With 23 years of experience in strategic HR, performance management, and organizational development, Ms. Loly Vadassery, the Chief Human Resources Officer at Datamatics Business Solutions, prioritizes enhancing people and organizational effectiveness to drive business results. Her expertise lies in focusing on people and organizational development to improve overall performance.
Below are highlights of the interview conducted between World’s Leaders and Ms. Loly Vadassery:
Describe who you are as a person, inside and outside of the workplace.
As a person, I am someone who is compassionate, resilient, passionate, patient, and has the courage of her convictions, be it at the workplace or outside of it. Two of the biggest values imbibed in me since childhood have been the “courage of conviction” and compassion. As human beings, we are all here to serve humanity, and living a purposeful life is what makes our lives more fulfilling.
Describe your background and what did you do before you started/joined the company?
I started my career in HR fresh out of college in 1995. In the year 2000, I got the opportunity to head the HR function for a startup software company, and this was a turning point in my life as I got introduced to strategic HR and how businesses can stand to benefit when people strategy is aligned with business strategy. The last two decades of my experience have been essentially as a strategic partner to business, driving not just the people function but also being the go-to person for all people and business-related challenges in the role of a coach to the leadership team. Over the last nine years, Datamatics Business Solutions Ltd. has played a pivotal role in transforming the culture of the company and also contributing to business growth.
What has made you successful? What do you value?
I have been instrumental in transforming the people function across all the organizations I have worked for and creating a “people first” culture across all the organizations that I have worked for, which in turn has contributed to organizational growth and success.
I consider myself an ordinary person who has worked relentlessly over the last two and a half decades to reach where I am today. None of this would have been possible without the support of all my teams over the years and the strong support of the leaders at different organizations. I consider being compassionate my biggest strength, a lesson I learned very early in life. I also believe that “as human beings, we are all here on planet Earth to serve people to the best of our abilities.”
I truly believe that “happy people in turn create happy clients”. This philosophy has helped in creating a culture of trust and care, which in turn has played a pivotal role in ensuring consistent employee engagement levels of 85 to 91% over the last couple of years. Consequently, our customer engagement levels have also been in the range of 92 to 96%. Our gender diversity ratio of 60:40 is one of the best in the industry.
Which are the major services of the company and how do the company to get ahead in the competition? What value-added services does the company provide?
Datamatics Business Solutions is a technology-driven outsourcing partner for global enterprises. We harness the power of human ingenuity and advanced technology to create a hybrid data delivery model that delivers services and solutions tailored for global enterprises with absolute precision, resulting in shorter sales cycles and growing revenues for our global clients.
What is the significance of innovative ideas in the company?
Innovative ideas are at the epicenter of our every move as an organization. It plays a crucial role in our success as a company and helps us stay ahead of the competition by bringing new products, services, or processes to market, improving efficiency, and increasing customer satisfaction. We harness the power of innovative ideas incorporating AI, ML, RPA, etc. across all our service lines to differentiate our solutions in the market and thus create a unique brand identity, leading to increased brand recognition and loyalty. We have dedicated learning and development programs to help our employees upskill on a regular basis and leverage their improved skills towards creating solutions to customer problems. Promoting and fostering a culture of innovation at Datamatics Business Solutions is the key to our long-term success and competitiveness.
Give us your opinion on; do organizations rely heavily on individual heroics or team processes?
For an organization to succeed in all their endeavors, it is important to have individuals with exceptional skillsets working in absolute harmony across all teams. That is what we tend to do across all our business functions. To do so, we are always looking for technologies, expertise, and resources that can future-proof our processes. We have dedicated teams for market & product research to ensure that we leverage the latest technologies, individual brilliance, and processes to achieve our business goals. We constantly seek feedback from our clients and in-house teams to improve any aspect of our business that needs it. We maintain absolute transparency within the organization to ensure that the business objectives and the strategies required to achieve them are known to everyone at all times. It helps us chalk out every team and individual’s role in achieving those objectives.
What are your responsibilities as the founder and CEO of the company? What is the happiest part of your daily routine.
As the CHRO, I am responsible for the people function, the process excellence function, compliance, and the administration function.
The happiest part of my daily routine is when I am able to coach someone from the leadership team and be a sounding board for the business challenges they are facing and discuss the same with me. Similarly, when someone reaches out to me.
What advice would you give someone going into a leadership position for the first time?
For a first time leader, I would say once you create an environment of trust and empowerment, you are on the path to becoming a leader who will create more leaders in due course. Have the courage of conviction to be able to call out the elephant in the room and stand up for what is right. Being authentic and real with the team is another important characteristic of a good leader. Practicing active listening will go a long way toward building a team of committed and passionate individuals. Always make decisions with people in mind, because when you do whats right for the individual, it will be right for the company too. Always do the right thing for your team, customers, and stakeholders. It is important to be honest and truthful, which means that even if you have to deliver a tough message, be genuine and honest. Always be compassionate, no matter what the situation.
