Talent Acquisition

Our Talent Acquisition (TA) function continues to evolve into a dynamic, AI-enabled, and analytics-driven process, enabling swift, data-informed decisions. We remain focused on being an employer of choice, driven by a differentiated hiring strategy that delivers superior candidate experiences and builds future-ready capabilities.

Agility and Scalability in Hiring

In FY 2024-25, we enhanced the scalability, speed, and alignment of our hiring processes with business priorities through the following initiatives:

Agile Offer Processes: Enabled faster time-to-hire by issuing offer letters for high-priority roles based on pre-approved grids for each Business Unit (BU)
Advanced Sourcing Strategies: Leveraged AI-powered tools for talent matching and pipeline development, resulting in 60% hires through direct sourcing, 14% through members referral and 26% via vendors
Streamlined Interviewing: Limited interview rounds to two, focusing on assessing candidate potential, cultural fit, and past performance
In-Person Final Interviews: Shifted most final rounds to in-person to deepen candidate engagement and strengthen rapport

Stakeholder Collaboration: Conducted regular calibration meetings with BUs to align on skill needs and market-relevant compensation
Post-Offer Candidate Engagement: Introduced project and client panel interactions post-offer to drive higher acceptance
Enhanced Candidate Experience: Trained interviewer panels on professionalism, empathy, and timely communication. Candidate feedback loops were institutionalized for continuous improvement, resulting in higher joining ratio
Geo-Aligned Vendor Partnerships: Built strategic relationships with local vendors to support global hiring, especially for niche and hard-to-fill roles

Technology and Innovation

We continue to embed technology and innovation across our recruitment lifecycle. By leveraging AI and analytics, we automate key hiring processes to improve efficiency and decision-making. The launch of virtual talent communities helps us engage passive candidates and build continuous talent pipelines. Additionally, the use of interactive assessments and digital onboarding tools enhances both candidate experience and process effectiveness.

Equal Opportunity and Inclusion

Happiest Minds remains committed to equal employment opportunities, maintaining fair and unbiased practices across all levels without discrimination on race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, or ability. We track diversity metrics rigorously, publishing quarterly dashboards reviewed by the Executive Board.

302

Women onboarded, contributing to an overall diversity hiring ratio of 26.6%

Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives

We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workforce through targeted, measurable actions:

BU-Led Diversity Goals: Business Units drive diversity targets through hiring campaigns, hackathons, and campus/lateral recruitment, with quarterly progress shared with leadership
Inclusive Hiring Training: Recruiters and managers undergo regular training on unconscious bias and inclusive hiring practices

Leadership Diversity: TA focuses on increasing diversity in leadership roles, aligned with succession and development plans
Boomerang Hiring: Former Happiest Minds can rejoin through a simplified, fast-tracked process with minimal interviews

Future-Ready Hiring Process

Our hiring approach is designed to be future-ready, with a strong focus on recruiting talent in emerging technology areas such as AI, cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data science to meet evolving business demands. In parallel, we actively support upskilling and internal mobility programs, ensuring continuous talent development while complementing it with strategic external hiring.

Key Talent Acquisition Highlights

Global Reach: We hire in about 17 countries globally, with our TA team present across 8 different locations
Campus Commitment: All campus offers were honored
Leadership Hiring: Successfully onboarded 32 leaders
TA Alignment to Outcomes: Introduced incentive-linked performance metrics for the TA team
Tech Panel Engagement: Introduced incentives for tech panels to drive timely interviews and quality assessments
Global Referral Policy: Implemented a unified referral policy — any member can refer to any position, regardless of job location