HCL Tech refines staff training model

HCL Technologies, India’s fourth-largest IT services company, has refined its employees’ training model to equip its staff with new job skills.

The Noida-headquartered company will offer ‘just-in-time’ training model at the entry level to impart need-based training of a shorter duration.

The employees would be trained for their specific job requirements for six-eight weeks so that they could be immediately put on projects as ‘shadows’ (those who are not billed to the clients) or billed resources. When they move to the next role and again require re-skilling, the company will impart further training to the staff.

“At the entry level, we are moving to a ‘just-in-time’ training model. When you come in and move to a role, we would teach you what you need in that role. Once you are successful and need to move to the next role, we will put you back to school and teach you newer skills,” Prithvi Shergill, chief human resources officer at HCL Technologies, has told Business Standard.

He says the changing dynamics in the IT services business requires employees to learn newer skills as and when required instead of learning everything in one go. “The training structures need to be in (such) a way so that you can go and apply it immediately. That’s why most of our training academies are all inside our development centres. This helps us train the employees depending on the next need of the client rather than just sticking to a curriculum,” Shergill adds.

Most of the Indian IT services companies spend significant amount of their time and money on employees training. For example, Infosys which owns a large global training centre in Mysore, provides 23 weeks of training to freshers. TCS, which also operates a large corporate learning centre in Thiruvananthapuram, offers training ranging from 3 to 6 months.

On the other hand, the long training duration also affects the net billable headcount of the companies as well as their utilisation rates.

According to Shergill, HCL Technologies is significantly increasing its focus on employee training. The company is setting up a large training centre in Manesar which will be operational over the next couple of months.

This centre, which can accommodate 1,000 people, is being set up alongside the development centre. The company has also created a new position called chief learning officer.

Once the Manesar facility becomes operational, HCL Technologies is planning to centralise a large part of its training programme. However, for people who are working on projects, the firm would offer training at their respective centres.

“Our approach of investing in people’s skills is different. We have now significantly increased our investment in training and curriculum. We have brought in a new chief learning officer, and have set up a new training facility,” Shergill adds.