Venu Lambu, CEO, Randstad Digital
Randstad Digital, the digital arm of Randstad, aims to leverage the Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India to increase revenue through its people-centric approach. Randstad Digital is an approximately $3 billion business within talent agency Randstad, generating total revenue of €25.4 billion (approximately $27 billion) in 2023.
Randstad Digital was founded in 2023, transferring all IT recruitment activities from Randstad India to Randstad Digital, and adding user experience, analytics and cybersecurity solutions as business offerings. About 30 percent of Randstad Digital’s business is solutions-based, similar to the work done by IT service providers. With a team of approximately 20,000 people, Randstad Digital believes that the combined expertise in technology and talent is their USP.
“The biggest accelerator a GCC needs to scale is a partner who can bring the right talent strategy with a flexible model and help them establish their brand. That’s where we play a big role. Many service providers see GCCs as a threat, but we see them as a big opportunity,” Venu Lambu, CEO of Randstad Digital, told Business Standard. In January this year, Lambu joined Randstad from LTIMindtree, where he was president and member of the board of directors.
“We help GCCs scale by developing end-to-end talent strategies that include talent deployment. Moreover, we provide organizations setting up new captives in India with comprehensive solutions to establish their brand in the Indian talent market. In fact, for some GCCs, we are already partnering with their operations in the country, which helps us meet their GCC talent needs by executing seamless talent movement from one country to another,” Lambu said.
According to a Nasscom-Zinnov report, India had a total of 1,600 GCCs with a talent base of 1.66 million. “Most large companies want to set up GCCs in India purely as a strategic asset that can deliver quality and innovation, rather than just cost savings. The main reason for this is the country’s reputation as a hub for tech talent. Therefore, global organizations are looking for fresh graduates and senior tech professionals to build a solid talent pipeline that can deliver results from India. GCCs in India are no longer just back-office centers; instead, they serve complex business processes involving knowledge process outsourcing, technology, product development and analytics,” said Lambu.
Randstad Digital’s vertical markets include banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), automotive and aerospace, and high-tech industries.
Like the IT service providers, Randstad Digital operates a global delivery model with delivery centers in India, Romania, Latin America and Quebec (Canada). “In Europe we focus on the automotive and aerospace sectors. In the US, we work a lot in data centers, infrastructure management and cloud modernization,” said Lambu.
Randstad believes that its talent-oriented approach gives it a competitive advantage. “Talent is key in any digital transformation, and as a talent-centric organization we know how to deploy and manage talent. You can’t run the best GenAI use case if you don’t have access to the best GenAI talent,” said Lambu.
As part of this, the company has created a GenAI Talent Hub, an ecosystem of people with specialized talent (or Pods as they call them) tailored to each stage of responsible AI adoption across the enterprise value chain. “These Pods consist of specialized GenAI professionals, hand-picked to excel in their field. They help organizations address GenAI adoption challenges, such as finding the right talent, deploying the required computing resources, identifying AI-worthy datasets and addressing ethical, reputational, legal and regulatory issues.”
On May 16, Randstad acquired Digital Torc, an AI-powered talent marketplace platform, with a specific focus on Latin America, the US and India. Torc, with its AI-driven platform, enables skills-based matching to connect digital talent with customers around the world. This acquisition is expected to help Randstad Digital further accelerate clients’ access to digital talent across cloud, data, digital engineering and customer experience.
First print: May 20, 2024 | 4:52 PM IST