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Dr. Jude Xavier

Dr. Jude Xavier: Aiming to bring a Positive Change in the Global HR realm

Jude Xavier is a Behavioural Psychologist, Psycho Analyst, Certified PeopleSoft Recruiter, and Certified Recruitment Analyst with more than two decades of Human Resources Experience in the Manufacturing, BPO, IT and Banking sectors. He is currently the Vice President & Head of Human Resources at Apexon previously known as Technosoft Corporation. In his last position, Jude was the Assistant Vice President of Human Resource at Polaris Software Ltd., the world’s first CMMI Level 5 Company. Prior to that, he was associated with AIG Systems Solutions as the Head of Recruitment & Employee Relations. At Mphasis, an EDS Company, he was heading the PAN India for Recruitment and he has a wide industry experience of working with many leading MNCs like KONE Elevators, Trigent Software, Virtusa and Scope International Standard Chartered Bank. Jude holds a Doctorate in Social work and he has done his Master’s in Social work from Loyola College with a specialization in Human Resources and Bachelors in Psychology from Presidency College. He holds Post Graduate Diploma in Human Resource Management from Pondicherry University, Diploma in Business Administration from National Council for Labour Management, Diploma in Business & Managerial Psychology from Board of Professional Psychologist and Diploma in Counselling Association of Professional Psychologist.

Apart from holding a high Pedigree in Education, Jude is also a member of various professional bodies like the National Institute of Personnel Management, the Indian Society for Training & Development, the Board of Professional Psychologists, and the Human Capital Institute, USA. He is also the key member of the HR member forum for NASSCOM and a guest speaker in almost all HR forums. Apart from this, he is also on the Advisory Board for many educational institutions for designing the curriculum for HR & coaching of Students.

Jude has been awarded as “50 Most Talented HR Tech Leaders of Asia Pacific at the HRM Congress 2015 which was held in Bangalore, and it is a very prestigious award which is also known as the “The HR Technology Award”. Consecutively, he has also been awarded as the “50 Most Innovative HR Tech Leaders in India” by the World HRD Congress in 2016 and in 2017 he had received the Award for Most Influential HR Leaders in India. Later in 2018, he has also received the Award for 50 Best HR Minds in India and in 2019 he was awarded as “The HR Professional of the Year” by Human Capital of India. Apart from the above Awards Jude had received very prestigious Awards in the year 2021 “10 Most promising HR in IT Sector by Silicon India”,” Most Innovative HR Tech Leaders in India, Times Ascent”,” Top HR Innovators – Asia Pacific HRM Congress. In 2021”, and “Dynamic Business HR Leader Award – FAMA 2021”

Jude has also been instrumental in driving Technosoft to greater heights by guiding them to be recognized as “The 100 Best Companies for Women” Award in 2016 and “Chennai Best Employer Brand Award” in 2017. During the Covid19 pandemic, Jude had made Technosoft proud by driving the company to get the most prestigious Award “Tamil Nādu most promising Brand Award” & “National Best Brand Award” for 2020. Subsequently he took the company to greater heights by getting the most prestigious Award in the HR Function “Top 100 Organization with Innovative HR Practices”

When asked about what are the most important traits that have helped him in his journey as a pioneering HR professional, Jude says, “Any HR leader should know what are the right things to be implemented for his company and one should also be able to take up different roles like being an Eternal peace maker, the Coach, the Referee, the seasoned Guide, the Cheer Leader, and the class Monitor. And on some occasions, you should be able to handle multiple roles at once and being able to adapt myself to changing situations has helped me to bring unique value additions to all the different organizations that I have served over the years. Even for Apexon, I have been able to build the brand image and grew Apexon from 200 to 5000 and stabilized the company”.

Our Exclusive Interview:

1. What the HR needs to do in order to drive more value in the VUCA world?

Human Resources should be ready to adapt to change and the sheer agility and fungibility in the modus of operations and the speed of adaptation/change management will aid to drive the values in these VUCA times.

2. How have you leveraged technological innovation, particularly with resourcing and recruitment?

In times of technology advancement, Talent acquisition should embrace technology in the hiring process, attracting the talent pipeline of the Millennials and Gen – Z. Artificial Intelligence is the most sought need of the minute.

3. As an HR Leader, what are the key deliverables that can be instrumental for a firm to be successful?

The investment on the Human capital comes of utmost importance in any segment of business. As a Human Resource professional, I will have a keen eye to invest, engage and develop in the Human Capital.

4. We have heard a lot about D&I, what does it mean to you and what are you doing about it?

D&I is a huge canvas and has to be looked beyond metrics. The organization’s culture has to be interwoven to be inclusive and diversified.

I strongly believe, it is high-time for us to look at D&I beyond gender diversity and bring diversified thoughts on the D&I spectrum. Some of the other avenues we have to consciously invest is to look at LGBTQ+, Multi-generational workforce, Military veteran workforce, etc.

5. What are some of the key drivers that you see as an HR that is actually driving the business growth and success?

I would broadly categorize the key aspects into 3 major drivers

a. Leadership – Directional and visionary

b. Performance Management – Weaning away from traditional methodology to truly value the performers with the right motivating factors

c. Engagement – Invest in the human capital

6. The role of HR leaders has changed over the years. How do you see the role of HR leaders evolve by 2025?

At these times of VUCA, I feel we really should not go the traditional vision, rather equip oneself to be truly fungible to handle any changes.