Shailendra Bassi

Senior Talent Acquisition and Business Leader with 25+ years of experience across executive search, leadership hiring, business growth, and talent strategy. Most recently founded and successfully scaled a specialized talent advisory firm, gaining direct experience in entrepreneurship, client acquisition, P&L management, and strategic consulting. Proven track record of building high-performing teams, managing large portfolios, and partnering with senior business leaders to drive organizational growth and transformation.

Impeccable record of building high performance teams and partnering with multiple stakeholders from Business and HR in identifying how TA function has an impact on employee's complete life-cycle. Have vast experience in managing not only end-to-end recruitment life-cycle but also led recruiting & sourcing exclusively as key functions within Talent Acquisition Organization that helped in acquiring significant exposure & understanding of building such proficiency.

Founder and Managing Partner - HireRarity Solutions

(2024-05)

Leveraged 25 years of Talent Acquisition and Leadership experience to establish a specialized Recruitment & Talent Advisory firm. Responsible for defining business strategy, building market presence, acquiring and managing client relationships, and delivering executive search and talent solutions across diverse industries. This entrepreneurial venture has provided hands-on experience business development, P&L ownership, strategic consulting, stakeholder management and organizational growth complementing my extensive corporate leadership background.

Regional Talent Acquisition Head - Air Products & Chemicals - Pune

(2021-04 - 2024-04)

Responsible for India recruitment planning and strategic initiatives for Air Products (GCC) in the key areas like:

• End-to-end Talent Acquisition operations across India
• Planning and executing Sourcing Strategies with help of the TA Team
• Partnering with Business Leaders and HR Business Partners to drive the diverse talent attraction and hiring strategies in right way. Successfully able to double up the diversity hiring percentage by in 2 years through implementing Balanced Candidate Slates / Balanced Interview Panel strategies
• Responsible for Labor Market Intelligence, Candidate / Hiring Manager Experience
• Strategic relationship / partnership with Universities for Early Career Hiring plans. Created the 'Early Career' plan for the India organization from scratch for attracting and hiring Engineering Graduates and Interns
• Helped business like Digital Technology in reducing time to hire by building aggressive Talent Pipelines throughout the year
• Working closely with Talent Branding team to ensure we drive right strategies in building a strong brand together in partnership via internal & external communications
• Leading the Global Strategic Sourcing & Diversity project – building a global team who will be responsible for: Sourcing & attracting talent for senior / executive level roles across the globe, Building a strong pipeline for niche / repetitive roles, Conducting labor market intelligence for future roles / competencies
• Responsible for TA Organization budgeting for the region
• Solely responsible for end-to-end hiring of leadership roles across the region

Director - India Talent Acquisition - Optum Global Solutions (part of UnitedHealth Group company) - Gurgaon

(2012-10 - 2021-04)

Being part of India Talent Acquisition Leadership team, primarily responsible for the overall recruiting delivery & strategy at PAN India level. Responsible for developing appropriate talent acquisition strategies and managing the process to deliver as per agreed targets within assigned business areas

Director – Talent Acquisition - Optum Global Solutions (part of UnitedHealth Group company) - Gurgaon

(2020-02 - 2021-04)

• Heading end-to-end Recruitment for 4 Optum India Acquired Entities spread out of Noida, Mumbai, Chennai & Bangalore
• The key hiring domain for the said entities are: Healthcare Insurance & Product Development
• Playing a pivotal role in integrating the Talent Acquisition across all the 4 entities with Optum, India
• In addition to the same, heading Talent Acquisition Operations for India region

Director – Talent Acquisition (India Sourcing Head) - Optum Global Solutions (part of UnitedHealth Group company) - Gurgaon

(2017-03 - 2020-02)

• As India Sourcing Head, manages specialized teams for volume & leadership hiring
• Partner with Global Talent Marketing team to create Talent attraction and engagement strategies for India
• Built Talent Intelligence capability within the India Sourcing team that drives Business Leaders to take informed talent decisions basis the strategic pulse on market dynamics provided by this team
• Leading Talent Acquisition Automation project for India
• Responsible for overall India Sourcing CPH while ensuring no impact on delivery. Managed the same by enhancing internal teams' direct sourcing & networking capabilities through in-house learning & development. Also successfully reduced dependency on external agencies to <10% in some segments and increased Employee Referral contribution from 14% to 34% in last couple of years by building strong engagement plans with business teams
• Work closely with HR & Business teams to understand current and future needs of building 'Leadership Capability' and enable the same by generating & sharing strong pipeline of relevant candidates
• To reduce dependency on external recruitment partners, successfully built alternate sourcing channels for India organization viz. building of an internal team of Platinum Sourcers, Source-Train-Hire model, Hire-Train-Deploy model, Inclusion & Diversity etc.

Associate Director – Talent Acquisition - Optum Global Solutions (part of UnitedHealth Group company) - Gurgaon

(2015-03 - 2017-02)

• Created an internal COE of 30+ high performing team members who caters to the complex hiring need of multiple business functions which are: Product Engineering, Technology Services, Business Operations, Medical Coding / Analytics, Enabling Services, Finance & Accountancy
• The team is aligned with different business functions as per their core competencies and operate from multiple locations viz. Gurgaon, Noida & Hyderabad
• Analyse monthly functional metrics / scorecard, providing trend assessment and project prioritization for the team

Senior Manager – Talent Acquisition - Optum Global Solutions (part of UnitedHealth Group company) - Gurgaon

(2012-10 - 2015-02)

• As People Manager responsible for: Setting up of Annual Goals for Managers & Individual Contributors on the team, Reviewing their performance on quarterly basis and doing half-yearly & annual performance appraisals of the team, Monitoring service level expectations and maintaining cost-effective delivery of sourcing, Facilitate communication between sourcing and recruitment teams ensuring partnership, role clarity, and responsiveness in accordance with SLAs and clear handoffs that create positiv
• Worked extensively on Transformation Projects: Equip sourcing specialists with social media recruiting skills & expertise to attract & engage the best talent, Designed vendor management / assessment process, Strategic Sourcing Plan – through SSP, planning & managing the TA marketing budget at India level; perform analytics on each channel to maximize results
• Responsible for overseeing transactional sourcing for prioritized positions, as well as ensuring that proactive pipelining goals are met according to the plan. Act as a coach and mentor to the team related to the quality / consistency of work product, adoption of technology and tools, as well as other performance management related to metrics.
• Managing the TA Operations Team as stretched goal for last more than 6 months wherein responsible for Offer Management, Vendor Management, Payouts & Background Verification via a team of 10 team members

India Talent Acquisition Manager (Technology & Shared Services) - Aon Hewitt - Gurgaon

(2008-06 - 2012-10)

• Spearheaded recruiting for India Technology Group (ITG) & Support Vertical at PAN India level
• Setup the India recruiting team from ground level and grown gradually across India
• Successfully executed source-train-hire model that resulted in huge cost saving for the IT organization
• Solely responsible for complete Leadership level hiring across the two verticals
• Contributed on improving hiring manager experience, candidate experience & process adherence by leading multiple projects
• Complete ownership of Client Engagement & People Engagement through building strong business relationship with the stakeholders and the HR Partners

Manager – TAG - HCL Technologies

(2006-06 - 2008-06)

• Headed the entire Recruitment Function for EAS LOB (SAP Practice) at Noida, Kolkata & Mumbai. Directly reporting to the TAG India Head – EAS and was responsible for 100% performance.
• Was responsible for leading India team in identifying talent pool and market availability for all ERP modules (technical / functional) and built a strong mechanism to support business requirements
• Involved in volume hiring of SAP professionals by participating in multiple recruiting events across the country and weekend drives being scheduled by internal recruiting teams. Handled recruitment for large business functions, led teams in achieving some of the fastest ramp-ups.

Senior Executive – Recruitment - Kean India Ltd.

(2005-03 - 2006-06)

• As an individual contributor, responsible for interviewing middle / senior level candidates, validating resumes and shortlisting potential candidates on the basis of authenticity of experience, skillset combination & credentials.
• Direct interaction with the Business Unit Heads for all kind of coordination like planning / scheduling interviews, upcoming requirements, recruiting strategies etc.

Assistant Manager - Pyramid IT Consulting

(2003-11 - 2005-03)

• Worked as Assistant Manager with Pyramid IT Consulting and was a core team member for initiating Contract Staffing business in domestic market.
• Responsible for managing all day-to-day recruitment activities from receiving the requirements, distributing the same among the team members along with myself, till the placement of the consultant at the Client Site
• Worked for clients like GENPACT, Accenture.
• Excellent exposure to staffing business
• In addition to client requirements, worked extensively for in-house requirements

Associate Consultant - Fillers Consulting Group

(2002-07 - 2003-11)

Executive Recruitment - Pipal Software Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd.

(2000-10 - 2002-06)

Dynamic Sales & Services International Pvt. Ltd.

(1999-07 - 2000-09)

Goswami Associates (Legal Firm)

(1998-01 - 1999-06)

Bachelor of Commerce (Hons.) - Commerce - Moti Lal Nehru College, Delhi University (1995)