How ‘learn and share’ initiatives have empowered employees in Fujitsu

Continuous learning and knowledge sharing can go a long way in empowering employees even while driving organisational goals. Fujitsu Consulting India, a global delivery centre for Japanese firm, Fujitsu Group, has focussed on its learning and development initiatives to stay relevant in the business.

With an employee base of more than 4,400 across five cities, the organisation has ensured that the learning curve of its workforce keeps moving up as the employees adapt and implement new technologies. The Company fosters a culture of learning to ensure long-term employability as employees are eager to learn and experiment with new technology.

The learning journey of the employees starts from the first day. Interestingly, it has designed a programme called ‘Yokoso’ that resembles a gamification-based module on pre-engagement, to induct new employees into the Fujitsu family and familiarise them with the Company’s culture.

 

“We allow people to experiment with their ideas through the platform and try to help them build on their ideas. This is a way of recognising people for their initiative.”

With the help of an employee ID, the employees can log in through the app that functions as a tour guide offering a glimpse into Fujitsu India’s global delivery centres, besides other trends. It also provides the employees an opportunity to find buddies who can help them get acquainted with the new system. The employees have to complete the questionnaire within a period of two weeks to two months. On completion, employees are awarded with a ‘Yokoso’ certificate. The engaging application helps the employees become aware of the organisational structure, processes and functions.

The Company has a knowledge-sharing portal that allows employees to share insights of the industry through documents and contributions. Employees can rate the information and contributors, following which the top-rated contributors are promoted on the homepage.

This portal also works as a ‘crowdsourcing platform’— a practice group on technologies. Some of these ideas are further discussed with the technology team or subject-matter experts who evaluate the feasibility of adopting the same within the company.

The platform has motivated employees to speak their minds, and in the process, understand their interests and strengths.

“We allow people to experiment with their ideas through the platform and try to help them build on their ideas. This is a way of recognising people for their initiative,” says Sumit Sabharwal, head-HR, Fujitsu Consulting India.

Through a session called Techno-Tuesday, employees are encouraged to learn new technologies and share the same with their colleagues. A trainer-reward programme creates an empowering environment for employees who are given the opportunity to attend seminars and workshops and share the knowledge acquired with the team. The programme has witnessed 200 technology trainers being added to the network, where trainers are rewarded for their contribution to endorsing the culture of learning.

Almost 20,000 courses on technical and behavioural subjects, including customised bite-sized modules, are available in the learning management system.

Being a Japanese firm, it has started a Japanese language academy to build language capability among employees at various levels — from elementary to proficient — categorised as N5 to N1.

To ease the process of learning such a difficult language, it has also designed an educational series to bring employees closer to Japanese culture and make the process more fun and engaging. Employees get a sneak peek into the Japanese work culture, which helps them empathise and collaborate better with the parent company.

The Company is focused on building a bilingual pool in India keeping in mind the Company’s off-shore centres. From the employees’ perspective, it is an added advantage coupled with their expertise in technology. There is increased emphasis on digital simulation, where trainings are imparted via virtual labs.

“The technology and the language complement the capability of employees in various projects translating to more business for the company, a higher customer satisfaction score and also employer satisfaction,” says Sabharwal.