Human Capital
At Tata Communications our global talent pool plays an integral role in empowering hyperconnected ecosystems through a digital fabric. Keeping our people at the core of our efforts, we are constantly paving the path for sustainable business growth.
We believe in creating a conducive workplace that fosters innovative ideas, welcomes change and creates multiple avenues for the upward mobility of our human resources. Through dedicated employee engagement and upskilling programmes, we strive to create a mutually beneficial environment that encourages people to offer their best and propel the organisation to greater heights.
Our People Strategy
In order to build a strong talent pipeline, it is paramount for us to create a work environment that enables employees to develop and grow in diverse domains, prepare leaders for tomorrow and constantly upskill employees to meet evolving industry requirements. It is also essential to develop leaders and managers who act as mentors for teams and nurture the spirit of collaboration and innovation. With hybrid workplaces being the future of operations, we are also focused on creating a future-fit talent pool that is aligned to the working requirements of the post-pandemic era.
Towards this end, we have identified four key pillars including the following:
Key pillars of our people strategy
Employee Engagement
- Our employee engagement score from our annual survey has gone up by 1% since last year and we have improved our engagement score on all focus areas identified in FY 2022-23, owing to consistent and rigorous action planning and implementation by business units, regions and corporate teams. 87% Employee engagement score globally which is higher than last year and significantly higher than Global Best Employers
- An interactive panel discussion on Ethics and Good Governance: An Enabler for Business Growth, was organised virtually for all employees. Panellists - Managing Director & CEO, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Legal & Compliance Officer.
- Mr. Ashok Sinha, Independent Director on the Board of the Company, engaged in an interactive session with some employees from the mid and senior levels of management in September 2022.
- On two occasions during the year, interactive sessions were organised between the Board Members and some of the future leaders of Tata Communications.
- Ms. Renuka Ramnath, Chairperson of the Board participated in the Sales Kick-off meet organised in Dubai in January 2023 and interacted with a number of global employees.
- The Ethics Panel discussion was followed by a global townhall event addressed by Mr. A. S. Lakshminarayanan, MD & CEO, with participation from employees across the world.
Our global team remains committed to living and enhancing our culture, DRIVE ahead. Continuous learning is at the heart of our organisation. Through enhanced skills and capabilities, employees are fuelling their career aspirations, and enabling the transformation and the growth trajectory of Tata Communications. 
Chief Human Resources Officer
Fostering a future-ready workforce
Our comprehensive talent development strategy encompasses key aspects of professional growth and is aligned to organisational objectives. Employees are recognised and rewarded at regular intervals based on their performance, quality of deliverables, impact on function / organisation, alignment with DRIVE AHEAD behaviour, future readiness and potential to deliver value in new roles.
Nurturing a healthy talent pipeline
We strive to retain top performing employees and acquire new and fresh talent with diverse experiences.
To ensure employee retention, we focus on a holistic talent management approach which includes immediate term levers for proactive retention of people engaged in critical roles and medium-term measures such as job rotation, short-term assignments, secondments etc.
During the year under review, we implemented an intervention that involved focused dialogues by immediate and skip level managers and the HR business partner, with employees identified to have a high risk of attrition, based on data modelling approach.
Multiple structured and unstructured data points were fed into the model to arrive at insights on employees and focus on areas where they might need support. It resulted in favourable outcomes and enhanced the performance of identified employees.
Further, our internal mobility platform enables employees to identify available roles within the
organisation, choose positions across geographies based on their experience and skill set. Employees are also offered the opportunity to bridge skillset gaps through targeted learning and development programmes.
Net headcount additions during FY 2022-23
Inspiring leadership and succession planning
To carry forward a legacy of sustainable progress, we have established a 3-tier approach for succession planning. A diligent talent mapping exercise is carried out for different cohorts to identify and develop successors for various roles within the organisation.
Successors of Global Management Committee (‘GMC’) members (‘CXOs’) are identified and reviewed by the Nomination and Remuneration Committee (‘NRC’) and the Board. The process, facilitated by the CEO and CHRO, involves exposure to CXO meetings / Boards, cross functional assignments for critical skill development, 360 Degree feedbackbased Leadership Trait building and other such trainings.
Learning & Development (‘L&D’) as a key business enabler
Learning & Development at Tata Communications follows a platformbased, 6-tiered, value-driven strategy that balances between democratisation of learning and business-driven development on current / future skills to build / enhance capabilities that helps us continue to win in the marketplace. Learning in FY 2022-23 saw significant demand and momentum.
Total Learning Person Days (across workforce) | 81% higher than FY 2021-22
Learning Person Days / Employee
Learning through digital channels
Training certifications
Enhancing our L&D ecosystem
Our L&D strategy for FY 2022-23 to FY 2024-25, covers various components of the integrated L&D Ecosystem and is categorised into 6 main aspects :
Key focus areas of L&D in FY 2022-23
Tata Communications Learning Academy (‘TCLA’)
TCLA is our one-stop-shop learning interface, that enables employees to learn anytime, anywhere (democratisation of learning) for their personal or professional requirements. The learning is multi-modal and ranges from byte-sized modules to deep learning courses. TCLA allows our employees to upskill, reskill and crossskill using world-class learning avenues at their fingertips and a consumergrade UI / UX.
Through TCLA, our employees get access to online digital courses, articles, videos, podcasts, books, as well as industry accreditations and customised learning. We have also brought together an amalgamation of the right tools, technology, and ecosystem to facilitate a self-paced and continuous learning process to further enhance the learning experience on TCLA.
Total Repeat Learners on TCLA
Shift towards Intermediate level upskilling
Action Learning Projects completed
Capability Development contributed by Academies
Learning Organisation (‘LO’)
The goal of LO is to enable to build a community of internal Subject Matter Experts to curate and facilitate continuous learning – with others and from one another. This serves as a forum for community learning on topics that are important or will benefit in the future. Employees who are Internal Facilitators generate digital learning content and / or guide
sessions as needed, as well as manage Communities of Learning on the chosen subject as TCLA Groups to provide peer-to-peer learning for all interested.
Participants
Leading from Inside Out (‘LIO’)
LIO is a foundational leadership development programme, to help the leaders codify a set of universal and inside-out principles, that will allow them to shape their outer DRIVE 2.0 leadership behaviours while forming a stable inner core.
Managers actively adopted LIO
Role Skill Academies
Capability Development at Tata Communications is being delivered via Role-Skill Academies for skills across roles that are critical to our value chain. The hallmark of the Academy approach is that it caters to the holistic development of incumbents across core and future skills required in the future direction of the role; and the
journeys span between 4-18 months duration. The learning designs are contextualised using a blended learning approach and impact is being tracked in the business metrics agreed with the Academy Sponsors (leaders of respective functions who own the Academies along with the L&D team)
Key features
Encouraging diversity and equal opportunity
We have consciously designed gender-agnostic policies and processes to foster equal opportunity at the workplace. At Tata Communications, we are committed to encourage fair and transparent policies that promote diversity and equality, prevent unfair discrimination on the grounds of race, caste, religion, colour, ancestry, marital status, gender, sexual orientation, age, nationality, ethnic origin or disability. We strongly believe in rewarding performance and lay the foundation of a conducive working environment where every employee is treated with dignity and respect.
Increase in women hiring since Winning Mix launch
During the year under review, we launched multiple programmes to improve diversity, reduce attrition and promote growth and development of our women employees including Each One Bring One; Targeted Hiring Strategy; Make Each Woman Count. In line with our continuous efforts for women development and creating a healthy pipeline of women leaders for the future, we also launched various internal career development programs like ACHIEVE, UDAAN and Success Drivers.
Drop in women attrition in FY 2022-23
LEAP – Life Event Assistance Programme
We ensure that women are supported in their entire journey from going on maternity leave till their return to work. We have designed an internal platform - LEAP – Life Event Assistance Programme which supports employees during their parenthood journey and ensures their engagement, retention and talent management along with work-life balance. The platform allows primary / secondary caregivers to remain connected with the organisation during their leave and they continue to receive additional support from peers / teams to make their return to work easier and also helps them to embark on the journey of parenthood seamlessly.
Additionally, for new parents, in accordance with the Maternity Benefit Act, the Company has provided day care facilities within office premises or through an external partnership model. Half of the expense incurred for use of these facilities is borne by the Company. Further, each office location includes a nursing room for women, with a bed, and other necessities. Along with a flexible work-day model, this proves very beneficial for mothers to work as per the newborn’s schedule.
Additionally, we focus on Inclusive Leadership journey for people managers and Leadership Forum members, covering 1,000+ managers. It helps to sensitise leaders as well as managers to break-free from stereotypes and unconscious bias at the workplace.
Prioritising Health & Safety
We adhere to safety norms to ensure the health and well-being of our people. We follow ‘Zero Harm’ philosophy at the workplace and therefore, lay emphasis on timely reporting, prevention and management of incidents. Additionally, we undertake periodic inspections, training and capacity building programmes for all our employees and contract workforce, especially employees engaged in high-risk activities. To make our facilities and workplace safer, we conduct internal as well as external audits. It helps to regularly assess and mitigate risks to health and safety.
As a part of National Safety Week celebrations, we organised a SAFETY CARNIVAL from March 1, 2023 to March 15, 2023. This included various on-ground and virtual activities for our employees. During the year, the Company amended the scope of the Corporate Social Responsibility Committee and renamed it as the Corporate Social Responsibility, Safety and Sustainability Committee (‘CSRSS Committee’) to additionally review and monitor the Health & Safety initiatives and matters at the Board level.
Mandatory Safety Standards audits conducted by EOHS Team
Fatal accidents
Total safety audits conducted by the Business Units (‘BU’) and Environment Occupational Health and Safety (‘EOHS’) team
Some of the key interventions undertaken to achieve ZERO HARM are as follows:
Implementation of H&S Management System:
By aligning with the Tata Group Health and Safety Management System as well as ISO 45001 requirements, Tata Communications has successfully developed a Health & Safety management system. All our major facilities in India are ISO 45001 Certified while two facilities in Singapore, one facility in Australia and three facilities in Canada were already certified as per ISO 45001 standards. Our endeavour is to eliminate or minimise the impacts and risks of our operations on all employees (including employees engaged by sub-contractors) and other interested parties such as visitors, neighbouring communities and other stakeholders. The system also provides an effective mechanism for our contract workforce to identify and report hazards.
Strengthening the Governance Mechanism:
We have defined a framework of organisational responsibilities, procedures and resources for developing, implementing, reviewing and abiding by the organisation’s OH&S policy. The Global Safety Council, Management Review Committee and the CSRSS Committee reviews our safety performance on a periodic basis.
Addressing key safety hazards:
We have identified key safety hazards, risks and workers engaged in high-risk categories through safety audits, inspections and assessments of offices and field operation sites. In consultation with business managers and vendor partners for field operations, we routinely identify safety hazards.
We have adopted a multifaceted approach towards safety management. All non-routine high-risk activities such as façade cleaning, project work, lift maintenance, hot work and confined space work are governed through a Work Permit programme whereas all routine high-risk activities such as working at height for wireless work on tower / mast, maintenance work and fiber restoration are additionally governed through Mandatory Safety Standards (MSS) - our own safety standards.
Safety training sessions conducted in FY 2022-23
Number of participants covered
Technological interventions in EOHS & sustainability function:
We constantly leverage new and disruptive technologies to further strengthen our safety culture and reporting practices. Some of the initiatives undertaken are as follows:
- E-Permit to Work tool – A valid online e-permit is required for all high-risk activities
- E-Safety passport for contract workers - A repository for training and skill development of our contract workforce
- Driver Behaviour Monitoring in field operation vehicles that are used for fiber optic cable maintenance activity across India.
- Monitoring of over-speeding cases within the campus through ASDS (Automatic Speed Detection System).
- Resustain tool - A solution that aids our teams to automate HSE programmes
- Two-wheeler safety app developed for TCPSL Field Safety Officers
Drop in speed burst since the launch of two-wheeler safety app
Our accomplishments
Our constant endeavour to empower our human resource and create a favourable environment for their personal as well as professional growth has earned us numerous awards and accolades.
2021-BCWI (Best companies for women in India) award by- AVTAR group
Working Mother Media - 2022 Avtar award
Seramount 100 Best Companies for Women in India for 6 years in a row
Best Workplaces for Women - India by Great Place To Work
India's Best Companies to Work For 2022 - Great Place To Work
Made it to the list - '100 Best Companies To Work For 2022'
Best Workplaces in Hong Kong 2022 - Great Place To Work - Part of the top 10 Best Companies List
HCM Excellence Award Gold - Best Learning Program Supporting a Change Transformation Business Strategy by Brandon Hall Group
HCM Excellence Award Gold - Best Learning Team by Brandon Hall Group
HCM Excellence Award Bronze - Best Advance in Learning Strategy by Brandon Hall Group
Great Place to Work Certified in India, USA, Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, UK and Sri Lanka
Kincentric Best Employer Award
Top 100 Global Most Loved Workplaces - Best Practice Institute
India’s Best Workplaces in Health and Wellness 2022 - Great Place to Work
