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Bharat Kumar

It's not just availability of space that dictates IT companies having multiple centres. There is something else...

THIS is one insight we relished receiving.

Why do you think Indian IT software companies have multiple centres housing their employees, across a city, and across cities? The obvious answer is that you don't get large tracts of land at a clutch and hence have to diversify.

But why does HCL Technologies prefer to have multiple centres and those well within city limits?

Says R. Vaidyanathan, executive vice-president and global HR head in HCL Technologies, "We have thought through this, starting from our early days in software."

And here's what he and his team concluded: The average age of the software industry employee is between 23 and 25 years. At that age, he says, "a person is tempted to look at the person next to him and not at the one above him."

If this is allowed, it could lead to dilution of focus for the employee. So, employees with good potential could squander a career opportunity for want of skills that could have been accumulated. So, he says, "We try and keep employees of a particular capability, be it domain focus such as banking, or with particular technology skills or with exposure to a particular client, together. This helps sharpen skills that they acquire early on."

This automatically links up with the company's policy of shaping its employees' careers once they reach a point of saturation in skills accumulation.

Says Vaidyanathan, "At some point, a person has to decide whether he would continue on the technical side or switch over to managing people."

If a person prefers the technical stream, then there is danger of saturation. "Five years down, you will have younger folks with sharper minds competing with you." With technology becoming obsolete fast, it is easy to get left behind.

At the same time, if you decide on the managerial path, there are some core skills required. He says, "Knowledge of a client, understanding how a client's industry works, the ability to manage people and to manage projects are all important skills for an employee wanting to move up the managerial path."

For this, HCL Tech is now working with an external consultant to provide training to a clutch of about 50 people at a time to evaluate areas of strength and weakness.

"The course lasts six months. Training is offered through classes, tutorials, reading material and through personal coaching so that the individual achieves a level of competence in an identified area."

HCL calls this the management development programme. The first batch completed the course recently.

Picture by V. Ganesan

bharatk@thehindu.co.in

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