Infosys taps new technologies to map learning ability of employees

Company's 'Recommendation Engine' leverages AI, machine learning and analytics to suggest training programmmes best suited for individual staff

Infosys, India’s second largest IT services company, is using technologies such as machine learning, big data and analytics and artificial intelligence to map the learning ability of the employees and suggest training programmes that best suit them.

The Bengaluru-based company has developed an in-house platform –– Recommendation Engine –– which does a 360 degree profiling of employees, using their historical data including performance in various projects, educational qualifications and attitude and aptitude. Post this assessment, the engine recommends the skillsets employees need to possess and the areas where they need to improve. 

"Recommendation Engine uses technology to understand the skills people have, what they have been learning and projects they have worked on. Based on that, we have the recommendation. We are using technology to find out where an individual is stuck and where to provide the intervention," Srikantan Moorthy, Executive Vice-President and Head of Global Services - Application Development and Maintenance at Infosys told Business Standard.

According to the company, this a full cycle of understanding of a person's current capabilities and creating a roadmap for his future learning needs.

Other than the Recommendation Engine, which the company has been using for the past few months, Infosys has also rolled out ‘Lex', a new-age learning app that can be accessed anytime and anywhere, integrating various new technologies to gauge an individual's learning requirements. 

"We don't use this (Recommendation Engine) platform for freshers because they don't have historical data. We use it for our people with experience (and) who have historical data," added Moorthy. 

With the massive shift in the global technology space and focus by clients on digital and new-age technologies, Indian and global technology services companies are putting huge emphasis on training and reskilling of employees.

Apart from Infosys, most other large and midsized IT services firms have either developed in-house training programmes or taking the help of third-party platforms to impart training on newer technologies to their workforce.

In terms of freshers’ training, Moorthy said while the training duration for its campus recruits in India remains the same at six months, the company has reduced the fresher training duration in the US to around 10 weeks (little over than two months), as college graduates in the country join with hands-on knowledge in various programming languages and technologies. 

"The duration of training in US is about 10 weeks and after that, they get to work with some of the projects to get hands on knowledge. This is because they come here with prior programming experience which is not the case for the people who come out of colleges in India," said Moorthy who has now been given the mandate to look after talent acquisition in the US. 

As part of Infosys localisation efforts, Infosys has stepped up its hiring in the US, its largest market. In FY18 alone, the company had hired around 800 fresh graduates in the country trough campus interviews, and it plans to add at least 1,000 campus graduates per year for the next two years. 

While Infosys is currently offering training to its US staff from its various delivery centres in the country, the company is in the process of building a large global training centre out of Indianapolis where it recently opened an innovation hub, one of the four such centres planned in the country. 

Moorthy said, the company is looking at the training and reskilling programmes quite holistically, leveraging external ecosystem including online platforms like Udacity and joining hands with academic institutes and varsities. As a part of its collaboration with Stanford University, selected senior executives of the company get trained on various leadership skills.

Infy initiatives 

• Company has built an in-house platform “Recommendation Engine” 
• Engine maps employee learning abilities, reviews existing skillsets, recommends newer ones best suited for them 
• Company has also rolled out 'Infosys Lex', to provide anywhere-anytime learning to staff 
• Has also designed a training programme, 'ABCD', for senior staff
• Offers 10-week campus training to freshers in US as compared to six months in India