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#178: Maya Chandrasekaran on the right time to set up the HR function, implement OKRs, and put a rewards and recognition framework in place at your org
Maya Chandrasekaran is the Co-Founder of Green Artha Innovations - a climate venture fund and innovation firm established to make a low-carbon economy possible. She also co-founded and continues to actively run the 200+ member network, Women in Investing.
Prior to being a founder, she held roles such as Senior Executive, Analyst, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Chief of Talent, and Strategic Advisor. She was also a part of the founding leadership that scaled Babajobs.com into India’s largest tech-enabled livelihoods platform, securing meaningful work for over 10 million people in just 7 years.
Maya is an expert at scaling companies that change lives, both as an investor and leading operations, talent, and growth. She has been a mentor with TechStars India for multiple cohorts now and works with a number of startups in an advisory capacity.
Episode Highlights:
Her role as HR executive at Babajobs
As HR executive for Babajobs, Maya wanted to make the job seekers' experience stronger, better, and more engaging. Babajobs was a small-scale company when she started working for it. She takes great pride in this journey of hers as it helped her gain expertise and knowledge about so many other functions in the office apart from the HR field in which she excelled.
Tips to CHROs for the growth of the company
Maya credits the balance between seniors and new joiners for keeping the company culture and values intact. She feels most startups that have grown into larger organizations do not want to become stratified and hierarchical. However, she stressed the importance of a flexible organizational structure to avoid chaos.
The right time to implement OKRs
According to Maya, OKR is an excellent template with different versions - but essentially, it is too vast a concept to explain in a few words. In a company, employees and leaders have a common goal: to work for the company's success. The daily execution of work is something that makes or breaks the company. There is no way a firm can fail if its people give it their all and devote themselves entirely to its development. Small victories daily are a crucial first step toward bigger ones in the long run.
The right time to hire an HR specialist
Maya feels that hiring an HR specialist as soon as possible when starting a new firm is vital since it gives critical assistance to the entrepreneur. It will relieve the CEO of some of his duties and provide a helping hand. Because every company is different, you should not consider these principles to be definitive. If you anticipate that your firm will grow considerably in a short span – say, by 100% or 50% in the coming 6-12 months – you should hire an in-house HR professional at the earliest.
Rewards and recognition to employees
Professional appreciation is more than just a checkbox on the managers' to-do list. On the contrary, timely awards and recognition should become intrinsic to the workplace culture. Employees are more loyal to a firm when valued for their contributions and labor. Not unexpectedly, the present dominant forces of millennials and generation Z are challenging to satisfy. They don't consider acknowledgement to be a memorable event. Today's young workforce feels obligated to be recognized for outstanding performance. Appreciating them in a way that appeals to them is essential for attracting, retaining, and satisfying the new wave of workers. Establishing a robust, organized framework for financing and rewards is vital for an organization's long-term performance.
Follow Maya on LinkedIn
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Kartik Mandaville
View all episodes
By Springworks
3
22 ratings
Maya Chandrasekaran is the Co-Founder of Green Artha Innovations - a climate venture fund and innovation firm established to make a low-carbon economy possible. She also co-founded and continues to actively run the 200+ member network, Women in Investing.
Prior to being a founder, she held roles such as Senior Executive, Analyst, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Chief of Talent, and Strategic Advisor. She was also a part of the founding leadership that scaled Babajobs.com into India’s largest tech-enabled livelihoods platform, securing meaningful work for over 10 million people in just 7 years.
Maya is an expert at scaling companies that change lives, both as an investor and leading operations, talent, and growth. She has been a mentor with TechStars India for multiple cohorts now and works with a number of startups in an advisory capacity.
Episode Highlights:
Her role as HR executive at Babajobs
As HR executive for Babajobs, Maya wanted to make the job seekers' experience stronger, better, and more engaging. Babajobs was a small-scale company when she started working for it. She takes great pride in this journey of hers as it helped her gain expertise and knowledge about so many other functions in the office apart from the HR field in which she excelled.
Tips to CHROs for the growth of the company
Maya credits the balance between seniors and new joiners for keeping the company culture and values intact. She feels most startups that have grown into larger organizations do not want to become stratified and hierarchical. However, she stressed the importance of a flexible organizational structure to avoid chaos.
The right time to implement OKRs
According to Maya, OKR is an excellent template with different versions - but essentially, it is too vast a concept to explain in a few words. In a company, employees and leaders have a common goal: to work for the company's success. The daily execution of work is something that makes or breaks the company. There is no way a firm can fail if its people give it their all and devote themselves entirely to its development. Small victories daily are a crucial first step toward bigger ones in the long run.
The right time to hire an HR specialist
Maya feels that hiring an HR specialist as soon as possible when starting a new firm is vital since it gives critical assistance to the entrepreneur. It will relieve the CEO of some of his duties and provide a helping hand. Because every company is different, you should not consider these principles to be definitive. If you anticipate that your firm will grow considerably in a short span – say, by 100% or 50% in the coming 6-12 months – you should hire an in-house HR professional at the earliest.
Rewards and recognition to employees
Professional appreciation is more than just a checkbox on the managers' to-do list. On the contrary, timely awards and recognition should become intrinsic to the workplace culture. Employees are more loyal to a firm when valued for their contributions and labor. Not unexpectedly, the present dominant forces of millennials and generation Z are challenging to satisfy. They don't consider acknowledgement to be a memorable event. Today's young workforce feels obligated to be recognized for outstanding performance. Appreciating them in a way that appeals to them is essential for attracting, retaining, and satisfying the new wave of workers. Establishing a robust, organized framework for financing and rewards is vital for an organization's long-term performance.
Follow Maya on LinkedIn
Produced by: Priya Bhatt
Podcast Host: Kartik Mandaville
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