EP110: Dr Reddy’s Laboratories - Blending Science and Business in Recruitment

All-In Recruitment is a podcast by Manatal focusing on all things related to the recruitment industry’s missions and trends. Join us in our weekly conversations with leaders in the recruitment space and learn their best practices to transform the way you hire.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

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Lydia: Welcome to the All-In Recruitment podcast by Manatal, where we explore best practices, learnings, and trends with leaders in the recruitment space. If you like our content, please subscribe to our channels on YouTube and Spotify to stay tuned for our weekly episodes.

I'm your host, Lydia, and this week, we have Indu Khanna of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Welcome to the show, Indu.

Indu: Thank you so much, Lydia. It’s an absolute pleasure to be here.

A Journey of Continued Learning

Lydia: So, tell us about your journey in the Talent Acquisition space. I mean, it's multifaceted from what I can see, and you also have an interesting engineering academic background.

Indu: You're absolutely right. I think your question is quite pertinent to my transition from engineering to Talent Acquisition, a journey I've been on for the past 20 years now—two decades.

One thing I want to point out is that this is a journey of continued learning and growth, both personally and professionally. So, if I have to say in a nutshell, when I was doing my engineering way back, there wasn't even a thought that I might end up in Talent Acquisition. It looks like everything was planned and carved out when I started my first role in academics, and then also as a Sales and Service Engineer.

But there was always this constant question in my mind; is this something I will continue to do for the rest of my life? That's when I started pondering, what is it that I would really enjoy doing? I happened to come across somebody who was running his own recruitment search firm. So, that's when I started to understand what he was doing for a living, and he was really doing quite well, which excited me.

That's when the Talent Acquisition bug, you can say, bit me, and it is what happened. It took shape when I had opportunities to work with organizations in different segments—financial, healthcare, multiple facets—and then focused purely on talent. Little did I realize that the past two decades would be a journey where I focused so much on bringing in the right talent for the organizations I’ve worked with that it's something I even dream about when I'm out of the office. So, yes, it's been a beautiful journey so far, and I'm sure it's going to continue.

Bringing In the Right Organizational Design to Transform Talent Journey

Lydia: Indeed. It's definitely in the people space. It's never cut and dry and there's no single direction to take. You're absolutely right when it comes to saying it's a continuous learning journey.

In your role at Dr. Reddy's Laboratories, you're the Director of Talent Acquisition. So, what are some key areas that you prioritize in an organization this big?

Indu: That's quite interesting because of my past roles, and my role at Dr. Reddy's, in which I have noticed organizations across industries are going through a lot of transformations. Specifically when it comes to talent. Because talent is the key and without the right talent, organizations cannot move ahead. This also shows how Talent Acquisition teams have become very close to how talent strategies are driven in the organization.

So likewise, in my role here, the biggest priority was to ensure that we are carrying out this talent transformation journey by bringing in the right tools, the right processes, and the right organizational design. It even involved designing the organization in the right manner so that you build a scalable talent organization—an organization that can support the multiple growth avenues that the current organization is going through.

At the same time, it is an organization that can maneuver its way through the different talent challenges we face because we are living in a highly competitive talent world, a space where talent is constantly in demand, and getting the best talent is very critical.

So, the key broad areas I’m also focusing on in my role are bringing in a lot of tools and technology. How do my entire team and I ensure that candidate experience and hiring manager experience are at the center of everything we do? You do not want to disturb those experiences because they are an integral part of a recruiter's journey in Talent Acquisition. So, this has been a priority, as well as how you work closely with your stakeholders so that you are able to identify the right talent. By “right talent,” I'm not just talking about the one who matches the job description, but the one who goes beyond the job description.

Many times, job descriptions are very well written, but then there’s something playing on the mind of the hiring manager, which only he can tell you in his own words. When you're working closely with him, you get to know him when you're interacting with him and sitting in interviews with him. So, I think it's very important how my team is bringing in the right talent at the right time and how effectively are we using the sourcing capabilities in the organization. These are some of the top focus areas for me in my role here.

Lydia: So, in terms of bringing in technology and turning that into a process or other different processes across the organization, what might be some early challenges, or maybe some obstacles that you would have faced and overcome within the organization, that you could probably share?

Indu: When you talk about technology or recruiting technology, it all begins with identifying the right tools and technology. That, I must say, is when you need the right tech partners to support you in identifying because once you are able to identify the right tool, it moves to the next stage of adopting, or rather, before adopting, it comes to an implementation stage where you need to be very clear on how and when are you going to implement the tool.

Along with implementation comes the whole adoption piece. A tool is a great tool when it is operating in isolation, but the merit comes into play when all the parties who are involved in the recruitment activity, in hiring activity, are equally adopting the tool, whether it starts from the talent acquisition teams themselves, to the managers and to the partners who are part of the entire recruiting process. So, I would say identification, implementation, and then the right adoption of the tools and technology will either make or break this whole process of revamping the organization.

Blending Scientific Knowledge and Business Acumen in Recruitment

Lydia: When it comes to recruiting for roles in this particular industry, requires a blend of scientific knowledge and even business acumen. How do you approach recruiting for such roles?

Indu: That's a very interesting question, Lydia.

When you talk about blending something that comes with heavy science—which means scientific knowledge is a must—and business acumen, right? It's a combination you have to drive. So first, it begins with understanding the role, and by understanding, again, it's not just restricted to what you see on paper, but having a deeper understanding of what those scientific aspects or business competencies are that you're trying to hire for. That will only be possible when a recruiter, or anybody in the recruiting organization, is able to bring in the right business acumen, which means understanding your business so well that you are really acting as an advisor to your stakeholder.

This also means you have a fair understanding of the market. You have a fair understanding of your competitors who are hiring in the same space. Because today, if you look at it, social media access is so open to everyone—even the hiring manager might as well go and sit on any social media platform and call out that they want to hire. So, how can the Talent Acquisition Professional help this hiring manager to do the hiring bit, so the hiring manager is able to focus on the core job? That's the specialty of an advisor or a talent advisor who's functionally aligned to the right business. So, understanding the business becomes key.

The second aspect is a lot about leveraging the industry network because, with so much access and so many tools available in the market, it's very important that a recruiter goes back and understands what the right network is to tap into in order to identify the expertise that exists in that network and bring in the right talent. It might even involve going to the right academic institution because it's not always necessary that you’re going to hire a very experienced candidate. You might even bring in someone fresh out of campus who wants to come and make a career with your organization. So, how do you tap into these networks at the right time? That understanding, combined with an understanding of the role, will definitely pave the way for success.

Focusing on Building a Proactive Approach to Recruiting

Lydia: Now, Indu, you've used the term recruiting organization several times. I'm curious to see how you define that. I mean, what does that look like in your view?

Indu: Okay, so recruiting organizations, according to me, are the complete Talent Acquisition organization. Today, if you look at several organizations with different structures, there are structures where either the recruiting or the Talent Acquisition organizations are part of a broader organization, or they sit separately somewhere, or they sit with businesses.

The prime objective of a recruiting organization is not just managing or working on the routine hiring or the other roles you want to fill. But, according to me, a recruiting organization is also one that's focused on building a proactive approach to recruiting—an organization that is ready at any given point in time to ensure that business support is continuous.

Because in the times we are in—the VUCA times, where there’s constant change and constant ambiguities that even our business leaders face—it’s very important that if the recruiting organization has a strong hold on understanding where the organization stands and where the right talent is available, the recruiting organizations can do wonders. That’s what I believe in.

Lydia: Now, in terms of technology, I mean this being one of the core pillars that you're focusing on. How do you view that balance between the use of technology and that human element, which is crucial in Talent Acquisition?

Indu: Absolutely. Like I was saying sometime back, it's very important to keep your candidate and your hiring manager's experience at the center of everything you do. Because with technology, many times it could become a monotonous approach. You have so many chatbots today and systems that are AI-driven in the market. These systems have become so intelligent that many times you might feel, "Oh, do I really need a person?" or "Yes, I need a person," right?

So, how do you blend in the right balance between technology and bring in that human element? Because, according to me, Talent Acquisition is driven a lot around empathy—empathy towards the entire value chain and the people involved in the recruiting process. How I would like to put this is, you look at your tasks. The Talent Acquisition organization has multiple tasks. Now, there are some routine tasks where you can definitely get help from technology. You can implement tools that allow you to automate certain routine tasks, whether it’s something as simple as doing your first level of resume screening.

How do you bring in, say, an ATS (Applicant Tracking System) that is AI-driven and helps you do the first level of resume screening? Because then you're using technology, saving time, and trying to be a productive organization. You know that element doesn’t require human intervention.

Secondly, when it comes to interview scheduling, you have tools today that are smart enough to enter into your hiring managers' calendars and identify available slots or the best times when the managers are available for interviews so that you pick those slots and provide convenience to your candidates. You're balancing both technology and human intervention. You also talk about certain things where it's very important to have the human element. For example, when it comes to talking to candidates, how are you giving them the right message? You’re looking at data both internally and externally, because your candidate, at any given point, wouldn’t be happy if they're not kept in the loop.

So, that's how you decide where to bring technology into play to automate certain tasks, and where you definitely need a human touch. For me, empathy and understanding go hand in hand when we’re talking about building those greater candidate experiences that still have human elements in the process.

Grasping the Organization's Mission and Defining a Role's Purpose

Lydia: It's also interesting how you're looking at not just a candidate experience, but also inward and into the hiring manager experience. We were talking about both sides of that being central to a recruiter's practice.

So, in terms of the hiring manager's experience, how do you approach that and what is the outcome that you'd like to see from prioritizing something like that?

Indu: So, from a hiring manager's standpoint, if you look at it, a hiring manager would definitely come up with high expectations first. Again, the empathy and the understanding element are equally very important. Maybe I'll take you back to an example from my earlier role, where we had a very tough stakeholder, and the hiring we were doing for him was very technical. It involved hiring somebody who would actually be part of a process being conducted in a hospital, in an operating theater.

That required bringing in talent that would obviously have a lot of focus, a lot of presence of mind, and a lot of alertness to be ready to handle things if something goes wrong because you're dealing with live patients in the operating theater. Why I'm citing that example is because, if you just look at the JD and say, "Okay, you need an individual who can do these five different things and brings in this level of skill," but when you're actually visiting that operating theater and seeing how the hiring manager and his team are supporting during the case happening in the theater, you will be able to connect more and have a better understanding. You’ll see why he's insisting on bringing in high-caliber talent.

So that's the difference. How do you bring in that experience and that empathy with your hiring manager? What he's asking for is not because he wants the Talent Acquisition teams to go through multiple profiles and then choose the best, but there's a reason behind it.

It all connects back to the purpose. If the recruiter has the right understanding of the purpose of the organization and the purpose of his or her role, I am sure the empathy element for the hiring manager will equally be built into the process itself. Again, that's why I say having the right understanding and empathy for both your candidates and the hiring manager is equally critical for the process.

Lydia: We've seen so many changes in the past, two or three years ago. Do you have any observations about how candidate expectations of a recruiter or a Talent Acquisition professional? How have they changed or how have they evolved? Is there a difference that you've seen in recent years?

Indu: To answer your second part, where I have seen differences from what it was earlier to what it is now; in the recent past, with so much access available to candidates, they now have access to tools that can even tell them how their profile is progressing in the organization. With that access available, candidates’ expectations have gone up. They want the process to be very transparent. Transparency is key here. At any given point, if we know that this is the right talent for me and as an organization, maybe I might not be able to hire him at this point in time, but I definitely need him, say, six months to ten months down the line. So, how is a recruiter being transparent with the candidate? That will play a very critical role.

The next point is an on-time response. If the candidate is not being engaged enough by the recruiter or the Talent Acquisition professional, the candidate will lose interest. So, constant engagement with the candidate is a must, along with personalized interaction.

Because when you talk about a customer service-oriented organization, you don't want to lose your top customers. You don’t want to lose connections with your customers who are going to give you a lot of returns. It’s the same when you're talking about your high-potential candidates or those in the talent pool who are interested in making a career with your organization—you cannot afford to lose them.

So, if I look at it the other way around, the candidate expects treatment akin to a customer. He needs to be kept in the loop and also to know that, yes, he might be out of the process. A recruiter has to be very honest with the candidate to ensure that the candidate is getting the right experience and remains interested in the recruiting process.

Empowering Talent Teams with Data and the Right Tools

Lydia: Now, we come back to the recruiter and the recruiting team or rather, the recruiting organization, as you call it. The talent team today, or recruiting team today, is multifaceted. You've got to wear so many hats and you have to learn very quickly about fast-evolving roles, even the industry.

So, what are some steps to take for talent teams to become data-driven or sharpen their approach towards the use of data and our technology coming in?

Indu: Data plays a big role, you can say. Today, with the kind of work happening in data analytics, high-end data can really help us make or break a recruiting process. So, if you look at how I drive it, and what I usually recommend to my teams, it’s all about defining the ask, defining the objectives, and putting in the right KPIs, the key performance indicators, for the teams.

Just sometime back, when we were doing the goal-setting exercises, it was very simple to put a goal in your goal sheet. We all know the goals need to be SMART, but if your goal is also not driving certain data outcomes and is not bringing in certain behavioral changes needed in the process or in individuals when they are dealing with candidates, then I don’t think it’s the right approach.

So for me, it begins with defining the objectives. It starts with setting clear goals, identifying what objectives we want to achieve through data-driven strategies, and what the broad outcomes are that we are expecting. If my KPI is about reducing my time to hire, how much input have I looked at before I even reach the conclusion to say that I’m going to reduce my time to hire by, say, 20 days? But for that, has the background work on data analysis been done, which shows for which category of role this is doable and for which category of role it is not doable?

So it needs to be a realistic, SMART goal. Then, talking about improving the quality of hire—connecting every data point to the business objectives or the team objectives will help bring this cadence and thinking into the team. Defining the goals and setting the right objectives will help drive a team that is more data-driven. At the same time, investing in the right tools, like today’s many applicant tracking systems that can pull out a lot of data, is essential. Data tells the story, and it’s important to drive inferences from this data. So, you need to constantly educate your teams on the importance of data and bring in the right tools to equip the team so they can work with data and uncover those valuable insights hidden within the lines of data we are exposed to every day.

Recruitment Beyond Paperwork: When Gratitude Comes Full Circle

Lydia: Speaking of beautiful stories that you've seen as a recruiter and in the Talent Acquisition space, there are so many stories that I'm sure you can tell even those from your team.

As a final question, what is your most memorable recruitment moment or recruitment story? You shared another one earlier about basically going on-site to find out what it's like day to day for this particular role. But is there anything else that's made a specific impact on your career?

Indu: Absolutely. There’s something that comes to mind while I’m talking to you. I’ve worked in the healthcare industry for quite some time and that talent is mobile. I happened to hire one individual in two different organizations, and it was my signature on the offer letter that this individual received.

So, because of the long chain of processes, I might not have had the opportunity to interact with this individual. But through my team, the hiring was done, and I was responsible for putting my signature on his offer letter. When he joined the second organization and saw that I was the team lead and had signed his letter, he made it a point to come and talk to me. He wanted to understand who this individual was who had changed his career twice.

That was so touching, and I really felt that “Oh my God, I’m really trying to make a difference in somebody’s life.” There was an acknowledgment—the individual came to me and expressed his gratitude. He was very thankful that, directly or indirectly, I was somewhere touching his career. Stories like this, where people come and share that either my team or I have played a small part in building their careers, are the ones that remain close to my heart.

Lydia: That's a lovely anecdote, especially when he comes from a signature, a very good laughter turning into a warm interaction. I mean, that's just lovely to hear.

So, thank you for sharing that, and also for your insights today. I think it’s very generous of you to share this, and also it's going to be very valuable to the listeners as well. For those who are listening in, who want to pick up a conversation with you, or, who's probably seen your signature somewhere and they want to contact you, where can they get in touch with you? What’s the best channel?

Indu: Yes, absolutely. They can reach out to me through LinkedIn. That's absolutely a professional networking site. I'm happy to be available for them if they have questions. I do have people who reach out. So, I’m happy to support them.

Lydia: Thank you again, Indu. We have been in conversation with Indu Khanna of Dr. Reddy's Laboratories. Thank you for joining us this week, and remember to subscribe to stay tuned for more weekly episodes from All-In Recruitment.