Venkatakrishnan Subramaniam

A multinational banking and financial services company headquartered
in London. It operates a network across 70 countries and employs around 87, 000 people.

Key Responsibilities
• To drive people strategy and interventions for 6200 staff in the region through country HR teams with particular focus in key markets of Kenya, Uganda, Botswana, Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana.
• To manage people productivity in business through effective spans of control, staffing ratios, incentive scheme effectiveness and performance management.
• Accountable for leadership development in the region for both the businesses through effective skills matrix planning and talent management.
• Central point for pivoted HR Analytics for business in the region to drive people agenda to retain business effectiveness.

Key Achievements
• Established continuous learning platform for Operations unit by setting up a Learning Academy for the region which covers training and upskilling from entry level officer to Middle management.
• Delivered the strategy transformation agenda for Retail Banking unit involving 2800 job role changes in the region to align it with business strategy
• Spearheaded the realignment of retail strategy across 8 markets in Africa involving a project cost of $18m to right size 600 jobs roles in the region. Project delivered within timeline realizing cost saves.
• Designed and delivered the Priority Relationship Managers capacity model up till 2018 that tracks for headcount growth interlocked with business growth.

Located in Ghana, managed a total head count of 1800+ staff in Group Technology & Operations (GTO)
through remote HR teams spread across 15 footprints in Africa.

Key Responsibilities

* Drive robust performance management process across 15 markets with regional, country and unit
level analytics to ensure reward mechanism is optimally utilized and line management take ownership
of reward decisions
* To develop leadership talent in Africa region for senior roles in the unit. Establish effective
succession plans to reduce leadership vacuum.
* To develop a poor performance framework for the region which lay stress on proactive management
of performance and risk for the bank in managing staff to mitigate grievance / litigation.
* Manage headcount budget for the region in accordance with projected business volumes.
* Drive market compensation alignment across the region in line with competitor reward structure to
remain relevant and to contain voluntary attrition

Key Achievements

* Developed a three year strategic roadmap for getting the basics right, generating people ownership in
line management and developing talent in the region through multi pronged approach.
* Established the regional structure for Africa GTO with Regional CIOs roles for East, West and South
which will be the feeder role for Africa CIO in future.
* Developed robust and active CIO succession plan for the region with more than 50% inclusion of
talents and with a 30% representation of women leadership as probable successors. 5 CIO
placements in three years were made by keeping the succession plan active through right
development.
* Conceptualized and launched the pan Africa learning roadmap for the region - G2G, (GSSC to
Group) covering all GTO employees to upskill them technically along with soft skill orientation.
Operations unit experienced enhanced productivity (8%) and reduction in operational losses in the
region post the roll out.
* Developed and delivered people strategy for Regional Data Center and Shared Service Center
business process migration that impacted 140+ staff in Ghana. Reduced the project cost impact on
account of redundancies to the optimal level (USD 6.7 mio to USD 3.55 mio) through multiple
stakeholder engagement to ensure project viability resulting in shortened project payback.
* As a member of country leadership team in Ghana, resolved wage mandate issues to deftly
maneuver union negotiations.
* Designed a talent framework to cross pollinate staff across the region and in the group for successful
development and deployment of talents in key roles. 35 placements effectively achieved during the
period 2013-2014 resulting in strong second line to leadership roles.
* Promoted to next grade while under international assignment in 2014.

Key Responsibility
• To drive HR process across India for the business units
• Fully responsible for employee engagement and talent development and retention
• Rewards benchmarking of market data against relevant comparators to deliver the rewards strategy for the business unit.
• Drive robust performance management process across the country and initiate appropriate action to ensure business units remain productive.

Key Achievements
• Project lead for business transition of Standard Chartered Finance Limited (SCFL), Operations unit (A subsidiary of SCB, India) involving 1100 employees to be migrated to two different entities SCB and Scope International. Designed and implemented the harmonization strategy of the two business units across India spanning 30 cities and successfully accomplished migration.
• Successful completion of compliance framework on Secondment process for the SCB and its six Subsidiaries in India as part of the Central Bank - RBI compliance requirement.
• Drive productivity in the unit across India through implementation of ESAU, a productivity metrics tool to measure performance and drive right behavior
• Designed and developed the first ever Total Reward Module in the country which is used as a desktop reference for all employees in the Bank on Reward and Benefits.
• Conceptualized and rolled out various employee engagement measures like TL Speaks, Prism, Nurture, People Stories, Meet the Mentors and CwJ resulting in progressive Gallup Q12 employee engagement scores for the unit across the years. Engagement scores moved up from 3.94 to 4.36.
• Ensured alignment of HR tools and processes as per SCB Group / India strategic model in SCFL subsidiary.
• Moved to Mumbai in 2008 from Chennai on Promotion to Head the business units.

Key Achievements
• Successfully completed Scope International demerger to Standard Chartered Finance Limited (SCFL) involving 1300 plus employees and setting up Operations unit under SCFL brand.
• Handled rewards portfolio for the unit in implementing performance (P3) process in SCFL. Travelled across the country to conduct roadshows to employees and line managers to institute the process.
• Introduced continuous learning platform for employees thru CAIIB / JAIIB enrollment to create organic growth opportunities for talents.
• Designed and rolled out Reward & Recognition (RnR) program across the country as part of employee motivation module.
• Successfully rolled out Great Managers Program (GMP) in SCFL and hosted the mega GTO Awards Nite at Chennai covering 2500 employees and Chaired by Group Executive Director.
• Aligned Gallup Q12 process from Pen and Paper to Online mode to be in line with the Group global standard.
• Promoted in 2005 to Head the division pan India.

Scope International, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Chartered Bank, UK Plc, with its presence in India, Malaysia and China. Scope handles a wide range of value-added and complex banking Operations support to the bank globally.

Key Achievements

* Successfully completed the special project to institutionalize statutory framework for Scope
International for all 13 locations in the country and to all subsequent new 10 locations across India.
* Handled all labor inspections across the country and ensured nil NCR
* Deftly completed the payroll migration from external vendor Mafoi to TalentPro without any slippage
in service and payroll error.
* Handled Credit Cards unit migration for 145 staff from outsourced vendor to Scope International and
subsequent migration to Chennai Head office
* Handled Centralization and CMS migration across the country involving 110 staff

A niche software solutions provider for contact centers. Channel partners for Avaya and Lucent
Technologies, USA. Total employee base of 380 staff.

* Core skill set resourcing for contact center and Telephony
* Conceptualized VOTE a forum for employee engagement
* Special project to develop Training framework as part of CMM Level 4 certification
* Introduced resource tracking inventory for enabling resource optimization for project allocation
* Created skill sets repository for project management

A conglomerate of Sakthi group companies worth USD 250 million based in Coimbatore, India.

Campus placed in HR department post HR specialization as Management Trainee. Promoted as Officer
HR post the training period. Managed general HR functions for the Non banking finance arm of the
Group.