People Realised Merit in Joining Companies with Stable Cash Flow: Avadhesh Dixit, Acuity Knowledge Partners

Avadhesh Dixit, the Chief Human Resources Officer of Acuity Knowledge Partners, leads a discussion on the moderation impact in the financial and technology domains.

Can you provide background about Acuity firm, its offerings, and its Indian presence? 

Acuity Knowledge Partners, a pure-play financial research and analytics company, is an offshoot of Moody’s Corporation and a relatively young brand. This company had three entities, Copal Partners, Ampa Research, and Xevo, at the beginning when Moody’s acquired them and integrated them into a single legal entity. 

Acuity Knowledge Partners is a well-rounded firm with around 6,000 employees, predominantly analysts and industry experts. The major sales base is London, followed by New York, Hong Kong, Canada, Dubai, and of late, Australia. Our delivery centres are spread across India,  Sri Lanka, China, and Costa Rica. The majority of our employees, around 4200, work from India, 500 from Colombo, 220-250 employees work from Costa Rica, 200 from China, and around 100 people work from the US, UK, Hong Kong, Canada, and other sales locations. 

Our major offerings include financial services, research, and analytics, investment banking, investment research, lending services, fund management or marketing services, and specialised technology solutions. We offer financial services, research, and analytics as a bundle, and the program is called BEAT custom solutions. This BEAT is primarily based out of Bangalore. 

So, the company mainly hires financial services and technology experts in India and other delivery locations. In financial services, we scout for skilled talents with backgrounds in MBA Finance, Chartered Accountants, Chartered Financial Analysts, and others with exemplary financial skills. 

How is it paying in terms of talent and job opportunities in the BFSI space?

The Job Speak Index shows that IT skills gained traction last year, and there is a huge scope in the BFSI space this year. Beyond the typical IT services, networking and infrastructure management, and cybersecurity solutions, of late, every organisation’s product and service offerings are led by technology. So, we hire experts with experience and background in developing fintech products. 

Moderation has happened not just in the technology domains but also in financial services. This is particularly evident in India, where fintech has gained revolutionary momentum, and startups are at the forefront. 

People increasingly focus on cash and tend to seek robustness in an organisation’s operations. This is tightening the hiring prospects, but the overall financial services in India remain very, very robust. 

Even in the technology sectors, there is no respite in demand for full-stack developers, cybersecurity professionals, information security skills, etc. 

For a considerable period, some of those technical skills are going to be in demand. Similarly, in skills relevant to the financial sector, though some level of moderation is happening, the overall demand prospects look robust and promising.  Most of the moderation had already happened in 2022 and 2021 when the great resignation occurred.  

There is no major shift or moderation in the demand for our service offerings. This is because we are well-diversified in investment banking and investment research, so we get to cover the buying and selling sides. In similar terms, we cover asset managers and lending services. 

By having a diversified portfolio, businesses can mitigate market risks, i.e., even if one set of services may not work out well, the business can bank on the opportunities to sell another portfolio.  

However the cycle is, the business can capture some demand, either at the top end or the bottom end.

Also read: Tier 2, 3 and Rural Cities to Lead Rise in Talent Demand in BFSI Sector: Ruhie Pande, Godrej Capital

Investment Banking, Investment Research, private equity, and corporate consulting and lending services are four notable verticals for us as a company. Beyond that, we will be looking to hire qualified talent with 2-3 years of experience and around six to seven years of experience at the mid-level. Our business is covered under premium financial services and analytics support, which is quite different from business process management companies, and so are skills and competency requirements. 

What did you exactly mean by moderation?

Sourcing technology talent has become easier than ever. This has led to a decline in the offer drop ratio. In the technology domain, only a very few companies have laid off talent, so there is an excess supply. Of late, in the financial sector, people have realised that there is a lot of merit in joining companies that have more stable cash flows and profitability.

Firms like Acuity Knowledge Partners stand out in that case because we are highly profitable and maintain a highly stable, positive cash flow. Against companies struggling with cash flows, we stand in an advantageous position. 

Great resignation was the eye of the storm. We are surely out of the eye of the storm. The storm may still dominate certain specific skills, but otherwise, we are out. Tech talents like cyber security or information security have not experienced moderation to a significant extent because businesses are continuously investing in achieving resilience. 

I think the full-stack developers and those in information security and cyber security continue to enjoy robust demand even now. So there wasn’t a broad brush. 

The candidates’ expectations regarding salaries and the intent to accept the offer and join a company have gone. We must not miss the fact that the offer drop ratios and the compensation expectations have been moderated. 

As it is not a broad brush market, it is hard to paint everything with the same brush. In the tech domain, some skills continue to be very robust, where the compensations may not be moderating in the short term. 

Similarly, Charter Holders, people with great underwriting capabilities, financial modellers, RFP writers, etc., continue to be in very high demand in the financial services domain. But when we evaluate the cues from the overall sentiment of the financial services sector, one can identify the moderation that has happened. 

Can you add colour to the existing talent base in India at Acuity?

Customers are looking forward to strategies that help them optimise their costs. Given this cost consciousness, India would be a promising location for hiring, whether viewed from a strategic angle or a directional perspective.  India is in an advantageous position as it has a skilled talent base and poses a significant cost arbitrage even today. 

So, India’s ability to supply some really good talent complemented by the cost competitiveness will play out in favour of India. 

At Acuity Knowledge Partners, we hire Indian employees to manage the credit appraisal process and lending services, both of which are doing well. Beyond that, the company also does KYC and AML under the compliance stream of services. 

So, overall, the organisation scouts for financially literate people at the CFA level 1, level 2 Chartered Accountants, MBA Finance, Tier 2, Tier 3 campuses, etc. 

Investment Banking, Investment Research, private equity, and corporate consulting and lending services are four notable verticals for us as a company. Beyond that, we will be looking to hire qualified talent with 2-3 years of experience and around six to seven years of experience at the mid-level. Our business is covered under premium financial services and analytics support, which is quite different from business process management companies, and so are skills and competency requirements. 

To be more specific, our firm looks for people with experience in the banking industry, especially on the credit side and private equity, in terms of valuation models and financial modelling. It also looks for people well-versed in investment research, equity research, etc., with exemplary survey programming skills. 

Coming to specialised solutions, we look for people with analytical minds and data science abilities with a Statistics background. 

Can you describe the HR policies of the organisation?

The company has Moody’s legacy when it comes to inclusive HR policies. The company continues to benchmark the best benefit policies, whether medical or life insurance. 

We stay ahead of the curve regarding diversity and inclusion, and one must note that it extends beyond women to cover intergenerational diversity, cultural diversity, etc. We are members of the Pride Circle and spend a lot of time with the LGBTQ community. The company is a vehement, aggressive, and assertive ally of the LGBTQ community. 

What is more important is that our employees lead all these diverse networks and initiatives. There are employee champions for these networks to drive Diversity & Inclusion (D&I).  

Through an intergenerational diversity network, we bring together Gen Y, Gen Z, and Gen X and motivate them to exchange their thoughts. There are a lot of new parents in the team, and to help them with ideas from experienced ones, we have created a network. 

We aim to bridge the gap between campus and the corporate that exists despite the well-laid-out curriculum and educational methods. The Acuity Training Academy offers 6 to 8 weeks of rigorous financial programs around financial modelling, valuation modelling, and credit appraisal.

A lot of BFSI companies are grappling due to attrition. How do you manage that?

Employee engagement is the key. As a firm, we are very well invested in promoting employee engagement, and we have a dedicated 14-15 membered team to take care of employee engagement.

By employee engagement, the place of work and its ethos matter the most to us. The Indian and Costa Rica entities of the firm have received Great Place to Work Certification. We have received several awards when it comes to diversity and inclusion.

We also promote volunteering for social causes by partnering with NGOs in Bangalore and Gurgaon. This contribution to the community creates a sense of purpose and fulfilment in the employee’s minds. 

A combination of volunteering programs, the D & I initiatives, and employee assistance programs help drive employee engagement and positive work culture. 

Also read: Apexon’s Anand Kabra Suggests AI Solutions for BFSI’s Attrition Problem

Did you implement any special policies in the last two years post-COVID-19?

Specifically, mental health issues have become an important consideration after the pandemic. We promote employee assistance programs where they get access to some of the best counsellors and psychiatrists. The employees can approach them directly without seeking approval from managers or HR personnel. This helps them seek support in private. 

We offer psychological counselling beyond work-related issues like parenting. The employees are offered an opportunity to enhance their life skills, like understanding what it takes to be a good parent or a good manager. 

There are also external training programs to create awareness amongst our employees concerning the LGBTQ community.

Can you give us a ballpark on the number of people that you’re looking to hire this year?

If I have to put down the hiring prospect in numbers, Acuity Knowledge Partners will not hire less than 1,500 to 2,000 plus employees at a gross level. Our campus hiring could be anything between 300 to 400 people. 

Even if there is moderation in the market, we continue to grow because of its diversified investments.  That’s the beauty of not putting all your eggs in the same basket.

Sourcing technology talent has become easier than ever. This has led to a decline in the offer drop ratio. In the technology domain, only a very few companies have laid off talent, so there is an excess supply.

How do you see India’s talent ecosystem evolving in the next few years?

India is sitting on a gold mine when it comes to demographic dividends. We have been talking about it for decades. The real challenge is leveraging the demographic dividend from a skilling perspective. Whether it is the financial services, technology, or automotive industries, the real challenge is how well we fine-tune our talent to meet expectations and become accepted by the industry and end customers.  

As the country continues to have a great demographic dividend, our supply side remains very robust. The question is, how do we convert that supply into a qualified supply? By qualified supply, I mean the supply should be skilled and ready to deploy by firms like us and our end customers. This bridging will accelerate the qualified supply. 

Also read: Pandemic Shifts BFSI’s Sought After Skills From DA, AI/ML to Cybersecurity and Cloud-Tech

Acuity training academy does that. It helps impart skills and competencies to enhance the employability and qualification of the supply. All institutions must invest themselves in bridging the gap between what the end customers demand and those available on the supply side. 

About the author: Avadhesh Dixit has 20 years of experience in human resource management at companies in the UK, Ireland, the US, and Europe. Prior to Acuity, he was Vice President and Head of HR at GE Capital Business Process Management Services Pvt Ltd and the GE Capital-State Bank of India JV. Previously, he held HR leadership roles at CMC Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.