Engaging and Integrating a Global Workforce
Our Global Delivery Center in India is going to fuel and accelerate our growth plans in exciting ways. It starts with our people, and by creating a culture that promotes “One Avtex.” As we actively recruit for our team in India, our focus will be on making sure that all locations, regardless of country border, feel like an extension of our headquarters as much as we possibly can, while still respecting the cultures and customs in India.
Our Human Resources team is doing a lot of research into how business is done in India - work norms, cultural norms, holidays, etc.; but no matter how much research we do, we’ll never know what it is to be from India, working in a U.S. based company. To help ensure strong cultural alignment, we are creating infrastructure in the India office - hiring a Country Manager, delivery directors, and actively recruiting HR resources in India. We believe that these initiatives will be critical to success with inclusivity, especially in the beginning. Other leadership roles will be created as we continue our company’s growth.
As it pertains to things like holidays, festivals, and other cultural elements, we will work to adapt our business model to accommodate differences between North American and India. All facets of human resources and how we work will be analyzed and calibrated against culture and customs. This is an opportunity that our team is excited to embark on in partnership with our counterparts in India.
Although COVID has presented some challenges in terms of our ability to physically come together and start this GDC initiative, once we are able, we are excited to create opportunities for both teams to meet in person to help integrate the cultures even more as time goes on. I am looking forward to our team visiting India, and our counterparts from India to come spend time at Avtex HQ in Minneapolis.
We want to cultivate a fun atmosphere in India where we promote the same things like trust, respect and flexibility with our employees, just like we do here in North America, but we will likely have some business process changes - such as hosting meetings at different times in the day to accommodate time zones, and sourcing vendors in different areas. We will work hard to create a “One Avtex” culture, and coordinate our actions with purpose, continuing to be flexible according to local customs. It is imperative that the alignment process is as smooth as we can make it, so that our employees in India have an easy experience not only joining Avtex, but also an easy experience being an Avtex employee.