How Mahindra Lifespaces made Careers in

Real Estate Exciting; Grew Relevant Job

Applications by 4X

In 2015, we asked around to see what people felt about

working in the real estate sector:

“I would like a fast-paced, challenging work

environment that can help me bring out the best in

myself. The way real estate is perceived as an

industry now, I don’t think it can offer the dynamism

that has room for personal growth.”

-Professional from education sector with 2 years of

experience

“Real estate is one of the oldest industries and

certainly has scale, but I don’t know if it is an ‘ideas’

industry. In terms of creativity and being open to

change, it rates very low on the list.”

“A positive work culture and colleagues around me,

make a huge difference to my performance and

motivation levels. A company with an open culture

and a definite face to the outside world is a workplace

I’d like to be a part of. Accessible and commutative

leadership is very re-assuring.”

-An employee from a digital agency with 4 years of

experience

“I’d consider it, but if given a choice I would pick a

growing, new age industry. The prospect of

innovating, exploring and growing with the business

is very exciting to me, even if the pay isn’t as good to

begin with.”

-Professional from media industry with 5 years of

experience

-An expert from the construction industry with 10

years of experience

It was back then, that the Talent

Acquisition team decided that

changing the way an industry is

perceived needed to start with

changing the way their employees

and interested talent perceived the

industry.

Mahindra Lifespaces was up for the

challenge. As India’s first developer

of green homes, their culture of

progressiveness gave them a head

start.

They decided to go social

with a unique two pronged

strategy which was

‘Internal + External’

1. Relook at the culture and

employer brand perception

internally.

2. Redefine and reimagine

careers in real estate to make it

an aspirational story for the

relevant audience.

‘Internal’ measures involved working on current strengths,

and developing other areas.

1 Approachable leadership

2 Open and collaborative culture within teams

3 Efficiency in processes and systems

4 Building a team of Talent Advisors

They identified 4 pillars:

Approachable

Leadership

a. The leadership was

approachable and supportive.

b. They built a steep learning

curve for talent across

functions, and offered

unconditional support.

c. They made room for

experimentation. They

encouraged their teams to take

calculated risks and learn from

their failures.

Open and Collaborative

Culture within Teams

a. Constructive criticism was

encouraged to enable

progress. It was okay to

challenge each other if needed.

b. Communication and sharing of

best practices was important,

and they scheduled regular

huddles to share learnings

across functions like customer

centric practices, business

challenges, latest innovations,

etc.

c. The daily internal Newsletter,

360 Degree View, was put in

place to share best practices.

Internal Newsletter

d. They built excitement around the workspace.

e. The office layout was revamped to allow

for more space and interaction.

“Culture needs to be constantly reinforced. 90% of the

time it is leader role-modelling.”

Lancelot Cutinha,

Head of Human Resources - Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Ltd.

Efficiency in Processes

and Systems

a. Conscious processes, as opposed to processes

by force of habit.

1

Probation was removed on the understanding that the talent

acquisition process was an efficient enough filter of best talent,

making a second round of talent assessment unnecessary.

2

Exit interviews were chosen over impersonal survey links.

Recruiters conducted these interviews over coffee and captured

feedback.

b. Used technology and automation where

required. Many firsts in the Mahindra group to

their credit.

1 Became the first to take PMS online.

2Pioneered and launched reverse feedback under the brand name

UPPraisal.

Building a Team of

Talent Advisors

The output is as good as the brief.

The focus shifted to writing crisp,

yet detail-oriented hiring manager

briefs. The objective was to spend

time understanding the stated and

unstated needs of the hiring

manager.

After the internal revamp, it was time to go external.

Mahindra Lifespaces reached out

to candidates with a compelling and

authentic story.

The team was doing exciting stuff and it was

time to share this with the world.

1.

Dedicated Resource

to Drive Focus and

Impact

2.

Building

Engagement

3.

Reviews and

Measurement

1. Dedicated Resource to

Drive Focus and Impact

A digitally savvy, young lead was

identified to implement and sustain

social recruiting.

2. Building Engagement

with their Story

A career page was set up to talk

about their talent brand and

showcase their culture and

employee engagement initiatives.

Focus on

opportunities,

growth

Followers

Showcasing the

faces behind the

brand

Opportunities

and openings

Employees as

advocates

Rich media

content to

showcase culture

and drive

engagement

Built engagement by showcasing culture,

diversity, CSR and more. Employee

testimonials were featured on the career

page.

The team increased frequency of

updates from 1 / month to 2 / week, to

be fresh in the minds of followers. It

was important to keep them excited

about the company.

3. Reviews and

Measurement

The team focused on key metrics

that would identify traction so that

success was quantified.

Follower base

jumped by

220%

(from 5462 to

17488)

Monthly job

views went

up by 127% (from 3280 to

7450)

Monthly job

applications

rose by

205%

(from 704 to

2144)

Talent Brand

Index rose from

21% to 37%21% of hires

were following

the company

before

getting hired

*Time period is from January 2015-January 2016

“Our culture and values are the key determinants of

our success . Our presence on LinkedIn has helped us

create positive awareness about our culture to a wider

audience. This in turn has helped us attract quality

talent enabling business impact and transformation.”

Anita Arjundas,

Managing Director & CEO – Mahindra Lifespaces Developers Ltd.

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