Exterro plans to double its workforce in India by end-2022

Exterro Inc., provider of Legal GRC software specifically designed for in-house legal, privacy, and IT teams at Global 2000 and Am Law 200 organizations – today announced that it plans to double its workforce in India by the end of 2022.

Exterro increased its headcount by 16 percent in the first five months of 2022 and plans to add more employees to its existing talent of 300 employees in its Coimbatore R&D center, it said in a statement.

Exterro’s Founder, President and CEO, Bobby Balachandran, who was born and raised in Coimbatore, believes the company needs to give back to the community. Since its establishment in 2006 in Coimbatore, Exterro has actively recruited talent from tier-2 and tier-3 cities for its research and development operations. Currently 70 percent of its workforce are from tier-2 cities and tier-3 cities.

With a renewed focus on generating employment in these regions, Exterro plans to expand its operations in India. The company is currently looking at opening another office in a tier-2 city, apart from opening a new training center in Coimbatore. The training center in Coimbatore will be similar to Exterro’s existing facility in London, it said.

“We aim to hire talent from tier-2 and tier-3 cities as we want to create more jobs for people from diverse backgrounds. We focus on hiring first generation learners, people from lower income groups and people from single parent homes or who are single parents,” said Bobby Balachandran, Founder, President and CEO, Exterro.

The paucity of women in STEM is not merely due to inadequacy in skill but it is the direct result of stereotypical gender roles. Women in India are faced with a ‘dual role’, where their career paths are largely affected by their domestic responsibilities. It is perhaps why although 43 percent of STEM graduates are women, only 14 percent of them are employed in the STEM field. Exterro endeavors to break this cycle and focus on inducting more women into the workforce. Currently, 40 percent of Exterro’s workforce in India are women and 90 percent of employees hired in 2022 are also women. Exterro has established an employee support network — Sheroes from all the women in its workforce.

“The gender gap in STEM fields is wide. Even as more and more women are entering STEM fields in India, it does not translate into a reduced gender gap in the workforce. At Exterro, we want to eliminate this gender gap not only in terms of the number of employees we hire but also in the matter of remuneration,” Dr Kavitha Thangasami, Vice President Global Talent Management and Chief Data Scientist, Exterro said. “Networks of women in STEM empower women and offer them role models to look up to. We also encourage our employees to learn from other forums and networks to inspire more women to be a part of STEM fields.”