Managing talent as a critical resource
The right people are what differentiate average companies from great companies
Securing the right people for the right jobs at the right time is never simple, and attracting, assessing, selecting, engaging and retaining the best possible talent is the ongoing challenge of any organisation’s human resources department.
In order to drive optimal levels of success, business leaders need energetic, engaged, high performing employees, but these don’t just arrive by accident — achieving a talented workforce requires a carefully thought-through and executed strategy for a company to map, manage and maximise employee talent to its full potential.
Organisations know that along with the need to attract, develop and retain talented people, they must manage that talent as a critical resource in order to achieve the best possible results. Without a doubt, for an organisation to aspire for success, a definite and determined talent strategy needs to stand at the core of the human resources function.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organisation that offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, business process services, IT i nfrastructure, engineering and assurance services. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS prides itself in having around 324 000 of the world’s best trained consultants across 46 countries.
The biggest priority of our business is human capital. Sustainability of revenue growth in the IT services industry is directly dependent on the organisation’s ability to attract the right amount of the right talent. It can’t stop there — what must follow is a process of upskilling, motivating and retaining that talent in the organisation.
Realising potential
TCS has built a strong performancedriven work culture where innovation is encouraged, performance is recognised and rewarded, and employees — referred to at TCS as associates — are motived to realise their potential, focusing not merely on a job but rather a career.
Knowing that its people and their knowledge are the company’s greatest assets, TCS believes getting the talent acquisition and talent management strategy right is key. The inhouse theme “Realise your potential” launched in 2014 encouraged associates to look within: individually, within the company, and at the entire community, in order to help them realise their potential across various platforms enabled by TCS, including associate engagement and community building activities.
Retention of good talent is critical. At TCS we focus on both employee engagement and talent management as retention tools. Clear communication lies at the core of these measures, ensuring our associates create a clear vision of their career path.
Being an international company with a large global footprint, TCS is able to attract considerable talent through its offering of multinational exposure. The potential of securing a dream assignment in countries like Japan or the Netherlands, and the opportunity to be trained for nine months in India, the mecca of information technology, and to work with many of the Fortune 500 companies as a consultant attracts the best talent from across the globe.
On-campus recruitment of engineering graduates plays a significant part in TCS’s talent acquisition strategy. Over the years the company has invested in building strong relationships with universities across the world, and in improving the quality of academic training at engineering colleges through faculty development programmes, student workshops, project support and internships.
A great example of TCS’s focus on improving skills development and employability locally is the company’s South Africa Graduate Programme, which sent 23 young and enthusiastic graduate interns to India. The interns were selected from various universities and colleges through a competitive process, and will work on Indian-based projects in one of the TCS offices in Mumbai, Bangalore and Kochi. The interns have mentors assigned to them, and are trained on projectspecific technologies. Based on their performance and on the successful completion of their Indian internship, the graduates will be offered direct employment with TCS in South Africa.
Localisation through globalisation
We refer to this process as localisation through globalisation — we give local professionals international skills training by sending them to India. They return to South Africa enriched with on-the-job exposure on global shores, and are equipped with considerably more knowledge than had they stayed local. This way we attract a considerable talent pool for the company.
A critical component in sustaining TCS’s growth trajectory is the company’s ability to attract talent in sufficient numbers, and to successfully scale up the talent acquisition process.
Experienced professionals are recruited by TCS through online jobsites, head-hunters, recruitment agencies and through employee reference schemes. Other sources of experienced talent we make use of include strategic initiatives like mergers and acquisitions, and through in-sourcing.
Talent development is undoubtedly the key to retaining and nurturing top employees. At TCS we achieve this by creating the right performance-driven work ethic within the organisation. The company’s High Potential Programme, coupled with role empowerment a n d mo v e me n t a c r o s s c a r e e r streams are our main retention measures.
Most importantly, irrespective of the growing associate base in the company, TCS strives to understand individual aspirations and sup- port each associate on their career journey.
The company uses the iEvolve system to enable anytime-anywhere learning, through which employees can access numerous web-based e-learning programmes at no cost.
Talent retention
Talent retention is another critical factor — as important as talent acquisition — and we invest heavily in building an employee-friendly culture that encourages lengthy career paths for our associates. We have been assessed enterprise-wide at PCMM Level 5, and our retention programmes are considered the best-in-class in our industry. Our career development, training, rewards and recognition programmes ensure our people feel valued, rewarded, highly motivated and committed to their career paths within the company.
Human capital i s e x t r e me l y important for the success of our business. A good work-life balance, international exposure, and global experience in challenging, multipledomain environments is what TCS is able to promise and deliver to its workforce. In so doing, we manage to achieve a highly educated, highly aware workforce whose technical skills are greatly valued across the world.