How Genpact’s Genome has reshaped employees’ careers

In today’s times with Coronavirus, it is imperative for employees to reskill themselves in order to stay relevant and updated in society. Genpact has an initiative called Genome, which combines the contemporary understanding of learning science with new operating models derived from MIT’s Centre for Collective Intelligence.

The Company has designed a scalable infrastructure that delivers customised reskilling paths for tens of thousands of employees.

Commenting on this project, which piloted in November 2018, Piyush Mehta, CHRO, Genpact, says, “Till date, Genpact has identified 300 granular skills in 60 domains with over 7,500 learning assets and 6,400 hours of learning content. Courses are offered across four major areas: digital and analytical, professional skills, industry, and service lines.”

Genpact’s Genome, which is a reskilling initiative, has been able to transform the lives of its employees through education. Its learning and development section has helped to reskill groups of people working together, by collectively increasing their intelligence. Reskilling based on collective intelligence has helped the management at Genpact create an operating model that facilitates the sourcing, crystallisation, propagation and absorption of knowledge to adapt to a constantly changing world.

We are driving adaptability in our organisation with Genome, where every learner goes through four programme pillars, that we refer to as BITS

This not only helps fill the talent gap, but also ensures the cultivation of relevant skills for employees to thrive in an AI-driven world.

Mehta says, “We are driving adaptability in our organisation with Genome, where every learner goes through four programme pillars, that we refer to as BITS.”

i) Because it is about assessing individual skills in the areas people wish to learn

ii) Immersing refers to the self-learning that individuals undertake, based on the curated material.

iii) Transforming is all about the masters or gurus, and connecting their expertise to the employees who need it.

iv) Solidifying learning involves strengthening what has been learnt through doing, that is, actual action.

Importance of reskilling

Genpact believes that learning methods will change, and businesses will place greater emphasis on reskilling and virtual training. With the pace of change accelerating, businesses need to constantly retrain their workforce to help them add maximum value. To help close the ever-widening talent gap, reskilling and upskilling are absolute musts.

However, such programmes cannot be designed as a one-size fit for all. For employees to be able to discover their skills, identify their gaps and hone their potential, the learning programme will have to be customised according to each one’s individual paths and plans.

The successful and upskilled workforce will shed light on new norms of creativity. Technologies, such as AI and machine learning, are not meant to be feared by the employees. Rather, the employees should adopt a ‘trainable’ and unceasingly ‘curious’ mindset to prepare for a future of continuous skills development and training.

“By gaining relevant knowledge and skills, vibrant learning communities begin to fall under the spotlight of various industry leaders, creating networks where people complement each other’s skills. Such skilled employees can easily gel with individuals who are ‘T-shaped’.

They possess some level of varied expertise in addition to their core skill, making it possible for them to effectively interoperate with people who are ‘I-shaped’, that is, those with narrower and deeper expertise, such as in data engineering,” opines Mehta.

Mehta further adds, “When innovations are put into play, I think one of the foremost challenges to be addressed is the adoption of that said innovation. However, we have been fairly lucky to have our learning framework accepted very well by all our employees.”

Genome is ‘future ready’

The learning programme at Genpact offers its employees avenues to learn subjects from across the digital domain, as well as soft skills/ professional skills. Mandatory skills training doesn’t work here, because courses are often irrelevant to a learner’s current role or future career aspirations.

“To achieve clients’ transformation goals, our employees need to be ‘bilingual’. They have to possess in-depth understanding of their industry or function, along with awareness of how to harness the potential of digital technologies at scale, and leverage soft skills to optimise collaboration with others,” asserts Mehta.

The trainers at Genome use collective intelligence, as it constantly helps generate fresh content. This is not only exceedingly relevant to their clients’ evolving solution needs but also to their employees’ evolving learning and knowledge needs.

From a learner’s perspective, Genome has been lending itself perfectly to being AI-enabled over time, because the data it has been generating enables it to make more precise suggestions to each learner.

Once the employees have completed their respective learning programmes, the upskilled employees can apply their skills to practical situations in order to strengthen their understanding.