REVISITING TALENT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN A PANDEMIC DRIVEN VUCA ENVIRONMENT – A QUALITATIVE INVESTIGATION IN THE INDIAN IT INDUSTRY

Abstract

Organisations across the globe have been operating in a landscape which is volatile, uncertain complex and ambiguous (VUCA). The notion of “VUCA” was introduced by the United States Army way back in 1980’s to describe the unpredictable environment that resulted from the end of cold war and it has been staying with us since then. The acronym has been used time and again by organisations and business leaders to describe the dynamic business landscape that may have resulted from various crisis situations such as Global Financial Crisis in 2008-2009, Demonetisation, BREXIT. The most recent example of VUCA has been the spread of Coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. Organisations and employees at global and domestic levels are experiencing highest levels of uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of which is unprecedented. There are several VUCA factors that have emerged due to the spread of COVID 19. This has created deep implications for strategic business leaders across the world. The prime goal for any organisation in the present scenario is survival, well-being and effective management of the human workforce. Therefore, Human Resources, the one that revolves around managing people and workplace environment plays an important role in this pandemic era. In the process, talent management is considered to be of prime importance as many organisations are struggling to implement effective talent management practices to sustain through the current environment. This study presents insights into the Indian Information Technology (IT) Industry in the context of a pandemic driven landscape. While the outbreak of COVID pandemic in the year 2020 has led to the rest of the industries crippling, business for tech industry has been steady. Therefore, this generates a need to understand the talent management practices that have been adopted by the sector which has enabled the organisations in the industry to thrive through such challenging times. It is a qualitative investigation accomplished with the help of in-depth interviews of senior HR professionals across the IT sector. The literature in the paper has been enriched with different types of studies. The findings are based on data gathered from above sources (primary and secondary). The research makes an attempt to identify the talent management practices that have been undertaken in the IT industry to combat the pandemic driven VUCA factors, incorporated in a framework for future reference.