Arusha Gupta
Head of HR- European Region, South Africa and Global Markets, LTIMindtree

I like to introduce myself as a woman who wants to make a difference to every life that I touch in various roles (daughter, daughter-in-law, mother, wife, professional, sister, friend and a responsible citizen).  In my professional journey of over 22 years, I have played multiple HR functional role in technology companies across the globe.

Currently, I am Heading the HR function for European Region, Africa, and Global Markets, of LTIMindtree.  I started with LTI in 2017, before the company merged with Mindtree to become LTIMindtree in November 2022. During these incredible six years, I have led multiple programmes and initiatives such as process automation, employee experience and EDI. I am privileged to work with a highly dynamic, capable, and diverse workforce brimming with ideas and passion to deliver results.

LTIMindtree is a global technology consulting and digital solutions company that enables enterprises across industries to reimagine business models, accelerate innovation, and maximize growth by harnessing digital technologies. As a digital transformation partner to more than 700+ clients, LTIMindtree brings extensive domain and technology expertise to help drive superior competitive differentiation, customer experiences, and business outcomes in a converging world. Powered by nearly 90,000 talented and entrepreneurial professionals across more than 30 countries, LTIMindtree — a Larsen & Toubro Group company — combines the industry-acclaimed strengths of erstwhile Larsen and Toubro Infotech and Mindtree in solving the most complex business challenges and delivering transformation at scale. LTIMindtree helps businesses get to the future, faster.

Over time People-Practices have evolved from being employee relation oriented to define rules through standardised policies and processes, to skill development and wellbeing oriented to now moving towards purpose, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).

Post pandemic world is a blended one with blurred boundaries between home and office, work, and life. It is a juggling act for each one with newer ways of working and adapting.

Today consumer experience is the key differentiator in the market, and it is the same at workplace.

For the first time in history, there are five generations in the workplace, at a time when the definition of workplace itself is getting revised. Technology is enhancing a systems-driven experience that needs to be complimented with a humane one. To do this, employers should cater to holistic well-being of their employees beyond physical, to support employee’s financial, social, spiritual, and emotional needs at every life stage, all within an inclusive culture. Employers who are invested in leading with purpose and enabling their talent to be their best holistically will emerge at the top.

Simply put, top employers will be the ones with the agility to form and reform programs and practices and provide a purpose driven personalised experience.

The HR team plays a leading role in developing strategies and programmes to ensure we nurture our talent. This has been particularly important following the merger, where effective people integration is critical for success.

One programme that is close to my heart is ‘Genesis’, designed to upskill employees who are in the early stages of their careers. We designed and developed it during the pandemic and now very pleased to see these high-performing interns, learners, and apprentices across the UK, France, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, and South Africa with over 75% of the talent from this programme being women.

Given that this is the first time we were doing it, there were multiple challenges. While normally such programs have scale, we were doing it in different countries and the cohort was spread out. We converted each challenge into an opportunity and ensured that the participants gained from the diversity of the group.

What makes this programme unique is how we created it from the ground up, decided to invest in Data Science, and tailored it specifically for the Gen Z audience. The design covered aspects like regular feedback, a buddy programme, mentoring, and assignments which were customised for each country to make it suitable for the talent there. We also encouraged all participants to learn fast, fail fast, and challenge us with their ideas and thinking.

I believe it is programmes like these that will help LTIMindtree constantly push the boundaries of what’s possible and help us all to get to the future faster.

While a lot is going on, I would like to talk about the ones at the top of my mind:

Personalised experience
We are investing heavily in improving the employee experience in day-to-day activities to save time and effort. The personalising of experience is the key to governing this improvement. The second element is to create a lasting impression from events during onboarding, recognition, and separation.

It is very interesting to see that there is no strategic discussion without the mention of technology. We have a dedicated team looking after employee communication, developing a people-technology roadmap, and people-practice effectiveness.

Career Progression
LTIMindtree operates with a marketplace concept where all open positions are visible to all in the organisation. Anyone can apply for the aspirational role. The AI tool shows the individual how suitable their profile is to the role that they are interested in and creates a learning path to help build the required skills. Such end-to-end experience is enabling upskilling and cross-skilling.

Certifications on the latest technology are available to all, even an HR person can get certified on the cloud. We want technology to be in the DNA of the organisation irrespective of function or role. To strengthen this philosophy, we created the career progression framework that I mentioned previously and gamification that adds to the fun.

Effective integration; to synergise the strengths of two high-performing organisations.

While the work began post announcement of the merger in May 2022, the rubber met the road on the 14^th of November when the merger concluded. LTIMindtree is over 90,000 employees strong, with many more aspirations, ambitions, and experiences. Our task is to integrate it seamlessly into a beautiful necklace formed with beads of diversity of thought and experience, strung together with the thread of culture. Based on the voice of employees, we have stitched together the values, tenets, and purpose. That is the guiding force to other interventions like change management, communication, and collaboration.

Carved out specific roles to facilitate change: Change Ambassadors, Change Champions, and Change Leaders along with different activities where we listen and solve together.

The interesting part is the unknown, now and then we come across things that were not envisaged, the fascinating fact is despite that, the groups involved understand the challenge, find a solution, and keep things moving. It is demanding but rewarding at the same time. Each one of us are committed to a faster future together.

We at LTIMindtree are very proud of being an early adaptor of people-oriented intervention. However, to meet the changing requirements, real-time adaption is a necessity. We are at different stages on this journey.

We have a mature hybrid-working ‘Yin-Yang’ model, formed during the pandemic. While the model allows different personas to meet individual needs. The process is completely digitized through our iPersona app and enables employees and managers to meet the flexible needs of an individual while balancing the teamwork requirements.

Within the last 2 years, we deployed a robust global career progression framework and strengthened it further within a year. We moved from a unique skill-based approach to a skill cluster concept to align with customer requirements and resonate the same language within the organisation. This enables individuals to know the upcoming technology cluster demand and align their career development, accordingly, making it a recipe for success. We are further investing in a career progression framework that helps our talent stay relevant with fast-paced technological development.

Investments boosted the mental and physical well-being of employees in the last 3 years, and we are now focussing further on financial well-being right from educating people on how to read their current financials, to securing their desired lifestyle. In an uncertain economic climate, improving financial literacy is essential in supporting the wholistic well-being of our employees.

This interviewee was kindly introduced to us by ‘Top Employers Institute – the global authority on certifying excellence in employee conditions.’ Their organisation is certified as a Top Employer.