At Penguin Random House India employees are encouraged to continually upskill and gather the right experience, exposure, and knowledge to prepare for the future. We have always emphasized providing robust career development opportunities to empower employees to grow within the organization. We see this as a shared responsibility where employees are equally committed to continuous learning, reinventing themselves, embracing new opportunities, diversifying their skill sets, and building on their experiences by balancing multiple responsibilities and transitioning across functional boundaries with agility.
To support this philosophy, we have an extensive Onboarding Program for our new joiners, which offers them a comprehensive view of our business priorities, culture, and systems. New joiners engage with various panels, including Publishing, Sales, Marketing, and more, in a panel discussion format. These sessions allow them to get to know the panellists personally and understand their professional journeys. Through these interactions, new joiners gain valuable business insights into each domain, learning about the key priorities and plans. The discussion format ensures that there are valuable takeaways for everyone, not only for the new joiners but also for the panellists, who leave with food for thought.
The physical distance and the hybrid nature make it longer for new joiners to acclimatise in most cases and a longer learning curve has its impact on their confidence levels and motivation further leading to a higher potential for stress and performance lags. Our ‘New Joiner Mentorship Program’ helps bridge this gap and provides the support that our new joiners need to navigate these challenges. All new joiners are allocated Mentors for the initial 3-month period. These mentors are experienced, possess a thorough understanding of our processes and culture, are chosen for their knowledge & expertise, and are not in a direct reporting relationship with their mentees to provide unbiased guidance. Mentors allocate a set period every two weeks, ranging from 30 to 45 minutes, for meaningful conversations with their mentees over three months.
Our learning and capability program is a blended format offering a variety of learning and upskilling opportunities, including global conferences, management development programs, leadership/executive coaching, and team collaboration programs. These programs are highly intense and bespoke, tailored to meet business needs. Recognizing the new age of hybrid work, our learning model also adopts a hybrid format, combining offline and virtual sessions. We have transitioned from long-format training modules to snackable modules, requiring a smaller investment of time (4 hours) in one go, with sessions spread out over multiple modules instead of dedicated full two-day sessions. Additionally, we view learning not as a one-off event but as a learning intervention spanning three months, seamlessly integrating all formats to maximize impact.
Cross Company Externships, #Influencers, and forming Network teams to work on business-critical projects are a few unique learning concepts that are exciting and very effective. Through Externships, we enable individuals to step outside, engage with other creative partners, and bring back new learnings, ideas, and perspectives. Simply put, the program spans over 2-3 days where participants exchange ideas on different practices, discuss common challenges, and learn in the process. Our exchange partners include creative organizations outside Penguin, our global Penguin entities, and different departments within PRHI. Imagine an editor doing an externship at a warehouse to learn how our books reach the end consumer—how exciting is that?
While INFLUENCERS program at Penguin Random House is a special Learning series where we invite our esteemed authors from different walks of life to share the gems of learning with our employees. The session’s format involves a guest speaker selecting a topic and engaging in groundbreaking conversations, sharing their life journeys and ideas with the larger team. We have conducted sessions in both lecture and panel formats, and both work equally well, followed by a Q&A segment.
In addition, we offer a comprehensive repository of learning modules accessible to every employee. This powerful tool allows employees to select learning programs that resonate with their interests and plan their learning at their convenience. With over 10,000 programs, our repository covers a wide range of subjects, from cutting-edge topics like AI in publishing to essential modules on fostering allyship. This extensive resource ensures that every team member can enhance their skills and knowledge in areas that are both relevant and exciting to them.
Lastly, we leverage the power of Periodic Career Conversations and Feedback Exchanges to chart a path where our talent’s ambitions and business needs converge. This is why we have many homegrown talents who have been nurtured to lead our business results and growth.