Interview with Mr. Surendra Varma, the Co-Founder of Emgage HRMS

Managing human resources and developing them is crucial to the growth of any company. However, most small and medium enterprises (SMEs) fail to offer the right guidance and support to their employees due to lack of resources and expertise. Thankfully, today there are several applications that allow such enterprises with the support necessary to manage and empower their human resources.

Emgage is one such platform that has helped countless SMEs handle and streamline complex processes like Payroll, Recruitment, Operations, and Policy Making, thereby offering the assistance needed for an organization to grow further. We are fortunate to have had the opportunity to interview Mr. Surendra Verma, the Co-Founder of Emgage, and know about their mission, vision, and future goals.

In conversation with Mr. Surendra Varma, the Co-Founder of Emgage HRMS

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Firstly, a warm welcome from SoftwareSuggest Mr. Varma. Our readers are keen to know what prompted you to create Emgage? Tell us about your journey.

Ans: I started my career as an HR professional and have been a part of many start-ups and mid-size organizations.  These organizations were very small but grew rapidly after they got funded. As the HR team, we were responsible for aligning people and processes with the overall business vision to drive better business outcomes.

After spending 12 years in corporate, We started as an HR Outsourcing Company in 2012. We were working with a lot of start-ups and growing organizations to help them set up complete HR department by creating HR Policy, SOP’s and HR templates to manage their Human resources professionally. We were also offering Virtual HR Help desk services where we work with companies as their extended HR team to manage complete HR Operations from Onboarding till exit.

To scale up these services, we started developing a service delivery platform to deliver our HR services. That’s how I got in touch with Sarfaraz, who was working with me in Elitecore. He is passionate about building a tech product. We created a platform through which you can manage multiple customers with all different kinds of policies and processes on a single platform and the focus is enabling the HR team to do more with less. We have identified a lot of areas where HR generally ends up spending a lot of time even if they have automated HR solutions and our product helps the HR team to save their time from operational as well as creating those analytical reports from the system, many of the analytical reports are readily available. That’s how Journey of Emgage started in the later part of 2016.

What differentiates you from your competitors?

Ans: We realized that there is definitely a need for HR automation in SMEs, but at the same time, there was a huge HR Knowledge gap among HR professionals working in SMEs. SMEs can not afford to hire a very senior or a large HR team.  HR is spread across where you expect the team to manage Recruitment, Payroll, Compliances, HR Operations, Employee Engagement, Training, and other strategic roles. It is very difficult for a small HR team to fulfill these expectations and stay updated on all these HR functions and hence our HR solution not only helps SME’s to digitalize their HR department, but it also works as a knowledge platform for these HR team in SME’s to help them manage the entire gamut of HR function efficiently and professionally.

How has HRMS software evolved in the past few decades?

Ans: HRMS in the last decade has evolved from process automation tools to intelligent systems with the help of AI tools, and HR analytics build on top of it, which helps to make the right decision. Align all organization strategies in the right direction to channelize the effort to drive better business outcomes.

How has Covid-19 impacted your business, and what is your strategy moving forward in the new-normal?

Ans: Covid-19 has had a positive impact on our business; we have seen a growing demand for technology tools to effectively manage the workforce working from home, handle their operational things, and productivity at the same time. There is a huge demand for good HRMS products in the market, but at the same time, there are very few quality products available in the market to cater to SME’s requirements. Our strategy is to work with these SME’s to empower them to manage their Human Capital effectively and enable the HR teams in these SME’s to handle people effectively and manage their productivity better in this new-normal.

Emgage successfully merges HRMS with AI. Tell us about its implications and possibilities for the future.

Ans: Emgage is created to empower HR teams in SME’s to deliver better output. We are including a lot of HR analytics on the system, which will help the HR team make better people decisions. We are gearing up with collaborative features like a chatbot, smart onboarding process, building a lot of analytics and co-relation between measuring the impact of the onboarding process on attrition, organization culture and employee productivity, and so on. On top of this, we are feeding a lot of information and data on the platform where the platform itself will act as an intelligent HR Manager to update the HR team on the latest HR trends, processes, and best HR practices and latest amendments on labor compliances. This helps the HR team stay updated and ensures that the HR team has all the required knowledge to effectively and efficiently manage the HR department.

Tell us about the biggest learning you have gained from your journey so far.

Ans: One of the most significant learning that I have from my journey so far is there is no “one size fits all” solution. To create a product, you need to be passionate about what you are doing. You must evolve over time to create the right kind of solution that can cater to the masses and continuous innovation in whatever you are doing is the key to success.

What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs starting out in this field?

Ans: Be passionate about what you do evolve with time, and continue to innovate to build the right solution. Focus on why you are building something than focusing on what you are building.

What are your projections for 2021 when it comes to the HRMS Industry amidst the COVID-19 situation?

Ans: HRMS industry will grow at a better rate than its previous years; covid has brought in a lot of new challenges for HR team like remote work, remote onboarding, how to engage employee working from home, ensuring work-life balance while working from home, how to communicate with the team which is spread across, how to ensure productivity from employees working from home. These are some of the new problems which have arisen and the HR team or organization as a whole is not prepared to manage these challenges, and technology is the only thing that can bridge these gaps. There is no option but to adopt technology to manage these challenges. HRMS products that are catering to these challenges will grow very fast.

What is your vision and plan for taking Emgage to greater heights in the next 5 years?

Ans: Build an intelligent and robust solution that is available and accessible by HR professionals in SME space, which automates the HR processes and acts as an advisor to these HR professionals to empower them to manage HR effectively and give better outputs.

We are looking to partner with HR outsourcing companies that are serving SME customers globally to extend our solution to their end customers and provide better services and add value to their client business.

Acquire and retain 10 million active users across the various industries by solving their real problems and creating the best user experience.

What motivates and strengthens you to keep up with the competition?

Ans: Our passion for HR and technology to create a meaningful HR tech space solution can cater to SMEs’ real-time HR challenges and help them bring better business outcomes.