Tech for the hybrid world

Top human resource (HR) experts and corporate leaders came together for Khaleej Times’ Hybrid Workforce Summit on Wednesday to help companies make the shift to a hybrid workforce model. We spoke with some of the participants.

Globalization Partners enables companies to expand internationally quickly and easily across six continents and 187 countries. It has emerged as an HR force to reckon with during the raging Covid-19 pandemic.

Iqbal Yunus, regional manager, Middle East and Africa, Globalization Partners, said his organisation could hire a global workforce within hours without setting up a branch office in new countries, which is a revolutionary concept. “For example, we have various clients working with us, who don’t have an HR entity in the Middle East and Africa,” said Iqbal.

“Ours is an artificial intelligence-enabled global platform that helps us mobilise all kinds of HR exercises, from payroll to time and expense management data. Our technology is user-friendly, flexible, and real-time driven. It’s readily available at the tip of your fingers,” he said.

Iqbal pointed out that companies are facing several challenges in finding the right talent, and “that’s where we fill the critical gap”.

He said: “Ours is a one-stop-shop that provides 360-degree HR solutions. The focus is on the Middle East and Africa. Our businesses are growing by leaps and bounds in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Israel. Similarly, we have a strong presence in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal, Uganda, Mali, Kenya, Mozambique, and Nigeria.”

nageEngine managed to respond quickly and offer an information technology (IT) management software for service and operations management, active directory, and security needs.

“Our in-house collaboration tools came handy for us amid a growing resource crunch. It enabled us to increase our customer base because we extended our services on the lines of software licences,” said Karthik Ananda Rao, regional technical head of ManageEngine, the enterprise management software division of Zoho Corp, which was founded by Dr Sridhar Vembu in 1996.

As the world moves on from remote working to a hybrid work model, ManageEngine has developed a raft of software programmes that help organisations monitor the activity of hybrid workforce.

The remote monitoring software market, Rao said, would further evolve because each user owns more than one mobile device, whose increased connectivity would lead to higher engagement time. “Data privacy is a crucial aspect. As the market evolves, we’d hit the sweet spot because we have several solutions to offer,” he said.

Rao said robotic processes — with minimal human intervention such as troubleshooting — are what the futur

R technology that powers digital HR for leading brands like Nivea, Starbucks, Sephora, Lulu Group, Aramex and Mobily Infotech — more than tripled its valuation to become Asia’s fastest-growing unicorn.

The six-year-old cloud-based HR management system provider reported robust growth during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to co-founder, Chaitanya Peddi. Darwinbox’s revenue doubled last year and grew by three times in Southeast Asia alone, taking the total customer count to over 650 with 1.5 million users worldwide.

Peddi attributed the company’s success to HR functionalities made easy for both employers and employees. “We manage an employee’s end-to-end life cycle — from hire to retirement. Our platform is user-friendly, mobile-first and is 100 per cent consumer-grade with the industry’s highest user adoption numbers at 95 per cent. For organisations, it’s about getting AI-powered personalisation and intelligence at scale along with increased efficiency, information security and employee engagement.”

Peddi believes that there’s a greater need for the HR digital revolution in the UAE aligned to the region’s ‘Next 50’ vision.

“The UAE is a dynamic market where the HR platform needs to be agile and flexible.”

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai