 I'm Suresh Raina, partner at Hydric and Struggles India Office and a member of the global industrial and CEO practice. In today's session, we have with us Pallavi Tyagi, Executive Vice President and Group Head of People Experience, Design Hub and Future of Work at Camp Gemini. Pallavi's profile spans the entire government of HR function in country, regional and global roles, including strategy, leadership, operations, manufacturing, talent management and of course diversity and inclusion. All of this with a strong focus on high emotional quotient, interpersonal capability and strategic stakeholder management. She brings with her a rich global experience as well having served in multiple geographies including North America, Europe, Middle East, China, Southeast Asia and of course India. Welcome to this talk today Pallavi and thank you so much for making the time. What are the most important trends to watch out for in terms of future of work? What are the skills and capabilities that the leaders will lead in your industry or sector or outside? Thank you so much for your questions Suresh and I'll take it in two parts. One is the future trends and the other is the skills and capabilities. The first we all know is technology. Technology has accelerated changes in workplace like never before and we are more than ever now looking at integration of artificial intelligence, automation and augmented reality. Think about how hybrid work and digital collaboration tools have become the new norm since the pandemic and this trend will continue to evolve as we move forward. The second trend is recognition. We all know that hybrid or remote work has forced organizations to rethink how they recognize and motivate their employees as a result of it. With hybrid work it's much more than about salary. It's about offering flexibility, work-life balance and meaningful work. And also an increasing trend that we are seeing is focus on employee well-being and mental health as well. The third is the organizational structure. Obviously with the first two coming in, the rigid hierarchical structures of the past are giving way to much more agile organizations. The organizations have realized that they need to be nimble given the uncertainty being faced given the market dynamic shifts since post pandemic. So we've seen a rise in remote or hybrid work model. It requires different set of management and decision-making tools and a faster pace as well. And above all diversity, inclusion initiatives are pushing organizations to re-evaluate their structures and ensure they are more inclusive and representative, not only internally but also the clients that they service. Now in terms of skills and capabilities, I'll much more talk about the softer skill aspects. You know that IT services industry is in a constant state of flux. Technologies are evolving, clients needs are changing and new challenges are emerging. So I believe leaders who will demonstrate adaptability will be more successful. They need to be more flexible, open to ideas and embrace change, especially when the opportunity comes forward for them to spot the opportunity to begin with. Secondly, IT industry is much more about people than just technology. Leaders need to earn the trust of their teams but also their clients. A trust-based management culture supported by outcomes focused on performance-based culture will also allow the employees to thrive. How are you approaching the needs of a changing workforce? We've got Gen Z, we've got Millenials, then we have got the Gen X, Gen Y and you are putting all of these in this very interesting dynamic of remote work, gig economy, hybrid workforce. How are you dealing with this? At a point in time, we can have all four generations in a team working together. I'll especially talk about a particular example that I'd like to take and it's often been talked about is learning, skilling and reskilling. We all recognize that Gen Z and Millenials thrive on networking, collaboration and engagement. I mean, that's the strength that the generation brings with them. So we are looking at a peer-to-peer learning as an area which is our focus and this is towards a culture of knowledge sharing. We're experienced employees, mentor and share insights with the younger employees. Another example with our focus on industries, we have thriving communities for our 10 industry focus areas which accelerates the learning curve. This is where learning happens by sharing and gives employees the freedom and flexibility to connect from anywhere and at any time. This is in addition to structured learning. We are building such an environment very consciously where we can leverage the strengths of all the generations coming together. If now you put all these different elements that we are talking about and then overlay it on a global map, it's only going to make it more complex. So you think this can be also applicable for the Indian HR leaders and how should we be working on this? Whichever part of the globe, the role of a leader or a manager, be it Indian or any other geography for that matter doesn't shift. The fact remains that our workforce has become more global and more inclusive in its nature than ever before. The workforce has become more dispersed, more diverse in its nature. As a result of which the tenets of inclusivity becomes extremely high. Now this becomes even much more with technology coming into play. So let me give you an example. When you're looking at technology, say an AI technology, you need to make sure that the data or the algorithm of AI which is done is also bias free for it to be able to deliver the work it is doing. And that can happen only when you have inclusive teams, when you have a global mindset of teams coming together and working. So I think technology is also accelerating the global mindset in certain ways. India is being now touted as the manufacturing base for the world. Which means we are looking at a high growth and we are looking to sustain it for a few years, hopefully. And as India gets ready to take the spot, how can we be better placed? Any thoughts, suggestions on our leaders while we manage this phase, this journey? I think just being adaptive and having an open mindset is very important. Because what worked, whether in terms of business models, organization structural models in the past may not work in current scenario and may not work even in the future scenario. In this kind of shifting market dynamic world, I think it's extremely important to just be agile. I think one is able to do that, keeping flexibility ahead of them. I really think whatever the situation demands, whether it be within India or be cross boundaries. I think the leaders and the managers can take good care of it. How is Camp Gemini preparing for this future workforce? And how are you ensuring you can attract, develop and retain the leaders you will need? We all know that there is a rising need for flexibility and adopting to it as well. There is an increasing need for diversifying a talent pool. So we are investing into creating a flexible talent ecosystem, which is frictionless is what we call it. And this includes freelancers, gig workers, part-time workers. This approach allows us to adapt more quickly to changing requirements from the clients while also fostering diversity of thought and experience. The second is sustainability is a very critical part of a strategy. We understand that future workforce values organizations when they see a commitment towards environmental and social responsibility. So by aligning our values to sustainability, we not only attract top talent but also demonstrate our commitment to a better future. Last but not the least, harnessing the potential of data and AI in our ways of work that we have already spoken about. So we very recently implemented an AI in-house based language model to analyze and classify our large volumes of employee feedback to give us real-time insights into employee sentiments and promptly addressing these challenges. As an organization also we are investing for instance 2 billion euros over the next three years to help the businesses to adopt to AI technology. So all of that of course leads towards us being future ready and making our workforce as well future ready. Do you see regional differences between Southeast Asia or APEC or Middle East versus North America or Europe when you're planning for the future workforce? Not really. I mean look the demand for more flexibility, diversity, focus on work-life balance, mental health and well-being, especially post-COVID-19 transcends global barriers and is more of a universal phenomenon. These regions bring in tremendous diverse perspectives and that definitely helps build in the kind of inclusive solutions that one looks for from a client perspective. So I would say the diversity in itself, these regions help bring in a more local mindset than before. What advice would you give to other CHR roles as they are looking to prepare for the future of work? Adaptability has to become a core value. The pace of change is accelerating, especially the market dynamics and this requires the HR leaders to pivot and adjust their strategies in response to the emerging trends. This includes definitely a fostering of continuous learning, upscaling within the organization and being open to technology solutions for our HR processes. I would also be particularly interested myself in learning how CHR roles are addressing employee experience in a hybrid work model. I believe that CHR roles can gain valuable insights from each other on how to create a work environment which is both productive and brings in well-being to the employees in the new environment and striking the right balance between collaboration while addressing potential challenges like burnout and isolation. Allavi, thank you so much for this very enriching, interesting conversation today. Thank you so much for inviting me as well, Suresh.