Cxo of the week: Sandesh Chitnis, CEO, Core Integra

Core Integra leverages cutting-edge technology to offer unique value propositions in labor law compliance and HR solutions. Their proprietary tech stack includes the Ctrl-F platform for labor law compliance, Corex HRMS for human resources management, a PF Trust Operations platform, and custom-built Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions. These technologies enable Core Integra to deliver customized, efficient, and cost-effective services to its clients, ensuring compliance and optimizing HR operations across various industries.

In an exclusive interview with Ciol, Sandesh Chitnis, CEO, of Core Integra, discussed the company's recent expansion into the talent acquisition sector. He elaborated on the strategic reasons behind this move and explained how Core Integra has incorporated Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its RegTech platform.

Could you please share the journey of Core Integra from its inception to becoming India’s leading SaaS-based compliance platform?

Core Integra has been providing labor law services to a diverse clientele since 2012. Our team of dedicated subject matter experts possesses a deep understanding of the relevant laws and regulations in this domain. 

Core Integra recognized the challenges posed by manual and paper-based processes in labor law compliance a decade ago. While compliance management in the labor law domain was predominantly managed by regional or local players at that time, Core Integra’s vision was to become a national-level service provider covering all states in India. To achieve this vision, the organization understood the need for and importance of having a robust technology application.  It embarked on the development of technology for labour law compliance in the year 2014. Today, Ctrl F software is available as both a service and a SaaS model, serving over 500 clients across 30 different industries for their routine compliance tasks.

Core Integra has recently announced its expansion into the talent acquisition sector. Could you elaborate on the strategic reasons behind this expansion and the markets you are targeting?

Core Integra's expansion into the talent acquisition space for India, Southeast Asia, the US, and Middle east is to address a critical demand created in the industry for leadership roles. This will help us achieve effective strategic growth by bringing in synergies with our expertise in Compliance and Human Resources.

Talent Acquisition division will focus on CXO, middle management and senior positions within the organizations aiming to strengthen organizational leadership and foster strategic growth for businesses in a dynamic market. The services will cater across industries such as manufacturing, services, BFSI, healthcare, and technology. Under this arm, Core Integra aims to enhance its offerings with refined recruitment strategies, high-potential identification, leadership development, and succession planning.

What specific opportunities and challenges do you foresee in expanding into the Middle East, the US, and Southeast Asian markets?

As the global job market evolves, talent acquisition faces unique opportunities and challenges in different regions. In the Middle East, particularly the UAE and Saudi Arabia, unprecedented economic growth and significant investments across various sectors, including IT, banking, finance, real estate, construction, oil and gas, and renewable energy, are driving substantial demand for professionals. The UAE's commitment to becoming a regional Information and Communication Technology hub, along with easing visa regulations and competitive compensation packages, makes the region highly attractive for skilled expatriates, despite challenges in cultural adaptation and complex visa and labor laws.

In the United States, the job market remains a beacon of opportunity, especially in technology and healthcare. The diverse job market spans various sectors, allowing talent acquisition specialists to match candidates with roles that align with their skills and career goals. However, the highly competitive nature of the market, particularly in tech hubs like Silicon Valley and New York, requires innovative recruitment strategies and competitive compensation packages. Additionally, economic fluctuations necessitate a flexible and responsive approach to recruitment.

Southeast Asia is rapidly becoming an economic powerhouse, with countries like Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia leading the charge. The region's significant digital transformation, bolstered by government support for tech startups and innovation, drives demand for IT professionals, software developers, and data scientists. However, the notable shortage of qualified professionals in high-tech fields and inadequate infrastructure in some areas pose challenges that require substantial investment in education and training.

Expanding talent acquisition efforts into the Middle East, the US, and Southeast Asia presents both lucrative opportunities and significant challenges. Success in these regions hinges on a strategic approach that considers local market dynamics, regulatory environments, and cultural nuances. By understanding and addressing these factors, companies can effectively navigate the complexities of global talent acquisition and harness the potential of these vibrant markets.

How is Core Integra simplifying and consolidating labour laws for its clients, and what impact does this have on compliance processes?

Core Integra being a market leader in consulting and compliance services in India, it’s necessary to be a role model and create a benchmark in the industry. Core Integra’s action starts with understanding the regulatory requirements and applicability for every business approach with clients and prospects. We review and understand the business of the client to accommodate a bundle of applicable acts under different buckets.

We offer different modules to the prospects and clients can subscribe to the services based on the requirements, nature of business, etc. This could fall under various applicable regulatory frameworks such as Labour Law, Payroll, EHS, and Other Compliances. We cover all applicable regulatory and labor law compliances based on the law of the land principle.

We map the client in our flagship “Ctrl F” platform, which is an in-house-built tool for the applicability of compliances to the location in which the client operates. The tool is designed to identify and map the applicable compliances against the nature of the business and location from the backend. The tool provides a comprehensive dashboard for real-time status updates of organisations compliances and non-compliances. 

A comprehensive MIS is created in the Dashboard within CtrlF to give a complete status of the organization at various levels. Organizations can drill down and view the status of their compliance, risk level mitigation plan, and more. The demographic of the compliance status provides various options to filter and view the required parameters and compliances.

 With the use of technology, Core Integra helps clients identify the gaps and provide an improvement plan to mitigate the risk of non-compliance. We do assign an individual SPOC to connect with the client to clarify the questions and provide the maximum support to mitigate the non-compliance.

How is Core Integra helping its clients adapt to the New Tax Regime in India, and what are the key benefits observed?

In the year 2020, the Government of India introduced a new concept of taxation in the name of the “New Tax Regime," which provides a benefit to employees who are earning within certain limits and are not ready to spend or invest the earned money. Core Integra possesses adequate knowledge and expertise to clarify the difference between the New Tax Regime and the Old Tax Regime. We have a tool that helps identify the benefitable tax regime based on the employee’s compensation, tax-saving deduction, and exemption status.

We provide a detailed note with the status of thresholds to the client and further circulate it with employees of the client to identify the benefitable tax regime. Our tool seeks the compensation status of the employees, and further requirements are raised to incorporate components like HRA, LTA, 80C tax saving deductions, 80D expenses, 80G, meal coupons, Home Loan etc to decide the appropriate tax regime.

The new tax regime benefits employees whose salary is up to Rs 7 lakh per annum, this was Rs 5 lakh for the old regime. 

The lower-income group is always looking for a higher take home, which was accommodated under the New Regime by the Central Government for the purpose of benefiting such low-income people. Though various slabs of tax are notified under the New Tax Regime, it provides a tax exemption for the salary group of Rs. 7 lakh per annum. The standard deduction of Rs. 75,000/- extended to the new tax regime has prompted the larger employees to think of shifting to the new tax regime.

What are the primary challenges your clients face under the New Tax Regime, and how does Core Integra address these challenges?

As per the Central Government, the default regime is to be maintained as a “new tax regime” for employees who have not disclosed their willingness to continue the old tax regime. As a principle, we maintain the New Tax Regime for employees who do not disclose their willingness to the client, and tax commutation happens based on the New Tax Regime.

Core Integra as a consultant helps the client and its employee identify and select the benefitable tax regime for higher take home.

•    Intermediate revision of salary or compensation: This impacts the employees as the tax regime decided by the employee is based on their current compensation.
•    Change the tax regime from old to new:  Some employees who opt for the old tax regime and fail to spend on tax-saving deductions and have still not opted for the new tax regime will end up with high tax payments at the end of the year.
•    Employees who fail to disclose the tax regime will default to the New Tax Regime. They will not be allowed to move back to the old regime.

Some circumstances arise that are not within the control of the Core Integra, but there are options to submit the tax savings deductions by the employees at the time of filing the income tax returns.

Could you explain how Core Integra has integrated Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its RegTech platform?

Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence and Machine learning play a critical and pivotal role in any Regulatory platforms. These applications handle various transactions, generation or registers or forms, reconciliation for multiple activities, creating customized dashboards, creating various contents etc. RPA creates all the routine or tasks which are pre-defined to be automated and execute at a given time with the desired outputs generated in a specified time. This helps in streamlining the process, create efficiencies, avoid errors, miss deadlines and moreover remove human dependencies.

What other technological innovations can we expect from Core Integra in the near future?

This is an ongoing process and will never seize to stop. Existing applications will continue to go through innovations, process change, creating efficiencies, adding components of Artificial Intelligence, Robotic Process Automation and Machine Learning etc making the applications more usable and user-friendly.

Many other new product ideas and developments are at multiple stages and will be introduced and implemented over the months to come.

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