Deepika Banerjee is Co-Head of Human Capital Management for Goldman Sachs Services in India, based in Bangalore. She has over two decades of experience in various human capital functions and has also been responsible for talent, employee relations, leadership development and diversity and inclusion for India.
Deepika joined the firm as Vice President in 2015 and was promoted to Managing Director in 2021. Deepika holds a Masters in Business Administration and Psychology and is a trained counsellor. She is also certified in the administration of numerous psychometric tools.
In this exclusive interview, Deepika talks about creating an attractive EVP for distinct competitive advantage, the three pillars of Goldman Sachs’ EVP, investing in the growth of managers as “coaches” and need to evolve from a human-centric employee. centered approach when building an employer brand.
Here are excerpts from the interview.
What does the employee value proposition encompass for Goldman Sachs in India?
In India, we are witnessing major shifts in employees’ attitude and preferences towards work and their motivations. At Goldman Sachs in India, our Employee Value Proposition (EVP) has evolved to respond to these changes not only with competitive compensation and benefits, but also by appealing to employees’ sense of purpose, preference. for growth and their commitment to communities. This allows us to create a distinct competitive advantage through our people and positions us for long-term success. Collectively, the three strong pillars that bring Goldman Sachs’ EVP to life are:
- We strive to provide an inclusive employee experience with a focus on the workforce and operating environment of the future
- We are constantly focused on prioritizing the holistic well-being of our employees through a suite of world-class and differentiated offerings
- We strive to make deep and sustained investments in our people and provide opportunities for learning, growth and community engagement
How are you driving awareness, access, and adoption of offerings within the revamped EVP for existing talent? How is it different for potential talent the organization is looking to hire?
We ensure that our EVP also energizes current and potential employees. Our globally harmonized approach enables a shared understanding of our offerings that turn aspirations into actions. Via Goldman Sachs manager effectiveness frameworkknown as KFCI, we invest in the growth of managers as “coaches”.
We believe that the great managers of the company To know the skills of their team, Focus their impact, Care about them and their contributions, and Inspire them.
Our interregional ‘Leadership Pipeline Review‘ supports our focus on developing a high performing and diverse leadership bench through mentorship, leadership acceleration programs and tailored career development opportunities.
Our commitment to the wellbeing of our employees was reinforced as we introduced new and improved wellness benefits and offerings during COVID 19, such as new leave policies, mental health and resilience programs , opportunities to strengthen financial health and a range of virtual offers to support employee families.
Our recruitment activity in India has gained significant momentum. We hired around 3,800 people in 2021 and over 80% of our Hyderabad-based employees joined us virtually during the pandemic. We continue to take a structured approach to fostering the onboarding of our new hires through cultural orientation programs, leadership connections, manager registrations, buddy programs and mentoring.
Our suite of e-learning resources and tools has enabled new hires to gain a better understanding of the company’s ecosystem and raise awareness of our EVP offerings.
We hold ourselves accountable to an ambitious goal to increase diverse representation at all levels and create an even stronger culture of inclusion within the company. We exceeded our gender diversity target by 50% in our campus analyst recruitment efforts last year in India, and our latest promotion of chief executives is also a testament to this commitment.
Beyond gender, we actively engage and communicate our EVP through all recruitment channels and diverse recruitment programs in India, including initiatives to increase representation of LGBTQ+, disabled and veteran communities. In all of our candidate engagement efforts, we focus on the well-being and growth of our employees. This has broadened our openness and search for diverse talent in new places and new ways, seeking out different backgrounds, backgrounds, experiences and skills.
For many organizations, EVP appears as an afterthought in the face of increasing attrition. What do you think about this?
A well-established EVP is the result of a proactive and intentional approach by a company, not a response to a situation. Our HR strategy in India is closely linked to our business objectives. Being proactive and listening to our people and their holistic growth is a key priority for the company.
Our approach to measuring and understanding the impact of our EVP offerings allows us to understand what our employees perceive as important when considering us as an employer of choice. We leverage short biannual surveys and snap surveys to capture how our employees experience the workplace, allowing us to create an EVP that is deeply rooted in science and people insights.
We give managers the active pulse of employees that helps them with the current sentiment of their teams, to meet current needs. Our “Three Conversations at GS” framework emphasizes managers as coaches and makes them accountable for the overall development of the team. Our employee outreach efforts create multiple touchpoints with employees to assess our EVP, with the goal of improving the employee experience.
What do you think are the top three factors a company needs in its employer brand today?
To create an employer brand, organizations need to move from an employee-centric approach to a human-centric approach, which focuses on employee experiences both in and out of the workplace. The three main factors that positively influence the employer brand are:
- Connect with a shared vision and purpose: Commitment to excellence is a mindset that permeates our firm. It provides information on the type of people we attract, the advice we give and the way we strive to meet the expectations of our customers. As organizations continue to diversify their hires and find ways to best engage their talent, companies need to unite people toward a common goal.
- Focus on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion: The strength of the employer brand depends on a diverse workforce and an inclusive work environment. Goldman Sachs attracts diverse and talented candidates and democratizes access to opportunities. Our ambitious diversity goals, talent development programs, diversity retention initiatives and inclusion networks are examples of how our diversity efforts have evolved into a more deliberate, on data and targeted.
- Focus on delivering aligned employee experiences: Employees need to see the employer brand in action throughout the employee experience. At Goldman Sachs, the focus on experience begins even before an individual becomes an employee. Then, we prioritize how best to develop, retain and reward our people to support their ambitions. Finally, we cultivate opportunities for our employees to have a positive impact on our customers and our communities.
Every investment made should be an investment to improve the employee experience within the company and the impact they create in the communities they live in and operate in.
Employee well-being and engagement are top of mind for organizations around the world as they improve the employee experience for their distributed workforce. What risks do organizations run if they lose focus on these elements as they allow the return to the office?
Our people are at the heart of everything we do. At Goldman Sachs, we have adopted a multi-pronged strategy to provide a safe and healthy workplace onboarding, underpinned by robust, technology-driven safety and wellness protocols, and a vibrant campus enabling employees to connect, collaborate and celebrate.
Our deeply rooted culture of learning is reflected in the way employees engage and partner across teams to create the best products or services for our customers. It’s the secret sauce that sets us apart.
Our goal is to ensure that our newcomers have the same learning, learning and growth opportunities as our permanent employees. Engagement efforts, for both new hires and permanent employees, are designed to experience the company culture and celebrate a sense of community.
It’s important to remember that without an energizing and empowering employee experience, organizations can end up significantly undermining the complexity and depth of the challenges ahead when it comes to building a culture.
What advice would you give to organizations looking to redesign their EVP? What can’t they miss and what should they watch out for?
Organizations must start by recognizing that there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to creating a credible EVP. Beware of assumptions about what employees value, focus on research, to identify key pillars of EVP. Employees should be involved from the start, in order to gather essential information and gain advocacy. At the same time, it is essential to develop a thorough understanding of the talent landscape and changing candidate preferences.
Finally, organizations must ensure that the EVP acts as a strategic lever for all the defining moments of its employees’ experience, which advances the company’s vision and sets the organization up for success.
