transforming finance and operations at scale: an interview with unnikrishnan p s.

The role of the finance and compliance professional is rapidly evolving from strict rule enforcement to strategic business enablement. To understand what this transition looks like in practice, we sat down with Unnikrishnan P S, Head of Employee Workforce (EW) Life Cycle Management at Randstad India. During an illuminating conversation, Unnikrishnan shares how his team leveraged process mapping and artificial intelligence to overhaul massive mid-office operations.

You joined Randstad India in 2019 as a Company Secretary and now head Employee Life Cycle Management (ELM). How did that transition unfold? 

I started by handling board-level activities in 2019, moved into compliance in 2021 to manage complex labor regulations, and eventually took charge of mid-office operations in 2023. By late 2024, we realized that we needed to minimize handoffs, so we consolidated multiple mid-office teams—covering onboarding, payroll, engagement, compliance, and invoicing—into a single unified ELM function.

Managing operations for Randstad India involves incredible volume. How did you identify the bottlenecks before implementing technology? 

The volume is significant; we manage approximately 75,000 payrolled talents, 18,000 reimbursement activities, 4,000 onboardings, and 3,000 exits every month. Historically, these processes were heavily manual and relied on Excel, PDF, and paper documents. Before bringing in any technology, we conducted a lean mapping exercise that identified 460 distinct steps across the talent life cycle.

So, you decided to introduce several AI tools to handle this workload. Which implementations had the biggest operational impact? 

Our time sheet engine has been a major breakthrough. We manage over 1,000 client contracts with varying formats, and the AI now automatically reads emails, PDFs, and Excel files to convert them into a readable format for our systems. This reduced our processing time from 7 to 10 hours down to just 2 to 3 hours, achieving a 70% to 75% effort reduction in payroll documentation.

We also built an AI letter generation tool that processes 9,000 monthly salary and incentive letters in just 5 minutes, down from 30 to 40 minutes. Finally, our automated reimbursement tool validates expense claims against tax policies based on pre-confirmed templates. Alongside this, our corporate finance team introduced technology to automate client invoice generation and validation.

With 460 process steps, how did you decide what to automate versus what to leave manual? 

We used a three-tier bucketing approach based on our lean mapping:

• First, we looked for areas needing only standard operating procedure (SOP) or process realignments without any technology.
• Second, we targeted high-volume, manual tasks—like timesheets and letters—for heavy AI and tech interventions.
• Third, we identified areas for semi-automation using internal macros or tools like Gemini. 

This structure allowed us to accurately calculate expected efficiency savings and project budgets.

Large-scale transformation often brings anxiety to operational teams. How did you manage expectations and job security concerns? 

Communication is critical. We held town halls and HR sessions to clearly explain the transformation charter, address job security concerns, and highlight reskilling opportunities. To build trust, each technical release included a strict hypercare period to verify that the tools functioned correctly without compliance gaps before any headcount or efficiency realignments were executed. We also maintained maker-checker controls so that humans were still auditing the AI's output.

Amid these AI advancements, what skills do modern finance and compliance professionals need to stay relevant ? 

As repetitive tasks get automated, professionals need to step out of their comfort zones and strengthen their soft skills to improve client and talent communication. Freeing staff from manual formatting allows them to focus on customer delight and understand the unique requirements of diverse talent pools, from blue-collar to white-collar sectors. We also encourage our teams to learn how to use AI tools like Gemini in their daily workflows, while our compliance staff are actively transitioning into advisory roles focusing on new labor regulations.

What is your top piece of practical advice for finance professionals looking to break out of the "number cruncher" silo and become a strategic business partner? 

You must thoroughly map and understand your end-to-end processes before attempting any transformation. Do not blindly attempt to automate an entire function. You need to track specific activities down to the click of a button to identify exactly where automation is necessary. Furthermore, navigating these transformations requires being open to change and acting as a team player who actively listens to the operational experts within your organization.

about the expert:

Unnikrishnan P S is the Company Secretary and Head of EW Life Cycle Management at Randstad India. With a background spanning healthcare and IT compliance, he specializes in transforming complex regulatory frameworks into streamlined, tech-enabled business operations.