Kameshwari Rao has an illustrious career journey rich with experience, having served in multiple People Success leadership roles prior to her present role as Chief People Officer, Publicis Sapient. As part of the company’s global talent leadership team, she has been responsible for providing strategic leadership for its people agenda and building Publicis Sapient as an employer of choice.  

Since 2001, Kameshwari Rao has steadily led Human Resources practices in a variety of roles at Publicis Sapient. Her most recent role at the company was Group Vice President, People Success, and after just two years in the position, she was elevated to Global Chief People Officer. Over the years, she has played a key role in making the organization a trusted digital business transformation partner for clients. She is passionate about Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and Corporate Social Responsibility. 

In this exclusive interaction with People Matters, Kameshwari talks about technology underpinning a proper “return to work” strategy,  the increasing reliance on digital capabilities boosting transformation efforts and ‘pivot’ becoming the buzzword in the digital transformation overdrive.

There is a significant influence of digital in all our lives today, right after conversations around a much needed digital detox began to surface. How are you bringing in that balance as a leader and as an individual?

Technology unquestionably makes our working lives easier, adding flexibility and convenience, but during the pandemic it has started to create an overwhelming effect on our people. Studies that correlate a fall in well-being with extensive use of technology are beginning to stack up and the idea of the “Digital Detox” is being posited as a solution. One of the ways to create balance for our teams is to make sure we know how to prioritize, not every meeting is important or leading to a decision, not all deliverables are to be taken care of today. Following discipline during work from home is also very important, getting up on time and following a regular schedule to switching off on time, all of this makes a difference to every individual from a mental health perspective and leading a balanced life. Promoting taking leaves and regular breaks has also worked in our scenario and ensured people are getting enough time off to rewind and refresh themselves.

What do you think the future holds for HR in a data-driven world post the pandemic?

In this changing environment, the challenge for HR teams is to find a balance between technology particularly automation, and the human role in the organizations of the future. I believe the biggest challenge facing HR teams going forward is not keeping up with technology and learning new skills like data analysis, but it's finding the uniquely human place in the organization – and within the HR team itself. As remote working is set to become more normal post-COVID, it’s important to look after your employees, maintain inclusion as a focus and ensure equity across diverse employee segments. Post pandemic, as more and more employees return to the workplace, it will be HR’s role to make the transition as safe, smooth and equal as possible.

How do you view the digital transformation overdrive that the pandemic has forced organizations to go into overnight?

The word “pivot” has become the new buzzword, as organizations frantically adopt agile ways of working to ensure business continuity. The shift is not only in terms of remote-work policies and workplace hygiene, but an evolution in digital collaboration, crisis management tools and business continuity strategies. With businesses having more reliance on digital capabilities, there will be an increase in transformation efforts and attempts to manage change across integrated business solutions.

Smart technology platforms and digital transformation solutions can help bulletproof business models and operations in the face of a global crisis.

The post COVID-19 world will also focus on bringing a shift from human interaction to automation and AI enabled technology. Companies must remain agile, adopt new ways of working, and respond to disruptive market conditions to remain competitive in this “new normal”. The transformation feels like an overdrive as it was something that has been in an inertia for some time and it needed a catalyst to make it happen.

What trends have you observed around HR tech adoption amid the COVID-19 crisis? How is the pandemic changing investments in HR tech?

HR Tech, which was moving at a slow pace, will see an increase in investments. Whether it is just managing operations, or delivering learning or using data for decision making, there will be a very high need for organizations to invest in tools, technology and people who understand technology.

HR’s focus is in managing health, safety, growth and engagement has acquired a new meaning and role. Beyond the initial shift to WFH which forced us to do remote management, HR has to look at long term impacts of managing cultural, social, emotional shifts with a new lens of technology.

What changes are you seeing or expecting in your organization’s HR tech landscape to handle the new normal post-COVID-19? Have you implemented any new-age technologies such as AI, RPA, or blockchain to digitize your HR department?

Organizations must focus on HR tech as it is the most pressing issue to solve for, especially in the post COVID-19 scenario. Our primary focus has been to focus on the safety & well-being of our people.

Technology has played a significant role as it allows a deeper understanding of employee behavior and risks to well-being that will underpin a proper “return to work” strategy in the face of COVID-19.

It has also provided us access to data on changing employee expectations on flexible working. We have recently implemented an AI Chatbot for enabling our new hires to make their onboarding seamless and support them while we are working from home this entire year. Our investments in AI & RPA will continue to be in focus, while we also invest in collaboration tools & platforms that connect the employee lifecycle across the board.

HR has to demonstrate a whole new kind of agility in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. How do you align your HR initiatives with the larger business goals? What role can leaders play to ensure a better alignment of HR technology investment and business goals?

HR has been on the frontline of change throughout this pandemic, from changing health guidelines, leave legislation, workplace safety issues, onboarding, learning and so on. The COVID-19 crisis has pushed the HR teams to be more agile than ever, requiring them to showcase resiliency, adaptability, learning, and foresight. We transitioned to a WFH across all our offices almost overnight, with minimal disruption to operations and productivity and our HR teams led this move. I think leading with a purpose makes a difference.

Effective partnership of business and HR is crucial in ensuring that we continue to focus on strategy while putting our people first. 

Given the increasing need for upskilling and reskilling that the pandemic has brought to the fore, how are you ensuring continued learning for your employees especially for the virtual workforce?

To continue enabling learning for our virtual workforce, we have crafted and adapted our programs and delivery, and established as well as expanded virtual live learning. Digital and virtual learning programs were already in our curriculum before we were COVID-19 struck, and we see a marked increase in such learning programs. We have refreshed our current competency model and brought in a new learning management system that creates a holistic ecosystem for our people to continuously learn and expand their capabilities. In addition, we fast tracked our global people platform Marcel that connects people across the Publicis Groupe worldwide across brands and countries. This has increased access to learning content globally & enriched the experience for our people.       

Do you think vendors are stepping up their game to address new market needs amid this crisis? How are the service providers meeting the changing customer demands? What do you think is the need of the hour for vendors to be able to meet the new demands of customers?

We are in the stage of economic transformation worldwide and people are worried about their jobs and children’s education. There is enough and more fatigue which requires vendors to continuously come up with solutions to engage people, to make them more productive or make their life easier. There is enough and more support needed on how systems fit, flexibility, ease of use, reliability of vendors and most importantly customer support. Vendors in such a crisis situation may not survive if they don’t have these aspects provided to clients.

What is your advice for leaders who continue to struggle in approaching people management with empathy? Can technology play a role here?

Recognize employees for their hard work, that’s the best thing to do. It’s crucial to acknowledge the stress factors as well as the workload.

In addition to calling out stress and making resources available to mitigate it, be sure to show gratitude, empathy and appreciation for the contribution of your employees.

Technology plays an everyday role here. Enable them with the right tools to function better and also reduce the technology use to detox wherever needed, example could be by switching off your camera if there are multiple connects happening daily.