Future-focused L&D with Tata

Central to the world of work at tech giant Tata Communications is openness and trust.

Ina Bajwa, Tata Communications’ global head of learning and development (L&D), tells UNLEASH: “There is this beautiful environment of trust [and] we are very focused on ensuring that we work with transparency”.

This came to the fore during the pandemic, according to Bajwa. “Employees knew that during the pandemic if anything happened [that] the organization would have their back and stand by them”.

Like all organizations, Tata Communications was challenged by the onset of the pandemic back in early 2020.

While Tata Communications was progressive with its flexible working policies and anti-presenteeism attitudes before the pandemic hit - “we believe that we’re a group of adults; they are measured on what they deliver, we don’t have to monitor when [workers] come online and when they log off” – it was still disruptive to move the majority of its 8,500 globally to working from home quickly.

A major focus for Tata Communications was upskilling its managers and leaders to be able to manage remote teams. “We made sure our managers were empowered, equipped, and made aware of how they need to support their teams”, notes Bajwa.

Another big learning for Tata Communications was that “technology can come to your rescue”, particularly during the pandemic.

The company decided to leverage its learning platform, which it built with Degreed in 2019 and called Tata Communications Learning Academy (TCLA), to help us “disseminate information we wanted our employees to have at scale” and quickly.

To create a culture while working remotely “you have to keep communicating and over-communicating”, according to Bajwa.

The TCLA allowed Tata Communications to host regular online town halls to make leaders available to employees, and ensure workers felt like their feedback was being listened to. It also helped Tata Communications to share information about wellbeing sessions being held – and the company still uses the platform to do this today.

Upskilling at Tata Communications

It is no surprise that L&D is therefore another core of Tata Communications’ culture and mission.

As a company that helps companies succeed at digital transformation, Bajwa explains that Tata Communications has to continually innovate its products and offerings to clients.

To do this requires having a focus on “future-oriented skills” and upskilling is how you make sure the organization has the skills it needs to be prepared for the future.

Tata Communications has a range of L&D programs and initiatives. But Bajwa picks out the example of Role-Skill academies where “employees...build their capabilities across roles critical in our [customer] value chain”.

While L&D has always had a seat at the table, because of the pandemic learning has become even more important to Tata Communications. This is a good move given bad L&D is widely cited as a major reason for the ongoing ‘Great Resignation’.

During the pandemic, it became clear that “if you don’t learn, you won’t be able to adapt to the future”.

So Tata Communications leveraged its existing relationship with Degreed to launch a program called Learning Organization. This involved identifying “a group of subject matter experts who carry tacit knowledge of product services, practices and processes within the organization”, explains Bajwa.

Learning Organization means Tata Communications has a community of internal experts who can share their knowledge and support employees on their learning needs virtually.

The aim is to emulate some of that more informal, continuous learning that happened in the office to a situation where people are distributed and working remotely; “we know that learning does not happen in structured programs, it happens pretty much every day”.

D,E&I at Tata Communications

Inclusivity is also a bedrock of the world of work at Tata Communications, both pre and post-pandemic. The company believes its success as a company depends on mutual respect and this underpins its diversity, equity and inclusion strategies.

Tata Communications is a genuinely global company; “we operate in pretty much all geographies across the world” and it believes this is good for business as it brings together people with different ideas and perspectives. This means “innovating better, and making informed decisions in a better matter”, according to Bajwa.

Central to its D,E&I strategy is top-notch and progressive benefits. “We have a gender-neutral approach to diversity”, so this means the same amount of caregiving leave is offered to female, male and non-binary employees.

In addition, Tata Communications offers employees globally the ability to work part-time in order to better manage other personal commitments.

Bajwa also tells UNLEASH about Tata Communications’ Life Event Assistance Program (LEAP). Created as a result of employee feedback, LEAP is available to employees going on maternity or paternity leave for instance, and it keeps them connected to the organization (if they so choose) with the help of technology.

The aim is to dial-up engagement, employee retention, and work-life balance with employees on long-term leave – research shows that 86% of mothers return to their post if they have the right support, compared to only 42% with no options.

Bajwa notes that she personally struggled when she was on maternity leave with fear of missing out. “I remember thinking when I get back will people remember me? Will they value me? Will they still remember my contributions?” The aim of LEAP is to fill that gap.

Tata Communications and the future of work

It wouldn’t be an UNLEASH article if we didn’t ask about the future of work.

Bajwa reiterates that working from home was already a core part of Tata Communications’ processes before the pandemic, so it will also play a part in the future.

Currently in India where Tata Communications is headquartered and “general life is really coming back to normal”, the tech company opened up its offices to those who wanted to go in. “We didn’t set ourselves any targets, we are completely flexible, but the office is open for anyone who wants to come in".

However, she explains that in Tata Communications’ international regions “we are deliberating and figuring out a strategy about when to do and how to do the return to work”.

The final decision will balance business needs with “what our employees want”; Tata Communications will rely on its employee listening tool Kincentric to do regular pulse surveys on return to work, but also other areas.

A central part of Tata Communications’ future of work will be HR tech. This enables the “HR team to offer value to the business, rather than spending a lot of time on processes”.

Bajwa notes that while currently Tata Communications relies on tech like Eightfold for its talent processes, “in the future of work, we need to connect the different talent systems with much richer data that can feed into employee experience”.

For instance, Tata Communications is working on ensuring that when hiring someone data about their skill gaps feed into the TCLA so that they can easily get upskilled in those areas.

Finally, for Tata Communications the future of work will involve rethinking the definition of employees. The company needs to consider “how are we going to bring more gig workers, freelancers and part-time workers” in order to fill skills gaps, especially amid the ongoing ‘Great Resignation’.