The skills gap is widening, and businesses are struggling to find the talent they need. To bridge this divide, HR leaders like Bensely Zachariah, Global Head of HR at Fulcrum Digital, are turning to industry partnerships. By collaborating with industry leaders, companies can create a sustainable talent pipeline, ensuring their workforce is always equipped with the latest skills and knowledge. “These partnerships give students exclusive training, certifications, and real-world projects that enhance their technical expertise and strategic thinking.”

Industry-academia partnerships enable educational institutions to align their curricula with real-world demands. This ensures graduates are equipped with the necessary skills to contribute meaningfully from day one. By fostering "enterprise skills" like commercial awareness, initiative, and strategic thinking, these collaborations create a talent pool that is both technically proficient and business-savvy.

Crucial components of L&D strategy

As an organisation, says Bensely, Fulcrum follows the philosophy of continuous learning where the company invests in its employees for incremental, but sustainable efforts to keep them relevant and in tune with the expectations of the industry. “We believe that the success of our L&D strategy lies in our ability to align the effectiveness of our learning interventions by way of achieving our business objectives.”

At Fulcrum Digital, the L&D strategy focuses on analysing the skills landscape, assessing and identifying the current and future skill gaps, and then upskilling and developing core competencies based on the business requirements. “We believe that the success of skilling or future capability development depends on the hyper-personalization of learning. We enable the learners to find the right content when they need to (anytime learning) preferably in small nuggets/modules which transforms a learning solution into a performance solution,” explains Bensely.

He believes that learning is more effective when employees can apply knowledge directly and integrate learning into their day-to-day work. “With the help of technology, we ensure efficient delivery, tracking, and management of learning that provides meaningful learning experiences that drive both personal and organisational success.”

Identifying future roles and skill gaps 

Bensely explains that the success of any strategic workforce planning depends on accurate demand forecasting. However, forecasting demand is not limited to predicting the right numbers but also identifying the right skill/competency mix to ensure that it generates the results that are expected. “We use data-driven analysis to identify skill gaps and leverage insights from client demands, technology trends, and business strategies to predict future roles, and the skills required to address these demands.”

Some of the initiatives that Fulcrum Digital uses for upskilling, says Bensely are formal methods like following a well-defined role-based learning path to ensure that employees acquire role-relevant skills, internal/external training programs with hands-on experience like virtual labs (sandbox environments), industry-recognised certifications, hyper-personalised learning paths using micro-learning, and hackathons for practical experience. They also employ informal methods like peer-learning programs where employees learn from experienced colleagues, assigned them to cross-functional projects to develop broader skill sets and learn new skills, on-the-job training and shadowing programs, and even mentoring programs for leadership skills.

Bridging the soft and technical skills gap 

Currently, there is a high demand for technical skills, says Bensely in areas of data roles for candidates who can manage and analyse data to drive decision-making, AI & Machine Learning for automation and business innovation, cloud computing, and cyber security. According to him, some of the important soft skills that will help employees adapt to the dynamic work environment are adaptability, the ability to learn new skills and continue to be relevant, critical thinking and problem-solving, effective communication skills, learning how to work in teams, empathy, and emotional intelligence to work in collaboration with cross-functional teams.

Bensely highlights that academia is expected to instill in their students the ability to visualise complex problems, structure their thought processes, and conceive and implement practical solutions to address challenges. “The curriculum in most of the courses in India is dated, which may not help the students stay relevant to the rapidly evolving tech landscape and its significant impact on business priorities. Empowering educators to incorporate alternative content outside the rigid confines of the syllabus may be a good solution, along with promoting industry-academia collaboration in the areas of cutting-edge research, working out real-world scenarios, internships, and guest lectures to help enable students to stay updated with technological advancements in the industry,” he highlights.

Engaging and motivating employees to take ownership of their professional development

At Fulcrum Digital, we believe that employee engagement and motivation, explains Bensely stem from a strong sense of ownership in one’s professional development. “We have a well-defined role mapping done for each function/vertical with an outcome-oriented KPI & KRA, which are set in alignment with the organisational objectives.” He further adds that Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are created in consultation with managers and are reviewed, feedback provided, and course corrections applied every quarter. The primary purpose of the IDPs is to help the team members attain their short-term and long-term goals, as well as improve their current job performance. As a part of their IDP, learning plans, and certifications are aligned, additional responsibilities apart from their functional tasks/roles are given and their progress is measured every quarter. 

Balancing the development of technical and soft skills 

Recruiters in the IT industry are increasingly drawn to candidates, highlights Bensely who not only possess theoretical knowledge but can adeptly apply it in practical scenarios within the enterprise context. “Balancing technical skills with soft skills is a key priority at Fulcrum Digital, especially as we navigate the complexities of today’s workplace. We recognise that while technical skills enable you to perform tasks, solve problems, and handle specialised knowledge in your area of expertise is essential, it’s the soft skills that often determine how effectively our teams collaborate and innovate.”

To achieve this balance, Bensely emphasises that they apply the skills that they learn through the projects or courses through real-life scenarios such as group work presentations or resolving conflicts in real-time mode to learn by practice and reflection. They also arrange peer-to-peer and mentor feedback in areas like conflict resolution and leadership. Furthermore, our mentorship programs are designed to foster these qualities organically. When seasoned professionals share their experiences, it not only helps to develop technical know-how but also models the importance of empathy, resilience, and adaptability.

Industry-academia collaboration

The primary function of academia is to impart to their students the ability to visualise problems, gather various inputs and their thought processes, and conceptualise practical, actionable solutions to challenges.

To effectively address the challenge of outdated syllabi in traditional academic institutions, suggests Bensely that the industry can help the academia conduct an annual review and update their syllabi to ensure alignment with industry advancements. “It will also be beneficial for teachers to broaden their teaching scope beyond their academic roles and spend some time in the industry to see how some of their theories/principles are put into practice in the industry.”

Collaborations between academia and industry experts, Bensely believes can be achieved to identify the appropriate skills that are relevant to the industry through initiatives such as guest lectures, industry leader panel discussions, or facilitating student internships within corporates. These serve as conduits for real-world insights and experiences, enabling students to keep up with technological trends and industry best practices.