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Journalism of Courage
As one million-plus employees of the IT and BPO sector chug off to hit the 70 billion industry revenue mark by 2009, top industry association on Wednesday sounded a manpower alert, saying the present situation and growth targets need to be jointly addressed by industry, academia and government.
8216;8216;According to recent reports, HR tops the list of top 10 concerns of Indian IT and BPO firms. To tackle workforce-related problems, the industry will have to collaborate with their employees as well as academicians who train youngsters. Government facilitation is essential to redrawing the HR map,8217;8217; said Nasscom President Kiran Karnik at the second annual HR Summit in Chennai.
International players suggested that intrinsic strengths in India8217;s talent pool should be put to more rigorous use. 8216;8216;India8217;s technology, language and software skills are better utilised by the IT and BPO industry today and the workforce is more customer-oriented. But you can leverage the underlying motivation of every engineer to innovate, and provide him a greater opportunity to move up the value chain too,8217;8217; said Prithvi Shergill, HR lead, India Delivery Centre, Accenture.
A second inherent advantage will hold India Inc steady despite the China factor and Philippine challenge: Their unity in diversity.
Hema Ravichandar, HR head at Infosys, who will leave for her own private consultancy in August, said some of the world8217;s leading people practices are coming out of companies in India, which outshine competition in handling diversity.
8216;8216;Workforce diversity is no longer a nicety but a business necessity. Gender, age, physical, geographical, racial, professional and personal-preference diversities are essential to a global business8217; success. That is why an HR head today has two key targets: Ensuring new employees integrate well and making sure that productivity increases,8217;8217; she added.
Karnik said, 8216;8216;Very little has been done in India to identify natural talent and incubate it for innovation, this is a challenge but results will depend directly on the industry and the academic disciplines coming together.8221;
