AI and the Future of Software Engineers: A Note to HR Professionals

Disclaimer: I am no expert to define what AI will cause for sure in future, or to propose set-in-stone ideas to go beyond the disruption. You can go ahead and skip this article if you were looking for an expert opinion. This is just a rant, or at best, some speculations. Views are personal and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer(s).

I am not addressing the Software Engineer crowd in this article (except for a section towards the end), but my fellow HRs, some of whom might be yet to start to follow the AI realm and how it is going to change the IT industry.

If you’ve been scrolling through your feed lately, you’ve likely felt the shift. It’s not just the quiet in the recruitment corridors; it’s the numbers screaming from the headlines. It was a week ago that Anish Aravind shared some thoughts in an HR WhatsApp group, after his recent acquaintance with Cursor/Opus, as to how disruptive things are going to be. I must agree that a majority of folks in the G&A functions, myself included, have not fully realised the changes that may happen to the Software Engineering field, and by extension to the talent schema in the IT industry, in a couple of years.

Earlier last week, reports surfaced that India’s top 5 IT giants (including TCS, Infosys, and Wipro) added a net total of just 17 employees in the first nine months of this fiscal year. You read that correctly. Seventeen. Compare that to the nearly 18,000 net additions in the same period last year. While it would be a statistical fallacy not to say that, though, it was TCS’s heavy negative headcount growth that resulted in the net growth being just 17, while the values of Infosys, HCL Tech, and Wipro remained higher than the last year. Tech Mahindra added hardly 1/5th of what they added during a similar period in the last financial year.

One could say that this is just playing with data; yes, it is. However, the larger picture is that there were fewer net jobs for our workforce in FY26; perhaps, more people lost their jobs, and many of them could be jobless as I write this. Imagine 5 big pools, and water receding in some of them. Fish in those ponds need water in other ponds to live in, which is clearly not available.

Source: The Times of India - Software Engineers - Only net 17 Hired in FY 26 Q1, Q2, and Q3 by India's 5 giants.
Source: The Times of India

The Writing is on the Wall

We are seeing a convergence of validation from the very top of the tech food chain (who we assume know better than we do). While some of the AI developments/news could be written off as hype or exaggeration, it is becoming more and more evident that AI is, at least, costing many their jobs.

Just days ago, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, stated at the World Economic Forum that software engineering as we know it – the actual typing of code – could be “automatable” within just 6 to 12 months. He wasn’t speaking in hypotheticals; he noted that his own engineers rarely write code anymore. They edit it. They guide it.

Echoing this, Ryan Dahl, the creator of Node.js (a tool that literally defined modern web development during the 2010s), tweeted a sentiment that sent shivers down many spines: “The era of humans writing code is over.”

Ryan Dahl's Tweet on AI Changing Software Engineering
Ryan Dahl’s Tweet on AI Changing Software Engineering

I wrote this much to tell my fellow HRs that ‘AI changing software engineering’ is not a hype. While one could argue that vibe coding isn’t equivalent to AI-assisted software engineering, the speed of change in this field is faster than the speed of light.

I Am Not Here to Fear-Monger

Now, before you panic-apply to law school or convince your children to abandon their CS degrees, let me put my HR hat on. This is not the end of the software engineer. This is the end of the ‘typist’ coder. Software Engineering could be a lot more than that (at least for now!).

We have been there before.

In the late 1970s and 80s, the corporate world relied heavily on the Typing Pool. Dedicated professionals spent their entire days physically striking keys on typewriters. When the personal computer and word processors arrived, there was mass hysteria: What will happen to the typists?. There were mass protests against computers (I have a personal opinion on this topic, which is political in nature; hiding it since the purpose of this article is different) since computers could cause a lot of people to lose their then jobs.

Did the job of creating documents disappear? No. It exploded. People evolved. Jobs evolved. Computers made lives easier. The task of typing became trivial, but the value of the work shifted to content, formatting, data analysis, and speed. It made humans more powerful and effective. The typists who adapted became Executive Assistants, Office Managers, and Data Analysts. They stopped worrying about ink ribbons and started worrying about output. It was a technological (r)evolution. We are, in my opinion and that of many others, at a similar juncture in the history of workforce (r)evolution.

The New HR Mandate: From Syntax to Strategy

Ryan Dahl hit the nail on the head in his analysis: That’s not to say SWEs (Software Engineers) don’t have work to do, but writing syntax directly is not it.

From a hiring perspective, the skills test is undergoing a radical upgrade. We are moving away from testing memory and towards testing judgment. A (super basic) example below:

  • Yesterday (The Builder): The interview question perhaps was: Write a Python script from scratch to scrape data from this website and save it to a CSV. We paid for the hours spent struggling with HTML parsing libraries and handling exceptions.
  • Today (The Architect): The prompt is, “Here is a script generated by AI that scrapes the data. It has a subtle security flaw that exposes our server IP and crashes on large datasets. Find the flaw, fix the logic, and optimise it for a distributed cloud environment.”

We are no longer hiring people to lay the bricks; we are hiring them to inspect the wall and to see how it fits in the entire architecture/strength of the building. The job will shift from production to verification & integration. Read this from Morgan Stanley.

AI's Impact on Jobs | IMF
AI’s Impact on Jobs | IMF

What This Means for Your Career (For Software Engineers)

If you are in IT or any sector feeling the AI ripples, here are my thoughts:

  1. Stop Competing with the Machine: You cannot out-type an LLM. You cannot out-memorise. Stop trying.
  2. Start Managing the Machine: The most valuable employees in 2026 will be the ones who can act as “Product Managers” for AI agents. The ability to verify, audit, and architect AI output is the new “coding.”
  3. Soft Skills are Now Hard Skills: As technical barriers lower, your ability to understand business context, negotiate requirements with stakeholders (including thinking from customers’ points of view), and lead ethical implementation becomes your moat.

The Tech Wreck headlines are scary, yes. But a lot of people will indeed lose jobs in the ripple unless they adapt. The new way is efficient, fast, and inevitably different. Remember: the typewriters were gathering dust, but the office was busier than ever.

What This Means for HRs

Well, this section is not about how HRs can save their jobs because of AI replacing them 😂, but on what they need to focus on as far as the workforce is concerned:

1. Skills are the New Currency

Companies are pivoting from task-based hiring to skill-based workforce development. Roles that work with AI (e.g., prompt engineering, AI governance, ethical oversight, agent orchestration) are expanding rapidly. Try to understand this change and learn how it works.

2. Learning & Upskilling Must Be Strategic

AI automation increases demand for complementary skills, viz., human strengths like complex problem-solving, emotional intelligence, creativity, and cross-disciplinary fluency. You might want to invest in your workforce’s skillsets around this area.

3. Entry Points are Shifting

Fresh grads/junior engineers face the first disruption, but this isn’t a shutdown of opportunity. It’s a shift in how entry-level experience is gained. Organisations must redesign career ladders so new talent can contribute where humans add the most value.

4. Workforce Planning must be Dynamic

Organisations need to balance automation with human potential: using AI to augment roles, not just eliminate them. According to international research, the biggest potential gains come from redesigning workflows, not simply automating tasks. HRBPs have a greater role to play in this aspect, to work with the C-level in effective and meaningful workforce planning.

Learn More about These

To understand the broader economic context of these job numbers, I recommend watching this discussion on the job crisis vs job opportunity debate: 1.2 Billion Youngsters vs 400 Million Jobs (thanks, Jaseen Jamaluddin, for sharing this with me). This video is highly relevant as it features World Bank President Ajay Banga discussing the macro-economic challenge of creating jobs for the next generation in the age of AI, providing the “big picture” behind the hiring slowdowns we are seeing in news headlines.

A few other resources are given at the bottom of this article, besides the references.

References

  1. Times of India: Tech wreck: Job cuts at TCS drag Big 5 IT companies’ net hiring to 17 in 9 months
  2. Ryan Dahl (Creator of Node.js): The era of humans writing code is over
  3. Dario Amodei (CEO, Anthropic): Comments at World Economic Forum, Jan 2026
  4. Morgan Stanley: How AI Coding Is Creating Jobs

More Resources

  1. Sundeep Teki: Impact of AI on the 2025 Software Engineering Job Market
  2. IMF: AI Will Transform the Global Economy. Let’s Make Sure It Benefits Humanity
  3. Business Insider: DeepMind and Anthropic CEOs: AI is already coming for junior roles at our companies
  4. The Times of India: Why Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says engineers “shouldn’t code at all”: Here’s what he thinks matters more
  5. Your Story: Adopt AI or risk becoming obsolete: GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke
  6. GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke: On Copilot and the Future of Software Development
  7. An Interesting Discussion on Reddit, about Dahl’s Opinion

Also published on LinkedIn.

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DPDP Act – Should HRs be Worried?

The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 (the “Act”), is India’s first comprehensive legislation dedicated to safeguarding digital personal data, regulating how entities (Data Fiduciaries) process information while granting individuals (Data Principals) control over their privacy. DPDP is India’s GDPR in some sense, though not as strong as GDPR.

It was enacted on August 11, 2023, and its operational framework kicked in only recently, when the government notified the DPDP Rules on November 13, 2025. As I write this (on January 20, 2026), organisations are in the early stages of a mandatory 18-month phased compliance window, designed to give businesses time to align their systems before the Act comes into full enforcement by ~May 2027, after which strict penalties (up to Rupees 250 crores) will apply.

Most HR departments have considered employee data, including resumes and payroll information, to be company assets for many years. This story is, well, affected by the Act. In this article, I am trying to examine how the Act affects HR Professionals/Employers with respect to the employment particulars/data of employees.

According to the definitions in the Act, your organisation is the Data Fiduciary and the employee is the Data Principal.

DPDP Act India Data Principal and Data Fiduciary - Arunanand T A - HR Bro

What Immediately Changes for HRs?

Offer Letters No Longer Use “Blanket Consent”

A data privacy clause on an employment contract can no longer be hidden/avoided. Now, consent needs to be clear, independent, and reversible. If we are gathering health information for insurance purposes, that must have its own unambiguous “Yes.”

The Landmine of “Legacy Data”

The information we gathered before the law’s passage is covered by the Act. That enormous 2021 resume database? The records of former workers? We are now required by law to send these people a new notice outlining what we have and why. We have to remove it if we don’t need it (disclaimer: this is my reading of the Act; legal experts may have another opinion).

“Legitimate Use” is Limited

The Act is not a free pass, even though it permits processing for “employment purposes” in certain circumstances without express consent. Without strictly obtained consent, we cannot use employee data for secondary purposes (such as internal analytics unrelated to their role or third-party marketing).

Vendor Risk is Our Risk

Many of us outsource payroll, background verification, and health benefits. If the payroll vendor leaks employee data, the Employer/Fiduciary is liable for the penalty, which can go up to Rupees 250 crores. The vendor contracts need an immediate audit to cover the relevant clauses.

Key Deadlines

With the rules notified in Nov 2025, we are in the transition period.

  • Immediate: Map your data. Audit it.
  • ~Nov 2026: Registration of Consent Managers begins.
  • ~May 2027: Full enforcement. By this date, everyone must have re-consented existing employees if their previous consents didn’t meet the new high standards.

Yes, We Need to Act!

Data privacy is now a core competency for HR. We are the custodians of the most sensitive personal data in our organisations. It’s time to audit our folders, update our handbooks, issue privacy notices to our employees/ex-employees, and train our teams. The core idea is to collect only the necessary data from our employees (and not those “just in case” data) and let the employees know the privacy clauses.

Disclaimer: I am not formally educated in law, nor do I have the lawyer-like wisdom to interpret laws of the land. The above is a reading/comprehension of the Act and hence may not be treated as professional advice, and is not comprehensive. Please consult your legal advisor before taking action for changes under the Act. Opinions are personal and may not necessarily reflect the views of my employer(s).

Join the HR Community of HR Bro here: www.hrbro.com

Also published on LinkedIn.

Preparing for your first fresh grad interview

Accepting an invitation from the Placement Cell of XIME Kochi, I, along with six other HR professionals, conducted mock interviews with the 2025 MBA batch on September 20, 2025. Each of the HR professionals was allotted 9-10 students, and the interviews spanned around 3.5 hours in total. We gave individual feedback to students in respective panels, post which all students and panellists gathered, where the HRs shared their wisdom.

I shared a few pieces of instructions. A couple of students approached me after the session, asking if I could write down what I had spoken about or create a video on it. Hence, this article.

XIME Mock Interview Sep 20, 2025
Interactive Session after the Mock Interviews on Sep 20, 2025 at XIME Kochi

To those experienced professionals: there is nothing new in here. This is just basic wisdom and hence scroll away.

To fresh grads: there is nothing in this article that is not available on the web. But in case this helps you be better candidates, that’s gratifying to me.

  1. Research the organisation thoroughly
    • Read the company’s website and recent news.
    • Understand competitors and industry trends.
    • Look for past interview experiences online (LinkedIn, Glassdoor, etc.).

  2. Analyse the Job Description
    • Break it into required skills, responsibilities, and behavioural traits. Use ChatGPT or similar tools extensively for this purpose.
    • Map your college projects, internships, school/college event management or club activities, and skills to these requirements. Leadership experience, if any, write it first.
    • Prepare responses showing how you fit the role.

  3. Master your resume
    • Be ready to explain every point on the resume in detail. Expect a drill-down of whatever you have written on the resume.

  4. Prepare for Behavioural Event Interviews (BEI)
    • Research the potential behavioural competencies for the role you have applied for.
    • Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) approach in your responses
    • Keep answers structured and concise (1–2 minutes max). Do not talk forever; the interviewer may lose interest or lose track.
    • Prepare at least 5–6 STAR stories covering the behavioural competencies for the role, from your personal life, school/college life, and internship stint.

      Some common (not exhaustive) competencies for entry-level roles are:
      • Teamwork and collaboration
      • Conflict resolution
      • Leadership and initiatives during school/college
      • Handling failures
      • Problem-solving under pressure
      • Achieving results with limited resources

  5. Build a strong LinkedIn profile (7-star checklist) + Connect/Network with the right people
    • Professional profile picture. No selfies, please.
    • Headline aligned with your career goals
    • Customised vanity URL (linkedin.com/in/yourname)
    • Strong “About” section with career goals + skills
    • Internship experience listed with bullet points and results
    • Skills endorsed + recommendations from teachers/internship managers
    • Active engagement: post insights, share/write articles, comment meaningfully. You do not need to perform the cringe LinkedIn actions to be visible.
    • Watch this video from Jeff Su.

  6. Customise your resume for each application
    • Highlight the most relevant experiences based on the JD.
    • Keep it concise: ideally 1 page. In PDF, unless specified. Name the file appropriately.
    • Use a professional email ID (ir0ckbutImbad@gmail.com is a no-no)
    • Start with a Summary at the top, rather than a Career Objective. The summary should give an idea of your background to the interviewer in less than 5 sentences. This is, also your selling pitch.
    • Include LinkedIn URL and any other portfolio URLs at the top of the resume
    • Customise your resume for the JD (do not lie, though). Use ChatGPT or similar tools to understand the keywords in a JD and use the relevant (and what you actually have) in your resume.
    • There are a zillion videos on YouTube that tell you how to prepare a resume properly. I personally recommend videos by Jeff Su, or Ali Abdaal. Watch their videos on resume writing, creating LinkedIn profiles, networking, and more.
    • Include a cover letter only if specifically asked for.

  7. Prepare for common HR questions
    • Why MBA/BTech/whatever your course is? Why your specialisation/this role/organisation?
    • Career goals (short-term and long-term).
    • “Tell me about yourself” in 60 seconds. This is your elevator pitch to sell yourself. Do not waste this opportunity. Do not spend time on irrelevant details about you during this time.

  8. Get ready to ask questions at the end
    • Prepare 1-2 thoughtful questions for the interviewer. This need not always be about the salary or location of the job.
    • Example: How does this role contribute to the company’s strategy?

  9. Practice interview delivery
    • Speak clearly, avoid filler words to the extent possible (umm, like). You will need to practise this; it is not an overnight success that you can achieve.
    • Maintain eye contact, upright posture, and a positive tone. Dress for the occasion.
    • Listen carefully before answering. You can take time to think (Steve Jobs style!)
    • Admit honestly if you don’t know something, but show willingness to learn. And be genuine.
XIME Kochi Mock Interview Panelist HRs 2025.09
XIME Kochi Mock Interview Feedback 2025.09
Arunanand T A (HR Bro) receiving a memento from Prof. A S Girish XIME Kochi
Arunanand T A (“HR Bro“) receiving a memento from Prof. A S Girish XIME Kochi

Also published on LinkedIn.

Leaves and Holidays in Kerala IT Companies

  1. Sick Leaves: Up to 12 days in a calendar. It can be less than 12 as well. Maximum 12 is defined in S&CE Act. Lapses on Dec 31 if unused.
  2. Casual Leaves: Up to 12 days in a calendar. It can be less than 12 as well. Maximum 12 is defined in S&CE Act. Lapses on Dec 31 if unused.
  3. Earned (Annual) Leave: 1 day per one month of service. It can be credited as 12 days when someone completes 1 year of service, and then every 30 days, 1 day should be additionally credited. You can also give 1 day/30 days from the beginning as well without having to wait for someone to complete 1 year of service. This is the only leave that is carried forward to the next calendar year. A minimum of 24 days should be allowed to be carried forward (though it can accrue, i.e. go beyond 24 within the calendar year). If someone has more than 24 days of Earned Leave balance on Dec 31, only 24 need to be carried forward to the next year. Companies can, at their discretion, increase this limit to 36, 48 or even more. At the time of exit, this leave balance should be paid to the employee in the full and final settlement (and it is tax-free up to 25 Lakhs). You can pay (per day basic pay * leave balance) for encashment. To arrive at the per day basic pay, you can divide the monthly basic pay by 26.
  4. Holidays: 4 mandatory national holidays (Jan 26, May 1, Aug 15, and Oct 2) + 9 festival or regional holidays = 13 days. If a mandatory holiday falls on a weekend, companies usually give an additional holiday to keep the total holidays as 13 in a calendar year. Companies can decide to allow more holidays. For the 9 festival holidays, companies can provide a larger list of holidays and call them restricted holidays (thereby allowing employees to choose 9 holidays of their liking, totalling the holidays to at least 13).
  5. Maternity Leave: 182 days of paid Leave. This is as per the MB Act.
  6. Sterilisation Leave (for vasectomy and the like): 6 days for men, 14 days for women and it is also a paid leave.
  7. Abortion/Miscarriage Leave: 6 weeks of paid leave.
  8. Paternity Leave: Not mandatory. Companies usually give 1-2 weeks of paid leave.

Also published on LinkedIn and Medium.

Looking for a Managed Payroll Partner in India? Ask these Questions!

[Download the checklist at the end of this article]

Are you looking for a payroll (managed) partner in India? It can be overwhelming as to what aspects to be mindful of in the process.

Here is a set of questions that you can consider to ask the vendors you have shortlisted. Not all of these questions may be applicable to all organisations and not all questions are on this document either.

Below are some abstract set of questions and a detailed set of questions are provided at the end of this article for you to download.

Input and Output

Starting with how the input-output communications occur, their cadence, mode of communication, how results are presented, availability of various reports, pay structuring and support for pay components, monthly or year-end TDS process, etc. can be points of discussion. How about new joiners and leavers?

Admin

Whether the partner allows admin access to the payroll platform to select employees of the client organisation, what kind of reports can be generated by the admin, etc. can be thought of before taking a decision.

ESS

Will employees get access to an Employee Self-Service portal where they can see their pay details, and tax calculations, declare investments, download payslips, submit reimbursements and year-end proofs, etc.? Well, this is important for employee experience and should be considered as a serious point of discussion. Questions like whether there is a mobile app for the ESS is also good question to ask.

Payslips

How customisable are the payslip structure and formats? Can the client organisation’s branding guidelines be followed? What information (such as PF#, UAN, LWF#, PAN, Bank Account#, etc.) can be shown on the payslip?

Integration

Can the payroll partner integrate their tool into the client organisation’s HRIS? How about various documents such as Payslips, Form 16, etc.? Will they appear on the HRIS as well? How about compensation analytics and tax projections?

Compliances

Can the payroll partner take care of EPF/ESI/PT/LWF payments, returns, etc.? How about the other labour law returns/forms to be kept/registrations to be taken? Or, will the client organisation have to engage another service provider for these services?

The list is not close to complete, but here’s a set of questions you can start with.

This article is also published on LinkedIn and Medium

US B1/B2 Visa Interview – Mock Questions to Prepare

If you are going to attend a US B1/B2 interview (or, H1 for that matter), it is natural that you may worry as to what kind of questions you should expect. Below are some sample questions you can expect. Practice them well.

These are not exhaustive. If you have more, please add them to the comments section.

Download the questions here.

Probable US B1/B2 Visa Interview Questions

  1. Which company are you working for?
  2. Where is your company?
  3. What is your company doing?
  4. In which countries do you have offices?
  5. Why do you want to travel to the US or what is the purpose of your travel?
  6. Where are you going to in the US?
  7. How long will you be staying in the US?
  8. Why are many team members travelling to the US? OR, Who else is going with you? OR How many people are going with you from your company?
  9. What is your role in the company?
  10. What are your designation and current role and responsibilities in your company?
  11. Why must you travel when your seniors are not travelling with you?
  12. Where will you be staying?
  13. When did you join the company?
  14. Why is the meeting in the US and not in India?
  15. Can’t this meeting/training be online? OR, I think you can handle these discussions through a video call and do not require a long journey to the US— Isn’t that right?
  16. How long will you stay in the US?
  17. Why do you want to visit <any place other than the office; e.g: if your ticket has a layover and you have personal trip plans within the US>?
  18. Why do you have a longer layover time in <city’s name>?
  19. Show me the training/meeting schedule/plan. OR, Show me the agenda for the week?
  20. Can I see your flight tickets?
  21. Can I see your accommodation reservations?
  22. Can I see your invitation letter from the US?
  23. Can I see the letter from your company showing the purpose?
  24. Can I see the letter showing the purpose of your travel?
  25. What is your experience with the current company?
  26. What is your annual income?
  27. How can you survive in the US?
  28. Can I see your payslips?
  29. Have you ever visited any other country other than home?
  30. Can I see your Business/visiting card?
  31. Do you have a credit card?
  32. Are you married?
  33. Who are there in your family?
  34. Do you have any children? How many do you have? And where are they? What do they do?
  35. Do you have any relatives in the US? Where are they? What do they do? How are they related to you? Do you plan to visit or stay with them?
  36. Will you work while in the US? Or is it going to be just the training/meetings?
  37. Will you come back? OR, do you intend to look for a job while in the US?
  38. How can you assure me that you will come back?
  39. Who will look after your local team in our absence while your entire team travels?
  40. Do you have any plans to extend your stay in the US?

There are zillion YouTubers talking about this topic, and please be mindful of whose channel you watch. This one is good IMO (not an endorsement though).

This article is also published on LinkedIn and Medium.

Another Anniversary in HR: Looking back at things our team is proud of

Today, Jul 27, marks my another work anniversary in the HR function, and the anniversary of my first day at Profoundis—later acquired by FullContact, Inc. I am trying to reflect on some great people matters our leadership and HR teams are proud to have envisaged and implemented over the last few years, besides the usual HR business stuff. Not in order of occurrence, though. The credit goes to our awesome leadership and HR teams across offices of FullContact 🙂

What led us to these decisions/benefits

FullContact takes decisions based on the Core Values it is built on. Our people decisions are mostly based on treating people as independent adults and believing in an accountability-driven organisation than a task-driven organisation. Leaders of  our organisation have shown immaculate allegiance to these two principles while making people decisions. What if it goes wrong has always been part of the decision-making process, but has not been the deciding factor that prevented us from doing something right.

FullContact India got GPTW Certified within 2.5 years of its operation

FullContact India got recognised as a Great Place to Work®

Within 2.5 years of beginning its operations, in 2019, the FullContact India office was recognised as Great Place to Work Certified®. This reflected how our members felt about the organisation as a great place to be at, how our processes aligned to benchmarks that the GPTW team set. We were one of the very few SME IT organisations, back then, to achieve GPTW certification back then in Kerala.

Ask No Payslip Policy

In 2021, FullContact India decided that we would NO LONGER ask for the CURRENT SALARY information, or PAYSLIPS of any candidates. We would just ask them their expected salary, and no documents violating the candidate’s financial privacy would be collected.

FullContact does not ask for payslips from previous organisations

Travel Benefits

FullContact used to offer travel benefits (then called PAID Paid Vacation) that offers both two weeks of paid leave just for travel and a sum of Rs. 1,50,000/- per year to take an actual vacation. Later this was revamped to be called FULLBalance Vacation Benefit with UNLIMITED paid vacation time and a sum up to Rs. 2,15,000/- per year to take the vacation. At the latest, I recently took a trip to Turkey and Azerbaijan, thanks to this policy.

Holidays

FullContact has an unparalleled holiday and leave policy in India among the IT SME organisations of our nature. As I write this, FullContact India employees enjoy double the national average per year as holidays—27 in total in a year. This includes 13 scheduled holidays as per norms in the Holidays Act, ½ Day Fridays during Jul-Sep, and year-end holidays from Dec 26-31. As part of our ½ Day Fridays policy, all the Fridays from Jul 1—Sep 2 are half-day Fridays, meaning we close our work by noon on Fridays and take an early weekend to spend more time with ourselves and our beloved ones.

FullContact offers unparalleled vacation benefits and holiday plans

An extended Leave Policy

FullContact has always tried to maintain a top-notch leave policy. Apart from the typical Sick/Casual/Earned/Maternity/Miscarriage/Abortion/Adoption/Sterilisation leaves, FullContact India also offers:

  • Unlimited Hospitalisation paid leave, for as long as the employees remain in a hospital; this is not to be availed from sick leave or any other bucket
  • Paternity paid leave for 21 days
  • Bereavement paid leave for 14 days
  • Family First paid leave for 3 days to spend time with family for any reason (e.g: celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, just spending time, etc.)

No-leave-approval process

Effective Jan 1, 2022, FullContact India moved from Leave Approvals to Leave Acknowledgements. This means, our paid leave requests are auto-approved and only an acknowledgement will be sent to the reporting managers as FYI. There’s no approval process if Earned Leaves and Casual Leaves are applied for at least 5 calendar days in advance. All Sick, Covid, Hospitalisation leaves, and Bereavement and other sickness/illness-related leaves are auto-approved without any notice requirement.

Unlimited VTO

FullContact, besides our leave policy and holidays, offers UNLIMITED Paid vacation time off for all our members. Our members are able to take any number of days as vacation, besides all the short-term statutory leaves and holidays! We have a formal policy to encourage members to take a MINIMUM of three weeks of vacation per year. The new Unlimited Vacation policy takes care of the other end of the benefit, making it practically and technically unlimited.

FullContact offers unlimited paid vacation time off for all members

Our Benefits

Our awesome list of benefits includes but is not limited to:

  • Health Insurance for family and parents fully paid for by FullContact
  • Accidental Insurance fully paid for by FullContact
  • Life Insurance fully paid for by FullContact
  • Employee Access Program fully paid for by FullContact
  • Equipment reimbursement for people of determination
  • ESOPs
  • FULLBalance Vacation Bonus
  • Monthly work-from-home reimbursement
  • Home office setup cost reimbursement
  • ThankFULL Rewards and Recognition Program
  • SkillFULL Employee Training Program
  • SuccessFULL Career Pathing Program
  • And we are default work remote 🙂

First among the few to close down physical offices when the pandemic hit

I included this in the list since I am proud of the leadership team that unanimously decided to shut down our physical office space until things get back to normal (phew, it took two years for it to be normal) when Covid 19 hit. We were one of the first few offices to go remote—and we went fully remote, permanently so later—when the pandemic hit. Our flexible work policy dueing pre-Covid era that empowered our members to work from home did help us in making this transition with ease.

The guiding light for decision-making was of course the safety and wellbeing of our members. We were also one among the first very few SME IT orgs in the state who incorporated a home office setup cost reimbursement upto Rs. 7500/- which was later increased to Rs. 10,000/-. We also offered (and continue to offer an increased amount of) Rs. 1000/- per month toward home expenses such as the internet charges.

Unparalleled Covid 19 Benefits

Our organisation, like many others, took the decision to stand by our members during the tough times of Covid 19. We released a stream of Covid Benefits for our members and their families. It included sponsoring covid vaccinations for members, spouse, kids, parents and parents-in-law and our members appreciated this benefit.

We also declared 4-day work week in the month of May 2021 for our members to get more time with family and friends during those tough times.

Other Covid 19 benefits included 14 days of paid time off if a member is Covid positive, Covid insurance for all employees if not already covered by the organisation’s group health insurance, employee access program to provide mental support and counselling sessions free of cost—for members and their families, 7 days of paid time off as Caregiver PTO to take care of a family member in case of being Covid positive, two days of additional paid leave for vaccination, salary advance for members affected by Covid, reimbursement of Covid tests, and continuation of salary for six more months in case of an unfortunate Covid death. We also ran the #HealthyFullContact initiative and also put together some Mental Health and Wellness Ideas that our members found useful.

FullContact offered unparalleled Covid 19 benefits to our members

An Inclusive workplace

Developing an inclusive, equitable and diverse workplace has always been one of our prime agendas—though this is a work-in-progress. Our DEI teams across both offices set SMART Goals and work toward making them a reality. This is a picture that our team treasures and gender inclusivity of this magnitude is something that we enjoy having at FullContact. We also offer reimbursement of the cost of equipment used by our members who are people of determination, up to 7500/- in a year.

Compensation Structure with Flexi Benefit Plans

FullContact introduced Flexi Benefit plans to make sure that our employees get to decide, to an extent, how their compensation should be structured. We made sure that we do not inflate CTC for the sake of making it bigger by including components like medical insurance premiums, gratuity, variable bonus, ESOPs, etc. in the CTC—the philosophy was to keep it simple for the employees and prospective employees to give an idea about a fixed compensation.

Also published on LinkedIn and Medium.

Designing a Tax-Efficient Salary Structure in India

There’s so much fuss about the new Code on Wages implementation and how to restructure the compensation to be compliant. While the general guideline is to have at least 50% of the salary as Basic Pay, what if you do not keep it so?

Well, while it is recommended that you keep 50% of the total pay as Basic Pay, even if you do not keep it that way, it should not bother you much. In cases where Basic Pay is less than 50%, then the Basic Pay for calculation of other benefits (such as leave encashments, Gratuity, etc.) should be based on the 50% of the salary. This would mean, effectively, allowances cannot be more than 50%, technically or practically—even if you do not restructure the compensation.

However, with that preface, let’s look at some salary structures that one can probably include while making an offer to a prospective candidate (beware: if you are making changes to an existing employee’s compensation, there are things to be careful about) so that there are tax-efficient components:

Tax-avoidance or tax-escaping is not the way; but tax-efficiency is the one.
  1. House Rent Allowance is IT-exempt subject to the Income Tax rules, upto 40% of the Basic Pay in non-metro cities and up to 50% of the Basic Pay (+DA) in Metro Cities. The exact amount of exemption is the minimum of the following three (though you are welcome to have an even higher amount being shown as HRA in the salary structure, it won’t have any impact on the tax exemption):

    a) Actual HRA received from employer (that is shown on the payslip)
    b) 40% or 50% of Basic Pay (+DA) depending on the nature of the city
    c) Actual rent paid minus 10% of Basic Salary (+DA)
  1. Leave Travel Allowance is IT-exempt subject to the Income Tax rules, and subject to production of proofs as mandated by the Income Tax department. For the exemption to be effective, the payslip should have a component “LTA”. There is no specified limit on the % of LTA, but typically companies follow 5%-8.33% of Basic Pay (+DA) as the LTA amount. List of accepted expenses as LTA proof; note that LTA exemptions are not financial-year based, but based on a block of four calendar years (current block year: 2022-25).
  2. Books & Periodicals Reimbursements: Companies are welcome to include this as a reimbursement component of their total compensation and show it on payslips. They are welcome to provide reimbursement for the books and periodicals that are pertinent to the nature of jobs of the employees, against submission of relevant proofs. While there are no specified limits on this, companies usually tend to keep it in the range of Rs. 1000—2500 per month; senior professionals may be given a higher amount of reimbursement depending up on their role.
  3. Telephone & Internet Reimbursements: Similar on the lines of Books & Periodicals Reimbursements
  4. Fuel and Vehicle Maintenance Reimbursements: This is typically provided to senior leaders in companies, who may have to utilise their cars for business-related intents. Up to Rs. 2400/- per month against proper records of travels and fuel/maintenance receipts.
  5. Professional Development Allowance: Companies can reimburse the cost of courses/training/certification/professional memberships whose expenses are met from the pocket of the employee, against sufficient proofs. Such expenses could be mandated to be directly related to their role at the organistaion and have sane guidelines for which expenses can be considered.
  6. Annual Gift Voucher: Digital or physical gift coupons to the tune of Rs. 5000/- can be given to employees per a financial year, which is income tax-exempt. No proofs are usually required.
  7. Food Coupons: they can be paid in the form of physical or digital coupons/card and are exempt from Income Tax (usually not paid through payroll since cash as such is not being disbursed). No proofs are usually required. Maximum limit per month: Rs. 2500/- depending on the number of days your office operates.
  8. Children Education Allowance: Upto Rs. 100/- per month per child (for a maximum of 2 children per employee) is tax exempt under this category. This benefit can be provided for employees with children only. This does NOT limit employee’s 80C exemption of Children’s Tuition Fees.
  9. Hostel Expenditure Allowance: Up to Rs. 300/- per month per child (for a maximum of 2 children per employee) is tax-exempt under this category.
  10. Uniform Allowance: Applicable if there is a uniform at work.
  11. Include employee/employer contributions such as Corporate NPS
  12. Other means of executive compensation: Executive compensations are another realm, which may include more “benefits” than in the form of “pay components” and hence not delving into those areas now.
Slicing the total compensation at the right measures is the key to a tax-efficient salary structure

Word of caution: While designing the salary structure, the intent should NOT be tax avoidance or tax evasion, but utilising the existing legal provisions to form a tax-efficient structure. In the cases where it is mentioned above that proofs are required, you are still welcome to disburse that part of compensation if the employees do not have proof, but that will attract income tax.

A sample salary structure is provided below (not all of them could apply to you or to a specific employee), for illustration purposes only. Consult your legal team before you implement.

ComponentAmount per monthAmount per year
Basic Pay₹40,000₹480,000
HRA₹16,000₹192,000
LTA₹3,332₹39,984
Internet and Telephone Reim₹1,000₹12,000
Books and Periodicals Reim₹1,000₹12,000
Fuel and Vehicle Maintenance Reim₹2,400₹28,800
Professional Development Reim₹2,000₹24,000
Food Coupons₹2,500₹30,000
Annual Gift Coupon₹0₹5,000
Children Education Allowance₹100₹1,200
Hostel Expenditure Allowance₹300₹3,600
Special Allowance₹10,951₹131,412
Gross Salary₹959,996
Employer Contributions
Employer Contribution to EPF₹4,800₹57,600
Employer Contribution to LWF₹20.00₹240.00
Employer Contribution to NPS₹4,000.00₹48,000.00
Cost to Company (CTC)₹1,065,836
Tax-efficient Salary Structuring: An Example

Here’s the excel sheet with the above salary structure, for download.

Disclaimer: The views in this article are provided personal and for academic purposes only. They need not reflect the views of my employer/previous employer(s).

Images sourced from: unsplash.com

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A definitive guide on not assessing in just 10 seconds if a candidate is hireable

“It comes with experience. I can tell if a candidate is hireable within the first ten seconds of my interaction”, I heard a senior HR professional say this three years ago when I was eavesdropping at the break time of an HR conference in Hyderabad. I was still fresh on the job, with hardly one year of experience, and I wished if I could be like him one day.

Fast forward to 2021. I couldn’t still be like him. I read a few human behaviour books in the interim, read about body languages, did a formal course on BEI and watched some TED/TEDx videos on the subject since interviewing is one of my favourite things to do. As yet, that’s a dream not come true, and I wish it stays that way.

Back in college days

I come from the middle part of Kerala state and went to undergrad college in a nearby district. I was a hosteler where we had inmates from all across the state. Those who know Malayalam would know that the way Malayalam is spoken differs almost every 100km within the state. I had a friend from Malabar region whom I heard, on the first day on phone, speaking to his mom, “Ningal evide poyathanu?” (verbatim: Where did you go?). The word ‘ningal‘ (=you) is treated as a word without respect, except probably in a formal setting, in my area of living. One would easily get offended if I would use that word.

I was assuming that my friend was angry with his mom and I did ask him if everything was alright. To my surprise, he was all cool. When probed, he told me that it is common to use that word, without any lack of respect, in the Malabar region. That was sort of a cultural shock for me. The life thereafter was full of such cultural shocks, different ideas, fighting over ideologies, settling for compromise, understanding that people would have different opinions and that the world is no binary. That understanding, maybe, comes with age and experience.

Each candidate is a story book that’s not to be read in 10 seconds.

Then why?

Every person’s story is different. Very unique in every aspect. We know our story. We may know a few others’ stories as well. That does not mean that we know every story. Humans have a tendency to look for patterns in everything they pursue. We are like a machine learning algorithm where there are preset stories (knowledge so far) which we try to match with the new entrant. Unless and until we have sufficient data to classify the new entrant, the algorithm will fail. That classification is the learning process, which needs sufficient data to process.

Hence it is very important that we provide sufficient time hearing people out. This is the only basic step to remove our own biases in the evaluation processes. We need to hear people out. We should look for what they have done in the past, and most importantly why they have done those, and try to extrapolate it to what can be done. This process takes time and this is why I don’t digest when one says they can assess if a candidate is worth hiring in the first 10 seconds itself!

Interviewer is not a machine, nor is the candidate

Both are humans. Even the most learned machines need at least a dozen inputs to identify patterns for an evaluation. Then how can a human being, with their very limited knowledge—howsoever big one would assume it to be—understand a candidate in a few seconds? That would mostly be a biased opinion, I may think.

As both the candidate and the interviewer are not machines, we need to listen. A candidate may be late to the interview, they may have dirt on their dress, their language may not be perfect, their hair may not be combed, they may have had a gap in their career—how would one know what’s the story behind it without them telling us? What if they have a story that will justify these? If an interviewer is suddenly decides on the hirability of a candidate, that’s way too unjustifiable for the very same reason.

Way forward

Tech interviewers may have a different reason to identify if a candidate is suitable for a role faster, but HR interviewers should spend sufficient time to listen to stories of the people. Candidates are adults with a totally different life story than ours. This is exactly why some great companies have thorough and sufficiently long interview practices, even if the candidate may possibly seem a bit off in the first few minutes. HR interviewer’s responsibility lies in traversing through the story to see if there is a new story the candidate can build at your company. Past predicts the future and history is not a subject learnt in 10 seconds.

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Why should you consider offering Corporate NPS?

Much has been said and written about National Pension System (NPS) already. The intention of this article is to give a quick idea to my fellow HRs in the network as to why this is a great benefit you can offer to your employees. Non-HR folks reading this—check with your HR team to see if this is an option at your organisation if you don’t already have it.

What is NPS?

As the name suggests, it is National Pension System. The Govt. of India introduced it for the central and government employees but a few years ago it was extended for the Private Sector employees (and for any citizen of age 15-65, for that matter irrespective of whether they are employed) as well. It is a voluntary pension fund (+wealth creation fund, I might add). Employees can contribute amounts to the NPS fund which will be invested in equity stocks, government bonds, corporate debts, etc.

When does the pension start?

At the time of maturity, one can withdraw up to 60% of the lumpsum. The balance 40% should be invested in annuity (pension), which will be used to give you pension for the rest of your life. One has an option to put in any percentage above 60% up to 100% to the annuity, too. Here’s an NPS calculator.

Can you tell me a little bit more about NPS?

I will skip that part since numerous websites have already written about it—NPS Trust’s website or Wikipedia can be a starter. There are many youtube videos on the topic too. You should be able to read/watch pros and cons of the scheme.

Each bit that you save now will keep your golden years safer

How are the returns?

Better than EPF in terms of absolute profit from invested corpus, from the stats. Dig in here and here’s Scheme E’s returns. The minimum contribution in a financial year to keep the account active is Rs. 1000/-.

How can I join NPS?

Simple. Join here online. Keep digital copies of your PAN, Photograph, Aadhaar and cancelled cheque/bank account passbook with you. The cancelled cheque/bank account passbook should bear your name.

Is contribution to NPS tax-exempt?

Yes, it is exempt in your 80C (and 80CCC, 80CCD(1)). Plus, there is a special exemption of Rs. 50,000/- for NPS contributions under 80CCD(1B). Contributions to NPS is Exempt-Exempt-Exempt, i.e. tax-exempt at the tie of contribution, tax-exempt on the profit earned on an investment, and tax-exempt at the time of maturity (conditions apply).

Well, is it fully tax-exempt?

Your investment is fully tax-exempt at the time of investment. Your return every year that is being added back to NPS corpus is tax-exempt. Your corpus is, well, hmm… two things: exempt for the part that goes to annuity and the rest (that you withdraw) is not exempt. One cannot say that NPS is fully non-taxable at the time of maturity in that sense.

Now tell me, how’s NPS and Corporate NPS different?

Corporate NPS is NPS whose contributions are made through the employer. Instead of you making direct contribution to your NPS fund, you ask your employer to deduct a certain amount from your CTC and contribute to your NPS.

What’s the advantage of having Corporate NPS?

Contributions made through Corporates are tax-exempt under 80CCD(2) for up to 10% of Basic Pay of the employee. That is, if your annual basic pay is Rs. 10 Lakhs, then a contribution up to Rs. 1 Lakh per year is fully tax-free. This is over and above your 80C, 80CCC, 80CCD(1) and 80CCD(1B). Meaning, you still can invest into NPS on your own as per the above sections and claim those tax-exemptions as well, besides the corporate contributions made.

That’s exciting. How can corporates register for Corporate NPS?

Corporates will have to find a PFM and POP. Ask your HR or Finance team to reach out to them and the rest of the onboarding will be taken care of by them. It will need very minimal involvement by your HR/Finance team. Make sure that you choose the PFMs after due diligence (look at peer feedbacks, return rates, etc.).

NPS is one way of saving money for your retirement.

How can we connect employees NPS ID to our corporate NPS?

You should ask employees to provide their NPS (the same NPS ID—known as PRAN—created for their direct investment shall be used for Corporate NPS contributions as well). Provide these PRANs to your PFM and they will link it to your corporate account.

How does this play with salary structuring?

Corporate NPS contributions usually form part of the employer contributions of the CTC. If your offer/appointment letter allows flexibility of revising the salary structure (perhaps at the request of the employee), this is a great benefit to add. You may even offer a choice for the employee to choose an amount up to 10% of their monthly basic pay to be contributed every month (going above 10% won’t be beneficial in terms of tax-exemption). You may also consider providing this as an additional benefit to the existing employer contributions, if the company financials are good, thereby not touching the gross pay.

If Corporate NPS cannot be offered to your current employees owing to a rigid offer/appointment letter, consider offering this as a choosable perk to future employees. They will love it when they see the returns plus the taxes being saved.

Hey, I see options like Aggressive (LC75), LC50 and such. What are they?

These options indicate how aggressive the investments are. LC75, for example, says 75% of the contributions will be invested in equity, while the balance will be in government bonds/corporate debt funds. LC50 would mean and 50% contribution to equity funds. Though corporates can set the nature of aggressiveness at the start of the Corporate NPS, employees will have an option to set their own aggressiveness (and can even change the PFMs for their own fund) after a stipulated time (~1 year).

If your workforce is generally young, say less than 35 years of age, LC75 would not hurt much. If your workforce is comparatively older, say above 40, it’s safe to stay with less-riskier options such as LC50.

What are the cons of NPS?

There could be multiple legs: NPS is a market-linked product and hence the market fluctuations can affect your returns. You will still need to manage your PMS once in a while to make sure that you have higher/steady returns — this needs manual intervention from the investor. Plus, the government still require the investor to keep at least 40% of the maturity corpus to be invested in annuity, whose returns are not at par with the inflation. More here.

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