‘Bridging skills gap, key to success'

Bridging skills gaps, not just among millennials (Gen Y), but across all levels of employees is the key to success in a globalised economy.

HR consultants and practitioners speaking at the All Indian Management Association conference on HR today concurred that the industry is now looking at a skilled employee and not just a ‘warm body.'

There are four levels of skill building for industry, pointed out Ms Padmaja Alaganandan, Executive Director, Consulting at PwC Consulting, adding that corporations should look beyond the narrow confines of their organisations. Skill building should start at primary school level, vocational learning, managerial capability and CEO learning.

While corporations are constantly upgrading the skills of their entry level or mid-level employees, relearning or up-skilling at the highest level is often ignored, said Mr Harish Devarajan, Leadership Coach and Organisation Consultant, People Unlimited. “Senior leadership needs as much learning or relearning as employees at lower levels,” he said. For this, the organisation has to create a learning culture.

Even HR managers that bring about the learning environment in an organisation should go through re-skilling exercises. Most of them end up with below-par consulting skills and over-reliance on transactional skills.

“They should now spend less time on transactional activities like hiring or recruitment and more time on activities like performance management,” said Mr R. U. Srinivas, CEO, Calibre Point.

Mr Ashok Reddy, Managing Director and Co-founder, TeamLease Services, said that in four years, India will have almost 25 per cent of the global workforce. “We have to therefore plan for our demographic dividend, right from school level to workforce level.”

> anjali@thehindu.co.in

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