Mastering Workplace Readiness in Today's Competitive Landscape

Sangeeta Shetty, Associate Vice President, Ascendion in a recent interaction with Higher Education Review magazine has shared her views on how organizations can ensure their workforce is adaptable to rapid changes in technology and market demands, some effective ways companies can foster a culture of continuous learning among their workforce and more

In today's fast evolving workplace, how can organisations ensure their workforce is adaptable to rapid changes in technology and market demands?

Today, employees follow the charter decided by the organisation, and organisation is done by no one else, but by the people, the leaders who start the whole cohort and take it forward. Therefore, it is very important for an organisation that aims to get their workforce adapt to the technological needs, to be very clear on the organisation, mission, vision, and how do they act on the ground, and all the actions. Which means, when leaders communicate, or when the leaders thrive, create the organisation objectives, they should all reflect that we are aiming to work on latest technology, trying to be aligned to the market, or want to lead the market in this space and how each and every individual in the organisation has a role in making that possible.

Some of those interventions, which helps create a growth mindset among people is very critical and it reflects in everything may be communications may be about how we mentor our people or emphasise on the need for people to learn or experiment and try innovative ways and means to deal with a problem and come up with a solution. With the recent trends the changing needs of technology, market, very important for organisation to create an ecosystem internally, in line with the changing, dynamic state of the external world, which means allowing people to experiment and create, celebrate those experiments may not be the final win, but the steps towards making it possible, creating more knowledge sharing avenues, and where again, what the people on the ground see is what is our mission looking for, where is the focus.

Similarly, it should reflect in the kind of deals that we bring to the people to work on. I'm aware of organisations that we have that have grown over the period, begin size in terms of FDs and so but honestly, on the ground, the product, the kind of solutions or the projects that they have on the ground may not be as ambitious as they are a vision mission.

They may tend to align to some of the basic integration projects on the name of it or solutions or AI. Therefore, it has to have a strong commitment from the organisation across the domain and the functions to get the projects that has an opportunity to leverage the new edge technology and so should be the messaging to the clients to. It is very easy for IT engineering and there is so much scope to get busy. Based on that, the leaders also should walk the talk. Though we keep saying it is often top down, but top down has to blend with the bottom up with the behaviours and actions on the ground. And only when we both speak the same thing in speech and in action, people will be able to, you know, get the same support from people on the ground, organisation will be able to get the same support.

Upskilling and reskilling are crucial for remaining competitive in today's job market. What are some effective ways companies can foster a culture of continuous learning among their workforce?

With the whole fourth industrial revolution, which is characterised by AI, machine learning and automation, which is drastically altered the job landscape. The best of the best companies may find it difficult to, move with the speed of the client's expectations. This may seem like a firefighting on the ground, trying to hire something that a client needs or living with resources who may be obsolete. So upskilling and reskilling is no more good to have, but it is the strategy for one to grow.

Also, in the current state, unlike before, we cannot do upskilling and reskilling for batches alone. It seems to be the need of the hour for across the pockets. As much as we speak about AI ML, it's important for every function. So it cannot be only attacked for a certain group or so thus the need is to cover the whole of the organisation and not necessarily in the phased manner. By the time you achieve one phase, probably the technologies have changed, the syllabus has changed, and you may further have to catch up.

First and foremost, adoption of organisation and creating such mechanisms for people to adapt at large. For example, when it comes to Gen AI, every individual, either been enabling or into the engineers, or into L&D and every facet should have a basic know-how of Gen AI and the technologies. From my exposure, I have been connecting with various folks in the industry, and I realise a lot of these people may have still got to the point of trying to find all reasons or talking about reasons why some of those naysayers saying AI is a threat and it's a security. The level of understanding of the AI subject is still lacking. Organisations will have to create more familiarity within their own people with some of these terms, which will help them better move to the next stage of evolution. That said, it cannot be the legacy approach or classroom training.

Also, certifications have been in existence since the time that I have been into this field, which are technical certification, they always existed. However, everything has the next version. Hence, you cannot rely and plan yourself for a later state of certification, but it has to be on the go.

Therefore, those bite size learnings, micro learnings would help people absorb the content on the day to day basis. One of the critical aspects, which is making it self-driven, creating that we spoke about the ecosystem, creating an ecosystem that allows them to collaborate and learn from one another.  In the spaces that we are operating, there are many complex projects that are very intense and technically and that I have had witnessed so many variety of projects and there is so much of talent within the setup. How do you bring together? So of late, there is a lot of focus on community learning, where as an organisation, they create an ecosystem where they are able to collaborate. We also see in the industry, how community groups come together and learn and they really enjoy that experience.

Diversity and inclusion have become fundamental to workplace readiness. So how can organisations ensure that their readiness programmes are inclusive and equitable for all employees?

Organisation and the focus and what we depict on the ground plays a very critical piece in showcasing what the organisation believes in. Just as this that much is important on technology and, you know, learning and development. For DEA as a subject, it's important that we all speak the same language, right from the top to the last level in the system and clarity of thoughts in terms of in the DEI space, there is varied aspects that one can pick on. And it's important to have clarity and focus on certain things on the specific thing that we would want to, phase ourselves or achieve the overall subject, but where is our dominating,  focus as of now.

It needs to reflect in everything, such as different facets, hiring, retaining, building, and to not only in the processes, in the functions and the departments, but everyone has to carry that as one of the objectives. It has to reflect in the core design of the programmes, like recruiting diverse trainers, tailoring content to address the specific groups or to diverse groups, providing accessible formats. And most of all, it requires commitment from leaders, design and charter, how all we will touch different aspects, diverse perspectives, covering diverse perspectives, making it accessible to people across.

There is a big need to create, get everybody to a common point when you adopt DEI. And therefore, there is a unknowing or unconscious bias that keeps creeping up. It's important, therefore, to help the people across come to a common point through some of these unconscious bias trainings or through sessions or webinars and stimulating that thought of how DEI as a subject is important towards the organisational objectives and to be us on the same charter, tailoring learning paths, inclusive recruitment and selection mechanisms to provide feedback and create accountability, open communications about the subject.Some of these ERGs do play a lot of critical role in, you know, helping and making people feel it is the same space.