The NCDEX top management team includes 2 women leaders – Seema Nayak, Chief Compliance Officer and Aditi Mukherjee, Head – HR. Seema leads several regulatory teams, such as exchange compliance, member compliance, membership, member inspection, investor protection, enforcement and internal audit. Both the women leaders are highly energetic and strong with several years of rich and diverse professional experience. Seema and Aditi reveal the challenges and opportunities of digitalisation in the post pandemic era.
Integral Part Of Psyche
Seema Nayak feels that the last 2 years have brought out the best in the exchange and its people. She avers: “The pandemic and resultant WFH requirement has demonstrated that our employees have risen magnificently to the occasion to ensure seamless functioning of the exchange. While the exchange was fortunate in already having attained an advanced state of digitalization, the pandemic made us go the extra mile to achieve further heights of automation and digitalization.”
Broker-Auditor’s Remote Work
In a stock exchange space, WFH was unheard of. Seema explains: “There was some hesitation initially. But these reservations only led to finding ways of getting the work done with least disruptions and maximum security, both of which, for an exchange are of paramount importance. It’s a testimony to the level of digitalization and automation that our employees and even our members (broker community) and auditors could work from remote locations and meet every challenge successfully. Even member inspections, which require multiple levels of coordination were carried out remotely and successfully completed, that too within regulatory timelines.”
Recruit, Train Online
While on the subject of the covid induced WFH culture, the second significant factor that contributed to the success at NCDEX in these tough times (apart from the high level of digitalization) was the strong and committed work force. Aditi shares: “The people management at NCDEX is based on sound policies and procedures and a rewarding compensation and benefits policy. The practices and various programs span the key employee lifecycle ranging from pre-recruitment, recruitment, on-boarding, talent development, compensation and benefit management, HR operations, performance management process, exit management and alumni programs. In the post pandemic times, several activities hitherto assumed to require personal touch were carried out online, such as recruitment interviews, onboarding, induction and orientation trainings.”
Gender Equality
#Break the Bias: Equality today for a sustainable tomorrow – this is the current year’s theme for the International Women’s Day 2022. Aditi claims: “NCDEX with its highly progressive values and culture has always been committed to gender diversity and gender neutrality. As Kofi Annan (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and past Secretary General of the United Nations) put it ‘Gender equality is more than a goal in itself. It is a precondition for meeting the challenge of reducing poverty, promoting sustainable development and building good governance.’ We feel proud to mention that 35% of our work force comprise of women employees. Even at the highest levels, similar proportions are maintained. Going beyond numbers, we make conscious efforts to instil inclusive thinking amongst our employees through awareness & diversity specific training programs such as ‘Unconscious Biases at Workplace’, ‘Gender Neutral Communications’ and such others, which impact thinking and judging.”
NCDEX provides an enabling and conducive environment for women to flourish and achieve a balance between professional and personal commitments. Appreciating the hardships and conflicts faced by women employees, NCDEX offers customized contractual terms to deserving women employees.”
Employees Got Closer
With the additional strides made in digitalisation, NCDEX teams functioned with minimum oversight and flexible timings – some working early in morning while others preferring to work late nights. Aditi reveals: “We learnt of each other’s challenges; we learnt how the WFH could be a boon and bane for employees, particularly women employees; and yes, we learnt how they coped with the challenges and emerged stronger. As families interacted, hearts opened up. Ironically, in the midst of social distancing, many of us actually got closer! We were more agile than we thought, quickly adapting to the new normal.”
WFH Enables Empowerment
Aditi shares: “In fact, it would not be farfetched to say that, by changing the way we work, digitalisation has empowered women: motherhood and household duties form the 2 major reasons for women to drop out of the workforce and digitalisation gives them the flexibility to work from their homes and thus, is an enabler for women’s empowerment.”
