Upskilling young graduates and setting up office-first work culture

Gone are the days when one of the biggest demands from young graduates would be securing a good job with an attractive pay package or probably working at a great company. Today, the demand from today’s youth has evolved, said Ankur Jain, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer of Sunstone as he shared his insights working with young professionals through his Gurgaon-based edtech start up.  Beyond a great career and a fat pay check, the new generation of employees are now asking for personal growth and development from their workplace, he adds.

Integrating young graduates to job market

“The new generation is not only talking about great life, they are asking for great personal development, what do I learn from here? How do I grow in this place? They are now asking very relevant personal questions, which means today’s organizations should be equipped to manage two different versions of thought process,” Jain said. However, he lamented about the wide skill gap in the Indian education system and current job market. According to him, while there is no dearth of jobs, the current fresh graduates are not “100% getting integrated into the global economy.”

Founded in 2019, Sunstone’s mission was to solve this problem and help qualified young graduates across the country find the right job by providing them the extra-training required in partnerships with colleges across the country.  From working with just over 300 students across five colleges in India four years ago, Sunstone is currently present over 50 colleges with a total strength of around 10,000 students in around 30 cities. Today, Sunstone employs around 800 employees, with over 60% of them based in its Gurgaon headquarter.  The rest are spread across 25-30 cities and most of them either work out of coworking spaces like in Benguluru, Hyderabad and Chennai or from its partner campus locations.

Creating office and employee- first organisation

Solving the foundational problem of skill gap in Indian education system comes with its challenges.  Processes and problems are constantly evolving, said Jain, as he emphasises the importance of collaboration among employees in his office. “As new set of information comes in, problems and processes are changing every day. This means we require a lot of collaboration and brainstorming. We have especially realised the importance of it during the pandemic. So, working out of office was essential for us. We have always had an office-first work culture and we have witnessed that this is being welcomed by everyone,” Jain said.

With over 70% of the employees under 28 years of age, it is a vibrant workspace. “Everyone wants to be in the thick of action. They don’t want to miss an important discussion, context and customer insight.” Jain explained how employees are always a priority to the organization. “Many believe that we should be customer first. I am of the opinion that we should be employee first. If you’re an employee first, they will take care of the customers,” he said.

Acknowledgement and staying connected – a workplace mantra

According to Jain, it is crucial to keep everyone in the team motivated. And the way to do, for him, was by staying connected with every individual on a daily basis in some form or the other.  “Empowerment has to be given even to the lowest member of the team. Even a simple ‘hi’ and ‘hello’ to everyone makes a difference.  I believe in creating an inclusive environment where everyone feels they are contributing to something where the founders, department heads or business is acknowledging them- that’s the mantra,” he said.