Harsh Vardhan was confident about working out a deal for his company on his trip to France. He had been travelling frequently to the US and was certain that Europe would be a smooth ride. However, his supervisor pointed out that cultural sensitivities and etiquette differed on both sides of the Atlantic and it would be helpful to go through a soft skills? course.
?I have made business trips to France and the US and the cultures of these two countries are very different from each other. For instance, it is acceptable to address a French woman as Miss or Mrs but an American woman may be offended if you address them in a similar manner. They will insist that you use Ms as the title,? says Vardhan, lead quality assessor at Impetus Technologies.
As India Inc goes all out to woo global clients?minding your p?s and q?s, and being careful about not rubbing them the wrong way, has become essential to net that mega deal. It?s not just about speaking a smattering of the local language, but also appreciating the cultural sensitivities, being politically correct, communicating better and negotiating harder.
Corporate houses have been embracing these ?soft skills? as never before. Issues such as business attire, conversational do?s and dont?s as well as business practices such as salutation, gifts, business cards, eating out, entertaining at home, festivals, verbal and non-verbal communication, work ethics, correct code of conduct and table etiquette are all important, if you want to move up the corporate ladder and leave a favourable impression on your business clients and employers alike.
Business needs have driven training courses in these areas. IT/ITeS companies have been at the forefront of sending their employees for such ?grooming classes? due to their frequent interaction with overseas clients. ?Software professionals have huge potential but they need training to help them interact with clients and customers as soon as they are put on jobs. A key focus area is training on service-orientation so as to better understand the customer?s cultural context,? says Rajeev Shroff, senior VP, Global Services Delivery, Avaya India development centre.
Another software company, Nucleus Software that has 200-plus installations globally, has focussed its energies on ensuring that the technical team is responsive to sensitivities in different cultural contexts. ?Our technical team travels extensively and hence, it is imperative to train them on the cultural nuances of any region. Soft skills and behavioural training has been mapped to the roles being performed by employees across levels,? says Ravi Verma, VP, global head, HR, Nucleus Software. Having emerged as an outsourcing hub, India cannot ignore the rest of the world. Agrees Sameer Walia, managing director, The Smart Cube, a BPO company, ?With India serving as the hub for a lot of outsourcing activity, it is of vital importance that employees of such organisations be on a par with global standards. Soft skills? training plays a very important role in bringing all employees on to the same platform.?
Training courses can range from eight hours to two-three days to even round-the-year, off-and-on refresher modules. Typically, a cultural-training programme covers topics like general facts relating to the country, prevailing weather or climate, political and economic scenario, cost of living, bank holidays and special events, countries and towns? information, food habits, modes of transport, accommodation details, language and pronunciations, recreational facilities available, basic conduct and etiquette, and all the prominent information websites. At Xansa, the cultural training programmes are conducted on a weekly basis with each session lasting 1.5 hours. ?Xansa has huge operations both in the UK and India, which require employees from both the continents to travel and interact on a regular basis. The huge cultural gap or disconnect between these two continents is a big issue. So, we have to carry out regular cultural-training programmes for employees who are about to travel abroad,? points out Xansa India?s human resources director Shantanu Banerjee.
An interesting formula has been worked out at Symantec India. Managers at the company have to accumulate a certain number of credits or hours of training. It has also purchased a world-class web tool that provides easy access to information on conducting business with people from more than 45 countries and is available to all employees anytime, any place. ?In order to make learning opportunities available to employees across the globe, we extensively use e-learning and webinar (a seminar on the web) programmes. We offer some of the best e-learning content available through relationships with Harvard University and other leading providers. Our webinars are developed in-house and enable us to address specific corporate and regional challenges and opportunities,? says Symantec India?s senior principal learning consultant, Malini Sathi.
Both in-house experts as well as professional trainers conduct soft- skill courses. At Blue Star Infotech Ltd, many senior managers in the HR department function act as faculty resources. ?For specialised programmes, we bring in external experts in specific areas,? adds Harish Govind, VP, human resources, Blue Star Infotech Ltd Impetus technologies has an internal training cell called Prayas which schedules training for its employees across divisions and levels. ?Subjects like leadership, performance appraisal, conflict management, managerial skills are also covered for senior employees,? adds Ambrish Kanungo, senior manager, HR, Impetus Technologies.
According to industry estimates, the soft skills? training industry is worth Rs 400-Rs 500 crore. According to Siddhartha Bhattacharjee, president, Dale Carnegie Training India, the outsourced trainer brings in higher credibility as compared to in-house trainers.
?The learning experience is professional as most participants feel that getting an insight into external best practices through the facilitator is a value-add as compared to in-house training,? he says. The training house has customised programmes for HSBC, Sterlite Industries, ITC Infotech, Ernst & Young, besides a host of other companies. As soft skills revolve around behaviourial skills, the ability to successfully acquire a new skill is seen as a personal victory for an individual and an organisational victory for the team. Winning friends and influencing people appear to be a sure-fire way to cut a successful business deal.