Committed to People Empowerment

People have always been driving our legacy of excellence. From delivering on our business objectives and steering the realisation of our vision, to powering our customer service agenda, our people philosophy has emerged as the engine of the Company’s growth and value delivery proposition.

Our customer interface, which is integral to our strategic plans, is rooted in our people strength, which we remain committed to nurturing through focussed initiatives. We have prioritised the welfare and safety of our employees as an overarching goal, which we strengthened further amid the pandemic. At the same time, we continued to sharpen our focus on employee empowerment through continuous learning and development programmes, coupled with career progression opportunities. Talent hiring and retention processes were redefined in alignment with the new business realities.

Harnessing people power amid pandemic

Even as we moved quickly to put our Business Continuity Plan into action amid the pandemic, our teams ensured sustained and uninterrupted delivery of business operations relating to processing of financial transactions. From supporting the digital initiatives at the back-end and the front-end in the initial months, to moving into normal physical operations in the latter half of the year, our people partnered us to deliver to customer needs through the year. They adapted with agility to the unprecedented new Work-from-Home (WFH) operations, which were evolved in a phased manner within a short span of 3-4 weeks.

Our teams ensured near six sigma quality led delivery and reduced investor complaints despite the tough and unprecedented challenges during FY21.

Aligning people to new norms

For the effective implementation of the new WFH norms, we constituted a Task Force, comprising HR and technology support teams, soon after the COVID outbreak. New guidelines were put in place after taking into account all aspects of the new paradigm, including information security, risk-containment, availability of desktops and last-mile connectivity in the homes of employees.

The task force spent over 5,000 hours cumulatively in executing their charter, including handling almost 3,000 support requests. Thirty employees worked relentlessly over the weeks to:

  • Configure 2,400 desktops for VPN enablement during Wave 1
  • Install additional security suites
  • Configure dongles and Wi-Fi routers with the machines

In addition, a dedicated team of 15 employees handled core back-end work, and provided support for breakdowns and latency to the users working from home, with the help of popular mobile apps.

Nurturing Learning & Development

With the adoption of new norms of working, new skill sets had to be quickly imbued into the work culture during the year.

  • Frontline managers were trained and equipped for “Leading Virtual Teams” - a key skill identified for managers during this remote/ blended working environment. More than 60 leaders were trained and certified in this area during FY21
  • Niche skill areas – Transmission, Lien marking and Recon Automation, were added to the existing pool of identified skills; Employees performing these functions underwent rigorous training & evaluation, leading to their certification in the particular skill area
  • Risk Mitigation was identified as a key focus area for upskilling, and Riskathon contest was organised for highlighting niche and under-noticed risk areas. An Operations Risk Management programme was mandated for all frontline managers, and a learning series on risk mitigation with functional heads was launched across the breadth of the operations team
  • PELE (Program for English Language Enhancement), an English language enhancement programme aimed at enhancing verbal & written English communication skills of frontline operators and managers, was launched. More than 500 employees have participated in various sessions since the launch of the programme, being conducted through a blend of LMS, weekly virtual short learning modules and online quizzes
  • Learning quotient of employees was maintained at a high level during the lockdown period, with the L&D team shifting gears seamlessly to conduct Virtual training programmes, Online quizzes and WebEx programmes. Talent hunt contests for employees, as well as Kid’s camp for children of CAMS and Sterling Software employees, were conducted virtually
Managing talent in crisis time

We have in place MoUs with Chennai’s top three colleges – Stella Maris, Loyola & Ethiraj College, to provide scholarships, training & placements to talented youth. Our training programmes cover engaging modules, including NISM certification, Financial Literacy and Campus-to-corporate training. Around 45 students have received scholarships sponsored by CAMS over the last two years.

Leveraging our Campus Collaborations, we hired 22 Management Trainees during FY21. A team of leaders has been assigned as mentors to our MTs & PGTs to aid in their learning, nurturing and shaping process, to equip them to become leaders of tomorrow. The CAMS career page received 17,000 viewers and 39,000 page visits during the year.

Recognising & Rewarding Talent

Given the pandemic constraint, we initiated e-Appreciations to keep our employees motivated during the year. Various special project-based awards were launched to recognise and reward talent.

Keeping Employees Safe & Engaged

With employee safety and well-being assuming greater importance amid the pandemic crisis, we initiated a series of initiatives for their protection and welfare during the year.

  • BFIT contest was conducted with the aim of building habits of exercising, walking and mindful eating saw active participation from employees. An ePortal tracked the participants’ daily progress and points were given not just for the count of steps, but for the effort of incorporating walking as a daily habit. The leader boards in the portal motivated the teams. More than 20 teams have demonstrated positive difference in their daily habits and health as a result of this programme
  • Virtual programmes on yoga, meditation and stress management were instituted for engaging employees
  • Awareness campaigns were conducted on leading a healthy life while working at home
  • To help employees cope with mental stress, we conducted webinars in collaboration with our EAP partner ‘1to1help.net’ and empanelled psychologists, who covered topics such as Gratitude, Understanding Anxiety & Signs of Depression
  • Strengthening our leadership connect, we conducted virtual “Meet the CEO”, “Meet the COO” and townhalls by CEO, to foster the much-needed feeling of employee belongingness to the organisation, amidst pandemic-induced remote working
  • “Listening to you” – Employee engagement survey was conducted, and action plans were reviewed with the leadership team
  • More than 3,000 employee connect calls were made to check on their well-being, and that of their families
  • We developed and circulated a Dos and Don’ts compendium on COVID guideline, on coping with the emerging WFO paradigm as some employees returned to office amid the pandemic