Virtusa takes the lead in adapting to a millennial workforce

Wednesday, 11 December 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Virtusa Corporation (NASDAQ: VRTU), is a global business consulting and IT outsourcing company that combines innovation, technology leadership and industry solutions to transform the customer experience. Using its enhanced global delivery model, innovative software platforming approach and industry expertise, Virtusa provides high-value IT services that enable its Global 2000 clients to enhance business performance, accelerate time-to-market, increase productivity and improve customer service. Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Massachusetts, Virtusa has offices and technology centres throughout the United States, Europe and Asia employing over 8,000 IT professionals, of which 86% are millennials. Following are the excerpts of an interview with Virtusa Senior Vice President and General Manager Madu Ratnayake, who elaborated on how the company is leveraging technology to manage its growing millennial workforce. By Ashwin Hemmathagama Q: Why would Virtusa want to have programs for the millennial workforce? A: Millennial workforce comprises the young, tech savvy people who have been brought up differently. They have a different set of expectations on how they work. They use lot of technology to interact and it is second nature to them. They are very comfortable wit

h Web 2.0 platforms such as social media, instant messaging, games, crowdsourcing etc. A large part of their collaborations are on these platforms. In a typical enterprise, people still collaborate using telephones, emails etc. which for millennials are unfamiliar tools. With large part of Virtusans globally being millennial we have the need to embrace more of a web 2.0 like environment to help create an environment where our teams can function at their best. By 2025, over 60% of the workforce in all major geographies of the world will be millennial and most companies will have to adapt to this fast. Q: What is your solution to overcome the friction between private life and a work environment? A: We introduced a new social business ecosystem which we call V+ almost three years ago. The aim of V+ is to transform the way we connect, work, learn and share among each other and with our clients. This is a web 2.0 like ecosystem which is secure for business conversation and transactions. It helps people to work with much like they would do on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Wikis, Google Search, YouTube etc. with a more connected experience. It allows people to bring fun, feedback and friends into business activities with colleges and clients. It uses gamification techniques to engage and drive a culture of accomplishment. Q: Has this helped Virtusa to meet its goals? A: The new solutions have enabled our teams accelerate innovation, collaboration and transparency to help our global client base in a better way. Since customers are expecting shorter cycles, some of these new technologies are enhancing their business. If you take any, key rules are getting rewritten every day. So co-creation is a strategy we use to help our customers. Apart from being solution designers, Virtusans are also consumer for some of these solutions at large. So, the teams get excited solving problems that they themselves sometime are the users. Q: But how was it accepted by the millennials? A: Highly successful. We have over 95% of our team members on V+ and they use it completely on their own. Any given day some 200-300 new conversations happens up, down and across the company across counties, which without this platform would never be possible. It’s driving innovation and productivity at a new level.