Soft skills training becomes essential for India Software Inc

Rajneesh De / Mumbai

Suraj grew up in a small town in Haryana from where he did his schooling before obtaining admission in IIT Delhi. On completion of his MTech, he joined one of the leading software giants of the country and within two months was sent to Santa Clara on an onsite project. And that was when Suraj’s nightmare started. Having been educated in a vernacular medium school, he was neither too fluent in English nor was he at all comfortable with girls, having studied in a boys-only school. After landing in an open society like the US, where boys and girls mix freely, the shy and coy Suraj had a major adjustment problem, he turned into an introvert and finally fell into depression.

This is not a tale of fiction, but a real-life incident, and the saddest part is that it keeps happening again and again with Indian software companies. Reasons are not far to guess: most companies send a huge workforce to alien shores, and many of these people coming from non-urban backgrounds are subjected to a major culture shock which can cause major mental upheaval. So what are the solutions to this problem? Imparting training that inculcates communication and culture skills amongst all employees. And it is here that the companies need to come to the forefront to take the responsibility for providing this training, especially considering the number of people they send abroad every year. But, are Indian IT companies performing this role? Sadly, apart from a handful like TCS, Infosys, Wipro or NIIT, no companies are taking care to train employees on these so-called softer skills. It is true that many other organisations do train people on technical skills, but unfortunately this vital part remains neglected.

However, an independent study conducted on CEOs, by Stanford Research Institute and Carnegie Mellon in the US, found that long-term job success depends 75 percent on people skills and only 25 percent on technical knowledge. Another study done by Harvard University had even more startling results—85 percent of jobs and promotions happened because of the candidate’s attitude and only 15 percent due to the facts and figures he packed under his belt. In fact, companies lose almost 10-15 percent of possible business due to their inability to meet the perceived level of services linked to soft skills. Given these facts, it is not surprising that online offerings on soft skills training, public speaking courses and English language classes have proliferated.

But why do most IT companies desist from providing training on these softer skills? Many experts opine that this is due to the huge expenditure involved in setting up the entire infrastructure required for making available this sort of training. This effectively means that apart from the giants, most other companies think twice before investing such sums on people, especially when the attrition rate is one of the highest in the software sector. However, the few companies which do provide such training consider this large investment on intellectual capital as a natural step in their own evolution. Take the case of TCS, which claims to spend six percent of its revenue on this sort of training in the sprawling training centre they have set up in Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram. Considering the company’s revenues, nearly touching Rs 5,000 crore this year, this translates into a sum of Rs 300 crore. Though Infosys and NIIT are not willing to reveal this figure, insiders admit that they too are in the similar range.

What is the sort of training these majors provide? In case of TCS, it is mandatory for every new entry-level recruit from all over the country to spend three to four months in the Thiruvananthapuram training centre. The centre has the capacity to hold about 600 people at one time, which roughly translates into about 2,400 employees going through it every year. With TCS now having 19,000 employees on its roster, this soft skills training ensured that its attrition rate is currently down to a minimum of two percent. Even during the dotcom boom time, TCS had an attrition rate of only 13.2 percent, much less than the industry norm then, thanks to the manpower skills imparted in this training centre. Reveals R Narayan, vice president-education and training, TCS, in charge of the training centre, “It is mandatory that every professional with us should have 20 days of training in one year, which can be at the centre or in emergency cases, even at the worksite. We also try to bring the professionals down here for a de-briefing session on their live experiences for six to eight weeks.” Is it imperative that there should be some official recognition of this training too. According to Narayan, Canada has recently experimented with certification for soft skills training, while the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is also attempting to give some recognition to it.

Even NIIT offers training on similar lines, though not on the same scale. In this case, all NIIT inductees come down to the School of Employee Education and Development (SEED), in Delhi, during their induction programme when certain generic skills for people across all divisions are taught. Besides, it is mandatory for a group of employees from each division to put in at least three weeks every year at SEED where softer skills specific to their line of business are imparted. These would entail skills on business communications, telephone etiquette, culture adjustments to even a realignment of food habits. This becomes very vital in foreign countries, where many people need to adjust to different food habits. A senior official of NIIT reveals that the company spends more on these soft skills training than on technical skills. “We expect our employees to come with a certain level of programming expertise, but we have to arm them to learn to sell their project to an alien people in an alien land.”

The Infosys management tries to build leaders at all levels. The company has leadership training programmes called ‘Pravesh’ for aspiring leaders. It has created adequate training capacity to now train 1,900 people at a time at different locations. Infosys also has the unique concept of incubating ideas generated from its people. The idea is to leverage the skills of people (employees). Says an official spokesperson, “Ideas are incubated only if they have sufficient potential to create another organisation. Keeping them separate also allows Infosys to avoid the loses such start-ups normally cause. Infosys would definitely exit these ventures at opportune times to unlock value.” Specific actions in Wipro include weekly communication on vision and business plans, continuous communication and Web training to new recruits, extensive verbal and documented communication to line managers and intensifying efforts to add to the current robustness of people processes. In addition, there is a review of operating and people process with respect to cost cutting, special care to ensure that employee development actions are not stalled as well as continuing every effort to preserve the pride of each ‘Wiproite’.

Make no mistake! You may be an MCA, MBA-IT or even a PhD, but one thing is certain, besides technical skills, it’s the softer skill-sets that make a difference if you want to move up the ladder. A survey of IT recruitment advertisements reveals that for 60 percent of entry-level jobs, technical skills are most important. Soft skills like “the ability to work well in a team” become more relevant as one moves up the ladder and would start assuming importance for candidates with over two to three years of experience. For positions like those of team leaders that demand experience and supervisory skills, it is almost impossible to find even a single advertisement which does not have phrases like “excellent communication skills”, “strong interpersonal skills”, etc.

Training on softer skills can be not only beneficial for programmers sent abroad, but can be an effective tool for employee retention too. According to Narayan, training, especially on soft skills needs to viewed as an investment and not as a cost. In a downturn there is a tendency to compromise on training expenses, but this is an error that often committed in a hurry, is subsequently repented for. Training creates qualification, which in turn inculcates professionalism. Professionalism creates service quality, which leads to client satisfaction and loyalty, which are invaluable assets. Adds Vidyasagar, I-flex, “There is a need for stronger integration between training and career path design. When one creates complementary know-how within employees, one should make sure that it leads to results, either in terms of the next career step or enhanced remuneration. If neither happens, people are bound to leave.”

But are these training in soft skills going to help the companies in the long run? Narayan thinks so, as he predicts that the Thiruvananthapuram training centre would play a big role in allowing TCS to grow by 60 percent year-on-year to become a $6 billion company by 2010, when incidentally it would be having 1,60,000 employees. R Vidyasagar, head, HR, i-flex solutions, reveals that corporates in India spend more than Rs 600 crore a year in direct training costs. “A recent survey revealed that the IT industry spent more than 40 percent of its training budget on skill building. Training was always high priority on the IT manager’s agenda, but amid project completion deadlines, hectic travel schedules and long teleconferences, skill building took a backseat. With the slowing down of the sector, this spending could be better utilised now, with techies having more time on their hands.” Clearly, soft skills are being increasingly recognised for their true worth. And with an increasing number of organisations training their personnel towards it, it can only augur well for the IT industry towards making India Inc globally competitive.