Cognizant appoints former Accenture VP Soma Pandey as Talent Management head

Attrition-hit IT services major, Cognizant has appointed Soma Pandey, a veteran Human Resources (HR) executive as the Head of Talent Management. In this role, Soma will drive and shape the enterprise talent strategy including addressing key people practices, talent and performance management, learning and leadership development, culture and employee experience. Cognizant’s former Head Talent Acquisition, Suresh Bethavandu had resigned from the firm after a 25 years tenure and has joined Mindtree as Chief Peoples Officer.   As per an official statement, Soma brings over 25 years of progressive HR leadership, with experience spanning diverse sectors and roles in organisations such as Accenture, Randstad, Mastek, and ITC Ltd. She joins Cognizant from Firstsource Solutions where she was the CHRO for close to five years, the Nasdaq listed firm stated.   The New-Jersey headquartered firm reported the highest ever attrition at 33 percent for the September quarter in the IT services factor with talent retention a major concern for the technology major. Out of more than 3.1 lakh employees, nearly 2 lakh workforce of Cognizant is based in India.   “At Cognizant, we firmly believe that people are our most valuable asset,” said Becky Schmitt, Chief People Officer, Cognizant. “We are excited to welcome Soma to the Cognizant family at a time when we are investing in the career growth and engagement of our talent more than ever.  I look forward to how Soma will foster our distinct, high-performance culture, accelerate careers, drive engagement, and empower new-age leadership capabilities that will engineer impact for our clients,” he added.

Soma is accomplished at envisioning and executing large-scale transformations in people practices, and has stewarded businesses through culture transformations, leadership transitions, business divestments and acquisitions, HR technology and shared services deployments in myriad global contexts, the company said.   “Journeying through the long months of pandemic, we have embraced tremendous change and learned to be more human than ever. The learning we have gained is driving innovation, both as we think about the future of work and how we create energizing experiences for people that inspire, develop and engage them. I am excited to join at this time of growth, and partner with team members across all levels to ensure Cognizant continues to be a place where everyone is driven by purpose and empowered to do their life’s best work,” said Soma Pandey, Head of Talent Management, Cognizant.   Soma is an alumna of the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) in Jamshedpur, India and is an SHRM Senior Certified Professional.   Cognizant said that it has added more than 17,000 new employees globally in last quarter alone. The company continues to invest in employee success, career development, equity and inclusion more than at any other time, it added.

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