‍Client Spotlight: Tata Tele  

In 2019, fresh from cost cuts, divestments and consolidation, Tata Tele, the enterprise telco business of India’s Tata Group, began a ‘build back better’ strategy, targeting 63 million small & medium enterprises in India that are digitizing at record clip.

Integral to this transformation, Tata Tele began investing in upskilling its teams with Hardskills’ Global Business Skills (GBS) Course that trains skills such as critical thinking, planning & agility, how to influence and sell change, etc. Today, 60% of headcount have been trained, and Tata Tele is kicking off the next wave of Cohorts.

A key objective was developing its workforce to emerge from the downsizing with the growth mindset of winners. Two years in, Tata Tele is witnessing a tremendous comeback. 

See how Tata Tele powered its amazing trajectory through a strategic learning initiative.

Interview with Tata Tele’s DGM of Capability Building, Nitin Prakash:

What were your key employee development objectives for the turnaround?

“We needed a mindset shift, for cross-functional teams that had tenure and experience to learn how to do things differently. It was important to train as many as possible with the skills needed for this paradigm shift.

Content is what drives learning. Peoples’ expectations are high, and attention spans low, so we needed something really engaging. We needed a solution that was practical and not theory - that trained ‘how to’ skills across a wide range of experience levels.”

‍How did the Global Business Skills course from Hardskills deliver this mindset shift? 

“We had large numbers of people spread across locations, busy and short of time. The 100% digital GBS rolled out weekly in 90 minute segments gave flexibility to learn in the flow of work. For sure, some couldn’t keep to the schedule, but our overall completion rates are 80% despite the pandemic’s impact and some cohorts hit almost 100% completion.  

The GBS course packages the whole set of skills essential for the white-collar worker today. It’s done professionally, with minute details and a simple format. The feedback has been very positive, and teams are recollecting what they learnt.”

“The work culture has changed.”

Cyriac Kurian, deputy GM, Enterprise (South India), Tata Tele‍

‍What next? 

“We are growing, and our plans are to empower as many of our people as we can with the right mindset, skills and behaviors so we can continue to win. It’s strategic for us, and we want to achieve this at scale as our opportunity is very huge and our people can feel the benefits of learning. 

Hats off to team Tata Tele, and here’s to driving a learning culture so transformation sticks!