Birthday Celebration at AST India! It’s said- “Count your life by smiles, not tears & Count your age by friends, not years.” It’s that time of the year when you want to cheer to a brand-new year to your life and what can be a better idea than celebrating this special day with AST family. So, before we could say goodbye to 2020, we wanted to have some great fun with our special Birthday boys & girls of AST family. Although the difficult ongoing situation refrained us from celebrating with a great gusto like always, we indeed didn’t want to miss an opportunity of celebrating it together. Another great virtual celebration of the year started with a short introduction from our recent joiners & welcoming them on board. It was great fun with team celebrating their special day with us with some mesmerizing Birthday music to boost the Birthday spirit! The celebration concluded with Vidya Khedekar sharing with us major insights on our recent Project Go-Lives & Client Recognitions. We thank everyone for their enthusiastic participation, without which it wouldn’t have been so much fun!

AST has launched its final employee resource group the Hispanic & Latino Professionals of AST! This group is led by Analía Lemus and Christina Scott with executive sponsorship from Tracy Kleinschmidt, PMP Kleinschmidt, and Hannah Gabrielle Trigo, SHRM-CP Trigo as the HR Leader. Follow these leaders to see how you can celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month and to stay updated on the Hispanic/Latino Professionals of AST! Evolution means we are forging ahead in unity towards growth that will positively influence AST. Our purpose is to create an environment that embraces change, development, and cultural awareness towards our Hispanic and Latino community. A successful Employee Resource Group’s intention is to focus on promoting curiosity and vulnerability towards diversity. #teamast

At AST LLC we believe we are better together. To better support and grow our people we are launching three employee resource groups (ERG) in September. Our first ERG to launch was the Women of AST! The Women of AST is led by Nina Wade, executive sponsored by Teresa Stanula, and is supported by HR Co-Leaders Supriya Sinha and Camille Xoxakos. This Employee Resource Group operates to develop and support female employees at AST and our local communities. We champion an environment in which women are valued, promoted, and able to achieve their full potential. We organize and sponsor events and activities to help their members develop skills to be successful and to build strong workplace relationships. #teamast

Thanksgiving-A way to celebrate gratitude It has been rightly said that “There’s always something to be thankful for.” Thanksgiving is a federal holiday in the United States, celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. It originated as a harvest festival and to this day the centerpiece of Thanksgiving celebrations remains Thanksgiving dinner. It is so easy to look at the world in a negative light. However, identifying the things that we are thankful for provides a beacon of hope amidst the pervasive darkness. On this great opportunity, how can we forget our valuable assets-our employees, who make a great AST family. Dear ASTians, needless to say that your efficiency and talent determine the pace and growth of AST. At this auspicious occasion, we want to thank you from the bottom of our heart for all that you do for AST & we’re really excited for our continued journey together! On Thanksgiving, we truly encourage everyone to take a few minutes to reflect on the people, places and things that you are thankful for at some point during this holiday!

Diwali Celebration at AST India! Diwali is known as “a festival of lights”, which symbolizes the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. The festival is associated with Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. We desperately wait for this festival of lights, when celebrants decorate their homes with diyas & Rangoli, light fireworks and exchange gifts & sweets. Although the difficult ongoing situation refrained us from celebrating this bright festival with much zeal it deserves, we indeed didn’t want to miss an opportunity of celebrating it with our AST family. So, we gathered for another great virtual celebration. To boost everybody’s festive spirit, we distributed gift cards on the occasion😊 This time, the celebration was a part of our informative Offshore Town hall meeting, hosted by Vidya Khedekar. We concluded with a fun quiz, where the winners were awarded. Thanks everyone for your enthusiastic participation, without which it wouldn’t have been so much fun!

Navratri Celebration at AST India- Navratri is one of the most sacred festivals of Hinduism, which spreads over ten days. It lays importance on the worship of Goddess Durga in her nine different forms. It ends with Dussehra celebration on the tenth day, which is a time to celebrate the triumphs of good over evil…indeed it’s the time to fight for the victory over the ongoing evil situation, that we’re all trapped in. Although the ongoing situation has refrained us from celebrating Navratri with much zeal it deserves, we definitely didn’t want our AST India family to be heartbroken 😊 & so we gathered for yet another exciting virtual celebration of the year. Rather, it was a whole week of celebration, where we held two thrilling contests of “Best Dressed” & “Best Dandiya Dancer”, the fabulous winners of which were announced on the main day of celebration. The cherry on the cake was the announcement of our Q3 Awards Winners. Team participated with great gusto within the safety of their homes. May the divine blessings of Goddess Durga bring eternal peace & happiness to everyone!

“Achieving MORE” Program at AST India It’s rightly said- “Worrying does not take away tomorrow's troubles, it takes away today's peace.” MORE is an acronym for Mindfulness, Optimism, Resilience & Excellence. At some point or the other we all suffer from stress. When the world is faced with a pandemic, stress, anxiety & confusion are natural outcomes. However hard we try to manage these disruptive emotions; life seems to find new ways of stressing us out. Physical & mental health problems, uncertainty, relationship demands- all these situations throw up challenges which require response in the form of changes in attitude, beliefs & actions. “Achieving MORE” is our first practical masterclass, that was steered by Vidya Khedekar, to help us configure our lives into a resourceful state! It was conducted by a well-qualified external trainer for all the offshore employees, which enabled us to understand:  The difference between pressure & stress  Optimism & install its beliefs  About mindfulness & learn practices to achieve it  The value of resilience & practical methods to enhance it

“Effortless Leadership” It has been rightly said by John C Maxwell “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way & shows the way” but is it so simple to achieve the indispensable traits of a true leader? Sometimes not. This is where we need an insight into this apparently simple but deep analytical concept of “Leadership”. We encounter various types of situations & emotions; good times, stressful ones & sometimes even terrible ones. However, a great leader always ensures to lead a team to success, regardless of the situation. “Effortless Leadership” is one such exclusive offering, which helps us understand the spellbinding skills of Leadership, with much ease. It enabled the participants to:  Understand one’s & other’s minds at the neurological level  Learn the science of getting desired results through the sub-conscious mind  Increase their influence on self, stakeholders & situations It was conducted by a well-qualified external trainer, for the Managers, Directors & Leads at AST India. Indeed, a value addition to the “Leadership Skills” Training Program, conducted last year!

"Problem Solving & Decision-Making Skills" Training Program at AST India There's a proverb by Loyal Lewman which goes "Never stop learning; for when we stop learning, we stop growing." Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, we couldn't conduct classroom sessions for the Annual Training Programs, like last year but we believe that learning is an ongoing process & nothing should obstruct it. Welcome to our first online Training Program for the year 2020! We conducted 5 batches from 31 Aug 2020 for all the offshore employees. These two hours/day program were conducted by a well-qualified external trainer,which covered the following topics: *Learn how to define a problem & the process of problem solving *Learn the new paradigm of problem solving *Learn two distinct approaches & explore some techniques of problem solving *Become aware of the life centres that influence decision making *Learn to apply proven approaches to overcome everyday problems These interactive & fun learning sessions not just accelerated employees' learning but indeed made them crave for more of such programs!

Hilary Wagner posted on LinkedIn