This year alone, Campus Beats—ZS’s campus engagement program—saw participation from over 100 tier 1 and tier 2 engineering colleges, tapping into a large talent pool

ZS—a global professional services firm—has surpassed its annual hiring projection within three quarters, rolling out almost 40% of the offers for tech roles that require proficiency in skills like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, big data, Python, cloud technologies and data science, among others. The firm originally projected to hire approximately 3,000 employees in 2021, but it has surpassed that figure, with 3,500 new joiners who would have joined us by the end of the year. The projection for next year is to add 4000 more ZSers across the three ZS offices in India.

This year firm hired both seasoned professionals and the next generation of university graduates this year, bringing the total number of employees in India to more than 8,500, accounting for ~70% of its global workforce. ZS is keen on hiring 4000+ in 2022 across their key areas that are expediting firm’s business growth. The newly filled positions support ZS's key verticals of business consulting, business operations, business technology, and software development.

“ZS is experiencing growth across all its core business areas, necessitating a greater demand for talent with a diverse set of skills. Our teams in India play a pivotal role in helping the firm remain ahead of the curve as we focus on growing tech capabilities that will drive innovation for our global offerings,” said Mohit Sood, Regional Managing Principal, and Head, India, ZS. “We are striving to capitalize on technology advancements to create and sustain value for our clients. To support this, we are looking for people with strong technical capabilities, in addition to strategic problem-solving skills, excellent collaboration, and strategic implementation to join our growing team. In the coming quarters, we intend to lead the way by using transformational approaches to develop, engage and retain diverse talent.”

Despite a worldwide slowdown in hiring in 2020, the professional services firm successfully maintained the hiring momentum that it had set early this year. Given the remote working model, the firm faced initial recruiting challenges, including the need to meet with applicants virtually, a pause on visits to its state-of-the-art facilities across all three offices in India and temporary delays of in-person networking sessions to give a glimpse of life at ZS.

To counter these challenges, ZS promptly adopted an innovative approach to hiring by implementing “interviewing-as-a-service,” a strategy that brings in an external partner for the technical evaluation of candidates. They also launched virtual learning modules to familiarize the new workforce with their job roles and offered access to training sessions to polish their skills before joining ZS.

Additionally, ZS increased investment in new talent, which accounted for 45% of all recruits, bringing in different perspectives and new ways of working. This year alone, Campus Beats—ZS’s campus engagement program—saw participation from 100+ tier 1 and tier 2 engineering colleges, tapping into a large talent pool. So far, ZS has hired more than1,200 graduates from campuses for various technical and non-technical roles and has extended offers to another 1,500 who will join in 2022.

Esha Gulati, HR lead, Asia, ZS says, “With the accelerated pace of digital adoption, we are looking at strengthening capabilities in emerging tech roles including the cloud, AI, and big data, and intensifying our hiring efforts in the coming year to meet our goal of getting 4000 new recruits. The challenges of remote work have taught us that weaving together human touchpoints with the benefits of innovative technology is imperative to reimagining how we work and how we see our workplaces. At ZS, we believe in building high-performing teams, coaching and mentoring our people, creating an equitable career path, and providing progression opportunities to everyone. We are excited to welcome new talent joining ZS in the coming months and years.”