Sundararajan Narayanan
CPO & EVP
With a people-centric and customer-centric approach to its work, Virtusa is supported by high quality delivery teams and innovative services. The culture of Virtusa is its core USP and it remains undiluted despite eight diverse acquisitions.
The Passion-Innovation-Respect-Leadership (PIRL) values continue to form the foundational pillars of the organisation and ensure its leadership position in the digital engineering space.
Engaging in a deep interaction with CEO Insights, Sundararajan Narayanan, CPO & EVP, Virtusa, elaborates the distinctiveness of Virtusa's workforce management which gives a unique recognition to the brand as one of the exceptional companies to work with.
What are the mantra & values behind the work culture of your company? How does that aid in attracting talent?
Our mantra that differentiates us from our competition and makes us the vendor of choice for our clients clearly is Innovation. With Innovation complementing our values of Passion, Respect and Adaptive Leadership, it makes us standout as a talent magnet in the market. Our employees stay relevant to the client and markets by constantly upgrading themselves and leveraging our Engineering IQ program. Therefore, our mantra for success is not just attracting top talent, but also enabling their careers to stay ahead and relevant in an inclusive work environment.
How do you ensure that this matchless proposition is ideally accomplished by your workforce?
We have a very unique upskilling framework that is mandatory for all our technical talent to retain top spot in the digital engineering space globally. Copyrighted to Virtusa, this program is called the Engineering IQ framework which is a comprehensive global program that helps build baseline technical core competencies on par with industry standards, creates personalized learning paths, and makes learning at Virtusa more dynamic and business relevant.
Consequently, we develop a community of MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) across the company. The robust program and learning interventions meshed with other talent management initiatives provides opportunities for career progression to be more transparent and predicts talent readiness levels within the organization.
How do your company policies consolidate strategies with overall business objectives? How do the HR direct and drive a positive work environment?
At Virtusa, it's all about connecting the dots. Markets and customers drive strategy; strategy drives design and execution of policy to support
business objectives. Execution drives formulation of HR processes that support business strategy and creates performance, and rewards lever to drive a positive work environment. Delivery excellence helps drive flawless execution of objectives, thereby helping the organizations achieve customer targets and business objectives. It's about connecting the dots and working in tandem to support business objectives and customer satisfaction.
How robust is your learning and development infrastructure? Do you encourage & sponsor/reimburse your employees in terms of patent filing and doing individual certifications?
Capability building at Virtusa is focused around the overarching organizational goals of digital transformation & cloud transformation. To enable business teams augment capability building for our widely distributed learner community, the global talent development function is aligned with learning academies deploying global capability index frameworks, driving execution through global tools and metric based approach beyond the role competency models to create a differentiating business outcome & impact powered by execution excellence.
Industry recognized certifications, licenses and patents are encouraged in various disciplines of Technology, including Cloud (AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, Kubernetes), Data Science, Big Data, Microservices, Adobe, Pega, ServiceNow, Agile, DevOps, and many others. The reimbursement process is governed through our certification and training expense reimbursement policy, which is globally applicable. There are also additional perks for early movers, esp. in the Cloud technologies. Some of our strategic partners include AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Adobe, Pega and SAP.
How contemporary is your HR policy? What are the compensations and benefits provided to the employees in terms of stock options, insurance, leaves or other celebrations, entertainment & leisure offerings?
Our HR policies are reviewed annually and accommodate any changes in country-specific labour laws. We have stock option plans which were Restricted Unit (four-year plan) and Performance Based Units (two-and-a-half-year plan), however with the latest acquisition, the new plans are yet to be introduced. Our insurance coverage is one of the best in the industry with coverage for term life, accident and medical. Medical Insurance is extended to five additional dependents and the coverage amount varies based on the level of the individual in the organization.
Term life and accident coverage are linked to the compensation of the individual. Our leave policies are compliant with labour laws and are on par with the industry too. We have an R&R program under which we conduct celebration award ceremonies for the achievers. For our employees who are young mothers, we have a flexible work (time and location) policy. Additionally, to accommodate the current COVID pandemic, we have ensured our workforce is enabled to work from home to continue having meaningful careers.
What are the ways of recognizing top talents & great performances within the organization? What's the number of women in the top management layer? Do you maintain any quota for women while recruitment?
How robust is your learning and development infrastructure? Do you encourage & sponsor/reimburse your employees in terms of patent filing and doing individual certifications?
Capability building at Virtusa is focused around the overarching organizational goals of digital transformation & cloud transformation. To enable business teams augment capability building for our widely distributed learner community, the global talent development function is aligned with learning academies deploying global capability index frameworks, driving execution through global tools and metric based approach beyond the role competency models to create a differentiating business outcome & impact powered by execution excellence.
The organisation structure also acts as a performance trigger as growth here is promoted both vertically and horizontally
Industry recognized certifications, licenses and patents are encouraged in various disciplines of Technology, including Cloud (AWS, GCP, Microsoft Azure, Kubernetes), Data Science, Big Data, Microservices, Adobe, Pega, ServiceNow, Agile, DevOps, and many others. The reimbursement process is governed through our certification and training expense reimbursement policy, which is globally applicable. There are also additional perks for early movers, esp. in the Cloud technologies. Some of our strategic partners include AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, ServiceNow, Salesforce, Adobe, Pega and SAP.
How contemporary is your HR policy? What are the compensations and benefits provided to the employees in terms of stock options, insurance, leaves or other celebrations, entertainment & leisure offerings?
Our HR policies are reviewed annually and accommodate any changes in country-specific labour laws. We have stock option plans which were Restricted Unit (four-year plan) and Performance Based Units (two-and-a-half-year plan), however with the latest acquisition, the new plans are yet to be introduced. Our insurance coverage is one of the best in the industry with coverage for term life, accident and medical. Medical Insurance is extended to five additional dependents and the coverage amount varies based on the level of the individual in the organization.
Term life and accident coverage are linked to the compensation of the individual. Our leave policies are compliant with labour laws and are on par with the industry too. We have an R&R program under which we conduct celebration award ceremonies for the achievers. For our employees who are young mothers, we have a flexible work (time and location) policy. Additionally, to accommodate the current COVID pandemic, we have ensured our workforce is enabled to work from home to continue having meaningful careers.
What are the ways of recognizing top talents & great performances within the organization? What's the number of women in the top management layer? Do you maintain any quota for women while recruitment?
We have a fast-tracking career progression mechanism for top talent and great performances in the organization. Top talent is also eligible for higher positioning in salary bands, and accordingly, their salaries are fixed. Additionally, there is a special bonus program that only caters to top talent every year. Our top management gender diversity is at eight percent. We do not have any quota-based system for hiring as we are an equal opportunity employer. We are focused on healthy diversity ratios across the organisation and levels to ensure thought diversity and representation across tiers. We are an equal opportunity employer and pride ourselves on gender pay parity.
Mention some of the significant milestones that Virtusa has achieved over the years?
Established in 1996 in Colombo, Sri Lanka as Technology Providers Inc., Virtusa started by developing software platforms for technology vendors. Reaching $5 Million in revenue we opened the first offshore office in India at Hyderabad (The largest centre today) in 2000. In 2001, the company not only reached $10 million in revenue and was renamed as Virtusa, but also went in partnership with Pegasystems in 2001. Today, Virtusa is the largest partner for Pegasystems. Expanding the business to cater to large global enterprises in sectors including Banking, Telecom, and Insurance, the firm soon opened first sales office outside US, in London, UK in 2004.
Reaching $100 million in revenue in 2007, Virtusa went public and listed on Nasdaq as VRTU. After witnessing an expansion to Europe and Southeast Asia with offices in Amsterdam, Munich, and Singapore, Virtusa acquired $500 million revenue and acquired Polaris Consulting Services in 2016. After acquiring eTouch (Established an innovation hub in Silicon Valley) in 2018, the firm reached the milestone of onboarding 20,000 employees and $1 billion revenue growth.
Sundararajan Narayanan, CPO & EVP
With an engineering background, Sundararajan's intention to do something purposeful in his career instead of boarding a plane to the US to pursue an engineer's dream drove him to explore other avenues. As the universe aligned to make his dream true, he landed the most gratifying job at Virtusa with well-chosen organisations, informed decision making and great mentors. Since then, he has been building careers and adding value as well as purpose to the People agenda that drives organisational strategy. Just last month, Sundararajan was recognized as one of the 33 most innovative HR leaders in the world by Business Insider. The award paid tribute to Sundar as he steered employees through a global crisis, creating plans that has built a flexible and equitable workplace.
Awards/Recognition:
- 2021 Pegasystems Partner Sales Excellence Award
- HFS top 10 Salesforce Services 2020
- 2020 Candidate Experience (CandE) Awards - North
America, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific
- Asia's Best Employer Brand Awards 2020 for Innovation in Recruitment at the 15th Employer Branding Award 2020
- Talent Board - 2017 2019 Candidate Experience Awards- 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award Finalist
- The Stevies International Business Awards:
· The Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year (Gold Stevie Winner) 2018 & 2019
· Best New Product or Service of the Year 2018
· Three Gold Stevie Awards in 2019 International Business Awards for Leadership in Financial Services, Life Sciences and DevOps
· IT Team of the Year for Computer Hardware, Services & Software
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2018
Mention some of the significant milestones that Virtusa has achieved over the years?
Established in 1996 in Colombo, Sri Lanka as Technology Providers Inc., Virtusa started by developing software platforms for technology vendors. Reaching $5 Million in revenue we opened the first offshore office in India at Hyderabad (The largest centre today) in 2000. In 2001, the company not only reached $10 million in revenue and was renamed as Virtusa, but also went in partnership with Pegasystems in 2001. Today, Virtusa is the largest partner for Pegasystems. Expanding the business to cater to large global enterprises in sectors including Banking, Telecom, and Insurance, the firm soon opened first sales office outside US, in London, UK in 2004.
Reaching $100 million in revenue in 2007, Virtusa went public and listed on Nasdaq as VRTU. After witnessing an expansion to Europe and Southeast Asia with offices in Amsterdam, Munich, and Singapore, Virtusa acquired $500 million revenue and acquired Polaris Consulting Services in 2016. After acquiring eTouch (Established an innovation hub in Silicon Valley) in 2018, the firm reached the milestone of onboarding 20,000 employees and $1 billion revenue growth.
Sundararajan Narayanan, CPO & EVP
With an engineering background, Sundararajan's intention to do something purposeful in his career instead of boarding a plane to the US to pursue an engineer's dream drove him to explore other avenues. As the universe aligned to make his dream true, he landed the most gratifying job at Virtusa with well-chosen organisations, informed decision making and great mentors. Since then, he has been building careers and adding value as well as purpose to the People agenda that drives organisational strategy. Just last month, Sundararajan was recognized as one of the 33 most innovative HR leaders in the world by Business Insider. The award paid tribute to Sundar as he steered employees through a global crisis, creating plans that has built a flexible and equitable workplace.
Awards/Recognition:
- 2021 Pegasystems Partner Sales Excellence Award
- HFS top 10 Salesforce Services 2020
- 2020 Candidate Experience (CandE) Awards - North
America, Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific
- Asia's Best Employer Brand Awards 2020 for Innovation in Recruitment at the 15th Employer Branding Award 2020
- Talent Board - 2017 2019 Candidate Experience Awards- 2020 Microsoft Partner of the Year Award Finalist
- The Stevies International Business Awards:
· The Most Innovative Tech Company of the Year (Gold Stevie Winner) 2018 & 2019
· Best New Product or Service of the Year 2018
· Three Gold Stevie Awards in 2019 International Business Awards for Leadership in Financial Services, Life Sciences and DevOps
· IT Team of the Year for Computer Hardware, Services & Software
- EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2018