Is Indian worker ready to take on the world?

Many believe India does not have world class workers (both blue and white collar). And that Government should do something to develop this next highly competitive worker. Well...

Photo by Smartworks Coworking on Unsplash

This question arises from the lack of education, apprenticeship, technology, exposure, skill, and level of Indian workers, both blue and white-collar.

It is well understood that India needs better technical and general education and avenues to interact more with companies through corporate internships and/or apprenticeship programmes. India also needs to create a plethora of options for students and youngsters to choose from. Each of these options should directly address economic opportunity. I am not going to comment in detail about this as many commentators have already discussed the issues and solutions related to this aspect.

Having understood that…

I want to discuss three other tangential things that matter more.

First, we need to incentivise good workers.

• I do not think companies identify the talent, groom them and give opportunities to the human resources they already employ. I think this is the biggest failure of HR departments in ALL companies. To be fair, HR departments across the world have the same problem.

• It takes good quality leaders to identify the talent, groom them and give them various opportunities to create further value for the enterprise. We have missed the bus on this big time. We need new, innovative, break-the-mould types of leaders in this country. Instead of creating innovative enterprises, we have created privatised bureaucracies in the corporate world.

• We must realise that the Wright brothers did not even have a diploma. Today, thanks to modern HR practices, many potential leaders are languishing, lost in corporate hierarchies, and hating their jobs.

Second, I believe the talent we recruit in companies lacks axis to high-quality educational infrastructure, tools and good-quality teachers so as to develop their capabilities to their maximum.

• In a country like Singapore, you find a person with a measured potential of 100 operating in a job that requires 150. In India, you find a person with a measured potential of 100 operating in a job that requires 10.

• When the Government cannot create colleges, institutes and other centres where workers can tinker around, companies need to create such places either at the Industry Association level or at a corporate level. Google allocates 20% of its free time to employees’ side projects. Lockheed’s Skunkworks and Xerox’s PARC have iconic status.

Third, there is a good scope for developing a social network of skill groups that will help diffuse skills across the country's workforce.

• There is a story of how surfers create new moves and shoot videos showing themselves performing new stunts. These stunts get replicated across the world through social diffusion. The Government cannot do this; you will know what I mean if you see their websites. It has to be done by some private enterprises.

• The principle behind this is that if you give tools to the people to pursue excellence and recognise their achievements, people will break all barriers and innovate beyond our wildest imagination.

Fix the incentives, and you will see the talent!

I can talk ad nauseam about this issue. I have barely touched upon some of my pet peeves.

I do not agree that India lacks talent. I also do not believe that it is ONLY more training and education that will fix this issue. We need to open our eyes. Talent, like beauty, needs the eye of the beholder.

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