The future belongs to leaders who can navigate complexity with agility, influence without authority, and drive impact through continuous learning.

HCLTech’s Digital and Business Services (DBS) division, with a global footprint, is rising to this challenge. Through its transformative blended learning program, HCL DBS is building a future-ready workforce that is fluent in digital, equipped with critical business skills, and prepared to lead at every level.

At the heart of this initiative is a strategic partnership with Skillsoft. Together, they have reimagined leadership development at scale, creating a personalised, data-driven learning ecosystem that empowers employees to grow capabilities that matter today and tomorrow.

As part of The Skill Shift series—a collection of transformative learning stories curated by Skillsoft and People Matters—we will explore how HCL DBS is redefining workforce readiness and cultivating a next-generation leadership pipeline, powered by Skillsoft’s digital learning solutions.

A learning vision rooted in digital transformation 

According to Vinutha Rao, MS, Global Head of Talent Development and Nearshore Strategy, Digital Business at HCL DBS, they identified the need to cultivate a workforce that is not only technically proficient but also business-savvy and innovation-driven. Hence, HCL DBS initiated a learning journey to develop core capabilities among employees: Digital, Business, and Leadership Skills.

The program is aimed at upskilling employees in critical areas such as design thinking, agile, storytelling, stakeholder management, and influencing skills. Vinutha shared that the learning program is designed with a democratic approach with the aim of providing a personalised learning journey to each learner. “Employees can choose any technology based on their interest, irrespective of where they started their career,” she added.

Learning needs & new-age technology

To address diverse learner needs across roles and regions, the program leveraged a layered learning framework, which includes:

• Digital layer, i.e. the foundational courses that are focused on essential digital fluency.
• Business layer, i.e. the courses that emphasised skills like communication and storytelling
• Client management and leadership layer, i.e. customised learning courses to develop leadership at specific functions and roles.

The modular structure offers learners the flexibility to shape their development journey based on their role, aspirations, or evolving business needs. By earning gold or platinum badges through completed learning milestones, individuals not only showcase their progress but also gain eligibility to apply for internal job opportunities that align with their goals.

Through the organisation-wide Talent Exchange platform, the program achieved its objective of increasing talent mobility in alignment with the organisation's strategic business goals i.e. unlocking internal growth, agility, and performance. “Over 1,000 learners have already earned badges through the program, empowering them to embrace next-generation technologies and take ownership of their career progression within the organisation,” Vinutha said.

The partnership that drove transformation

Skillsoft’s intelligent platform, Percipio, has been instrumental in personalising learning journeys for HCL DBS worldwide. “This ensured that a team leader in the US and a software engineer in India could both engage with content that’s relevant, timely, and aligned with their growth trajectory,” shared Vinutha.

Leadership certification paths encouraged voluntary learning, fostering a culture of self-directed upskilling and professional advancement among the learners. More importantly, the program’s alignment with business performance made it more than just a learning initiative.

"Skillsoft helped us refine the program continuously. We know whether learning is sticking, whether people are applying it, and whether it’s leading to better outcomes,” said Vinutha.

Learning interventions were mapped to real business needs—improving client communication, accelerating agile delivery, and enhancing team leadership—with impact measured through analytics, feedback loops, and key business metrics. “To sum it up, starting from the curation of learning content to driving engagement and defining certification paths, all of this was done collaboratively. If we are successful today, the credit goes to Skillsoft as well,” she concluded.

The future ahead

The partnership has borne fruit by leveraging Skillsoft’s innovative digital solutions like Percipio to integrate with HCL DBS’s frameworks. These frameworks include digital & business architecture and leadership development. According to Vinutha, plans are now underway to expand the specialisation and leadership layer with more role-specific capabilities. She also emphasised the aim to develop deeper behavioural analytics to track skill application in real time.

“Capability building is not an HR agenda—it’s a business agenda. Our leaders now expect that when a person completes a learning path, they will be better equipped to deliver on business goals. That’s the real impact.” Vinutha said.

This is part of the Skill Shift Series, where Skillsoft and People Matters together explore how companies are redefining learning to bridge the skills gap and drive business impact.

Learn how Skillsoft Percipio can transform your organization’s learning journey today!