How Kshema, a general insurance company, redefined its HR experience with Zoho People
The company
Kshema General Insurance Ltd, based in Hyderabad, is a tech-driven general insurance company focused on strengthening financial resilience for farmers and rural communities. Founded in 2018 and licensed by IRDAI in 2023, Kshema leverages AI, satellite imaging, and geospatial data to offer crop insurance solutions. With a mission to make insurance accessible, it combines digital efficiency with deep agricultural expertise to protect farmers against climate and income risks.
Kshema has grown into a 1,000+ strong workforce, with offices across 11 states in India and an HR team size of 12 people.
The challenge
Kshema was managing all of its HR operations manually while its workforce continued to grow rapidly. The HR team juggled multiple spreadsheets, forms, and disconnected databases just to handle the employee lifecycle. Every month, it took the team a full week to consolidate attendance and leave data, and an entire day to gather documents and onboard each new employee. With disjointed systems, no integrations, limited visibility into workforce health, and a lack of clear workflows, HR operations were becoming increasingly chaotic—not ideal for a business on the rise.
Onboarding, attendance and leave, and exit management became the most pressing issues that needed attention, and Kshema started the search for a better alternative. The company needed a solution that not just solved existing problems but could also scale with future growth.
"We were managing all our HR processes manually, and as a growing business, staying compliant and compiling data became increasingly challenging. With every new hire, the process grew more complicated and messy. We knew we needed a better system."
- Vineeth Kuna,Talent Acquisition, Kshema General Insurance
The solution
Kshema found Zoho through an online search after evaluating multiple competitors. Zoho People proved to be user-friendly, cost effective, and highly customizable.
"The major reason why we chose Zoho People over other applications is because of its highly customizable capabilities. We have built over 16 custom services to suit our growing requirements."
Now, instead of managing a pan-India workforce on spreadsheets, the team uses Zoho People to map each employee to the respective office locations, generate employee IDs, and securely store master data. Employees can fill in their own details and make any changes through an online request. This saves time and effort for both employees and HR alike. Additionally, the platform's audit history helps track changes and set up a process for compliance tracking. Kshema also automated leave and attendance tracking so that records are maintained perfectly without any manual intervention. The HR team integrated a biometric device for automatic tracking, and the customizable leave policies in Zoho People keep the company compliant with regional holidays and leave accruals. While it previously took new hires almost their entire first working day to complete forms and submit documents, the team at Kshema now uses Zoho People to pre-onboard new joiners, meaning documents are collected beforehand for stress-free first days. Vineeth adds that Zoho People helped his team establish "a structured onboarding process with a set probation period, approvals for confirmation, and automatic emails" for various scenarios. "We've also integrated LinkedIn Learning with Zoho People, allowing employees to access their courses within just a single click," he says.
Benefits and ROI
Before Zoho People, it took Kshema almost four months to complete its annual appraisal cycle. Gathering feedback, providing consistent reviews, setting goals, and tracking them were all chaotic. Today, it only takes a matter of weeks from start to finish. The team now has a customized process that gives structure to its performance management. Employees use Zoho People to set their primary goals and update their progress, while managers can see each team member's focus and provide consistent feedback.
Kshema also established a clear and well-structured exit process. With a custom workflow, the entire exit cycle is automated, notifying the right people at the right time. Multi-level approvals, automated clearance notifications, full-and-final settlement details, and exit interviews are all streamlined to ensure every employee has a smooth, delay-free exit experience.
Of the HR team's 16 custom services in Zoho People, one of the most important is the mini-hiring module, which has helped screen over 4,000 candidates and hire more than 130+ employees. From creating the job opening and uploading resumes to conducting interviews, recording feedback, and sending offer letters, every step is automated for efficient hiring.
"What took almost four months now takes 45 days. With a structured performance management system, we're able to provide a great nurturing environment for our employees while also ensuring HR is on track and everything is recorded for future reference."
- Vineeth Kuna,Talent Acquisition, Kshema General Insurance
Looking forward
Kshema continues to explore Zoho People in greater depth, uncovering new capabilities and tailoring the platform to meet its evolving operational needs. As the organization grows, Zoho People remains a scalable and adaptable partner, supporting Kshema in streamlining processes, enhancing employee experiences, and shaping a more efficient HR ecosystem.