DIVERSITY KEY TO FRACTAL'S POLICIES

Besides having more women, those from LGBTQ+ community in the workforce, the analytics firm focuses on creating a culture of acceptance for neurodivergent employees and those with special needs.

- RISHI KANT

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE and analytics firm Fractal Analytics finds itself in the face of uncertainty yet again. The economies of the West, including the U.S. and major European nations, are headed towards a recession. Layoffs across big tech firms is a reality staring in the face.

“The environment is evolving. There is no telling how all of this is going to unfold,” says Rohini Singh, chief people officer at Fractal. She allays fears of the layoff axe falling on Fractal. “We have decided not to lay off anyone. We will take a long-term view on talent.” If the business suffers in a deteriorating business environment, the company would focus on talent by upskilling or reskilling them, adds Singh. In fact, the company is also ‘cautiously optimistic’ about hiring people. “We continue to see demand and growth in the line of business we are in. But we are cautious of who we are hiring, how many we are hiring, and for what we are hiring,” says Singh.

The Mumbai-founded and New York-based company is applying the lessons it learned during Covid. It also pre-empted the use of emerging technology in its day-to-day affairs, and first started experimenting with Cloud in its R&D projects as early as 2009. This reaped benefits, as several companies were coerced into migrating to Cloud-based services hastily to collaborate better during the pandemic. From Day One of the pandemic, the aim was to promote a flexible working set-up, and the company activated the ability to work and collaborate from anywhere across the globe. “We had flexible, remote-working options almost a decade before Covid-19 struck, and we continue to offer that flexibility,” says Singh.