Human Resources – Challenges & Opportunities in the New Economy

Organizations across the world today realize that a ‘satisfied’ employee is not necessarily their ‘best’ employee in terms of loyalty, commitment and productivity. Only an effectively ‘engaged employee’ who is intellectually and emotionally connected with the organization, feels passionate about organizations Mission, Vision and Values. HR Functions are burning the midnight oil & trying to go above and beyond the call of duty to achieve this mammoth task of effective engagement . To be effective in the current environment HR needs to know as much, if not more, about the ‘business’ of the organization as the business people do. We need to be able to speak the language of HR in the context of the business so that HR can influence the decisions made by the business that impact the people of the organization.
The Indian IT industry is going through the toughest phase as there is a huge shortage of good talented work force in Indian market. The war for talent has reached its peak and many corporations are witnessing higher attrition trends. The biggest challenge for any Human Resource Function today is multi fold such as Attract, Retain, Develop, Talent Transformation and Effective Engagement. HR is an important function within any organization. It is also the most dynamic of any enterprise function. Expectations are constantly changing….expectations of the employees, leadership team, customers. HR has to serve all constituencies – Its people, extended families, shareholders, leadership of the organization and the customers of the organization. In this ever changing corporate climate of innovation, turbulence, mergers, HR professionals should act as ambassadors of change by creating the right processes, practices & systems to inculcate a win-win culture between the organizations & its people.
I believe the role of HR is going to be very crucial in building/transforming organizations. Employees of the organization will have to become the champions of HR function at all levels to develop and sustain a highly engaged & emotionally connected employees.
Key Human Resource Challenges & Opportunities

• Severe shortage of right skilled manpower/employees

In India there is no dearth of Engineering & graduate colleges, may be we are one of the country which has maximum no of educational institutes. As per the recent NASSCOM survey there is a need for more than 300,000 professional qualified, employable & Industry Ready people are required in the next 2 years. With increasing poor quality products from universities employability ratio of engineers/graduates is at all time low of less than 25%, I am not sure if we have data on employability ratio among other graduates. Today many of the industry leaders are burning midnight oil to chalk out strategies to develop employable skills to all their employees.

Many large organizations are spending in excess of Rs.600 Crores per annum towards training/grooming people on various aspects of industrial & technological requirements. So as a nation we need to start addressing this issue of developing survival skills among the youths of India so that we do not become factories of producing Engineers without the RIGHT skills.

There is a greater need for industry & academia to work together without any personal agenda to develop overall talent across the country to meet the industry demands. Else India will loose the technological edge by virtue of not having employable skilled people in the country. I am sensing certain level of complacency among academia as they have truly transforming into a engineering/graduates factories without any quality check methods & processes.
Few thoughts on how to survive skills shortage

• Think beyond Compensation - look at innovative strategies to attract and retain good employees. Identify what factors which enable good employees to stay in your organizations and create content to showcase your employable culture.
• Clearly defined career path for every role & individual. Create challenging opportunities, provide good work/life balance and flexibility in the workplace
• Utilize the skills & experience of senior colleagues to coach/mentor people at all levels. People need to exhibit passion and great commitment at all levels.
• Skill Improvement & knowledge acquisition opportunity for all employees. Support in certifications (PMP, PMI, technology specific certifications such as MCP, MSCD, Sun certification etc.), further education program through university tie up for higher education.
• Be a true ‘employer of choice’. Offer and encourage balanced and flexible working arrangements for all employees. (Day Care, Health clubs, recreational facilities, sports complex, social networking etc.)

Employee engagement - From active engagement to active disengagement

Engagement is a very emotional & culture centric word and needs to be managed well in every organization. We are living in the word of digitization where everything is getting automated and role of human interaction is diminishing fast. While this is seen as a great advancement of integrating all systems & processes across organizations, we should not loose out on the need for regular human interventions to connect with larger organization. Organizations are recognized by the people and their ability to relate to the overall vision.
Engagement is about motivating employees to perform to the best of their potential. An engaged employee gives 100 percent to his company and becomes a trusted ambassador of the organization. Employee Engagement is the means or strategy, by which an organization seeks to build a long lasting partnership between the organisation and its employees. Organizational dynamics are changing too fast where employees have become the nucleus of the organization around which all activities are planned. Today organizations exists because of its people and people are the vehicle of growth for any organization.

It’s extremely essential to realize the need for active engagement at all levels to build a strong, sustained and culture oriented organization where employees are the core of organizational growth strategy. There is a greater need for the organizations to invest in employee relations and build a sustained strategy to engage people at all levels. Many organizations are adapting to Employee perception surveys, feedback systems, employee led task forces to create higher level inclusivity & engagement.

Every employee in any organization wants more than money to stay in with one organization for a longer period. Even though pay sometimes becomes a justification and often shows up in exit interviews, most employees stay in organizations because they have many aspirations and interests which need to be addressed and guide them to build a long term career with the organization. Every individual is keen on building a competitive advantage for himself/herself; to create competitiveness in oneself, people are always on a look out for challenges to sharpen their axe all the time. In order to achieve their aspirations, they are always expecting an active engagement & constant attention with thier managers/organizations. Engagement is all about creating a sense of inclusivity among employees with the organizations, to create inclusivity one need to understand the stated & unstated expectations of employees.

Increasing Socio economic imbalance between IT & rest of the industries
Sunrise industry of modern India, Information Technology (IT) which has a dream of achieving 86 Billion dollar has clearly taken India to a global arena and has made all of us proud. The whole world is looking at Indian IT industry for solutions to their business challenges. India's higher education system contributes about 350,000 engineers and 2.5 million university graduates annually to our workforce, yet at any given time about 5 million graduates remain unemployed. A survey done by McKinsey Global Institute shows major IT organizations find only 25 percent of engineers are employable, and NASSCOM report foresees shortage of 500,000 skilled, employable work force by 2010.
Today the whole world speaks about IT & only IT and the rest of the industry segment has lost out in creating its own space in the global arena. This is equally true for India which a strong developing economy with close to double digit GDP Growth. While all the attention has been given to IT has made all of us proud but this has created new set of challenges for the other industries. The issue seems small but actually it’s a bigger threat which needs immediate attention before it’s too late. Current generation graduates seems to believe that there is no career other than IT and this is leading into severe shortage of manpower in manufacturing, automotive, retail, garments, cement, civil, academics and so on.

Due to high visibility, lucrative compensation, global exposure & Fancy work culture, curiosity, excitement has successfully ensured that all people migrate to IT and ignore the other industry segments. This has clearly created an industrial unrest in Indian economy. This may offer different challenges all together if not handled well. There is a greater need for the government to bring in legislative changes to labour laws which impact other industries and also create a economic balance between IT & Rest of the industries.

Managing Work Life Balance & flexible work environment
“Facilitating the employees in managing their WORK & LIFE commitments is a business imperative and not an optional extra” this statement explains the importance & need for the organizations to take right steps to facilitate employees in achieving a balance between their work and personal life. Organizations need to recognize that in order to recruit and retain high quality employees, it needs to take a multipoint approach, by implementing innovative & different employment practices to enable employees to strike a balance between their home and work life.

Most organizations did not give adequate attention to Work Life Balance till it became an employee engagement issue; later organizations took a one-sided approach to their work-life efforts. Many organizations have developed systems, policies, processes & rewards program to solve the work-life-balance problem. While these were helpful but these overlooks a critical factor. Work life balance revolves around individuals and no two individuals are equal; work-life balance is more an individual issue that affects the organizations and not necessarily an organizational issue that affects the individuals.

It’s very important to realize the need for a life outside work so that people can start thinking of how to balance their work life. Based on my industrial experience I have seen that most youngsters do not have a personal life outside work. The role of Human Resources is extremely critical to act as a change agent in creating awareness & importance of life outside work and its positives. There are many innovative ways of creating Work Life Balance such as telecommuting, work from home facilities, Day-Care Centre for young parents with children, health clubs, Flexible office timings, paternity leave, sports competition, recreational facilities, family day celebrations, learning from unusual sources, Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives etc.

Global Business Model
We are living in a flat world today with increased technology usage and boundaries are disappearing very fast. The role of HR in the new economy will change to that of creator of overall values and direction. With easy access of Internet cloud more and more businesses can enter the global marketplace with great ease.
The role of HR professionals with increased international business practices, international labor laws, multicultural sensitivities and multiple languages is going to be an uphill task. All HR professionals need to be knowledgeable of other cultures, languages and business practices to be able to create a stronger support system. 21st century is definitely the defining period for Human Resources with global market place shrinking day by day and becoming one world & is offering a whole new set of challenges.
This has lead to many innovative practices which are scalable and cross cultural in nature. HR needs to take a centre stage and enable global business growth by transforming from an administrative function to a strategist, engagement champion, culture ambassador, trusted advisor to business head etc. HR needs to evolve from strategic business partnership to strategic business leadership (driving change and results, not just monitoring them). In a nutshell the role of HR will be to manage, nurture, develop and retain the best intellectual capital.

Work and Society
Family and life interests will play a more prevalent role in people’s lives and a greater factor in people’s choices about work—there will be more of a "work to live" than a "live to work" mentality. Employees will demand increases in workplace flexibility to pursue life interests.

1. Based on my industry experience Technocrats may refuse to make the sacrifices required today in their family lives and more people (not just women) will opt out of traditional careers.
2. Work will serve as a source of cultural connections and peripheral friendships and people will start creating life within work rather creating life outside work.
3. Employees will continue to struggle with their need for work/life balance, and it may get worse in the years to come in this competitive world.
4. Community involvement and social responsibility will become part of an organization’s business vision & everyone has to adopt this method to make impact at the gross root levels and our focus should be on Education, Poverty & illiteracy.
5. Those people who refuse or are unable to adapt & pick up newer skills/technologies will find it very difficult to accomplish their career goals and will trap themselves in lurch.

People Development
Lifelong learning will be a requirement. The focus of training/learning activities will be on performance improvement/enhancement and not just on skill building. Employees with varied skills and competencies will be valued more highly than those with a depth of expertise in a single area. Problem solving, analytical, cognitive thinking and decision making will become a required curriculum with practical work problems as the teaching medium. The whole learning environment itself has undergone a sea change from a class room oriented approach to a case study driven with live examples, role plays and lot of field work.

1. Training will be delivered "Just In Time," whenever people need it, using a variety of technologies.
2. Companies will demand constant personal growth, and employees need to respond positively to higher expectations. It will not be possible to survive in the workplace without basic computer skills. People who can learn new skills/competencies quickly will be highly valued.
3. As the computer-savvy generation is more assimilated into the workforce, employees will become much more productive in complex tasks and less dependent on other people and departments.
4. Versatility will be the key factor in determining employee value with strategic thinking, leadership, problem solving, technology and people skills close behind.
5. Compensation systems will be linked to business outcomes
6. Positions need to be organized in teams focused on a task, not organized around a hierarchy.
7. Positions will be defined by the competencies needed to be performed.
   Employees will be more independent, moving from project to project within their organizations.
8. Many jobs will be redesigned to be much broader in scope, especially in management positions.
9. Employees will be increasingly measured by how much value they contribute to the business, not by whether they fulfilled predetermined objectives.
10. Work will be more challenging, and jobs will become increasingly complex

HR Challenges in the new economy will be completely different from that of the past & it needs out of the box & innovative strategies to deal with all unusual issues
We as HR Professionals need to brace ourselves and develop necessary competencies to be able to tide over the current volatile economic & people industry.

Power of Knowledge in a new Economy

It may not be possible for the scientists either now or in the near future to build and assemble a computer which will be as perfect as Human Brain; and not even half as perfect as the human brain. Nature has shaped and built the human brain perfectly, its structure, functions are so complex that they have not been able to understand it in detail even today.

The invention of machines in the beginning of the 19th century has led to the mass industrial revolution. This brought several processes of industrial activity under one roof. The factory system was implemented in an effort to organize the industries on modern and scientific grounds. At the beginning, activities were carried out by workers or “people” as called in the modern era who are the creative minds of the organization, the heart and soul of the company and their knowledge is the biggest asset.

The roots of the modern management lie in the machine age of the 19th century. As we have observed that in the last few decades the machine age is being transformed by the information age or the Internet age. In the information/internet age the only irreplaceable capital that any successful organization possesses is the power of knowledge and the ability of its people. The productivity of any organization depends on how effectively / meticulously people share their knowledge with those who can use the same for professional and personal growth.

As the technology has changed its existence from machine age to information age man has learnt the art of accepting newer mechanisms by which he can run a successful business. In any organization information or data is being generated at a very rapid speed, if not at a chaotic rate. Few years back it was fashionable to talk about the difficulty of making good use of raw data. Basically we did not know the ways and means of converting the raw data into information with the help of latest technologies and better management. Information is now available in many forms such as Books, Magazines, news letters, micro formats, data bases, CD-ROMs, internet, intranet and so on. This multiple formats of information complicate’s the process of identifying reliable answers. Thus this has led to the information revolution in the industry. Many companies, and government agencies invested in new system, which promises to provide the cure for poor information management and thus which converts it into knowledge.[Ex. Strong Information Systems, Knowledge Management, Information Resource Centers, knowledge repositories etc..]

Knowledge is undoubtly the biggest driving force for any activity, but the question is who has made up his/her mind is how he/she is going to use this power to make a visible impact. Knowledge is the most powerful tool, which can be used for creating any kind of opportunities, challenges in the information age.


Whether it is an individual against another or by a nation against another, or a company against another.. Knowledge becomes the strongest weapon to face any kind of situation. A company may be rich in many ways and have world class facilities for its people, but it is helpless against a company which has better skilled with great intellect ability people to work for.

There is an explosion of knowledge happening in the world today. This has led to the concentration of too much power in the hands of few. Knowledge is a double edged sword, which has to be managed carefully. If used properly with foresight it may hasten the process of growth and development; if used otherwise it may cause unimaginable disaster.

Any knowledge that is divisive, that does not give one the sense of belongingness, unity with all men and women in an organization, is at risk of being misused. Knowledge which makes one conscious of the fact that we are all one, that our fates are linked with one another, and that we cannot be happy till every single individual among us is happy is needed for all of us to be successful in life. I strongly believe that whatever knowledge we acquire in our life will never go waste, in one or the other way it guides us towards the brighter part of our life.

As Swam Vivekananda once said every soul is potentially divine, I am of the opinion that every individual has a great source of knowledge and everybody has the potential to create miracles in people’s life. But the question is when, where and how he/she ignites that volcano of knowledge which spreads across people, across communities to enlighten large part of society. We need to awaken our senses and ignite our minds to aquire knowledge and conquer the challenges of life. So let us feel proud to be a part of the knowledge economy, where our knowledge is used to the fullest extent to tranform our life and achieve supremacy in life.

Tribute to Young & Vibrant Campus Kids

Boundless Power, Passion, Energy & TEAM WORK…

Organizations across the world today realize that a ‘satisfied’ employee is not necessarily their ‘best’ employee in terms of loyalty, commitment and productivity. Only an effectively ‘engaged employee’ who is intellectually and emotionally connected with the organization, feels passionate about organizations Mission, Vision and Values. He/she goes above and beyond the call of duty to achieve the organizational goals.

In times of diminishing loyalty, high employee turnover and changing market scenario, employee engagement is taking centre stage in the HR fraternity as it can become a powerful retention strategy. Needless to say that Employee engagement has a strong impact on the bottom-line of every organization.

Employee Engagement is about motivating employees to perform to the best of their potential. An engaged employee gives 100 percent to his company and becomes a trusted ambassador of the organisation. Employee Engagement is the means or strategy, by which an organization seeks to build a long lasting partnership between the organisation and its employees. Organizational dynamics are changing too fast where employees have become the nucleus of the organization around which all activities are planned. Every individual is keen on building a competitive advantage for himself/herself; to create competitiveness in oneself, people are always on look out for challenges to sharpen their axe all the time. In order to achieve their aspirations, they are always expecting an active engagement with organizations. Engagement is all about creating a sense of inclusivity among employees with the organizations, to create inclusivity one need to understand the stated & unstated expectations of employees.

At MindTree Human Resources Function is an integral partner in organization growth strategy. Thus we created a charter to work on a unique employee engagement model with 1000 odd campus Minds who were in the process of transitioning from Campus to corporate.

After the mind blowing Engagement activities for July & Oct’07 batches, I had become younger by atleast 5 years and had made 1000 news friends within no time. Our team did not realize how we were able to break the ice & create a participatory culture with people from all over India. All our plans yielded great results and we witnessed some great events by all campus minds. PALs (Parent, Anchor & a Leader) and many People Function (Human Resources) team members kept calling all campus minds as KIDS and actually they all were MindTree Kids. We had to take care of all their unstated requirements.

We were very curious to know their feedback on how did they feel with our People Engagement initiatives. We conducted a survey and we got very good feedback along with few areas of improvement. I was extremely happy that I was leading this new and innovative initiative for MindTree. I can confidently say that year 2007-08 was a very special year for me in many ways.

As we were planning for new strategic initiatives for the year 2008-09 my boss broke the news during early Jan’08 that I am slated to travel to Europe to manage People Function operations based out of London. I was excited and thrilled and was looking forward to this great challenge. The news spread like a wild fire and it was open secret by Feb’08. I received 1000’s of best wishes and felt really loved and cared for the first time in a corporate world. Unknowingly I had got many fan followers and it was a very special time.

One fine day Kalyan, Suresh, Aditi, Lakshman and few others called me to be part of a program to thank PALs for their contribution to Campus Engagement program. I thought it was a fantastic idea and readily agreed and blocked my calendar for 21-Mar-08 as I was too busy with many loose ends to be closed before I board the flight to London. In fact few days later Kalyan & Lakshman came to while I was busy collecting helpful tips about London life from Anand Sampath. They wanted me to speak to them live on video about my experience with campus Minds. I thought this is the normal gimmick that these kids adopt to make a program and agreed to speak soon after the meeting. Anand looked as if he knew about this and pushed me to complete this. I spoke something and went home without realizing that I was trapped by campus kids.


Without my knowledge they had made all the arrangements including a lovely trophy, snacks and cake, inviting seniors and shooting Jani, Ranjitha, Vidya and many campus minds.

On 20-Mar-08 we had a scheduled meeting with all PF team on planning for 2008-09. During the meeting everyone knew about the program on 21st and I had no clue about this and I must say that the whole team maintained a good secrecy till Puneet mentioned about the same. I thought it will be a small part of the PALs program and did not think much about it.

I must say that 21-Mar-08 will be one of the most memorable days in my life. I had series of planned meetings with Europe offshore team, Supriya and few others to understand the issues & expectations of my job in Europe. Aditi kept calling me saying that I need to attend the whole program and I need to speak about all the 3 PALs and I will be called 3 times on the stage. Accordingly I gathered points about Dr.Sudha, Krishnan & Naveen and was kind of ready to deliver speech on all these 3 extraordinary people for their commitment to campus engagement. It was 4:30 pm when I got a call from Aditi, Kalyan and few others to come to Kalpavriksha as program is about to begin. I hurried up and packed my bags and rushed to Kalpavriksha. program.

When I reached the venue I realized something is fishy as they told me to wait for some time. Mean time I met Sudha, Mukesh and Sripad and was wondering what was happening. Within few minutes I entered the room and they gave me a cheering welcome I did not know how to respond as I was completely taken by a surprise and whatever followed was a history. All campus minds had prepared a full length movie on Nagan (Pet name given by campus kids). I was stunned by the video & the responses people had spoken about me. I used to see all these in Television programs but it was hard to believe that I was actually the recipient of such love and affection by all people with whom I worked. What was very special was Jani (CEO of R&D Services) speaking very passionately about me and so as Ranjitha, Vidya and I do not know whether I deserve those great accolades?. The video went for 20+ minutes and it was like as if I am in could 9 and I had to pinch myself many times to believe that it was for me. Then came another surprise Dr.Sudha, Mukesh Mathad, Sripad, actually Chandru, Neha, Lala, Shabhabrat Padhi and many more people. It was very kind gesture by all Minds that made me feel really special.

Puneet entered the hall and I could not believe as he had to travel all the way from Banashankari Office only for this program and he spoke his heart and took all people to 1999 days. It was actually like rewinding my life in MindTree.
I am very grateful to him for those kind words. I do not think any supervisor will speak so much about his/her colleague. I can only quote some of the words that I heard from people..

“Nagan is a 7 year old boy in a 40 year old body (Actually I am not that Old)”
“Commitment, passion, great motivator, leader, friend, guide etc….. “
“Nagan is a mentor, charming person, dynamic, friendly, Big Daddy, very caring, loving......” “You are our shining Star…, He is adorable, admirable.. “
All these words will be remembered for a long time in my life.

Puneet presented a trophy of a life time and I must say that I am lucky to receive such affection & love from all campus kids. After receiving the trophy I did not know what to speak when Aditi called me to share few thoughts. Actually I was speechless (I had a bad throat & could not speak at all). All I knew was that I did not deserve such a warm affection and love from all these people. According to me I have not done anything out of the world to be able to receive such an accolade. Having received this reward, I can say that this is the biggest recognition for me by any standards because this is a tribute to People Function at MindTree. This is a tribute to employee engagement and we got to know that what effective employee engagement can do to an organization.

I know there are many unseen minds/hands that supported me all through this unusual role and make a great impact on all minds. After the program I realized that what impact we have created on these young minds and how they have shaped up within a short span of time. I must admit that these people are very special and they have found a very special place in my heart. Infact I have made some great friends in life and I am grateful to all of them. They do not know the word impossible. They can create wonders within no time, I have seen many examples of their power of bonding among each other and they can do anything for you.


By now it was 6:10 pm and Lakshman & Aditi wanted all people to move outside the Kalpavriksha for another surprise event. It was another shocker for me… I could see a huge cake and did not know how to respond to the unexpected affection & love from so many people. During snacks time Kavitha wanted to ensure that I knew who Rekha & Kavitha is …. At last I passed her exam, which I had failed many times.

My colleagues congratulated me and kept telling me that I deserve all this as I have made a difference to their life. Heart in heart I knew that these people have made a difference to my life. Year 2007-08 was a very eventful year in many ways. I had gone through the worst times of my life due to my father/Mother in law’s illness and needed all energy and motivation to bounce back to life. I got re-energized working with these campus kids. To be frank I was feeling very low and completely stressed in life and these people actually were the source of inspiration for me to win over all hurdles and still be cheerful all the time.
I do not know how to thank them for all they did to me on that day!!! I went home with a very heavy heart without knowing how to live upto there love and affection which they had bestowed on me. I can only wish and pray to god that they may be blessed with a greatest career and good health. May god help them to realized their dreams and aspirations. I wish & hope to make a difference to their life in whatever little way possible. I prey to god to give me another opportunity to serve these special friends.

I have learnt some important lessons working with these campus Minds;
1. Nothing happens unless you Innovate, Dream, Explore & Apply (IDEA)
2. Be willing to champion unusual assignments, every opportunity has a challenge to offer
3. People are most important element of any transformation
4. Learn to live with ambiguity. Things will not always be clear, find new ways as you travel along the journey
5. There is no substitute to TEAM WORK & HARD WORK
6. Small ideas can change many lives & nurture ideas, thoughts
7. Be willing to explore & encourage innovation… experiments leads to astonishing results
8. Never under estimate the power of youth, their imagination & creativity. Challenge them and they will deliver miracles
9. You are not alone in trouble, there are many, embrace life and win over hurdles
10. Invest in relationship and nurture emotional engagement

As I drove back home I realized that it was an engagement of a different kind, winning 1000 hearts in a span of 6 months, it meant a lot and it took a lot from you to be able to relate, live and think very differently to get connected with young Minds. What I had experienced was the power of volunteerism, collective team work and sheer love & affection of true MindTree Minds. It was an unbelievable act of strength, unity in diversity and a true reflection of MindTree's young brigade which is ready to conquer the world.......

Three Cheers to Young Brigade'2007-08………

Igniting Young Minds –Building Survival skills at School Level

Lecture to the Head Masters & English teachers of North Karnataka Region on 7-Apr-07 at Hubli, Dharwad Dist, Karnataka.

It was one of those a busy days in office and I was rushing to attend an important meeting when I got a call from Prof. B L Desai, Head of Dept. of B V Bhoomaraddi Engineering College, he wanted to discuss something important & urgent. I informed him that I would call back later.

Prof. B L Desai is one of the most respected names among the teaching fraternity in north Karnataka. He has been serving BVB College for the last 3 decades and is very passionate about teaching and shaping careers of many youngsters. I called up Prof. Desai to find out the details about his call and I heard something very special, he almost spoke my heart and requested me if I can be part of the same.

Many times I had shared my dream of creating a forum to develop employable skills among youths so that they can accomplish their aspirations by learning the essential skills that are required by the industry during their childhood days. Prof. BL Desai had managed to put together about 200 High School Headmasters & English teachers under one roof with the support from Education Minister of Karnatka, Commissioner & DDPI [Deputy Director of Public Instruction]. He requested me to address the gathering on 7-Apr-07 in Hubli. Even though I was nervous in the beginning but agreed to do my best as I felt it was a great honor to meet our beloved teachers.

I am sharing my thoughts on how can we Ignite young minds and facilitate a smooth transition from School to Corporate world. I had the great opportunity to share my views & ideas with people who craft millions of children’s careers they are our TEACHERS. Many years ago I was their child where they would impress me everyday when I went to school and I could see many of them as role models. Today it was my turn to share my view on this whole issue of Employable skills of our youth brigade.

Competitiveness of India Inc;
Traditionally many decades age India was known as a country of snake charmers, land of complete backwardness, millions of illiterates, likes to be followers than creators [300 years we were ruled by the British] to where we are today.

India as a country has more than 380 universities, more than 10,000 different colleges, lakhs of graduates, more than 50% of universities across India use English as a medium of teaching, more than 6000 PhD’s and so on.. and on…..

India is also one of the fastest developing economies in the world today, targeting double digit GDP Growth. India hosts 65% of Information Technology global off-shoring workforce, 46% of global BPO [Business Process Outsourcing], having said that we also have many issues such as sustaining Diversity (Religion, language, culture etc.), unemployment, poverty, social security, health and many more which needs to be addressed to ensure Democracy and Economical prowess.

World view of India:
Many global companies are excited about India story and they want to be part of our success story. Many of these companies have a special chapter for India story in their yearly business plans. Many believe that we have the best of both the worlds “Ability to relate to the rest of the world by means of speaking a global business language [English] & Intellect ability to create the worlds best Intellectual Property”. Also our neighbors China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Korea’s are catching up with building strong language skills. For instance China has employed 30,000 English trainers to impart English Language skills so that they build competitive advantage over other Asian countries.

All Taxi Drivers in China to learn English before the 2008 Olympics. They have also made English compulsory at primary school level to build greater need to learn English language skills.
Indian IT Industry Challenges:
One and the only challenge is to hire the best right talent at the right time with a right cost. Indian IT would need 300,000 qualified Employable engineers in the next 1 - 2 years. Today many of the industry leaders are burning midnight oil to chalk out strategies to build employable skills to all their employees. Many large players are spending in excess of Rs.600 Crores per annum towards training/grooming people on various aspects of industrial & technological requirements.

Some of the key skills that every young engineer need to acquire during early days of their schooling/college;
Business Language Skills
Reading, Writing, speaking, Articulation, assertive skills
Problem solving, cognitive thinking, Values, ethics & social responsibility etc.
Industry/domain knowledge, skill & ability to deal with uncertainties of the changing world
Behavioral etiquettes – Social life style, personal grooming, corporate etiquettes, appreciating culture etc.
Leadership Skills – Self leadership, People, Diversity Management etc.

The task of imparting all the above skills seems herculean and impossible at school, college level. These may not be part of any curriculum, but we often miss out on all these and hence end result is lack of competencies to get into corporate world. This leads to many issues among the student communities across the country.

There is a saying The mediocre teacher tells, The good teacher explains, The superior teacher demonstrates, The great teacher inspires, I believe the role of Teachers in inculcating the right skills at the school/college level is very high and they can play a very vital role in shaping the careers of many young people, so teachers have to transform from being a mere educators to role models and inspire students to see the BIG Picture.

If we look at a life cycle of an individual, the best phase of life is childhood where they are capable of learning anything and everything because they are still young and mouldable, in other words if teachers can ignite hunger to develop certain special skills & abilities which will act as a boosters for them to launch their career into the corporate world.
As teachers I would urge you to teach the following skills to all student community without which they are incomplete in every sense.
Inclusivity
As children we were always tough to compete among each other at school/home/neighborhood whether it is exams, sports, extra curricular activities everywhere. I think its good to be competitive, but we should not forget the need for empathy, caring for each other, social responsibility, treating everyone equal etc. If unaddressed at school level this will soon become an evil in our society; before it’s too late I feel teachers are best equipped to impart this social skill. As children we look upto teachers and we learn everything taught to us at school level. We need to understand and appreciate each others issues & problems. We have seen an era where human beings are treated like animals when slavery system existed, can we understand that every human being has the right live his/her own dignified social life. We have no rights to disown/disrespect anyone. We need to teach our children that there is nothing called upper class/middle class or lower class. I believe this class system is all in the mind.

When people transition from school to college and then to corporate world, there is nothing but TEAM WORK. It does not matter what one has studied, all are treated equally and have to work together to achieve common goals. Unlike at school/college where we have been taught to compete, the whole process transforms from competition to collaboration & team work keeping aside personal interests. There is a saying “Together Everyone Achieves More”. So my sincere request to teachers is to create greater Inclusivity among each other so that we can create a wonderful world.

Speak your Mind
Culturally we are living in a suppressed society, where hierarchy, positions over rule anything & everything that we do in our daily life. When it comes to expressing our feelings/views points and ideas, we always feel that let someone else communicate and we tend to shy away. I think the time has come for the younger generation to take centre stage and have a point of view on anything that happens around us, for this to happen children’s have to be taught that speaking your Mind is the best way to express yourself thoughts, ideas, suggestions etc. This can happen only when we expose students at school level to various social/cultural or any other issues that we are facing, so that they can apply their mind and express their thoughts. Power of thought if managed well can transform our nation into a developed nation; we need to nurture thoughts, ideas and views. Teachers please provide platform to young brigade to express themselves.

Learn from the Environment
A country with billion people having vast variety in language, culture, values, ethos has lot to offer for everyone to learn from each other. We often turn a blind eye to what happens around us and look outside for learning. I would like to emphasize on few examples which will open our eyes to learning opportunities.
Traffic Police: Let us look at the role of Traffic Police who manages traffic in Bangalore city. Bangalore today has more than 75 lakh people and in access of 20 lakh vehicles. Please educate children to learn satisfaction/service orientation from the traffic police who is paid to inhale carbon monoxide for the rest of his life that he has to stand in the middle of the road. What motivates him to serve people at the cost of his own life? Its all about being service oriented and enjoy what you do.
Ant/Bee : I am sure this is a very common example & everyone can relate better. Have you seen any supervisors managing transactions/activities of Ant/Bee’s. What motivates them to work in teams without any supervisors? Can you please teach children work with out any supervision?
I can give many more examples to drive home a point that we need to learn from the environment all the time. Let us not ridicule our society and culture which is the backbone of our existence and this will be the single most differentiator for us as a nation in the years to come. Unity, Diversity, cultural changes will drive a complete different behavior and it’s important that we our youth understand the need for co-operation in every possible way.
Questioning Skills:
The Indian education system is characterized by instructive teaching, individual work, and more focused on oneself, and a complete absence of independent thinking and the presence of unquestioned obedience to authority. By nature we do not encourage people to ask questions, because it is not accepted well in the society. It may be construed that questioning is disagreeing, not being obedient & disrespectful etc. I believe questioning is a great skill which everyone needs to develop; you cannot lead life based on assumption theories. During early days of student’s career its best if we cultivate questioning skills which will help to develop thinking ability beyond the stated and seek clarification on any given context. I request teachers to develop this rare skill in every student.

Humility/Humble –
Humility’ is not an unknown word to all of us. It’s not one of those words people will pause to look up the meaning for. We love the thought of humility & are one of those ‘great’ values we strive hard to acquire. It takes a lot to develop humility and it needs to start at an early age to be able exhibit humbleness all through our life. It’s very unfortunate that majority of young people today do not have humility/humbleness and we need to blame ourselves for what we are experiencing in today’s world. It’s important to realize that we need to know what we do not know. We need to realize that all of us do not have equal talent, but all of us need to have equal opportunity to develop competencies/skills.
It’s very important to remain humble all the time irrespective of your profile in society. As a child if we learn the importance of behavioral value system and develop these skills it will prove to be one of the biggest strengths one can aspire to acquire. Teachers, you have a great opportunity to shape the future of our society, please teach us humility & humbleness.

Developing strong Value System
Indian family system is built on strong values which have helped us to remain united all these years. Values are guiding principles in our life and they play important role in shaping our career, relationships, behaviors and our choices. Values also tell us who we are, why we are etc.. Our actions reflect the value system that we have inherited from our ancestors.
We are living in an era which witnessed some of the worst examples of corruption in the history of mankind, unethical practices to gain money, popularity, position etc. I do not think we want our generation next to live in such a society which is filled with people having questionable character, conduct and adopting convenient routes to achieve success. It’s extremely important in today’s context to teach our children positive values to influence positive behavior. Positive behavior will lead to a better society in the years to come. As teachers it’s essential to help students to influence and inculcate some of the following ethical values;
Build their Integrity
Help them listen to their conscience
Encourage them to help others
Help them become independent
Teach them how to distinguish between Right and Wrong. Doing what is Right and not what is Convenient.
There is no way to Happiness; Happiness is the only way etc…….
If we are able to teach the above values to students, we would have begun the process of creating a new society which will be free from all evils.
Having discussed overall social skills for effective learning at school level, if we can take some initiatives which will be a step forward in equipping young students with survival skills to face abundant challenges of the world. I firmly believe if teachers can play this important role of transformational role models for millions of young students across the country. There are no short cuts to achieving this goal, but to work it out one step at a time. I would like to conclude with the following lines from Upanishad which is very relevant to the topic.
You are what your deep driving desire is,
As is your desire, so is your will
As is your will, so is your act
As is your act, so is your Destiny”

Thanks you so much for this life time opportunity to share my thoughts with my beloved teachers.
About Author:
Naganagouda S Jakkanagoudar is a Associate Director of HR at MindTree Consulting Ltd, Bangalore. He has over 13 years of Industry Experience in Manufacturing & IT in the field of IR & HR. He is involved in building HR processes, systems, tools for effective Talent Engagement & Development at MindTree. He can be reached at naganagoudasj@mindtree.comAbout Author: