Companies like IBM, HCL, others roll out initiatives to nurture young talent well

NEW DELHI: Eventhough companies are grooming young star performers with fierce resolve, not everyone shortlisted as bright young talent makes it to the leadership pipeline. But HR experts say the young leaders on the bench are as critical as the ones that make it to the top. This is why companies are rolling out initiatives like assignments, job rotations, development programmes and global stints to ensure that all young talent is nurtured well.

“It is imperative to constantly develop the leadership bench to steer an organisation to the next higher levels of growth and success,” says Hariraj Vijayakumar, assistant vice-president, learning and development, Cognizant. “This helps not just in enabling the right talent to take on bigger roles in the organisation, but also paves the way for seamless succession planning.” The Cognizant Academy offers several development programmes that support specific leadership inflection points of one’s career.

The programmes create development experiences through case studies, roleplays, simulations, games and videos to help participants understand leadership.

IBM has a tiered approach to leadership development. Even those who do not form part of the talent pool get adequate opportunities through on-the-job experiences and structured development. Programmes like ‘stretch assignment’ provide employees a platform to go beyond their comfort zone. In addition to their regular work, they select a time-bound project addressing a real business challenge where a cross-section together as a task force, says Sukanya Choudhury, country leader for business and technical leadership.

“The ‘Job Shadow’ programme is aimed at providing opportunities to employees to learn by ‘observing leaders at work’. Apart from learning new competencies and skills through observation, they are exposed to other areas, leading to more informed career decisions,” she adds. Internal job transfers provide an opportunity to work across business units to build broader skill sets.

At HCL Technologies, the ‘Top Gun’ programme helps young leaders take accountability for transformational and global strategies. “The programme provides a roadmap for individuals by asking them to introspect and understand their personal aspirations as well as present competencies,” says Prithvi Shergill, chief human resources officer.

The programme development team drafts an individual plan for each, so they can work with their appraisers, reviewers and HR partners, and enlist senior leaders to help them grow.

For its part, Procter & Gamble has a twopronged strategy for its young leaders-inwaiting.

Firstly, regular training and mentorship by function leaders ensures that the employee remains current in his or her specialisation. Secondly, the company leverages its global scale to match opportunity with talent from across regions, thus enabling career development and growth across businesses and geographies. “This continues to be the reason why P&G has the lowest attrition rates in the industry of less than 3% and a solid bench of leaders at every level,” says a company spokesperson.