Embracing flexibility, empowering employees and fostering a culture of respect is a key to creating a great workplace experience: Jasveer Singh, Hood

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview withJasveer Singh, CEO and co-founder of Hood

What are the unique and industry-first initiatives taken by Hood?

Every company has its own USP to stand out from the crowd. Hood is an innovative and energetic Indian social network startup that believes in empowering employees, fostering a culture of respect, and driving productivity in an organised and efficient manner. There are a few initiatives that make Hood stand out-

No Follow-Ups: We value our team members’ time and trust in their abilities. Hence, we have established a ‘No follow up’ rule. Once a task is assigned, we expect you to own it, work on it diligently, and deliver on time. Management trusts in your abilities and won’t ask for updates – but it’s your responsibility to report any significant developments.

Efficient Meetings: We practice concise and productive meetings, capped at 20 minutes. Preparation is key; bring all your thoughts, queries, and updates to the table upfront. This will help us make the most of our time together.

Outcome-Driven Approach: Every meeting must conclude with an outcome. The deadline for the assigned task will be set by the individual tasked with the duty, reinforcing ownership and responsibility. Once the deadline is set, it’s expected that it won’t change.

Task Delivery: The assigned task must be delivered on the decided date. If you foresee a delay, inform your manager when half of the allocated time has elapsed. This enables us to add more resources if needed or reschedule the deadline appropriately.

Effective To-Do Lists: Maintaining an organised to-do list with specific dates and times is a mandate. It’s a visual reminder of your commitments and helps you prioritise and manage your work efficiently.

Punctuality: Being on time is a reflection of respect for others’ time and demonstrates professionalism. Our team depends on each member, and being punctual ensures the seamless workflow.

Hood invests in company culture and ensures to build the infrastructure that supports flexibility and create a great workplace experience by gathering employee’s feedback.

How does Hood manage the employee’s work-life balance?

At Hood, we feel it is important to design policies that do not tie down the employees by demanding that they log in at a certain time Instead, offer flexibility while ensuring that employees are available to attend any time-sensitive events. Although we follow only work-from-office policy as of now as Hood embeds well-being into work-life experience, builds resilience, and enhances productivity. Hood engages in ongoing communication with their workforce, is compassionate, and instills a sense of belongingness and community in employees after prolonged periods of pandemic-induced isolation and loneliness. Hood  Provides healthcare benefits, access to mental health support, employee assistance programs, wellness days, meeting-free days, wellness tools and resources, etc, for their employee’s wellness.

What is the organization’s focus as we transition into the new paradigms of working?

A paradigm shift in business is a major change or development in how a company or business produces their goods or services. During any paradigm shift, it’s possible that companies or businesses might encounter challenges that hinder the success of the transition. The focus is for Hood to identify challenges and find solutions, or make adjustments to their paradigm shift plan to help the business succeed. This will help employees understand their responsibilities and positions. Hood educates investors and shareholders about the new transition which helps team members develop new habits with new technology.

Hiring plans for 2023

Finding the right technology leader can help your business thrive on several levels. As of now, we are only hiring tech leaders who will be responsible for creating the vision that drives the development process forward. In addition, they’re the ones who guide the other team members throughout the process. Recently, we have onboarded Mr Ashish Bhatia as a Tech Advisor who will be building a robust technical infrastructure and scaling the product for millions of users worldwide. He will also be responsible for reducing infrastructure costs, increasing user engagement, and leading new innovations in product development.

What is the need of empowering digitally ready organizations as we embrace the future of work?

Digital transformation is a need of the corporate ecosystem nowadays. The corporate world is becoming digitally equipt which is helping HR and employees to understand the internal operations and processes, and employees’ concerns and also assist job seekers for smoother onboarding. Apps like Hood make the manual work of companies with large workforces easier as it increases the engagement between employees and feedback can be easily considered.