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Seeing Fit: How Sunil Kumar J. is leading a large team of recruiters in Acara Solutions

As Acara’s Assistant Vice President, Sunil Kumar J. is leading a large team of recruiters which oversee hiring for the US clientele from Chennai (Head Office, Acara Solutions India). Sunil has been with the organization for more than 13 years and is known for his proactive approach among his colleagues, the one who is always ready to train and coach his peers and subordinates to grow in their career. Sunil is known for his extensive technical knowledge and efficient managerial skills due to which his team members consider themselves fortunate to be a part of his team.

His Path Before Recruitment

I did my schooling and college in Bangalore and completed my Bachelors in Electronics, which was followed by MBA. I started my career with a couple of sales jobs only to realize that I was not compatible with it. Thereafter, I joined as an Admin Executive for Western Refrigeration Ltd. and then for about 3.5 years was taking care of my own computer business – Courses/Hardware Sales/DTP.

The staffing and recruitment industry?

After my business stint, I moved to the customer/technical support domain. Since, I was looking for a change from my technical support job at Sutherland, I happened to apply for a newspaper advertisement of a recruitment consultancy seeking for a US IT recruiter and hence, I joined Aleron (then, SDC Information Services India Pvt. Ltd.) as a US IT Recruiter. Apparently, I was told that, I was the only person who responded to that advertisement. I had 4 years of customer/technical support experience before I entered the recruitment industry

Tenure with Acara Solutions

I joined Aleron (formerly SDC Information Services India) in Sep 2006 as US IT Recruiter. I worked with the clients like Microsoft, Dell, Medtronic etc. Soon, after a year, I was promoted to a team lead and thereafter, I was handing a team of a 4-member recruitment team. I was further promoted to Operations Manager for the recruitment team for US clients.

Currently, I am working as Assistant Vice President, Acara Solutions for the US Recruitment Operations. My team caters to the US candidates for US clients for IT, Engineering and even Non-IT domains for the positions in various verticals like Telecom, Networking, Healthcare, Automobile, Oil and Gas and Aerospace and Aviation etc. We have 100+ elite list of clientele with whom we also serve with sourcing, recruiting, mapping talent pool (for prospects), salary mapping, Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) and reference checking for our contractors.

Day-to-Day Tasks

  • To ensure that my team has is well motivated for pinnacle performance.
  • To ensure that the team achieves the targets.
  • To cultivate and manage relationships with hiring managers – including Senior Executives to establish and streamline recruiting processes
  • I have also spearheaded re-engineering of company’s recruitment processes – proposed the corrective measures directly to the senior leadership
  • Coordinated with managers to prepare accurate manning reports to forecast staffing needs within the organization

Key to success and Management Style

My management style is giving space and freedom for every individual within the gamut of the process. I believe that every employee has the skill and knowledge in various areas as it should be aligned with organizational goals for symbiotic relationship.

Working with Aleron for more than a decade, I have learnt that must look at the larger picture always and keep an eye on the current industry/recruitment/hiring trends.

I have also learnt that there are always two sides to every story.

Best thing of being a part of Acara Solutions

I have spent 13+ years with the organization and it has been like a family to me. The organizational culture is all about nurturing great talent and is successfully doing so. And hence, I take pride to be associated with the company.

Where is Recruitment Industry heading in India?

Recruitment industry is undergoing a revolutionary change. With an intervention of the technology like Artificial Intelligence, Automation, entrance of Blockchain Technology, hiring is not like before. As a part of a prestigious recruitment consultancy, I believe that the recruiters and managers should be well updated and well versed with the latest trends and technologies to harness and have an edge in the this highly competitive market. Recruiters must constantly upgrade their skillsets and adapt to the industry changes.

Message to all the Leaders

I believe that leaders should walk the talk and leave a trail for others to follow.