How One Company Uses Skills to Build Agile Teams Quickly
What does it take to build teams quickly, stack them with the right skills, and align those skills to business goals? These are the challenges Dharmendra Sethi thinks about every day.
Dharmendra is the global head of talent for the Silicon Valley software developer GlobalLogic, where he leads talent acquisition, transformation, mobility, and learning and development. In a company with more than 30,000 employees, he’s responsible for vision and strategy for ramping teams up quickly so they can help customers bring products to market. Dharmendra’s North Star: “To be able to commit to my customer not only the perfect stack of skills that they want,” he said, “but also predictability when they want, with proper product and domain knowledge in today’s market.”
It’s an ever evolving and ongoing project — and not an easy task. But Dharmendra recently sat down with Aneesh Raman, the head of LinkedIn’s Opportunity Project, to talk about how GlobalLogic builds an agile workforce and demonstrates the ROI of learning. He also shared what he sees as “the only skill required.”
To learn more, read on.
1. Align with business needs by creating fluid, agile teams
GlobalLogic, which is owned by Hitachi, helps its customers bring digital products to market. Clients generally approach the company with an idea for a product. Teams at GlobalLogic then help design and engineer the product and do the data research to make sure it’s commercially viable.
From a talent perspective, this means that GlobalLogic is constantly assembling new teams. “It means that, yes, there can be a large ramp that I will build,” Dharmendra said. “Each new engagement will have maybe 100 to 300 people in a time period of 12 to 15 months.” At any given time, the company is building 25 to 30 such teams, as well as reconfiguring several smaller teams.
To do this, Dharmendra and his team rotate in existing employees who have “the DNA of GlobalLogic,” hire outside subject matter experts, and implement learning and development programs based on conversations with the customer. Dharmendra called what they’re doing a “fulfillment strategy” rather than a “talent acquisition strategy” because it merges TA and L&D, focusing on the right mix of buying and building skills needed for each project.
GlobalLogic has also built an “in-house demand-sensing engine,” which looks at who the company has hired in the past, what kind of roles the company has open at the moment (often, about 2,000 roles), and what the sales team is selling. “I pull all that together,” Dharmendra said, “and then I can build stacks of the most common kind of skills/projects we work on and the talent engine where I can hire, transform, and mobilize people.” This helps him align talent and learning with the business’s needs.
2. Focus on the “only skill required”
Dharmendra said that he often hires people who have “one base skill or some composite skills” and then builds a “cluster” of skills needed for a particular project.
He doesn’t look for a rigid set of skills for a good reason. “If you ask me, there is only one skill required,” he said, “and that is learnability.”
After that, it’s the company’s responsibility to give these employees opportunities to grow. “We need to make sure they’re given a path where there is career growth,” Dharmendra said. “I know we talk about ladder growth or, say, spiral growth, but we also need to give them a transparent and guided path for them to grow and thrive in the organization.”
3. To boost retention and show ROI on learning, create an “ecosystem of continuous learning”
“Skill is the only currency that will work in the future,” Dharmendra said. He added that no one knows what skills will be needed in the years ahead, what kind of technological tools we’ll have, or what problems we’ll need to solve.
“But there are three things that are very important: capacity to learn, ability to learn, and willingness to learn,” he said. “Capacity is a gift, ability is a skill, and willingness is a choice.” It’s up to companies, he added, to create “an ecosystem of continuous learning.”
Dharmendra pointed out that when companies invest in learning, it can pay off in increased internal mobility and retention — which also saves the company money. “Every time I go to market and hire somebody,” he explained, “I pay between 10% to 25% more than I would if it were somebody on the inside.” He added: “I would rather have someone stay and learn and grow with us than go outside and find something else.”
When employees stay with the business and grow, Dharmendra can also offer internal mobility, international relocation, and retention numbers as proof of ROI on learning. “This will help the business appreciate that they need to make those investments,” he said.
4. To attract Millennials and Gen Z, invest in purposeful growth
Because Dharmendra is constantly building new teams, he wants GlobalLogic to be as attractive to candidates — including younger workers — as possible.
He said that even though compensation matters to Gen Zers and Millennials, they’re even more interested in purpose and growth. “It’s not just a question of ‘Am I going to get an increase in pay every year? Will I get promoted?’” he explained. “But also: ‘Is this company investing in purposeful growth? Does this company have a commitment to diversity?’”
Zoomers, in particular, want to change the world. Dharmendra explained that companies can attract — and retain — these younger workers by helping them define what a purpose-filled learning path looks like and investing in the development they need.
“The readiness of any company,” Dharmendra said, “is going to come down to whether you hire smart people who have the competency and learnability and whether you give them the path to grow and thrive. If you do that, then absolutely you’re ready for what’s coming. If not, you need to do some work.”
Final thoughts: Use learning as a way to address uncertainty
One of the biggest benefits of providing an ecosystem of continuous learning is that it helps employees navigate uncertainty.
“Every candidate or employee is concerned about the disruption that is coming in the world,” Dharmendra said, “and our CEO and leaders are also worried about the same thing. But if I can assure my employee base that, yes, we have your back and we are going to guide you and invest in you, it not only inspires them to stay with the company, it also empowers them to dedicate themselves, drive innovation, and effectively navigate future challenges.”
