So, HCL Technologies has responded. (My earlier take on this issue – )
I came to know about it via a story in Bangalore Mirror. The story quotes Prithvi Shergill (who is also the face in the response) as saying, “We have taken the social network route to tell our side of the story. Our approach to address the problem might be the first such attempt in the industry, but the on-boarding problem is not just an HCL Tech problem but spans across the IT sector in India.”
Clearly, there is an attempt to make this a broader, industry issue and not HCL-centric. The harsh truth, though, is that a set of freshers are protesting only outside the offices of HCL, not other IT companies.
Also, the statement – ‘Our approach to address the problem might be the first such attempt in the industry…’ irks me a bit. The tool is completely incidental – the content is what really matters.
It is easy for me to share my opinion on the content (below) since I do not know the context within which it was framed. So, let me add my views cautiously, without being too judgmental – it is unfair to judge it without knowing the reasons and specific nature of objectives HCL has, to address the situation. But, just a few broader observations.
1. I think the response is media and public facing, not freshers-facing. It is a shrewd and clever PR attempt than addressing any specific concerns of the people who are (a) protesting (b) spreading the word offline or online. Of course, there is nothing wrong with it – it is what HCL thinks is best addressed, for now, depending on how much they have to say and what they can afford to say.
2. The language is clearly ‘advanced’, in my opinion. Given that this is a PR crisis management effort, the language used, is understandably complex and in line with the jargons used in the IT sector. ‘fungible skills‘ is something that may be used only in the Indian IT sector, with its penchant for jargons.
3. This is hardly a ‘social network route’ to address the mess HCL is in. This is a tactical PR response, a better one compared to piecemeal responses given to media earlier reactively. Consider how important this response is, versus a statement HCL released in 2011, as a press note and which is still available on HCL Technologies press section.
In October 2011, there were a lot of stories in international media about Wall Street Journal Europe alleged improper business practices. HCL was one of the alleged conduits in such stories. And HCL came out strongly against those reports in a press note uploaded to the press section on October 20, 2011. If HCL Technologies did that to safeguard its reputation, I assume that the absence of any such response this time – with only a stand-alone video that is not linked via HCL Technologies’ website front page, Twitter handle, Facebook page, LinkedIn page or the press section – leads one to assume that this current crisis is not as important to its reputation. If that is being planned (ideally should have been cross-promoted or linked before tom-toming about it in mainstream media – but it is never too late), I’d wait and watch, however.
4. Finally, something in jest! The video, like all videos on YouTube, has a default transcript (done by YouTube). Machine transcript is always dicey, but a few lines in this machine transcript of the video seems ominously funny or unintentionally hilarious. Sample these (press the transcript button below the video to see the text yourself):
“and all new hires joining the company given disbelief in the recent boss”
“we have now been leasing openings for joining in alignment with the demonic in the momentum”
“in our earlier communication this month we have mentioned that the woodstock sharing”
“we’ve done so leasing a list of bacon season”
“all options that we offer may not be the same as there are lying to particular businesses”
“and finally we had disappeared for other acceleration in our on boarding plans from august”
Here is the video, on YouTube – interestingly, embedding the video and comments are disabled… please note!
And, here is the actual (correct) transcript:
Hello friends,
I’m Prithvi Shergill and I support the human resources function at HCL Technologies.
I’d like to share with you today, our perspective on the industry and evolving careers, the trends that are emerging and share HCL’s position on our campus hiring.
Let me begin by taking a look at the market forces at work.
In 2012, we witnessed significant uncertainty, volatility and constrained growth in the IT services industry.
In fact, the industry, I think, grew at 10.2%, the lowest growth recorded in last three years.
This reduction in growth, as well as the shift in services makes, has had an obvious impact on the recruitment of freshers off campus hiring across the industry.
Now this has taken place with a considerable shift in the services mix, towards non-discretionary services in operational roles like systems administration, database administration and applications operations.
HCL Technologies, with its leadership position in IT Infrastructure Management has worked hard to be positioned as a leader recording the highest growth during this period.
At HCL, our thinking has always been to be transparent about careers to employees and all new hires joining the company.
Given this belief, in the recent past, we focused on effectively sequencing the joining of our freshers via pre-joining assessment test called the front-runners program. This was communicated to all the freshers who had a letter of intent or LOI, from HCL Technologies.
And the feedback we received from this group revealed hesitation and reluctance to accept the assessment as an appropriate sequencing mechanism. After carefully listening to inputs internally as well as externally, we have now been releasing openings for joining in alignment with the demand in the momentum areas we have observed in the markets.
Here that I would like to point out four facts of work in flight.
By February 2013, last month, over 1000 freshers from the 2012 batch have already been on-boarded. In our earlier communication, this month we have mentioned that we will start sharing the opportunities available to our other business arms, and following that, on March 1, 2013, we’ve done so, releasing a list of vacancies in our infrastructure services business.
I’m glad to say that we’ve received over 5,000 applications from many of our freshers.
Number 3, we have already started the pre-assessment and selection process for these positions from the 12th of this month for these applicants.
It needs to be clearly understood that the starting terms and conditions of all options that we offer may not be the same as there are aligned to particular businesses.
However, when viewed from a holistic context of a career at HCL, over a 3 year period, we find all options are equivalent.
And finally, we anticipate further acceleration in our on-boarding plans from August 2013. In this manner, HCL will that continue to provide options in roles with us, in keeping with our commitment to onboard all freshers of the batch graduating 2012, who have an LOI from us.
Once again I would like to emphasize that HCL remains committed to helping all freshers who are in the process of joining our industry to build truly exceptional careers.
As advice to these young entrants to this very dynamic industry, I believe it is important to remember that a key component in building a sustainable career in today’s world is the ability to have fungible skills, so that as a candidate you can look at opportunities where the momentum is seen in the industry.
A challenge we find that people face across the industry today is that as higher-end discretionary services increase, we see an increase also in the requirement for experience in onsite resources. To enable this, we believe people need to look for companies that offer them career paths which provide experience and build expertise through a diverse set of roles across skills, types of client supported, nature of work done and levels of responsibility.
For candidates who are able to demonstrate the requisite patience, flexibility and resilience, we are sure will find long and successful careers.
I wish you all the best and thank you for your attention.