TecHR Interview with Jinen Dedhia, Co-founder and MD of DronaHQ

Businesses are embracing AI and automation to keep up with the pace of the industry dynamics.

Jinen Dedhia, Co-founder of DronaHQ, talks about enterprise mobility software and the importance of no-code apps to help automate business processes in this TecHRseries interview.

Please tell us about yourself, Jinen. What inspired you to start DronaHQ? Being an early entrant in this field, what were some of the biggest startup challenges you faced, we’d love to especially know about your HR-related challenges in the initial days!

What inspired to start DronaHQ – I guess, I always had an inclination towards business and tech being my passion, I couldn’t wait to start off. I started after 1 year’s stint at Wipro Technologies. We started with mobile learning apps and soon moved to a platform to built apps. We were sure from the beginning that we always wanted to be a tech product player rather than services.

Startup challenges – Every startup goes through a similar cycle of challenges like cash crunch, building a good core team, facing international competition, etc. and they have been through it all. “Starting up is a journey and its best enjoyed when challenges evolve and they are solved with our own unique solutions

HR-related challenge- A few of the major challenges we faced as a startup, and I feel others will agree with me, were acquiring, onboarding and training talent with a company culture that was still evolving. Managing day to day HR functions like employee information database, time and attendance, leaves management, performance reviews, and the likes.

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Can you summarize how enterprise mobility software and tools improve team productivity?

With the increasing familiarity of smartphones, everything has moved to the mobile. Enterprise mobility is not an option anymore, its a necessity. Mobile apps offer benefits that are way beyond what web browsers can offer. For example, an intuitive app interface is preferred over navigating through multiple windows and mouse clicks. With internal mobile apps, CRM access, project management, contract management, and employee collaboration are in real-time 24/7 and productivity is increased immediately. 

How according to you are no-code apps transforming the HR sector?

HR managers can create a solution that best meets the organization’s requirements. There is the automation of mundane, every day, manual/paper-based functions. That goes on to boost overall employee productivity, especially that of the HR manager/teams enabling them to focus on more pressing decision making rather than running around the employees for simple data collection. Especially in the start-up landscape, hr teams can quickly put a structure in place making life easy for themselves as well as the employees

What’s your take on the Future of Work? What do organizations need to do in order to build a more future-ready workforce?

Remote work has already become commonplace with rising digital innovations. Advances in AI and IoT and chatbots will create an ambient experience that can turn the work around.
We are all going to be presented with challenges, even if we don’t see some coming our way. It goes without saying that technology is going to keep emerging and disrupting the workplace. The only way to build a future-ready workforce is to cultivate minds to be digital-savvy and ready for newer challenges. Being aware of all emerging tech trends should be a priority, even if the individual doesn’t practice it. The aim is to make employees ready to take learning into their own hands and be responsible for whatever will fall on their future paths.

With the growing use of Automation and AI across industries, what major changes do you see in the field of HR tech in the upcoming years?

AI is expected to automate tasks from low-level repeating functions to more complex scenarios. It won’t be surprising to see AI taking over recruitment and retention activities in organizations.

What hiring tips would you share for evolving roles in Marketing/Sales (roles that are now changing due to the influence of SalesTech/Martech etc)?

I think these roles are becoming more tech-enabled with an increasing need for knowledge of the tools out there. Gone are the days of only SEO and content, there is a lot more emphasis on the fluency of using the tech tools that increase the ROI on every dollar spent.

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Can you share some interesting ways in which global teams can enhance internal communication among departments using the right tools and technology?

Encourage sharing, inter-team dialogues. The culture that everyone should and what we are trying to cultivate is to offer information rather than asking for it. As managers, we try and lead by example, keeping co-managers up to date with the information we feel is going to help them do their work better. You will find tools everywhere. If you don’t, you can make your own tools, but don’t let any of that get in your way.

What is the best recruitment/leadership/entrepreneurial advice you have ever received?

The best advice I have ever received and we consciously work on is that while hiring for positions keep a list of trainable and non-trainable skills handy and do not hire until all the non-trainable skills are ticked. It’s a non-negotiable.

Before we wrap up, a few entrepreneurial or startup learnings/takeaways you’d like to share.

Build a great product, have an elevator pitch ready and don’t take too long to launch it!

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