Podcast Audio Transcript
Mimi: Hello listeners, this is Mimi; thank you for tuning in to yet another exciting and informative podcast from us at Infosys BPM. Today, we are discussing about talent assurance & role readiness. And to talk about this, we have here with us, Sharath Chandra, Head – Learning & Development. Welcome Sharath. How are you?
Sharath: I’m doing very well Mimi. Thank you for having me again on this podcast.
Mimi: It’s an absolute pleasure. Sharath, to start off, could you give us a spiel of what you mean by talent readiness in your corporate environment?
Sharath: Talent readiness is a comprehensive learning initiative designed by the organization to equip our entry-level and junior managerial employees with the skills and knowledge they need to excel in their current roles. The program is divided into two key components: Role Essentials and Domain Readiness. Role Essentials focuses on building behavioral and functional competencies, while Domain Readiness delves deeper into specific domain and sub-domain expertise.
- These programs were designed and built by the L&D team, through a lot of collaborative effort with various business and domain stakeholders in the organization.
- The learning journey varies for different employees belonging to different ‘Talent Units’ and could vary from anywhere between 20 to 40 hours of focused learning.
- This is a self-learning program, available on our internal training platform. Hence employees can learn anytime, anywhere, on any device, and at their own pace and comfort.
- This program also has a ‘Earn as you Learn’ feature. Employees that get certified on the complete Role Readiness program that has been assigned to them, becomes eligible to earn a ‘Skill Allowance’ every month.
Our aim is to achieve two key objectives:
- Equip every employee to become competent in efficiently and effectively perform their current roles.
- Help employees that have aspirations to take up higher order roles, to prepare themselves and gain the required competencies for that aspired role.
Mimi: That’s great to hear that employees who upskill are able to earn even while they are looking for projects within the organization.
Thank you for that overview. I understand a key founding block of this program is the creation of Talent Units across the organization. Can you tell us what Talent Units are?
Sharath: That’s an important question, Mimi. Talent Units are the most basic and fundamental categorization of skills in our organization.
Talent Units can be defined as a combination of job sub level of an individual + the domain that he is part of + the sub-domain that he is currently working on.
Talent units help us get a ready database of employees with skills specific to the needs of various engagements and processes.
Mimi: Sounds great. It equips leaders to easily assess the talent availability across the globe with such a dashboard.
Is this program available for all employees across the globe?
Sharath: Currently, this program is not for all employees. This is for all junior employees within the organization across the world.
Also, the Skill Allowance on completion of the program for an individual’s current role, is also limited to specific job levels and locations.
For an employee who wishes to build competencies and take up an aspirational role, this is a perfect example of “democratized learning”. There is no restriction of any form. Any employee can pick up any program and build skills and competencies in those domains and sub-domains.
Mimi: I am sure aspiring employees would jump in to get their skills validated and grab new opportunities.
What are some of the current highlights of the program?
Sharath: Mimi, I am happy to note that the program has managed to create a strong influence among our employees.
- The ‘Domain Role Readiness’ program has been designed and implemented for majority of the large domains and sub-domains. Over 80% of eligible employees have sub-domain programs assigned to them.
- Over 12k employees have completed the Role Essential skills program; and over 7k have completed both Role Essentials and Domain Readiness, thus becoming eligible to receive ‘Skill Allowance’ every month.
The program has found tremendous acceptance by both the employees and their managers. We have employees who have gone on record to state how these programs have helped them become more competent in their day to day work. Managers too have given extremely generous feedback on the effectiveness of this program and the positive impact it has created on their floors.
Mimi:It’s so great to see this success, Sharth. Thank you so much for coming to our podcast today.
Sharath: It was a pleasure, Mimi.
Mimi: Dear listeners, if you enjoyed our podcast today, please don’t forget to subscribe to it on the platform of your choice; our podcasts are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and several others. Please don’t forget to share and like it on social media.
Also, if you have any queries, do reach out to us through the Infosys BPM website – www.infosysbpm.com.
Once again, thank you for tuning in, stay safe and sharp. This is Mimi signing off. Have a great day!
