality of 2020–2022. All major service companies were on a hiring spree, one consequence of which is the mass layoffs happening now.

Now that the companies aren’t hiring as much, they just do not require to tap into a wider candidate pipeline.

3. Exposure to underused real estate

The value of office buildings has plummeted as remote work became the norm, posing a problem for companies with large real estate assets on their balance sheets. Around 30% of major public companies in America own the office buildings they use as headquarters, and these properties represent significant assets.

For instance, Apple Park in Cupertino cost $5 billion to build — a huge investment, even for Apple. Investors closely monitor how efficiently companies use their assets, and an empty building does not generate returns for shareholders. As a result, there’s pressure on company leadership to sell or better utilize these buildings. However, selling these assets in today’s market would likely mean taking a major loss. Instead, CEOs find it more beneficial to bring employees back, justifying the investment in office space and offsetting potential rental costs.

Even leasing poses problems. Office space leases tend to last much longer than residential leases, and fitting out office spaces can be expensive. As a result, companies are often locked into long-term rental contracts that are hard to break, and they may be paying for offices they’re not using. A 2022 report found that only 11% of companies fully utilized their office space, and 46% were using less than half of it. Many companies are now planning to reduce their office space, but this is difficult with long-term leases. Some firms are even defaulting on their leases to renegotiate with landlords.

4. Lack of Trust

~40% of the 215 supervisors and managers across 24 countries in an HBR 2020 study expressed low self-confidence in their ability to manage workers remotely. A similar proportion of managers had negative views about remote workers’ performance. 38% of managers agreed that remote workers usually perform worse than those who work in an office.

5. Non-cash incentives, like corner offices or reserved parking spots

Non-cash incentives can have a greater impact on long-term work motivation than cash bonuses, according to studies by McKinsey, Princeton, and the Incentive Research Foundation. Even though employees may say they prefer higher pay, visible perks are more motivating because they are easy to see and talk about.

Many of these non-cash rewards, which require a physical presence, are driving senior managers to favour in-person work.

6. It was, after all, just a temporary measure for most companies in the wake of the pandemic

Before the pandemic, only 6% of the US workers had primarily WFH. ~75% of the workforce had never worked from home. The norm was to go to a physical workspace away from home, work during the office hours, show face, small talk, and come back.

When the pandemic struck, remote work was a no-other-alternative measure that companies took.

Now, that all signs indicate that the worst is over, employers feel it only natural to go back to the OG normal. WFH, after all, couldn’t become the “new normal”.

41% managers, even in 2020, were dubious about whether remote workers can remain motivated over time. (HBR survey)

Senior professionals, who are more comfortable with in-person work, often value traditional business practices like handshakes and casual office interactions, which are completely absent in remote work settings.

In conclusion, these are the major reasons why companies are calling people back to office despite employees’ resistance.

Employee disengagement is at an all time high. Nearly 30% of the workforce is not engaged, with Gen Z being the most disengaged followed by Gen Y, millennials and Baby Boomers. 35% people experience daily anger, 42% experience sadness, and 52% people agreed to actively looking for other opportunities. (Gallup State of the Global Workforce Report 2024)

62% of Indian employees face burnout due to work-related stress and poor work-life balance, which is three times higher than the global average of 20% (2024 report by digital healthcare platform MediBuddy and CII).

The statistics are concerning. These and more such reports released month-after-month. The figures are worsening YoY.

This year was especially crucial in stirring conversations about toxic workplace culture.

The workforce will not sit and watch anymore

In march, the suicide of a McKinsey employee shook the nation. Just by the virtue of being a McKinsey employee, we know for sure that the person was not lazy, unqualified, or incapable in any regard. This is crucial to clarify as the cause for such statistics is pinned to the employees themselves, saying that they are not motivated.

Hence, the employee must be in utter distress, a state of helpness beyond comprehension that he had to take such an extreme step.

Two months ago, a 27-year-old woman died by suicide hours after receiving a termination email. She accused her 6 colleagues, including 2 managers, for harassment and abuse. She had sought psychiatric help for her distress.

A few weeks earlier, the unfortunate suicide of a 26-year-old CA at EY India started the conversation again. It was immediately followed by the demise of an overworked HDFC Bank worker in Lucknow and a Bajaj Finance employee in Jhansi.

It debunks the popular belief —big cities have it worse. The truth is it is bad where you make it. For instance, government institutions are believed to have a more relaxed working culture. However, in early September, SEBI employees held a silent protest due to a ‘toxic work culture.’ A major point of discontent was unrealistic targets set by the regulatory body, resulting extreme work stress.

• 1200+ Samsung employees in Chennai are protesting to increase the minimum wage and demand better working conditions,
• Cognizant offering entry-level jobs at just INR 2.27 lacs, and
• Startups like Ola and Byju’s coming into limelight for their toxic work culture.

These incidents, one after the other, proves that employers can no longer ignore their employees’ needs. Creating a culture that mints money at the stake of employees’ health and life will not sustain a company for long. You may soar, but you will not survive — case in point Byju’s.

Weaponise recruitment to build your company culture

Before this, the first two steps are:

1. Recognition that the culture needs to change to accommodate your employees’ personal and professional needs — Use The LHR EVP matrix
2. Accepting the reality and communicating it to the top leadership to get them on board.

A classic HR chapter taught in all b-schools is that people resist change — it is hard to get people to let go of the old ways and adopt to the new. Here’s a personal anecdote to put it into perspective.

The LHR Group is recently rebranded from LakshHR, the founding name of the business that was in use for 19+ years. It was not just the name. We crafted an entire set of branding guidelines, to be used henceforth by all. However, despite the email reminders and Gmeets, we couldn’t bring everyone on board immediately. It has now been a month since we officially rebranded, and the people are still getting used to it. We give it another 3 months.

But the one technique that has worked for us superbly is to embed it into our recruitment process.

LakshHR has been replaced by The LHR Group in all onboarding steps. The presentation has our new colours. The joining letters are sent on the new company letterhead.

Our new recruits have never once been confused by it, except the occasional occurrences where their incumbent teammates used LakshHR. They know their company as The LHR Group, and quickly replace any mention of LakshHR with The LHR Group mentally.

In fact, one of them corrected their teammate on a presentation style because it felt unnatural to them to not see the company’s colours. The teammate gently abided.

But, isn’t culture more intimate than this? It cannot be done as easily!

Well yeah. But, we didn’t say it was easy. Out of all the tough ways, this is the easiest way — embedding it into your recruitment process.

Say in your organisation, competition is more prevalent than collaboration, which needs to be reversed —

1. Communicate this in bold letters and in every conversation with the candidate until and during onboarding.
2. Honestly mention that it is a recent practice, so their teammates may struggle with it.
3. Empower them to enforce the practice of collaboration, correcting their seniors too if required.
4. Allow them to report the instances where they are refused support of any kind.

It will not be a month long process. If getting people to use the new name and branding elements is taking us a minimum of four months, then changing the culture will take longer, much longer.

Culture is woven into the fabric of your company. Hence, do not bring all the changes at once. It will only overwhelm and confuse everyone with a very possible risk of backfiring. Go slow. One step at a time.

Additional Tip: There will always be a few people who will appreciate the importance of this initiative. Identify them early on and publicly recognise their efforts in accepting the change. It will encourage others to follow suit.

Final words: Change is hard and painful, but these are not good enough reasons to not do it. Reiterating the why — it needs to be done to accommodate the needs of a changing workforce, which is critical for growth and survival of your organisation.

26/11/2006 9.30 PM: Everything’s business as usual at Taj Mumbai. Then, comes a warning call, alerting the staff that terrorists were approaching. Thomas Varghese, a senior waiter, instructed his 50 guests to hide under tables while employees formed a protective barrier around them. Varghese evacuated the guests through a spiral staircase, ensuring guests left first, followed by the staff. Sadly, as the 30-year Taj veteran reached the bottom of the staircase, he was shot by the terrorists. He gave his life, along with 10 other Taj employees, who helped evacuate over 1,200 guests.

Varghese’s story, to our pleasant surprise, wasn’t the only heroic tale that night. Every staff employee kept calm, catered to the panic-stricken guests, and used their wits to evacuate people safely, as many as they could.

While always being applauded for its exceptional customer service, Taj Mumbai’s employees redefined its meaning during this horrific attack, prioritizing the safety of their guests over their own lives — a rare instinct.

Want to know something even more interesting? No manual or official policy guided their actions in such a crisis. Whatever they did, it came from a deep-rooted customer-centric culture.

A young manager ordered for the wives and husbands to separate and form two groups to minimise the risk to families in case of a tragedy. In a situation where guns are blazing around oneself, such ideas only come to the creme de la creme, not by pedigree or rank, but by character, mindset, and identity.

So, how could Taj find such extraordinary staff — exhibiting top dedication and intense focus on customer service, in both crises and everyday operations.

We delve into the how of it. It is more crucial now than ever as everyday an unfortunate news concerning India Inc. work culture and its negative impact on employees makes headlines.

Moreover, the industry fabric has never been as dynamic as today. The companies are under threat from forces of war, legal, inflation, changing demographics, and evolving technology, to name a few. In such uncertainty, we break down how you can hire people who will take charge and steer the ship in the right direction.

There will be no better way to honour the legacy of the Late Hon’ble Ratan Tata than to learn and imbibe his employee policies.

First let’s understand what Taj does differently strictly in the context of the hospitality sector. While reading these, you may think that this model is inimitable; it works for only the hospitality sector. It’s true. It cannot be imitated as it is. But, it teaches invaluable HR lessons that can be applied to your business regardless of the industry. To be shared in the subsequent section.

1. Fresh Graduates from Tier-2 and 3 cities, straight out of high-school, sometimes even dropouts

Unlike many companies that focus on recruiting from India’s major metropolitan areas, the Taj Group primarily hires frontline staff from smaller cities and towns such as:

• Pune (instead of Mumbai),
• Chandigarh and Dehradun (instead of Delhi), and
• Tiruchirappalli and Coimbatore (instead of Chennai).

Obvious Benefits: Availability of a larger labor pool and savings on salary

Additional Benefits: Traditional Indian values — respect for elders, humility, discipline, and honesty — are still prominent in these regions. These are the qualities a hospitality sector frontline staff are required to have. In contrast, young people in metros are often more money-minded, willing to take shortcuts, and less likely to be loyal or empathetic toward customers.

The Taj Group also prioritises hiring young people, often directly out of high school. Their recruitment efforts begin in small towns and semiurban areas by identifying schools that are well-regarded locally for their teaching standards. They reach out to school headmasters, who assist in selecting potential candidates.

They even recruit students who are on the verge of dropping out, as long as they show potential.

2. Character over skills

Contrary to popular belief of the hospitality industry, the Taj Group does not prioritise candidates who excel in English.

The recruiters at Taj Group prioritise 3 key character traits when selecting candidates:

• Respect for elders (how they interact with their teachers),
• Cheerfulness (whether they maintain a positive outlook even in tough times), and
• Neediness (how much their family relies on the income from the job).

At the core of Taj Group’s recruitment philosophy is the belief that a hotelier’s primary goal should be to make others happy, and this value remains central to their hiring process.

3. Managers who stick with the company for long-term

For its senior leadership roles, the Taj Group recruits around 50 management trainees each year from second- and third-tier B-schools in India, such as Infinity Business School Delhi or SIBM Pune, typically for positions in marketing or sales.

• More inclined to build long-term careers with a single company,
• Align better with a customer-focused culture, and
• Not solely motivated by money.

In its managers, the Taj Group prioritises qualities like integrity, a consistent and conscientious work ethic, a commitment to putting guests first, a willingness to go above and beyond, and the ability to perform well under pressure.

4. Long Training Period — 18 months, not 12 which is the industry-standard

Employees interact with guests in unsupervised settings 70-80% of the time. As a result, their training protocols are designed with the assumption that staff will need to handle guest situations independently, knowing what to do and how to do it without seeking guidance from a supervisor.

Having a 18-month long training, against the 12-month standard, has found to be effective in instilling the required values in employees.

One of the tools used to support this is a weekly two-hour debriefing session, where every trainee must answer two key questions: “What did you learn this week?” and “What did you observe this week?” This approach encourages trainee managers to grasp important concepts in the classroom, apply new skills in real-world settings, and navigate the differences between the two, ultimately helping them develop the ability to think and act on their own.

5. Employees are empowered to improvise on-the-spot in the best interest of the customer — Management will support them

Unconvential Move that Works: Taj Group encourages employees to act as ambassadors for the customer, rather than the company.

Trainees are assured that company leadership, including the CEO, will support any decision that prioritises guest satisfaction and ensures the customer is delighted. This mindset shift significantly influences how employees handle situations, empowering them to act decisively in favor of the guests.

Story: A frustrated guest complained about a disfunctional AC and vowed never to stay at the Taj Mumbai again. The trainee manager responded by offering the guest a complimentary breakfast, free transportation to the airport, and arranged for someone from the next Taj property to pick him up. While this may have cost the company money, she didn’t need permission or justification for her actions. The only rule that mattered was that she made every effort to win back an unhappy guest and ensure his loyalty to the Taj.

6. Timely recognition — coming from immediate supervisors, not top management

Core belief: Happy employees create happy customers.

To achieve this, the company appreciates both frontline and support employees by personally thanking them. Expressions of gratitude are most impactful when they come from immediate supervisors, who play a key role in shaping employees’ perceptions of the company. Moreover, the timing of the recognition is important — done immediately.

We will not go into the technicalities of it. Let’s move to what matters to you — how you can imbibe these values in your business.

How Taj approach to recruitment and HR applies to you, especially in your leadership hiring, regardless of your industry:

By not creating employee-centricity that aligns with your industry requirements and company culture, you may soar, but you will not survive.

1. Prioritise Soft skills

For a leader in a service company, the most crucial soft skills (non-exhaustive) today are:

• Adaptability
• Empathy
• Integrity
• Growth Mindset
• Ownership
• Passion
• Delegation
• Quick learner

As long as a person exhibits these core skills, everything else, including communication can be taught (assuming that they’re a quick learner).
For instance, articulation can be taught to an empathetic person, but teaching empathy to is far more time-consuming and difficult. Similarly, steering a passionate person in the right direction is far easier than igniting the passion in the first place.

This doesn’t mean you ignore hard skills altogether. A financial controller needs to understand how a balance sheet works.

Read the statement again.

They need to understand how a balance sheet works. The underlying concept. Not necessarily a software that does it. Software can be taught. Concept is important.

Ideal Combination: Soft skills + Concept clarity

2. Long-term vision

A leader needs to be in it for the long-term. Hire someone who does not view the opportunity as a stepping stone to something better. Hire someone who is ready to commit at least 5 years — with whom you can build and grow.

3. Initial Support and Regular Training

Do not expect the new recruit to absorb everything within a week and then get to action and produce 100%. Remember to extend support when asked for.

Create an environment where people are not hesitant to reach out for help, which saves them both time and anxiety.

Sometimes they may not know how a niche software works even 6 months after their joining because they were using another software they knew of. Remember to be compassionate in such cases and provide training.

4. Autonomy — Do not micromanage

Two-thirds of the GenZ and millennials value autonomy, opposed to just 53% of Gen X and 45% of baby boomers (Forrester report 2021). By 2030, millennials and Gen Z will make up the majority of the workforce.

Allow employees autonomy wherever possible. This makes them feel empowered. Empowered employees are good for your business.

5. Give Recognition where it is due

This is simple. Create a culture where employees feel seen, respected, and recognised. This pushes them to work harder in the company’s interests.

But remember — just recognition will reduce in value. Give timely promotions and appraisals to deserving employees so that they do not feel cheated.

Job insecurity is a growing concern for workers worldwide, and in India 47% of employees do not feel secure in their positions (ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2023 survey). Recognition ensures that the workers know they are seen by the management, which reduces anxiety about job security.

Reiterating, it is more crucial than ever to have employee policies that work the best for your business as well for them.

Wonderfully for us, we do not need to look much farther than our Tata Group companies like Taj to learn and imbibe them.