Now imagine keeping them sharp, skilled, and hungry for success in a dynamic, ever-changing market. That’s the challenge Alkem faces, and it’s a challenge they’re winning through a training strategy as dynamic as the market itself.

“Equipping our salespeople isn’t a one-time thing,” explains Dr. Rajorshi Ganguli, Alkem’s president and global  HR head. “It’s an ongoing journey.”  That journey starts with a bootcamp. A thorough induction programme followed by the in-depth Basic Training Programme (BTP) equips new recruits with the essentials: product knowledge, core selling skills, and the medical insights crucial for navigating the complexities of the pharmaceutical world.  These immersive programmes, conducted face-to-face, ensure salespeople hit the ground running, prepared to tackle anything the market throws their way.

But the market is a fickle beast. What works today might not work tomorrow. That’s why Alkem prioritises continuous improvement, constantly seeking feedback and refining its programmes. Remember that time doctors had less time for lengthy pitches? Alkem saw the shift and equipped their salespeople to deliver their message effectively in those shortened windows.  Evaluation methods such as video recordings of simulated interactions allow trainers to provide targeted feedback, ensuring every interaction is a masterclass in salesmanship.

“Long-term behaviour change is our ultimate goal. We track engagement and key metrics annually, and every programme undergoes rigorous assessment to ensure it delivers the results we need.”

Dr. Rajorshi Ganguli, president and global HR head, Alkem Laboratories

Alkem understands that classroom sessions can only go so far. Enter ‘Alkepedia,’ a mobile app offering a universe of learning resources at your fingertips. From bite-sized updates to quizzes and even gamified modules, Alkepedia keeps the salesforce engaged and sharpens the skills honed during initial training.

The focus on continuous improvement isn’t just for the new guys. Alkem recognises the importance of strong sales leadership.  That’s why they’ve partnered with SP Jain Institute of Management to offer the Sales Leadership Programme, a rigorous programme designed to transform high-potential sales managers into sales superstars.  This programme caters to specific needs, with first-line and second-line managers getting tailored programmes developed in collaboration with business managers to address real-world challenges faced by their teams.

But Alkem isn’t just about sales. The 20-25 per cent of their workforce dedicated to manufacturing and R&D benefit from a robust training infrastructure as well. New hires undergo Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) training, ensuring they’re compliant with pharmaceutical regulations before they even touch a machine. Refresher programmes further solidify these protocols, guaranteeing consistent and high-quality production.

Alkem’s Technical Training Academy in Daman acts as a central hub for all technical training programmes across their manufacturing sites. This academy offers both on-site and remote training options, catering to diverse skill levels with programmes such as ‘Shop Floor Ki Pathshala’ which provides engineering and production-related training, keeping everyone up-to-speed on the latest digital machinery.

And because the world of work is constantly evolving, Alkem acknowledges the need for continuous skilling and reskilling across all levels.  For senior management, they offer premium executive development initiatives in collaboration with prestigious institutions such as IIMs. These programmes leverage a hybrid model, allowing busy professionals to learn and grow at their own pace. Additionally, Alkem curates personalised online learning opportunities through partnerships with various online platforms.

But Alkem isn’t content with just throwing information at their employees. They’re embracing cutting-edge technology to make learning more engaging and effective.  Imagine interacting with holograms of machinery and simulated shop-floor environments!  That’s the power of augmented reality (AR), and Alkem is incorporating it into its training programmes, fostering self-guided learning and a deeper understanding of complex concepts.

Alkem’s commitment to training doesn’t stop at the end of a programme. They employ a multi-pronged approach to evaluate effectiveness.  Immediate feedback is collected after each session, while some programmes utilise pre-tests and post-tests to assess knowledge acquisition.  Department heads also provide feedback after a set period, allowing the company to gauge the impact of training on identified performance gaps.

“Long-term behaviour change is our ultimate goal,” concludes Ganguli. “We track engagement and key metrics annually, and every programme undergoes rigorous assessment to ensure it delivers the results we need.”  Alkem Laboratories isn’t just building a sales powerhouse; they’re building a future-proof workforce, one skilled, motivated, and ready to take on any challenge the market throws their way.

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The decision follows a similar decision made a year ago when the company downsized its workforce by 10 per cent, letting go of approximately 8,000 employees. At that time, the move was driven by investor pressure to trim expenses.

Salesforce, renowned for its cloud-based customer- relationship management software, is adapting its workforce in response to the dynamic nature of the tech landscape. The reduction comes amidst similar challenges faced by various tech companies, leading to a series of industry-wide layoffs.

Notably, this announcement comes just a day after Microsoft’s decision to lay off 1,900 employees within its gaming division, a move that affected Activision Blizzard, which was acquired not long ago.

Last year, in November, Salesforce provided upskilling opportunities for women across several countries, including Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and India. The company surpassed its commitment to offer 5,00,000 upskilling opportunities to women under the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF) upskilling initiative.

Initiated by the US Department of Commerce in September 2022, this programme aimed to provide women in the Indo-Pacific region with access to digital skills training, fostering sustainable and inclusive economic growth.

In its inaugural year, Salesforce had already delivered over three million opportunities and expanded its upskilling initiatives to various countries, including India. In India, Salesforce partnered with key organisations such as NASSCOM to provide training on Salesforce through the NASSCOM Future Skill Prime Portal.

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The compnay drew attention to the significant talent pool available in India and how important skills are in making a difference. It expressed delight in collaborating with the Ministry of Education to support skill development, emphasising the power of collaboration in driving positive change.

The programme will offer course content recognised by the National Occupation Standards and relevant to the industry, as stated in a press release from Salesforce.

Additionally, the initiative will involve training sessions for educators, mentorship and connections to job opportunities with Salesforce partners and customers seeking skilled individuals. The programme will also provide students with virtual internship opportunities.

The Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Department is teaming up with Salesforce on the SWAYAM platform to enhance students’ employability. The ministry is confident that the collaborative effort to create a comprehensive programme will empower students with essential job-market skills. It believes this partnership will benefit individuals and contribute to overall personal growth.

As per the company’s official statement, training modules on Trailhead, a free online learning platform of Salesforce, will be tailored to meet the programme requirements outlined by the Ministry of Education, its affiliated departments, organisations and agencies. This customisation is expected to ensure that learners derive maximum benefit from these programmes.

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Now, however, the company is looking for talent in the areas of engineering, sales and data cloud. It is no doubt encouraged by the $8.6 billion it generated in sales during Q2 of 2023. This was 11 per cent higher than the same time last year. Recently, the company raised its expected revenue for the financial year from $34.5 –$34.7 billion to $34.7 – $34.8 billion.

At a recent event, Salesforce unveiled a range of new products and also launched new partnerships.

A subsidiary of Salesforce, Slack is also reported to be seeking new talent. Like Salesforce, it is also considering rehiring some of its workforce let go earlier. Slack is working on expanding its product-development engineering team with a focus on generative artificial intelligence (AI).

The firm has just launched its AI platform, Einstein 1, that ensures safe connection of any data to build AI-powered applications.

Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce, has been open in his appreciation for its India team and the way the team members have expanded the engineering centre in the country. He has admitted that the firm’s growth in India has been much beyond expectations.

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 Furthermore the company has plans to eliminate around 8,000 positions by the end of fiscal year 2024, as per Bloomberg reports. However, the spokesperson declined to comment on the possibility of further layoffs in other countries or divisions in the future.

During the start of 2023, Salesforce disclosed its intention to dismiss 10 percent of its global workforce, resulting in around 7,000 people losing their jobs across the world. The process of carrying out these layoffs, which occurred through a two-hour video call, received extensive media coverage. Unfortunately, Salesforce employees are facing another round of job cuts, this time affecting individuals in the sales and customer success departments.

In a letter, Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce, announced the initial phase of job cuts for its employees. The letter cited challenging economic conditions and a more cautious approach by customers in their purchasing decisions as the reasons behind the decision. Benioff emphasised that for those impacted by the layoffs, the company’s priority is to provide comprehensive support, which includes a generous severance package. 

Impacted employees of the US, will receive five months’ pay, along with health insurance, career assistance, and other benefits to aid in their transition. Employees outside the U.S. will also receive similar support, with the company’s processes aligning with the employment laws in each respective country.

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In a letter to employees, Marc Benioff, co-CEO, Salesforce, stated that customers have been more ‘measured’ in their purchasing decisions given the challenging macroeconomic environment, which led Salesforce to make the ‘very difficult decision’ to lay off workers.

Reportedly, the cloud-based software company announced that it expects to incur charges of between $1.4 billion and $2.1 billion as a result of the job cuts on Wednesday. Additionally, it also revealed that around $800 million to $1 billion charges are expected to be recorded in the fourth quarter.

Salesforce ended the third quarter with nearly 80,000 employees, an increase from around 70,000 the previous year. In a quarterly regulatory filing, the company stated that it had hired more staff during the pandemic. It also revealed that the headcount had grown by 32% since October 2021 in response to higher demand for the company’s services from customers.

On Wednesday, Salesforce’s shares rose by 3%. However, over the course of 2022, the company’s shares lost about half their value due to four consecutive quarters of slowing growth.

The company seems to be walking in the shoes of several other big names, including Meta Platforms and Amazon. Both the companies reduced their workforce over the past year in anticipation of an economic downturn as global central banks have raised interest rates to combat high inflation.

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The enterprise software company has witnessed some changes in its leadership ranks. To add to that, there is pressure from investors to become more profitable. Amidst the economic slowdown and uncertainty, the Company is struggling to meet sales targets too. Not surprisingly, therefore, the Company’s employees are fearfully awaiting their pink slips, as per a Business Insider report.

These job cuts are part of a cost-cutting exercise.

During the November round of layoffs, Tech Crunch had reported that activist investor, Starboard Value had pointed out that Salesforce’s profitability was 13 to 14 per cent less than expected. At the time, the focus was on improving operating margin, for which cost-cutting measures were resorted to.

Employees had reportedly sniffed a cultural shift in the organisation and had labelled the layoffs as performance-based weeding.

According to a Protocol report last month, Salesforce had modified its internal policies so that managers could conveniently fire employees on the basis of their performance. The policies had been altered so that the HR was spared from getting involved.

Earlier, it was a norm to put employees through performance-improvement plans (PIP) and terminating them only if they failed to improve post the PIPs.

The sales personnel who were laid off in November were given two months’ severance.

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With ‘accountability’ being a significant part of the sales performance, this round of layoffs appeared to be inevitable as per the Company. As per a Protocol report, about 90 contractual employees were laid off earlier and the Company has frozen hiring till next year. While many will be asked to leave basis their unsatisfactory performance, many others would be put under a month’s review post which they would be let go.

As per statements given to various media, the Company intends to support the impacted employees who, the Company claims, are less than 1,000 in number.

The workforce strength of the Company had grown 36 per cent over the last one year, in keeping with the surging demands of customers.

Salesforce, the cloud-based customer-management software, serves clients across industries. Throughout the pandemic it managed to generate high revenues and even acquired Slack, the messaging platform about a year ago.

In 2022, however, it has been trying to minimise spending, and had slowed down hiring and cut down on travel too to do so.

It is reported that Starboard Value, the activist investor may be pressurising Salesforce to improve profitability, which is presently said to be at least 13 per cent less than expected. The first step towards improving the situation would naturally be to curtail expenditure, a fact that Salesforce had realised a while ago.

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The US-based tech company, with offices across Pune, Mumbai, Jaipur, Gurugram, Bengaluru and Hyderabad, had hired significantly in India, during the pandemic in 2020, taking its employee strength from 2,500 to about 7,500.

According to PTI, Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairperson and CEO, Salesforce India feels that it is possible for employees to collaborate effectively and experience a sense of belongingness only if they work closely with the employees. Therefore, she is expecting to see more employees returning to offices.

In February 2021, Salesforce had decided to allow its employees to choose from three ways of working — flexible, fully remote and office-based. At the time, the cloud computing company had indicated that returning to a 9 to 5 workday routine seemed impossible.

The ‘flex’ option allowed employees to work from office for a few days in a week, wherein they could organise meetings with team members or customers, or work together on various projects. A majority of the workforce at Salesforce is expected to follow this work model.

The ‘fully remote’ model allowed employees to work from home or remotely and never coming into office, whereas the ‘office-based’ model was to be followed by those employees whose presence at the office at least for four days a week is a requirement of their job roles.

With the new expansion plans, it is reported that the Company will primarily focus on banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector and then also look at manufacturing, services and social service sectors.

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As the name suggests, the contest allows the top performers or insurance advisors an opportunity to win their own homes. This unique initiative has had two benefits. Not only has it pushed employees to go the extra mile and overachieve their targets, but it has dramatically reduced attrition in the salesforce by 50 per cent.

It is Policybazaar’s belief that loyalty has to be earned by the Company.

Launched in 2020, the Jeeto Apna Ghar contest recognises the insurance advisors who overachieve their yearly targets. The best 30 per cent insurance advisors were eligible for this contest, out of which 300 advisors were given lottery tickets basis their performance in FY21-22. These shortlisted performers won cash prizes from a Rs 3 crores pool. Each of the five winners was presented a house worth Rs. 25 lakhs on a lottery basis.

Not surprisingly, this self-sustaining employee experience programme has improved the Company’s retention record tremendously.

Next year, Policybazaar plans to increase the cash reward and recognise more of its insurance advisors. In addition to the top-performing 30 per cent employees, the Company has also shortlisted the next top 30 per cent and recognised them as ‘emerging stars’ who can win a car in next year’s contest.

Such initiatives ensure that the employees are emotionally invested in the brand and believe in its overall vision.

As Yashish Dahiya, group CEO and chairman, Policybazaar.com put it, “We as an organisation see employee incentives as a celebration of our brand’s exemplary performance. It is only when our employees grow that the organisation grows. These are the people for whom we should and will always go over and above our limits in terms of rewards”.

Sarbvir Singh, CEO, Policybazaar.com, admitted that the employees are “the real strength of Policybazaar” and that is why, “they deserve an extra push; they deserve industry-best rewards”.

The organisation strives “to make this programme bigger every year and make sure that every insurance advisor at Policybazaar is able to make Rs 1 lakh a month as an incentive.”

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About 212 placement offers were made during the placement drive in a span of 14 days. The highest pay package was offered by Analog Devices of Rs 20 LPA. The virtual drive saw participation from companies, such as Motorola, Agile Solutions, Mentor Graphics, Metric Stream, Deloitte, Amazon, Quotient Technologies, Providence Global Software, Tek Systems, USI, Informatica , Adobe India, Josh Technologies, CDK Global, Accolite Digital and so on.

While four students have secured offers over Rs 20 lakh per annum, 18 received offers of over Rs 15 lakh per annum, and 44 bagged offers over Rs 12 lakhs per annum. About 170 students got offers of over Rs 7.5 lakhs per annum, while 212 got offers above Rs five lakhs per annum.

Koneru Satyanarayana, president, KL Deemed-to-be University, appreciated “the efforts of heads of departments, faculty, and staff in guiding the students in attaining success” in the placements season 2021-22.

GP Saradhi Varma, in-charge vice-chancellor, KL Deemed-to-be University, reveals that the University’s” placement cell operates round the year to facilitate contacts between companies and graduates”. He also shared that “training sessions are conducted to impart specialised skills, and knowledge of cutting-edge technology to help the students obtain jobs in national and international companies.”

The Training and Progression Division has trained the students on verbal, quant, aptitude, reasoning and logic on programmes including C, C++, Python and JAVA, along with industry skill certifications and skill-development programmes organised by the University’s Skill Development Division on Salesforce, ServiceNow, Pega, Automation Anywhere, Tessolve, ByteXL, Huawei, NI, CISCO, AWS and Microsoft Azure.

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Atal’s passion for innovation and wealth of experience in leading and growing global development centres, will play a significant role in accelerating the growth for Salesforce in India making it a global hub for talent and innovation. Atal will report to Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and chairperson, Salesforce India.

“Salesforce has built a phenomenal cloud ecosystem of partners and customers in India. I look forward to helping drive growth, innovation and customer success as well as delivering product innovation at a global scale,” said Atal. He is confident that his experience with the startup ecosystem will stand him in good stead as he gears up to “empower businesses of all sizes, particularly startups, to create future-ready solutions leveraging the Salesforce platform”.

Atal’s entry into the Company is happening at the appropriate time, with India being a strategic growth market for Salesforce and a world-class innovation and talent hub. “As we continue to grow and guide our customers through their digital transformation journey, Sanket’s appointment is a reflection of our commitment and continued investment in India. We welcome Sanket to Salesforce and look forward to driving even greater innovation and success in this market,” said Arundhati Bhattacharya, CEO and chairperson, Salesforce India.

India is home to the second highest Salesforce workforce outside of the US, with over 4000 employees across Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru. Launched in 2016, the Salesforce Centre of Excellence (CoE) located in Hyderabad has been instrumental in fuelling innovation globally, building end-to-end solutions for customers including some of the latest industry clouds – consumer goods, manufacturing, financial services for insurance and hyperforce.

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The ‘flex’ option, as the name suggests, will see employees working from office for a few days in a week, say one to three days. These ‘work from office’ days will be for meeting with team members or customers, or for working together on some project or presentations. A majority of the workforce at Salesforce is expected to follow this work model.

The ‘fully remote’ model will see employees working from home or remotely and never coming into office, ‘office-based’ model. This group will comprise employees whose physical presence at the office at least for four days a week is a requirement of their job roles.

In the new normal, the Company has realised that employees stuck to their desks or workstations for eight hours, from morning till evening is not what an “immersive workspace” is all about; and that flexibility is essential to success.

With employees having to take care of many things other than official work, including taking care of the elderly in the house and dropping or picking children from school, it is not fair to expect them to adhere to a strict eight-hour routine. This relaxation will also allow Salesforce to reach out beyond the urban areas or hubs, to hire quality talent.

By giving employees flexibility to choose their work models, the Company is giving them the power to complete the work assigned to them in an efficient yet convenient manner, which only increases overall productivity.

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Darwinbox, the Hyderabad-based startup has already managed to gather funds to the tune of $35 million from investors, such as Lightspeed India, Sequoia Capital and 3one4 Capital. The latest Series C round worth $15 million was led by Salesforce. This is Salesforce’s second investment in Asia after Japan.

Working specifically to create touchless attendance systems, Darwinbox provides hiring, onboarding and several employment-engagement tools to nearly 500 organisations, based in around 60 countries. This cloud-based HR technology platform in a SaaS model, was founded in 2015 by Chaitanya Peddi, Jayant Paleti and Rohit Chennamaneni. It automates employee lifecycle, taking care of recruitment, onboarding, attendance, expense management, payroll, employee engagement, performance management, as well as people analytics.

The newly acquired funding will be used to create new solutions and advance the startup’s R&D capabilities in deep technology. The Company saw a spike in demand and adoption during the pandemic, with more than 180 remote implementations being completed. Not surpringly, its revenue grew 200 per cent at a time when most organisations were struggling to stay afloat.

Some of the big names that are benefitting from its solutions include BigBasket, Swiggy, Nivea, Puma, TVS, the Adani Group, Bharti AXA, the Mahindra Group, and Dr. Reddy’s.

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With an aim to decrease the digital divide, the Company aims to fulfil its commitment of training about 250,000 students.

The Company realises the high potential that India has, and believes that India will lead, globally, in terms of artificial intelligence in the near future.

Given the fact that the country has more than 60 crore connected to the Internet, the country is capable of having a US$6 trillion consumer spend in a period of five to six years. Apparently, a new person connects to the Internet every three seconds in the country. Therefore, it will not be long before it has more than a billion unique Internet users.

Another point that works in India’s favour is that 80 per cent of its population is below the age of 44, which will make it the most advanced connected society in the world.

Salesforce, manufacturer of software for managing customer relationships, developed the work.com suite in early 2020, to help organisations reopen their workplaces for the employees to safely return to them. The software helps in contact tracing, keeping track of employees’ shifts, dealing with emergencies in case of an outbreak and so on.

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That did not put a stop to the business though. What this Ahmedabad-based pharma major did was to turn around quickly and use the lockdown as an opportunity to upskill its salesforce on digital training. The Company strengthened the digital marketing efforts right down to the last sales team member.

“We are seeing a huge shift in the mindset. The product marketing teams, the sales force, and even customers want to move to the digital platform.”

“There are multiple new opportunities coming up along with digitalisation. We decided to use the opportunity to upskill our employees with the aim to help them adapt to the digitalisation happening within the organisation,” says Biswajit Mitra, chief mentoring officer, Cadila Pharmaceuticals.

“The idea behind this exercise was also to drive employee engagement virtually in the new normal, in the times of Covid-19,” Mitra adds.

The training for the salesforce was imparted through various micro and macro learning initiatives. “We conducted over 50 training sessions during the lockdown itself. These sessions covered topics, such as grooming etiquette for video conferences, objection handling on phone, communication skills in digital detailing, advanced MS Excel for reporting, business planning in the new normal, digital marketing to drive engagement, sales forecasting for uncertainty and teambuilding while working from home,” says Kulwinder Singh, chief communication officer, Cadila Pharmaceuticals.

Singh shares that more than 30 trainers were hired, who provided over 100 hours of training to the field force. Post this, every day, bite-sized material was shared with the team so that they could learn at their own pace.

Once the training sessions were completed, the salesforce used the digital communication tools effectively to connect with the customers to ensure business connectivity as well as to engage with the healthcare providers.

Cadila Pharma embarked on this journey of digital transformation a year ago and has been making strides towards its efforts to enable its teams.

Mitra says, “It’s true that the COVID-19 situation is unprecedented and it wasn’t possible for anyone to have been prepared for it. However, the lockdown meant that this transformation had to be accelerated. All we had to do during the lockdown was to just shift gears and ensure that everything was working like a well-oiled machine.”

“At the same time, it was also important to ensure that employees did not feel that the change was forced upon them. This was required for maximum acceptance of the change,” Mitra adds.

“We conducted over 50 training sessions during the lockdown itself. These sessions covered topics, such as grooming etiquette for video conferences, objection handling on phone, communication skills in digital detailing, advanced MS Excel for reporting, business planning in the new normal, digital marketing to drive engagement, sales forecasting for uncertainty and teambuilding while working from home.”

That is why, the Company implemented a proper ‘change management’ methodology on a large scale, while continuing to work remotely.

OP Singh, president, sales and marketing, Cadila Pharmaceuticals, believes that the change management and digitalisation has already started taking effect. “We are seeing a huge shift in the mindset. The product marketing teams, the sales force, and even customers want to move to the digital platform,” he claims.

Digital platforms have no boundaries and no physical barriers. Scaling up of knowledge exchange becomes easy. New ideas come up every day and people are equally enthusiastic to execute them. “We believe that this will be the game-changer, and will spur innovation across the board,” says OP Singh.

“There are multiple new opportunities coming up along with digitalisation. We decided to use the opportunity to upskill our employees with the aim to help them adapt to the digitalisation happening within the organisation.”

The Company claims that this initiative has made its teams future-ready to take up the new challenge of digital marketing, and is now investing in the right tools and content to engage with its customers.

“It has opened newer opportunities for us. We see an accelerated technology adoption in all functions, such as HR, manufacturing and R&D. This is helping us prepare for the future and be more adaptable,” points out Singh.

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COVID-19 has permanently shifted working patterns as companies are being forced to embrace remote working. It is not easy to shift from offices to homes and continue working with the same zeal and comfort. Therefore, to ensure a seamless work environment, the software major is offering $250 for office tools and equipment — in addition to the $250 provided earlier in the year.

Moreover, the Company has amplified its leave policies — family care leave — making employees with children eligible for six weeks of paid time off.

In June, the Company had expanded its worldwide back-up childcare, offering reimbursement of up to $100 per day for 5 days each month. This has now been further extended to the end of January 2021.

In June, the Company had expanded its worldwide back-up childcare till summer, offering reimbursement of up to $100 per day for 5 days each month. This has now been further extended to the end of January 2021.

Earlier this month, tech giant, Facebook finally allowed work from home for corporate employees until July 2021. The decision was announced by Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook, during a weekly Q&A virtual meeting with the employees. It has also rolled out an additional $1,000 to each employee to buy supplies for a home office.

Zuckerberg had mentioned that there is no specific date or time as to when employees will be able to return to their offices.

Google and Twitter have also allowed employees to work from home “forever” if they wish so, unlike Amazon and Apple, which are expecting their employees to return to their respective offices in January 2021.

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Micro blogging site Twitter has acquired performance management tool Peer. Peer was launched by the former COO of Salesforce George Hu.

The performance management tool is expected to bring in new dimension to employee evaluation at the workplace.

In a blog written at the time of launch, Hu commented that though, we are seeking real-time feedback on all kinds of products or services; there has been absolutely no change at the workplace, where people still wait for annual reviews, despite the fact that professional success and career growth are central to our lives.

“I believe today’s employees have higher expectations, and are also more willing to share feedback for others if we give them the right platform. The question becomes how to design a platform that gives people the right incentives and freedom to share continuous, real-time feedback,” he had written.

Peer hopes to fill this gap. It is modelled around what works in other feedback systems, using the context of meetings to prompt for timely, continuous feedback. The belief is that if people can get timely feedback from their co-workers, it will make a significant difference in both employee success and company performance.

Though, there has been no confirmation on this acquisition, the official website, says, “We’re excited to now be a part of Twitter. We’ve been focused on creating more honest conversations and we’re looking forward to supporting the efforts of the world’s greatest conversation platform.”

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There are certain jobs, which for decades have been traditionally dominated by men, in India. For instance, the job of a medical representative or MR has been a male dominion for years.

Still considered to be one of the coveted jobs of small town India, it was almost impossible to find a woman pursuing a career as an MR.

However, with the changing business dynamics, Indian pharma companies have been forced to relook at their hiring strategy. Sure enough, a need has been felt to have a more diversified and inclusive salesforce.

The pharmaceutical company, Merck, which is known as MSD in India, for instance, deals in women-centric therapies, and 40 per cent of the prescriptions in this category are written by women doctors. Therefore, it is but natural for the company to feel the need to have more women in its salesforce.

K G Ananthakrishnan, MD and VP, India Region, MSD Pharmaceuticals, says, “Many of our customers are women. In addition, we know that 50 per cent of students enrolled in medical colleges in India are women. Women are our customers now and their numbers will only increase in the future. So, it matters how we show up in the marketplace.”

“Our efforts today are aimed at setting Merck up to look more like our customers tomorrow,” he adds.

However, including women as part of the salesforce wasn’t a cakewalk at all.

Not only did it require a lot of convincing but the company had to create an environment conducive to women employees, to work comfortably.

Medical representatives are expected to travel extensively, to remote locations, villages and towns with less than 1 lakh population. For obvious reasons, not many women were comfortable doing this. Besides, there is also a prevailing mindset that this is a man’s job.

That is why, it was important for MSD to identify areas and locations where women employees would be comfortable working in. The company zeroed in on certain places within metros and mini metros, only after a series of brainstorming sessions and extensive research.

The next challenge was to get more women to apply for the job. The company ensured close coordination between the recruitment team, HR generalist team and the hiring managers, which in this case, were sales managers—again, a team primarily dominated by men. This was done to ensure that all stakeholders were on the same page.

Next, Merck doubled the number of women referrals to get more women applicants.

Once the hiring was done, the company started mentoring programmes for women sales managers to facilitate their movement to the next role.

This included a year-long structured learning intervention, at the ‘women only’ development centre called ‘Stree’ to facilitate their movement to the next role. In addition, they were continuously educated, sensitised and informed about the important concept of business-linked gender-focussed diversity.

“Our focus, with respect to our diversity and inclusion journey, has been on the workforce, workplace and marketplace. This implies an increase in the number of women in the workforce, creation of an enabling environment for their advancement, and strengthening of the linkage between diversity and business,” says, Aparna Vishwasrao, head-talent development, MSD Pharmaceuticals.

In addition, as per the company’s annual talent planning and review process, there is a lot of emphasis on women’s talent and concerted efforts for their development.

From a mere 1 per cent in 2012, women employees today form 10 per cent of the workforce at Merck. Around 55 per cent of the women are part of the salesforce.

In most countries where Merck has its presence, 50 per cent of the salesforce comprises women, though the business conditions and selling patterns are quite different from what is prevalent in India.

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Accenture has acquired CRMWaypoint, a supplier of cloud advisory and technology services in the Netherlands, specializing in Salesforce cloud solutions for sales, service and marketing.

The acquisition further strengthens Accenture’s position as a leading cloud services by reinforcing its Cloud First agenda that provides clients with high-standard cloud strategy and technology consulting, as well as cloud application implementation, integration and management services.

With the acquisition, CRMWaypoint’s professionals have joined the Accenture Cloud First Applications team, which delivers cloud services for Salesforce, Workday, ServiceNow, Google and other “pure play” cloud technologies.

“The addition of CRMWaypoint gives us access to a sizable force of highly skilled and sought-after Salesforce professionals in the Netherlands and beyond,” said Peter van Tilburg, Accenture’s Cloud First Applications lead for the Netherlands. “Together we are even better positioned to meet the growing demand for cloud solutions. Our Cloud First agenda is focused on helping clients improve their business growth, agility and competitive advantage by leveraging all of the benefits cloud can deliver.”

Ton van der Meer, founder and CEO of CRMWaypoint, said, “Over the past years, we’ve forged a team delivering significant growth in the Netherlands, which culminated in our company being recognized as a platinum partner by Salesforce in 2015. As a next step, we’re excited to become part of Accenture as this will give us even more opportunity to develop our people and leverage their skills to drive cloud adoption and implementation for leading brands on a global scale.”

CRMWaypoint is one of the largest Salesforce partners in Benelux, established in 2006 with an exclusive focus on Salesforce. It was one of the first official implementation partners for Salesforce in the Dutch market in early 2008. Since then, CRMWaypoint has delivered on more than 600 Salesforce projects in different industries with a team of highly qualified professionals that carry over 80 Salesforce certifications. CRMWaypoint is serving clients both in medium business and large enterprise market segments.

Accenture continues to grow and strengthen its position as a leading enterprise cloud services provider. Accenture was one of the first global companies to establish a strategic alliance partnership with Salesforce and today has leading capabilities in Salesforce with more than 3,400 unique certified professionals around the world.

In October 2015, Accenture acquired Cloud Sherpas, a leader in cloud advisory and technology services specializing in Google, Salesforce and ServiceNow, which followed previously acquired Salesforce and Veeva Systems solution providers, Tquila UK and ClientHouse.

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