The Hindu Business Line : Powering training

"Training happens almost everyday at work. There are nuances to technology and industry/client specific issues that one needs to understand. We are constantly given documentation and training on these aspects," says Bharatan K, a module leader at Wipro Technologies.

Bharatan's counterparts working for other IT majors may share similar views. For, over the last five years, training has grown in status to a core function for organisations. Massive hiring of fresh graduates at the entry level, shortage of middle management level candidates, changing technologies and the need to develop leaders have deepened the scope of training and expanded budgets.

eWorld spoke to some industry majors to trace the trends in training.

Infosys Technologies spent close to $140 million (about Rs 560 crore) in 2006-07 on training. It is likely that fresher training constituted a large portion of this as the company spent $5,000 per fresher. Fresh recruits undergo a 16-week programme covering generic and stream-specific training in various technology areas, along with stress on soft skills and leadership development.

"This financial year we are investing about Rs 1,600 crore in our training centre at Mysore and by December we should be able to train about 13,500 candidates at a time," says Bikramjit Maitra, Vice President and Head, Human Resources, Infosys.

Though fresher training continues to take up a large chunk (up to 50 per cent) of training budgets of IT companies, upgradation training (updating employee skills on technical and behavioural aspects), technical and management training have gained significant ground over the last five years.

At HCL Technologies, the training spend per person has more than doubled in the last five years — from about $1,500 to over $4,000. "This is because we are servicing higher end markets where, in addition to technical skills, we are required to build business and behavioural skills in our engineers," says Anand Pillai, Vice-President - Talent Transformation and Entrepreneurship Development, HCL Technologies. Management and upgradation training together take up 50 per cent of allocated training spends at the company.

Certification courses

Certification courses from international bodies covering technology and business are often mandatory for employees. An employee with a certification often has an edge over others during appraisal or promotions.

"For employees to grow, be effective and increase productivity, these certifications are necessary. Additionally, certified employees attract international clients to do business with us," says Pillai. HCL allots about $25 million each year towards such certifications.

At Wipro Technologies, training is a daily affair. With infrastructure to train 5,000 employees a day, the company has invested significantly to set up `real life labs'. Applying techniques such as remote mentoring, game-based learning and collaborative real time learning, these labs address dynamic industry needs, says Selvan D, Senior Vice-President, Wipro Technologies. A team of eight certified trainers develop and institutionalise training methodologies including behavioural, business and cross-cultural skills training.

Lab-based programmes are aided by e-learning content available on Internet and intranet portals. The company also encourages employees to acquire select certifications, particularly in high specialisation areas such as testing and infrastructure services. "We reimburse the certification fee on successful course completion," says Selvan. These efforts have resulted in training spends growing by over 40 per cent in the last five years.

Cognizant Technology Solutions has managed to keep per person training costs under control by delivering training through e-learning, podcasts, and e-books. "These methods address the new concept of `learning for skill', `learning for awareness' and `learning for context'," says Vaidya Nathan, Assistant Vice-President, Cognizant.

The company is not as particular about certifications as it is about upgradation training. It regularly conducts programmes to familiarise employees with industry specific topics such as Sarbanes Oxley compliance and Basel II norms. Certifications are encouraged among low and middle-level employees so that they can be globally benchmarked. An example is the certification programme in catering to life insurance conducted by the company.

While companies continue to look outwards for certification programmes, they are increasingly looking inward for management training. Facing manpower crunch at the middle management level, companies today run self-devised programmes to nurture their young leaders into middle level managers.

"We prefer growing managers from within the company, although we hire from outside for skill sets we do not possess or to rapidly expand in certain skills," says Cognizant's Vaidya Nathan. Wipro grooms candidates for a year before handing them the baton of project manager. At times, even if an employee is only 60 per cent ready, he is preferred over an outsider, says Selvan.

HCL's two-year programme to spot and groom talent for higher roles equips candidates with non-linear productivity. This means a candidate may also handle work that requires 2-3 people of his calibre. The company spends $5,000 per person for such programmes. It also runs an entrepreneurship development programme to build new businesses within the company. "We want to transform training from an everyday activity into one that will make our clients competitive," says Pillai.

That perhaps will drive the next five years of training for IT companies.

archana@thehindu.co.in

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