Talent market will remain buoyant, demand for niche skills to continue in India: JPMorgan

Gaurav Ahluwalia, MD and Head of HR, India Corporate Center, JPMorgan

American multinational financial services company JPMorgan Chase had record hires in its corporate centre in India, with over 14,000 people onboarded in 2022, taking the total headcount to 50,000 employees, Gaurav Ahluwalia, MD and Head of HR, India Corporate Center, JPMorgan, told Moneycontrol in an exclusive interview.

In light of the recent disruptions in the talent market, the company has gone heavy on employee learning. In its capability centres, over 33,000 courses were taken up by the employees last year to deepen their skills in data and tech literacy, market product knowledge, etc.

The investment banking services firm noticed a spike in attrition in early 2022 but ended the year on a “comfortable note”. In 2023, Ahluwalia anticipates that the market will remain buoyant and there will always be demand for niche skills.

Edited excerpts: 

What are your key takeaways from the recent HR trends such as ‘The Great reshuffle’, ‘Offer Shopping’, etc? How do you see it changing in the next two years?

The pandemic accelerated the evolution of candidate and employee expectations. Candidates and employees are being selective about what they expect from their next role and employer, resulting in a war for talent.

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We have remained true to our objective of getting talent with the right skills onboarded. This meant that we had record hires in our corporate centre in India in 2022, with over 14,000 people onboarded.

While our existing employees continue to leverage the many opportunities available to move and grow their careers, bringing in new and diverse talent into the firm is also important.

What are some of the interesting and innovative HR practices adopted in the changing talent outlook towards their professional lives?

We recognise that the varied needs of a workforce, informed by generational differences and trends in technology, will continue to evolve and grow. We also recognise that to attract, retain and develop our people, we must make the workplace experience meaningful. For us in HR, our products are the experiences we deliver. We have shifted to a Product Operating Model through which we are empowering our teams to serve their customers – employees, managers, candidates and retirees – in ways that meet the needs of our businesses, with employee experience at the centre.

As part of our health and wellness agenda, for example, we endeavour to build new age and progressive benefits that cater to the diverse needs of our workforce that spans six generations.

In addition to company-provided comprehensive health and wellness benefits, we introduced a self-paid flexi benefits programme last year that gives our workforce the option to choose tailored plans according to their preferences and that adds value to everyday essential needs.

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We also included a unique pet care plan – a first -- that covers pharmacy, veterinarian consultation, lab investigations, day hospitalisation and vaccinations.

We have doubled our investment in upskilling and reskilling employees to build a future-ready talent pool, providing them with high-quality development experience. In our capability centres in India, over 33,000 courses were taken up by our employees last year to deepen their skills in data and tech literacy, market product knowledge, controls and conduct, and client engagement and collaboration, among others.

How has been the attrition side of JPM in the last two years? How do you predict the future in this regard?

There are always peaks and troughs. So we are not overly worried. We noticed a spike in attrition in early 2022, like most of the industry, but ended the year on a comfortable note. In 2023, we anticipate that the market will remain buoyant and there will always be demand for niche skills and talent that can help us further our transformation.

What is the hiring plan for this year? What is the strategy for attracting the best talent?

We continue to recruit graduate and experienced talent for technology, operations and company-wide functions to meet the demands of our business across a variety of skills with a focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).

Our proposition is that we offer careers where you grow, learn and thrive in a global firm that is not just a financial institution, but also one of the biggest technology-driven companies in the world. We offer a host of internship programmes outside of conventional talent pools such as defense/paramilitary services, differently-abled, LGBTQ+ and professionals returning to work after a career break.

What are the roles you are hiring for?

We continue to invest across all Lines of Business (LOB) and functions with an enhanced focus on data and analytics, change and transformation within payments, platform engineering, cloud architects, product management, data science, and cyber security besides financial planning and analysis, business advisory and compliance and internal audit.

How is JPM enabling flexibility for its employees? What percentage of employees are currently working from offices? What does the future look like, since most companies are planning to embrace work from office?

Currently, around 98.5 percent of our workforce is working from our offices in a hybrid work model. While our hybrid work model is designed to be collaborative and one that enables us to innovate, in-person interactions are equally important for culture, creativity, training, and other factors.

How has been the progress on diversity and inclusion (D&I) so far?

We support over a 50,000-strong people force in India through comprehensive strategies and practices for an equitable and inclusive environment, ensuring that no one is left behind.

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Our business sponsorships, at a macro level, are led by senior leaders. We also hire and engage through initiatives such as the re-entry programme, VETS and Pride Internship programmes and Accessibility Job Fairs to access the best talents across markets in which we operate.

Our Business Resource Groups (BRG), with subscription and active memberships of more than 23,000 employees, help us lead, engage and support diversity in various forms. Our benefits are also aligned with our commitment to inclusion. Medical coverage for same or opposite-gender domestic partners, embryo freeze and stem cell preservation cover for gender reassignment surgery and hormonal therapy, and lifetime medical insurance cover for children with special needs, such as autism and haemophilia, are just a few examples. Last year, we also conducted our own Pride March at our Bengaluru campus to further our message of allyship and inclusion.