CURRENT EMPLOYEE RETENTION, DIVERSITY & INCLUSION POLICIES AND

PRACTISES ADOPTED IN THE AI & AUTOMATION FOCUSED INDUSTRY

INDUSTRY OVERVIEW

What is AI:
AI is a constellation of technologies that enable machines to act with higher levels of intelligence and
emulate the human capabilities of sense, comprehend and act. Thus, computer vision and audio processing
can actively perceive the world around them by acquiring and processing images, sound and speech. The
natural language processing and inference engines can enable AI systems to analyze and understand the
information collected. An AI system can also take action through technologies such as expert systems and
inference engines or undertake actions in the physical world. These human capabilities are augmented by
the ability to learn from experience and keep adapting over time. AI systems are finding ever-wider
application to supplement these capabilities across enterprises as they grow in sophistication. Irrespective
of the type of AI being used, however, every application begins with large amounts of training data. In the
past, this kind of performance was driven by rules-based data analytics programs, statistical regressions,
and early “expert systems.” But the explosion of powerful deep neural networks now gives AI something
a mere program doesn’t have: the ability to do the unexpected.
With intelligent machines enabling high-level cognitive processes like thinking, perceiving, learning,
problem solving and decision making, coupled with advances in data collection and aggregation, analytics
and computer processing power, AI presents opportunities to complement and supplement human
intelligence and enrich the way people live and work. AI refers to the ability of machines to perform
cognitive tasks like thinking, perceiving, learning, problem solving and decision making. Initially
conceived as a technology that could mimic human intelligence, AI has evolved in ways that far exceed its
original conception. With incredible advances made in data collection, processing and computation power,
intelligent systems can now be deployed to take over a variety of tasks, enable connectivity and enhance
productivity. As AI’s capabilities have dramatically expanded, so have its utility in a growing number of
fields.
Evolution of AI:
Global Developments in AI:
Countries around the world are becoming increasingly aware of the potential economic and social benefits
of developing and applying AI. For example, China and U.K. estimate that 26% and 10% of their GDPs
respectively in 2030 will be sourced from AI-related activities and businesses. There has been tremendous
activity concerning AI policy positions and the development of an AI ecosystem in different countries
over the last 18 to 24 months – the US published its AI report in December 2016; France published the AI
strategy in January 2017 followed by a detailed policy document in March 2018; Japan released a document
in March 2017; China published the AI strategy in July 2017; and U.K. released its industrial strategy in
November 2017.
In the area of core research in AI and related technologies, universities and research institutions from the
US, China and Japan have led the publication volume on AI research topics between 2010 and 2016.
Universities in USA, primarily Carnegie Mellon University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and
Stanford, took an early lead in AI research by offering new courses, establishing research facilities and
instituting industry partnerships. Off late, Chinese universities, especially Peking and Tsinghua
Universities have caught on to the race by utilizing large scale public funding and extensive research
partnerships with private companies.
For building the future workforce for AI, countries are also significantly increasing the allocation of
resources for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) talent development through
investment in universities, mandating new courses (e.g., AI and law), and offering schemes to retrain
people. For instance, U.K. has planned to build over 1,000 government supported PhD researchers by 2025
and set up a Turing fellowship to support an initial cohort of AI fellows while China has launched a five-
year university program to train at least 500 teachers and 5,000 students working on AI technologies.

Governance structures for enabling all the above mandates vary across countries. Many countries have
instituted dedicated public offices such as Ministry of AI (UAE), and Office of AI and AI Council (U.K.)
while China and Japan have allowed existing ministries to take up AI implementation in their sectoral areas.
Not just national governments, but even local city governments have become increasingly aware about the
importance and potential of AI and have committed public investments. National governments have
significantly increased public funding for AI through commitments such as increasing the R&D spend,
setting up industrial and investment funds in AI startups, investing in network and infrastructure and AI-
related public procurements. China, USA, France and Japan have committed significant public spending
for AI technology development and adoption.
AI technology development and applications are evolving rapidly with major implications for economies
and societies. A study by EY and NASCCOM found that by 2022, around 46% of the workforce will be
engaged in entirely new jobs that do not exist today, or will be deployed in jobs that have radically changed
skillsets. If some countries decide to wait for a few years to establish an AI strategy and put in place the
foundations for developing the AI ecosystem, it seems unlikely that they would be able to attain and match
up to the current momentum in the rapidly changing socio-economic environment.

India’s approach and developments in AI:

India’s current focus is on devising a national AI strategy based on a framework which is adapted
to India’s unique needs and aspirations, while at the same time, is capable of achieving the
country’s full potential of leveraging AI developments. Such a framework has been seen as an
aggregation of the following three distinct, yet inter-related components:
a) Opportunity: the economic impact of AI for India
b) AI for Greater Good: social development and inclusive growth
c) AI Garage for 40% of the world: solution provider of choice for the emerging and developing
economies (ex-China) across the globe
Five sectors that India has envisioned to benefit the most from AI in solving societal needs:
a) Healthcare: increased access and affordability of quality healthcare
b) Agriculture: enhanced farmers’ income, increased farm productivity and reduction of wastage
c) Education: improved access and quality of education
d) Smart Cities and Infrastructure: efficient and connectivity for the burgeoning urban population
e) Smart Mobility and Transportation: smarter and safer modes of transportation and better traffic
and congestion problems.

Major challenges faced by India in adopting AI:

a) Lack of broad-based expertise in research and application of AI

b) Absence of enabling data ecosystems – access to intelligent data,
c) High resource cost and low awareness for adoption of AI,
d) Privacy and security, including a lack of formal regulations around anonymization of data, and
e) Absence of collaborative approach to adoption and application of AI.

Keeping in mind Optum Global solutions, a healthcare industry-based organization, we look at the
factors to be considered before enabling large scale adoption of AI:
a) absence of collaborative effort between various stakeholders: while India has adopted electronic
health record (EHR) policy, sharing of data between various hospital chains still remains a work
in progress, since different hospital chains have adopted different interpretations of ‘digitizing
records’;
b) relevant data is unavailable and there is absence of robust open clinical data sets; and
c) concerns on privacy and security of data, including lack of formal regulation around
anonymization of data.

India’s current solutions in place specifically within the healthcare sector:

- Mobile based Disease Surveillance and Treatment Adherence systems
- Computer Aided Detection System for Mammograms
- Automatic EEG Analyzer for Seizure Detection
- Health Care Knowledge System - Concept Maps

One of the common challenges, irrespective of the sectors, however, seems to be inadequate
availability of AI expertise, manpower and skilling opportunities.

TALENT MOBILITY: IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTIVENESS

A survey indicates that 44% of the organization have listed talent mobility as a top priority, and
55% said that they are planning to put a program in place in the next few years.
However, designing a talent mobility program is not easy as it sounds and many such programs
have failed due to lack of clear goals or strategy. “Developing the vision” for the program is as
critical as it is to think about tangible benefits that it will bring, for a wholesome success.
Below, are a few examples of companies channelizing their efforts towards the use of AI,
automation and analytics in an attempt to understand the common retention and diversity practices
in the industry Optum Global Solutions operates in.

INDUSTRY EXAMPLES

1. Google
The impact on Google’s Human Resources (HR) practices within the standard best practices’ mode
and framework, indicates that in order for the company’s internal growth strategy to be successful,
it should contain and incorporate the following:
- Companies must constantly hire, transfer and promote individuals;
- Expansion into new markets requires changes in skills or prospective employees;
- Combination of behavior based and results-based appraisals;
- Compensation structured as an incentive for achieving growth goals; and
- Training needs on how the company decides to grow internally.
“Google is organized around the ability to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional
technologists and business people. They have been fortunate to recruit many creative, principled
and hard-working stars” (Nightingale (2008:1). The company is known for its unique culture and
Human Resource policies and is acknowledged as an innovator and best employer (Nightingale
(2008:1). Google’s people programs are geared up to the demands, to meet the requirements of the
company’s rapid expansion throughout the world.

Hiring and Retention strategies:

Google’s innovative work culture model emphasizes on ‘20% work’ – employees are allowed 20%
of their work time to think innovatively and, this model excites new employees and existing
employees in Google and serves as an attractive tool to retain employees in the organization. The
success of Google products and services is mainly because of innovation expected from every
employee and 20% time given by the company for this purpose.
Leveraging research on best practices in employee referrals, Google has also evolved and
introduced an employee referrals bonus program which favored employees and their referrals. The
company encourages the employees to recommend candidates and awards the employee $2000
(R22, 000 plus / minus) bonus if the referral accepts and remains employed for at least 60 days.
This encourages and motivates employees and helps expansion.
Google’s compensation programme rewards strong performance and its training programmes help
overcome weaknesses and underperformance of its employees. Google also emphasizes
employment development through on the job learning and training. Indirect decision making is
also evident and considered. This helps creativity, morale and esprit de corps.
College recruitment: Google has established direct relationships with a large number of
universities and hire a large number of PhD’s.
Professional networking: Google uses social media sites and live professional events to discover
and recruit top performers.
A free Machine Learning Crash Course that includes exercises, interactive visualizations, and
instructional videos to learn and practice ML concepts was originally created for Google
employees as part of a 2-day boot camp aimed at exposing more engineers to machine learning.
This MLCC course was created for Google employees as part of a 2-day boot camp aimed at
exposing more engineers to machine learning.

Diversity and inclusion:

Google has taken quite a few steps to promote diversity and inclusion at the workplace with one
of them being intersectional hiring:
- Intersectional hiring
- Workforce representation
Limitations:
Although Google’s recruitment and selection function are innovative there are employees and
analysts who state that there is no formal recruitment strategy. Applicants comment negatively on
Google’s slow screening, recruitment, interview and placement processes.
Google’s willingness to limit permanent jobs reduces its ability to attract and retain experienced
staff.
Google’s continuous employment of knowledge workers due to its current growth may negatively
affect the ability and productivity of current knowledge workers and makes them feel less
motivated to perform on a big stage.
Google’s extremely high bar impedes growth
Google’s stock profits scheme has aided its increasing early retirements where young employees
retire early due to the wealth accumulated from the stock options programs. With the increase in
retirement due to the stock option program, this increases the chances of organization intelligence
being lost- to new entrants in the market and new rivals.

2. EXL

Diversity and Inclusion:

EXL lays a strong focus on diversity and inclusion with the 3 following three as their focus areas:

- Capability development

EXL assesses the current gaps, gathers awareness and develops capabilities to manage
unconscious bias. It builds culture & capabilities to improve diversity and inclusivity. They
have a blend of in-person workshops, virtual sessions and e-learning programs. They
conduct workshops for their senior leadership, and all other employees across the globe.
An e-learning platform, helps train all the employees on diversity-inclusion.

- Communication

Awareness is built at all levels, visibility is generated and a culture of diverse views is
encouraged through sustained communication and Employee Resource Groups (ERG)

- Recruitment and Talent-mix

 The focus is on hiring a more diverse workforce - gender & nationalities. The necessary
interventions to ensure higher diversity in leadership positions are being made.

- Diversity and Inclusion council

EXL’s Diversity and Inclusion Council is an apex body that has been created to ensure that
our D&I program achieves its multi-pronged objectives. This ‘Diversity Council’ provides
guidance on developing EXL’s diversity and inclusion roadmap and oversees its execution.
The council is also responsible for ensuring representation of EXL across national and
international diversity programs and forums.

- Diversity Trainings
EXL offers training programs that enable employees to adapt and succeed in our diverse
environment. The focus is on all levels of the organization while designing and delivering
these programs as EXL believes that inclusivity is a companywide requirement and not
restricted to any particular level.
All our employees are made aware of and, encouraged to learn and respect the diversity
present in the company and, among all our external partners, clients, suppliers etc.

One of the focus areas in diversity and inclusion is to enhance the gender diversity mix at
EXL, especially at leadership levels. EXL conducts ‘Growing Leadership of Women’
workshops specially for our women leaders that help the participants reflect, share and
learn from each other and from the experts. These programs are aimed at:

- Understanding one’s unique strengths

- Managing internal biases
- Creating action plans to overcome challenges & barriers

Employee development and support:

EXL encourages the formation of Employee Resource Groups. ERGs, as they are popularly known
within EXL, represent focus groups of selected communities and offer them a forum thus bringing
together members, highlighting their needs and supporting their development.

The setting up of ERGs offers multiple benefits to such groups. These include:
- Connecting similarities and learning from differences
- Networking and support
- Forums to exchange information and share ideas
- Mentorship, career and professional development
 3. Genpact

Diversity and inclusion:

Genpact’s mission is to be a company whose employee demographics reflect those of the countries
in which it operates and the clients that it serves. It targets its efforts towards fostering an inclusive
culture where every individual has an equal opportunity to contribute, develop and grow. Zero
discrimination is ensured in compensation on grounds of gender. The male and female pay scales
comply with the 1:1 ratio. In order to follow, Genpact works towards creation of a balanced
workplace that respects, celebrates and advocates diverse perspectives and provides equal
opportunity to all based on merit, without discriminating on grounds of race, nationality, religion,
gender, sexual orientation or any other form of differentiation.
Genpact is also committed to nurturing its differently-abled people in the workforce who are
employed across the organization in different operations and functions ranging from accounting,
insurance, customer care, human resources and shared services. It also engages in ventures like
targeted hiring drives and job fairs for the differently-abled, special employee referral programs,
engaging recruiters and consultants to identify suitable candidates, conducting sensitizing sessions,
ensuring that infrastructure at its facilities is friendly to the needs of the differently-abled
employees and ensuring fair and equal treatment within the organization.
In 2013, close to 40% of Genpact’s workforce was female. Women also represented around 20%
of the middle as well as top management. Amongst the 10 Board of Directors, there is one woman.
It also has 2 women in the Global Leadership Council which consists of 23 key executives from
across our global operations including the CEO.
Our strategy on gender diversity is focused on four pillars: recruiting, developing, advancing and
retaining women in our workforce. These four pillars are supported by regional as well as a
business level strategy and dedicated plans around governance, communication and partnerships.

Women employee development:

As part of its endeavor to develop internal female talent and advance them to the next level, a
sponsorship program for women is run, and female participation in leadership development
programs is encouraged. The Sponsorship Program aims at increasing the percentage of women in
leadership roles by building a sponsor-protégé relationship that helps high potential women
navigate life events that may act as career path de-raisers, as well as enables them to access career
making opportunities at the workplace. Efforts are being made to increase participation of women
in leadership training programs, such as GOLD, LEAP, etc.

Women employee retention:

we attempt to retain our female talent by providing them support through global networking
forums, day care centers, and flexible work arrangements. The global networking forum for
women, gives our female colleagues an opportunity to engage with and learn from experiences of
our successful women leaders. The forums are anchored around themes such visibility, career
progression, work-life balance and executive presence. Our policies on day care centers focus on
women’s safety and flexible work arrangements go a long way in retaining our female colleagues.

Training and development:

Genpact recognizes that the benefits accrued through training and developing its resources far
exceed the cost associated with the process. While most organizaons use learning and development
to pursue their strategies, Genpact connually realigns its strategies to ensure that the knowledge,
skills, and abilies of our employees are effecvely met through various mely intervenons, such as
Educaon@Work, the BUILD program, quality trainings, and Global Leadership Development
(GLD) programs.

EVP: Learning, Growing, Succeeding

Retention strategy:
- Target to fill 70% positions internally
- Employee engagement & retention jointly owned with Operations
 4. Accenture

HR shared services foundation integrated talent management:

Accenture believes an effective shared services capability streamlines and standardizes data and
processes, building a foundation for HR to provide the integrated talent management capabilities
that set an organization apart from its peers. Accenture experience has shown that successful HR
shared services outcomes occur when leader-ship takes a holistic approach, one that focuses not
only on cost, but also on developing a comprehensive HR strategy which seeks to transform he
people, end-to-end processes, and technology to create a service-oriented model valued by the
broader business. When the HR function is viewed as a peer—and given an equal voice at the
leadership table, it can directly impact the bottom-line performance of an organization.

By providing cohesion and confidence in employee data, HR shared services gives HR managers
the tools to complete the strategic analysis and support business decisions. For example, HR
managers can analyze and monitor workforce metrics to track business performance in specific
areas such as:
- Geographic Expansion:
Utilizing integrated and consistent HR data to power the management and movement (if necessary)
of talent and skills across geographic lines to support talent requirements.
Workforce planning.
Bringing together personnel, organization, cost and performance data across all facets of the
business (e.g., geographies, operating units) to identify workforce supply and demand.
- Succession planning.
Providing better, more integrated data to support succession planning and retention, which
encourages proactive development and support of the organization’s employees.
- Performance management.
Identifying and retaining high performers and key workforces helps organizations avoid the high
cost of recruitment and training.

Accenture believes that an organization’s ability to successfully execute its HR strategy depends
on implementing not only shared services as part of the HR service delivery model, but also the
remaining three cornerstones of HR transformation:
- Enhanced HR roles and competencies.
Within a transformed HR environment, the accountabilities and responsibilities of HR roles are
clearly defined so the right work gets done by the right resources at the right cost.
- Common policies and processes.
Standardized processes form the basis for delivery of consistent and predictable HR services to
operations at a lower unit cost per transaction/interaction.
- Integrated HR information systems.
An organization’s technology landscape ideally incorporates both service management and
functional applications within a common HR technology system across the organization,
potentially supported by integrated specialist applications. This system facilitates the streamlining
of HR processes and provides an accurate source of management information to underpin business
decision making, such as workforce planning analytics.
The four cornerstones of HR transformation:

Diversity and inclusion:

Accenture focuses on improving the gender diversity and inclusion of the disabled and well as the
LGBTQ community.

- Gender
30 percent of our company leaders are women and 40 percent of the external members of our board
of directors are women, including our non-executive chair.
 - Disabilities
Accenture believes that enterprises have a powerful role to play in ensuring technology helps
bridge the divide for people with disabilities. To address technology accessibility company-wide,
our internal IT organization in collaboration with other Accenture teams has set an ambition and
strategy to have all of Accenture people’s interactions with software, devices and services be
compliant with globally defined accessibility standards. The approach is holistic—spanning
environmental, technological and behavioral aspects in the workplace to address any permanent,
temporary and situational circumstance. To drive real and lasting change, an IT accessibility
program was established.
The internal IT team needed to determine how to drive technology adjustments to make all
interactions with Accenture’s technology accessible (according to Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines [WCAG] 2.1) and generally strive to improve each employee’s digital user experience.
They started by gaining an understanding of the scope of the technology involved. This included
Accenture’s key technology platforms, applications, internal and external sites, learning sites and
social collaboration capabilities. An internal survey conducted among disabilxity champions at
Accenture helped uncover technology usage pain points.
From there, the team defined an accessibility program charter, established a dedicated practice and
mapped out a multi-year road map defining key initiatives. Priorities are segmented according to
technologies and activities that are internal, vendor-provided, and related to non-Accenture IT
systems.
The program’s focus is not only on people with accessibility needs, but rather on changing every
Accenture employee’s behavior so that accessibility actions are integrated from the start into all
software development projects, daily work, content creation, procurement opportunities and
technology support.

- LGBTQ

Accenture focuses on ensuring an inclusive environment for all employees regardless of their
sexual orientation, gender identity or expression around the world.
Its focus includes:
 Professional development
 Inclusive policies
 Recruitment, promotion and retention guidelines
 Equal benefits, including insurance coverage for gender affirmation surgery in certain
countries
 Employee resource groups in 45 countries; and
 A global Ally program with more than 108,000 members and growing.

Employee retention:
Accenture doesn’t sell products, it’s a talent-led business, relying on its employees to grow.
Recruiting coachable and adaptable (or “liquid”, as Accenture describes it) employees is a great a
way to invest in company growth. Accenture believes in ensuring growth and employee retention
centers around creating an environment where leaders coach for performance, and not manage for
performance.

5. AmEx

Diversity and inclusion:

- Gender

In 2010, the Women In the Pipeline and at the Top (WIPAT) initiative was launched to
create opportunities for women. To help women advance to the highest levels of the
company, a three-part approach is used: corporate gender intelligence training, pathways
to sponsorship (sponsorship training to foster career advancement and retention) and a
focus on building an American Express global women’s community. Most recently, the
WIPAT program evolved to Women Rising at American Express, which continues to
support Amex’s goals by expanding its core pillars of strengthening the female talent
pipeline, advancing women and continuing to build a strong global network.
 - LGBT

American Express has long been committed to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) causes. As a result of this dedication, it has scored 100% on the Human Rights
Campaign’s (HRC) Corporate Equality Index since 2004.

- Diversity trainings

In 2015, American Express introduced new training on how to mitigate unconscious bias.
This program aims to help employees identify and break unconscious bias in key decisions
relating to both people and business decisions. Through this self-paced program,
employees learn how to recognize the types of bias that may be influencing their decisions
and put in place processes to mitigate that bias.

6. Flipkart

Employee development:
Flipskool: an in-house university that’s one of its kind. Unlike any other ‘learning at work’
initiative, Flipskool’s programs and curriculum afford employee the luxury of learning at their
convenience.
Below are the various features and benefits of signing up with Flipskool:

Flipskool offers the following courses:

- The Flipkart Way Academy
 Courses on Onboarding & Leadership
 Master the Flipkart Way of working

- E-Comm academy
 Courses on e-commerce and m-commerce
 Structured curriculum for technology platform
  Learn about the e-comm business and customer support

- Supply Chain Academy

 Courses covering every aspect of supply chain management and technology

- The Happiness Academy

 General development
 Interest-based engagement

Diversity and inclusion:

Of its last 150 hires, 48 are women, with the ratio of women at the payments company now near
25%, including in the technology team. Flipkart said it has a diversity and inclusion council made
up of over 15 senior leaders, as well as a ‘Prevention of Sexual Harassment at Workplace’ policy
led by women leaders.

7. HSBC

Employee development:

To be the world’s leading international bank, HSBC needs high potential, high performing and
internationally mobile talent. The International Manager (IM) Program provides resourcing
flexibility and helps us develop a strong pipeline of home-grown future leaders for our most critical
positions across the Group. As an international program for talented and self-motivated
individuals, it offers a diverse career path in both job role and geography. Moves to different
markets and locations offer a fast-track career growth option for future leaders of the business.
The IM career and development offering:
1. A clearly defined IM Development Journey showing clear development and progression
milestones.
2. Well-integrated and robust career and development frameworks for the Global businesses,
functions and Chief Operating Officer (COO).
3. Enhanced GCB4 and GCB3 development and assessment centres to help prepare IMs for GCB2
roles and beyond.
4. Open lines of communication providing clear feedback throughout the IM’s time on the
Programme from 360 reviews, Senior IM colleagues and non-IM Leadership during assessment
activities.
5. Solid development planning from a strong support network including coaching, mentoring and
senior sponsorship.
6. Transparency around future key roles by utilising effective succession management.
7. A core set of leadership and talent programmes for the IMs delivered through the HSBC
University.
8. Support for formal training and educational assistance.
9. An IM development journey aligned to the broader talent and performance management cycle -
ongoing development and career conversations with your manager should occur throughout the
year.
The IM development journey is supported by structured career frameworks designed by each of
the Global Businesses, Functions and HOST. Each framework highlights the skills, experiences
and capabilities needed from its IMs, and expectations around the length, number of assignments,
and principles of deployments.

Development planning:
All employees are expected to have a development plan which should be regularly discussed with
their manager throughout the year, and updated throughout their career. A development plan gives
direction, purpose and a set of realistic goals that can help to make the right career and development
decisions about the future, and will provide support to identify short- and long-term career goals.
As a key talent pipeline, it is important that IMs create and share their development plan to help
raise their profile across the business so that key stakeholders understand their development
priorities, experience gaps and career aspirations to directly support career progression and provide
feedback about next moves and readiness for the most critical roles across the Group.
Learning and development opportunities:
Global Learning is launching a range of leadership and talent solutions focusing on: leadership;
performance and culture; risk management; and business and role-specific learning. These are all
programmes that will be open to our IMs to help them on their journey. The talent programmes are a critical
part of the IM development journey and we will continue to invest in our high potential top performers to
help you to build your capabilities to become our future leaders. All IMs are expected to participate on
HSBC’S two flagship talent programmes – Accelerated Development Programme (ADP) and Accelerated
Executive Program (AEP); as well as the Faculty Excellence programme.
The School of Leadership delivers solutions to develop and raise the performance of leaders and managers
from supervisors to senior executives. Each of the solutions encourage you to think about the right
leadership for you, taking into account the outcomes of your role, the situations that you find yourself in
and, critically, the needs of the people around you.

Diversity and inclusion:

HSBC takes active steps to encourage people from a broad range of backgrounds to apply for jobs.
Across the globe, the types of recruitment activities that are undertaken to improve diversity
include:

 Hosting and participating in careers fairs targeted at different diversity groups

 Working with local non-governmental organizations to help meet commitments to provide
opportunities for people from groups that tend to be under-represented in the workplace
 Requesting gender-balanced shortlists from third-party recruitment partners

The employees lead seven global networks and a variety of HSBC Communities. These
voluntary groups bring together employees with shared characteristics and common interests.
They aim to make sure everyone feels included, and can help HSBC to address internal
challenges and opportunities. Their insight into the experience and needs of a diverse customer
base can also help our business identify commercial opportunities. The networks focus on
gender, age, ethnicity, LGBT+, faith, working parents and careers, and ability. HSBC
Communities have been formed on a range of topics, including flexible working, mindfulness
and Chinese culture.

8. Airtel

Talent management:
As a part of development of talent pipeline, Airtel identified two specific programs:

- Bharti Airtel Young Leader Program

Airtel recruit’s top talent from premium B-Schools around the world for Finance, Human
Resources, Supply Chain Management and General Management. Under this program each Young
Leader (YL) goes through a 12-month structured program. This includes various stints including
sales, cross function and home function stints. Each YL is assigned a mentor during their stints,
who is the custodian of professional learning for YLs and is responsible for grooming them for
destination roles. The airtel Management Board often takes direct ownership of mentoring these
young vibrant minds. At airtel interestingly many times the tables turn with reverse mentoring,
where young leaders dawn the mantle of a guide for senior leaders by bringing on board
challenging insights and breaking barriers of conventional ways of doing business. The YL's are
also provided specific development inputs through various leadership development interventions
which enable them to fast track their growth. A young leader at airtel thus sees phenomenal growth
in terms of the volume & revenue handled and span of control as compared to his/her counterparts
from campus.
 - Technical Leaders Program
The YTL program aims at building a continuous pipeline of talent that brings in fresh perspectives
by learning new technologies and delivering beyond customer expectations in its network business.
For this program, it identifies talent from premier engineering institutes across the country. These
young technical leaders go through 12 months of extensive on the job training, where they are
provided with exposure to various cutting-edge technologies along with mentoring inputs that
facilitate them to take up challenging leadership roles in the organization. YTLs are given on the
field exposure to help them build a strong foundation for ear marked destination roles that they
will be taking up in the future.

Following are some steps taking by Bharti Airtel towards empowering ad developing its workforce
(action pillars):
 Talent Development
 Promotion of Diversity
 Fostering an ethical work culture
 Developing a safe and Healthy workplace

The targets set for 2020 are:

 25% increase in average training hours per employee and double the training
interventions by 2020.
 Ensure Zero workplace fatality
 Improve gender mix and retention of talent pool by 10% by 2020
 Continued focus towards enhancing employee engagement with a score greater than 90%
satisfaction

9. Mu Sigma

Employee development:
Data analytics companies often face a shortage of the right analytical talent required to deal with
today's complexity. Hence Mu Sigma decided to do something about it. It launched Mu Sigma
University which coaches its people to become decision scientists in data driven behavioral
analytics, financial analytics, big data analytics software, business decisions and more. It also
keeps them up to date on the top big data analytics industry trends forming world class analytical
and consulting skills.
Established exclusively for Mu Sigma employees, MSU is a groundbreaking learning and career
development program for data driven decision sciences. Employees are given chance to engage in
courses taught by actual Mu Sigma practitioners, and participate in hands-on, experiential projects
under their mentorship.

REFERENCES:

https://www.mu-sigma.com/talent-management

https://www.slideshare.net/ShekharJyotiDas/hrm-strategy-of-airtel

https://www.mu-sigma.com/our-musings/blog/a-talent-mobility-program-panacea-for-all-future-
woes

https://avpreview.gpehosting.com/Content/Site/IM%20Career%20&%20Development%20Guide
_June%202017.pdf

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/startups-take-a-fair-shot-at-
workplace-diversity/articleshow/62275659.cms?from=mdr

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/global-diversity-and-inclusion/

https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions/blog/hr/2016/accentures-chro-reveals-one-of-the-
companys-most-successful-strategies-to-retain-talent

https://www.accenture.com/in-en/about/inclusion-diversity-index

https://www.unglobalcompact.org/system/attachments/cop_2014/119461/original/UNGC_Report
_2014.pdf?1415205179

https://www.exlservice.com/diversity-and-inclusion
https://digitalindia.gov.in/writereaddata/files/4.AI_Emerging_Tech_Part_I.pdf

http://www.aies-conference.com/2018/contents/papers/main/AIES_2018_paper_52.pdf

https://www.pwc.in/assets/pdfs/consulting/technology/data-and-analytics/artificial-intelligence-
in-india-hype-or-reality/artificial-intelligence-in-india-hype-or-reality.pdf

https://www.kalibrr.com/sites/default/files/featured_images/White_Paper_How_Google_Hires_T
heir_Talent.pdf

https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/managing-tomorrows-people/future-of-work/pdf/talent-mobility-
2020.pdf

https://www.slideshare.net/rlrn93/googles-recruitment-strategies/16-
ExternalImageInternalIdentity

http://niti.gov.in/writereaddata/files/document_publication/NationalStrategy-for-AI-Discussion-
Paper.pdf