SkillUp

Learn now. Transform tomorrow. Grow forever

April 2020

1 © 2020 Cognizant
 The Genesis
Following trends were identified in the previous
years:

• Learning was not aligned to new and future

skills prioritized by business and account
• Associates are not empowered to own their
own development
• Limited modes of demonstrating skill
acquisition
• Communication between managers and
associates is less than ideal

To better understand associate learning behavior, Cognizant Academy ran a survey with around 2500
associates about the way they learnt, and the challenges they faced.

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 Voice of the Associate
TOP LEARNING CHALLENGES
74% Motivated to learn
new skills in order to
move to a new role
30% 18% 18% 03% 40%
Not enough Do not know Mandatory / Push
Do not know Lack of support
time available
WHAT to learn
WHERE to
from manager
based learning is 40% want flexibility to
for learning learn from not relevant access content of choice

• Role development plan is for role tenure (e.g. 24 months) but there’s no plan
the current state
Problems with

only for current year

Based on these
• Not aligned to new and future skills prioritized by business
findings Academy
• Associates aspirational skills are not addressed team came up with
• No goal input from home managers and accounts a view of what
• Limited modes of demonstrating skill acquisition ‘good’ looks like.
• Business doesn't see value in training/testing on skills which are already in use
• No seamless linkage between RDP and Go Perform
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 What “Good” Looks Like
• Managers and associates to take charge of their own
development (self and team)
• Business units and strategic accounts direct associate
skilling towards their specific business needs
• Learning is more agile and focused on trending and
future skills
• Multiple modes of skill validation are available to
demonstrate skills-proficiency (certification, courses, skill
demonstration, project experience, SME evaluations)

By giving highest value to continuous learning, we can

reach our full potential at work - achieving organizational
purpose and enabling individual growth.

A robust Development Plan can help us keep this commitment.

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 Development Planning
For Associates - Development Planning will: For Managers - Development Planning will:
• Make them future ready • Ensure client satisfaction due to superior skilling

• Help them do better in their present job • Create a workforce competent to perform current role

• Move them into a better career trajectory • Prepare workforce of the future

• Align their learning goals to client’s needs. • Drive higher levels of associate engagement
• Drive higher levels of productivity

New Goal Setting Process:

• The business units provide inputs on goal expectations and recommended skills.
• Based on these recommendations, associates can choose which skills or courses to focus on for the year.

Based on these ideas, Cognizant Academy refreshed the ‘My Learning’ app with a new functionality to help
associates structure their learning journey. The new functionality is called ‘SkillUp’.

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 SkillUp

SkillUp is a new functionality that helps associates to be accountable

to goals they set in their development plan.

It provides a structured roadmap for associates to complete their

development planning and fulfillment for the year in 3 simple steps

Set up a relevant Define how to fulfill each item Complete learning through
development plan in the development plan multiple modes and fulfil goals

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 SkillUp – User Journey

Set up a relevant Define how to fulfill each item Complete learning through
development plan in the development plan multiple modes and fulfil goals

Associates can set Associates can choose the method Once the development plan is set,
• Goals to acquire skills over the of skill acquisition through: associates can see the snapshot of
year • Courses their learning goals along with
• Goals to contribute to learning • Certificates • Fulfillment method chosen
over the year • Skill demonstration • Fulfillment status
• Project experience • Actions to be taken
The business unit provides inputs • SME validation
on goal expectations and Associates can then start
recommended skills to be They can also choose various ways learning/contributing and
recommended. to contribute back to the learning completing their goals.
ecosystem.

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 Benefits of SkillUp
For Associates:
• Empowers associates to be skilled around strategic battlegrounds by focusing on trending and
future skills
• Provides multiple modes of skill validations: certifications, courses, skill demonstration, project
experience, SME evaluations
• Enables associates to contribute to the organization’s learning ecosystem
For Managers:
• It helps in creating role-ready associates

For the Organization:

• Reduction of external recruitment
• Availability of talent
• Improved employee engagement

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 Workflow of SkillUp
MCA role definition needs to be set up
Business before associates can submit their
Provides Inputs on Goal
Expectation and Skills goals in SkillUp.
to be recommended
Please note the exception: For non-
Academy CCA BUs (mostly corporate functions)
Learning Partners to which can be launched in Sprint 2
Learning create Learning Goal
These Goal Expectation gets
Partner assigned to Associates based (Late February), the goals will be
Expectation based on
on their match in Service Line,
Service Line, Role, assigned based on Grades as Non-
Role, Grade, Geo, Account
Grade, Geo, Account
and Department
and Department CCA BUs do not have role mapping

Associate
Associate logs in the Associate takes up the
system and selects Training / Certification /
Goal components w .r.t Contribution w orkflow and
Assigned Goal accomplish the goal
Expectation components

System
System show cases the
acquired skills and Goal score push to Go-Perform
manipulates goal score One in 15 days
Batch Process

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 SkillUp – Sprint wise Features and timelines

28-Jan-2020 11-Feb-2020 25-Feb-2020 24-Mar-2020 15-Apr-2020 Enhancements in pipeline

Associate functionality:
Associate Associate Associate functionality: • Fulfilment of Goals
Associate functionality: Associate Functionality:
functionality: functionality: • Development Plan - • Fulfilment of Goals: • Goal Change Scenario
• Skill Demonstration
• Snapshot • Associate will be Assessment and • Complete Goal using Project • Aspirational Skills View
• Evaluation by
• Development Plan able to add Assessment Goal Experience fulfillment method • Contribution to Learning
Observation
Setting (Selection Aspiration goal Scenario or Course and • Alerts, Approvals and Email • Impart Training
• Work Product Evaluation
of Skills from Items (Skills, Course Goal Scenario Notifications • Create Training Material
• Hackathon
MCA Only) Courses, • QEA Goal Templates • Create Knowledge Assets
• Coaching / Mentoring
• Fulfilment of Certification) Backend Upload • Develop Tools / Apps
• Impart Training
Goals • Alerts and Email • Coaching / Mentoring
• Create Training Material
• Certifications Notifications • Fulfilment of Goals:
• Evaluation of Goals
(Internal / • Complete Goal by validation of skills
• Skill Demonstration
External) through SME’s
Evaluations
• Courses • Evaluation by
(Internal / Observation Home Manager Functionality:
External) • Work Product Evaluation • Snapshot View
• Alerts and Email • Hackathon • Team Members Development Plan
Notifications • Coaching / Mentoring • Ability to recommend Skills, Course,
• Alerts, Approvals and Email Certification
Notifications
Learning Partner Functionality:
• Goal Template creation and
Assignment

Please note that, as a part of the SkillUp roll out, the existing Role Development Plan (RDP) functionality in Cognizant LEARN as well
as the Learning goals functionality in MyLearning used to track 2019 Learning goals will be retired.

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 SkillUp – Mockup

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 SkillUp – Mockup

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 SkillUp – Mockup

13 © 2020 Cognizant
 Thank You

14 © ©2020
2019 Cognizant
Cognizant