Keka HR Katalyst Mumbai: Startups, this is how you stay compliant

At HR Katalyst in Mumbai, two panel discussions featured leading HR professionals who discussed the critical issues of ensuring compliance and data security in organizations. The gathering brought together the best minds in the HR industry and also featured a fireside chat. 

With modern technology and evolving regulations, staying compliant has begun to be more complex. It is especially challenging for startups owing to their unfamiliarity with regulations, and their high focus on getting their product or service to the market. Keeping in mind all challenges, how can startups be compliant? 

Engage in due diligence 

Prosenjit Mukherjee, CHRO of SRKay Consulting Group, says it all starts with “understanding various laws and acts in India. Study and understand the minimum regulations that need to be followed. Do your own due diligence.” 

To ensure the company is operating within legal boundaries, HR should delve into the key compliance laws and acts that directly protect the business’ interests. HRs must also relay the financial complications and risks associated with non-compliance, he further added. 

But how should leaders be trained on compliance? 

Don’t forget context! 

Every generation has different ways of consuming content, pointed out Arun Kumar Das, Global Head- Learning & Customer Experience at Sutherland. “Do not make people go through pages of documents,” he suggested. Instead, use videos, self-learning tools, and so on. When preparing content on compliance, HRs should make sure that they: 

• Contextualize the law, as per the person’s work, function, and role. 
• Explain the consequences of not adhering to the law. 
• Mention the must-haves and good-to-haves. 

Harjeet Khanduja, VP HR at Jio, presents a storytelling framework to stay compliant – Financial, regulatory, operational, and brand risks. When setting up policies, POCs, and control measures, leaders must ensure that the entire process is automated. This helps HRs find gaps, which can then be put across to the business, he continued.  

There are many technologies that can be utilized, like onboarding software, LMS, or Keka, and even excel sheets.  

“Without contextual examples, there will be no recollection.” added Arun. 

Following the insightful discussion from the first panel on how to be compliant, the focus shifted to the second panel, discussing data privacy and protection.  

Manage compliance, safeguard data 

Moving forward to the second panel discussion, Dr Anand Agarwal, Executive Director of ISBR, pointed out that in India, millions of cyberattacks take place, with more than 30 billion worldwide.  

When trying to safeguard data and avoiding breaches, Vishal Bhatia, Senior HR Manager, CeX Webuy Entertainment, recommends startups to start with something as simple as multiple factor authentication or support from the management.  

To avoid resistance with the team or employees, leaders must encourage transparency right from the start, explains Radhika Raichura, Co-Founder and Director HR at VivaConnect. Before the start of any project, HRs should set up basic policies in place to maintain the same standards when it comes to sharing, downloading, and accessing files, added Vishal. 

Facing challenges with the team is inevitable, but such behaviors must be discouraged by disciplinary actions, he continued.  

Ongoing quest  

Even when you take all the precautions, cybercriminals are relentless in their attacks.  

Organizations must continuously update themselves and ensure constant security testing, regular training, and re-training.  

“After an attack, do incident reporting, change VPNs, report it to the authorities, and show security measures. Also, have systems in place.” said Vishal.