Madiha Shamim & Rida Shamim:
Two Young Women from HR Ways taking tech industry by Storm – Interview
Two years into the idea and one year into operation, HR Ways has managed to emerge as the only qualified IT Recruiters in town. Lead by two young entrepreneurs Madiha Shamim & Rida Shamim, the sister duo take customer satisfaction, screening and connecting IT geeks to potential employers to another level.
Our team managed to reach the duo about challenges as women industry players, about synergies as the co-founders and what led to the success in such short span:
Q: There were already some HR companies operating, why did you chose to be in this profession?
Madiha Shamim: Well to be very honest, some HR companies in Pakistan existed before I was born. They are older than my age and their roots are stronger. It was my sister’s idea. My only idea/suggestion for her was to do business. I asked her what she’d want to do and she said she will explore the HR industry. It was a green flag for me and we started. I was worried about how are we going to make it since I am a preacher of new business ideas and HR Ways was just another concept, but I was never doubtful about our existence like traditional startups.
Rida Shamim: I started it because HR had always been my passion. I had 9+ years industry experience. The limitation was that I never got to work to an extent that it satisfies my soul. Obviously there aren’t many hirings in one company, the policies are made once so scope is limited. But here at HR Ways or at agencies, hiring for so many companies at a time, its so exciting and challenging. It gives me butterflies all the time.
Q: Interesting. So tell me Madiha that as you mentioned that only new business ideas interest you, how did you cope up with it?
Madiha Shamim: Well we did a lot of reengineering in it. You can say that it is just the concept now that is traditional. We revamped how hiring is done. We revamped technical recruitment. Our HR isn’t ordinary HR. I won’t be revealing the secret sauce but customers feel very secured with us. We don’t hush for invoices, invest a lot of time in talent mapping for companies so our success ratio in meeting customers is higher.
Q: Rida, so I see that recruitment is the core business that you and your sisters are acing. What else do you have in buckets and pipeline?
Rida Shamim: You see recruitment as the core business for us because everyone needs hiring solutions. But we are also doing OD (Organizational Development). In OD, companies engage us for their business documentations including drafting lawyer vetted company policies, employment contracts, KPIs and systems, cultural alignment, conflict resolution systems etc. Employers these days don’t want to waste their energy in petty issues and resolving internal conflicts. We receive a very positive feedback when we do OD for companies; relationships between employers and employees improve, turnouts decrease, productivity increase. And we have something for everyone. For startups we have “OD for startup”, a very affordable business documentation package to kick off companies and start on-boarding people. For bigger companies, products vary. Then we have payroll, trainings etc. and we are going towards expansion.
Q: That’s very interesting to hear. Tell us about you both getting along. I see Madiha as a very young and fresh face to face the thriving industry. How do you both synergize?
Rida Shamim: Well she’s very young. She’s just 24 and she’s leading the recruitment department alone. I didn’t expect her to be this professional but her communication, her leadership skills are immaculate. She hired young team like her and together they do magic. She has so much of energy. Recruitment takes a lot of energy. It’s a heartbreak every moment and she handles it well. Clients are super comfy and satisfied when she’s taking the charge. You can search about her. She is becoming the face of our company. Young, bold and energetic.
Madiha Shamim: I am very grateful to her that she trusted on me. Trust me its not easy to put your life savings into a venture and hand it over to a person who is yet to prove their expertise. I had learnt persistence from her. I see her job struggles were hard. She had a smile despite doing extra hours, never complained about her employers. Still also, OD is so difficult and she has 100% satisfaction rate. She is perfect sister at home and a perfect CEO and Co-Founder at office. We have differences in opinions as we both come from different schools of thoughts. She speaks of her experiences and I speak of mine. But we discuss and always come up with super solutions so basically we both complement each other really well. She’s my mentor. I always wanted to be like her.
Q: One advice you would give to startups?
Rida Shamim: I’d tell them that first 2 years will be very hard. Harder than you can imagine. If you are up for it, then only jump into startup hole. Otherwise you will be lost. There will come light but not that easily. You will have to burn midnight fuel and put blood and sweat to stay in there.
Madiha Shamim: I’ll tell these people to please not have second thoughts in mind. Tell yourself that im doing it and Im winning it no matter what happens. Otherwise, you won’t be able to make it. Business in Pakistan is harder. Especially when you are into new concepts. It takes real energy to educate masses about your product.
From our Print Edition
