Soft Skills & Succession: The Strategic Side Of Employee Development

Exclusive interview with Dr. Surender Mohan Gupta, Global Chief People Officer, Startek

“We use a multi-layered measurement approach: one that looks at leading indicators like participation, assessment scores, and learner satisfaction, and lagging indicators such as internal mobility, retention, productivity, and long-term performance impact. This holistic view helps us tell a more complete story of how learning drives individual growth, team performance, and, ultimately, business outcomes,” said Dr. Surender Mohan Gupta, Global Chief People Officer, Startek.

In an exclusive interview, Dr. Surender discusses how L&D initiatives are directly impacting retention, internal mobility, and business outcomes. He explains how a multi-layered ROI model and leadership development efforts are driving measurable success.
Excerpts from the interview:

Q: What is your L&D strategy for 2025? 

Dr. Surender: Creating an effective learning and development (L&D) strategy starts with a strong alignment with business goals. It is essential that every learning intervention contributes to the larger organizational agenda. Given the scale and diversity of our workforce, scalability and relevance are key, both across geographies and across different employee segments. We have found that a segment-based learning approach works best. We tailor programs specifically for frontline teams, first-time supervisors, mid-level managers, and senior leadership because each group has very different learning needs and career trajectories. 

This targeted approach ensures that learning is meaningful and immediately applicable. Digital learning plays a pivotal role. We are leveraging microlearning, bite-sized modules and a strong learning management system (LMS) ecosystem to make learning more accessible, engaging, and performance-oriented. The goal is to create personalized learning journeys that employees can access anytime, anywhere, supporting continuous upskilling in a fast-changing environment. At the leadership level, structured development programs, including mentorship and succession readiness, are critical to building a strong internal talent pipeline. 

Q: What is going to be your biggest challenge when it comes to employee learning and development in 2025 and beyond?

Dr. Surender: I believe one of the biggest challenges today is fostering a culture of continuous learning, especially in dynamic and high-pressure customer-centric environments. The real value of learning lies not just in knowledge acquisition but in how it drives retention, growth, and long-term succession planning. It is crucial that we move away from one-size-fits-all learning programs and shift towards a more segmented, data-driven and AI-enabled approach. That is what enables us to build a truly future-ready workforce—equipped to adapt and thrive in a fast-evolving landscape. 

At the same time, it is important that our people are not just picking up new tools and technologies, they are also deepening critical soft skills like communication, problem-solving, and empathy. These are often the differentiators when it comes to leadership readiness and customer success. That is when L&D truly steps up as a strategic enabler of business outcomes and a key driver of both employee and customer success.

Q: Can you provide examples of how learner programs have directly impacted your employees and the organization’s overall performance or productivity?

Dr. Surender: When we talk about impact, especially in a global CX organization, it is important to recognize that customer satisfaction and service agility are non-negotiable. That is why our learning programs are designed with a sharp focus on driving performance where it truly matters. A few examples immediately come to mind. Our leadership development programs have had a clear impact on retention, especially among high-potential talent. Similarly, supervisory development programs for first-time managers have led to higher engagement scores and are actively shaping our next line of leaders. 

What is equally powerful is how action learning projects have created ripple effects by not only helping individuals apply their learning but also driving process improvements and functional impact through business reengineering initiatives. These are just a few examples, but the bigger shift we have seen is moving from a ‘training-first’ mindset to a ‘learning ecosystem’, one that continuously supports performance and development rather than being an isolated intervention. And that shift is clearly visible in the outcomes, which are improved client satisfaction, stronger employee retention and greater operational efficiency. 

Q: What specific metrics or KPIs do you use to track the return on investment (ROI) for your L&D initiatives?

Dr. Surender: At the base level, we monitor core learning engagement metrics like participation rates, completion levels, time-to-learn, assessment performance, and contract utilization to understand how effectively programs are being consumed. But beyond that, we look at career progression and internal mobility, specifically, the percentage of roles filled internally after leadership or upskilling programs. These indicators are closely linked to retention and employee engagement. We also compare attrition rates between learners and non-learners, which gives us a strong signal of how well our development efforts are influencing employee stickiness. 

An equally important measure is manager feedback and on-the-job evaluation, as this helps us assess whether the learning is translating into actual behavioral change and performance impact on the ground. Additionally, we track cost savings resulting from improvements in processes when these outcomes are directly linked to learning interventions. All of this is tied together through robust learning analytics and dashboards. 

Q: With the rise of AI and automation, how have your L&D programs evolved to meet the skills needs of 2025?

Dr. Surender: With the rise of AI and automation, our L&D programs have undergone a significant shift from being largely transactional and one-size-fits-all to becoming segmented, capability-led, and future-ready. While digital fluency remains a key focus, we have equally prioritized human skills like adaptability, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence because these are what truly set individuals apart in a dynamic and customer-focused environment. Our learning approach now blends digital skilling with experiential learning, including real-world simulations and scenario-based coaching, to ensure these capabilities are built in a meaningful and practical manner. 

We also enhanced our online learning platform to curate personalized learning journeys, especially for our managers. This shift has helped us move away from event-based training to building a continuous learning ecosystem. Thanks to AI-powered platforms, we are now able to deliver learning programs tailored to individual career aspirations and growth paths, which are helping us make learning not just more relevant but also more impactful.

Q: How do you balance short-term learning outcomes (e.g., skill acquisition) with long-term organizational growth when calculating ROI?

Dr. Surender: Balancing short-term learning outcomes with long-term organizational growth is critical to driving sustainable impact. In the short term, we track tangible indicators like certifications earned, assessment results and immediate performance shifts, especially when we are addressing urgent capability needs. But beyond these quick wins, we also look at how the learning translates into longer-term outcomes, for example, how it is fueling innovation, driving internal mobility or reducing our dependence on external hiring. 

The real value comes from integrating both approaches: one that delivers just-in-time, role-specific skills and another that focuses on building future capabilities aligned with our strategic vision. Reinforcing both is what ensures our learning strategy supports not just today’s needs but also prepares us for tomorrow’s challenges.

Q: What role do personalized learning pathways play in improving learner effectiveness, and how do you measure their success?

Dr. Surender: Personalized learning pathways are truly a game changer, especially in large and diverse organizations like ours. They help ensure that learning is not just accessible but relevant, timely and aligned to each individual’s role, skill level and career goals. By delivering curated content driven by performance data, skill gap analysis, behavioral insights, and career trajectory, we make learning far more purposeful. 

This approach not only improves engagement and completion rates but also significantly increases on-the-job application. When it comes to high-potential talent, we go a step further, mapping career paths and designing learning journeys that blend technical and soft skills with mentorship and coaching. This is where we really see learning translating into tangible behavior change and long-term development.

Q: What are the biggest challenges you face in demonstrating the ROI of your L&D programs to senior leadership?

Dr. Surender: One of the biggest challenges in demonstrating ROI for L&D programs to senior leadership is that it is rarely straightforward or immediate. In a dynamic environment like ours, where multiple factors influence performance, it is difficult to isolate learning as the sole driver of improvement. Moreover, not all learning outcomes are tied directly to financial metrics. Sometimes, it is about building long-term capabilities or ensuring the organization is future-ready; these are critical strategic advantages, but they do not always reflect instantly on dashboards or traditional ROI models. That makes it harder to justify investments if we are only using linear metrics. 

To address this, we use a multi-layered measurement approach: one that looks at leading indicators like participation, assessment scores, and learner satisfaction and lagging indicators such as internal mobility, retention, productivity, and long-term performance impact. This holistic view helps us tell a more complete story of how learning drives individual growth, team performance, and, ultimately, business outcomes. 

Q: How do you ensure that learning experiences translate into tangible results, such as increased job performance or improved employee retention?

Dr. Surender: To ensure that learning truly drives tangible business outcomes like better job performance or improved retention, it is important to take a strategic and integrated approach. It starts with aligning every learning initiative to clear business goals and linking learning objectives directly to organizational outcomes. Setting and tracking key performance indicators right from the beginning, along with pre and post-learning assessments, helps us measure progress in a meaningful way. This makes it easier to identify whether learning interventions are actually moving the needle. 

Equally important is promoting real-time, on-the-job learning and making sure that managers are reinforcing learning in daily workflows. When learning is embedded in the way we work, the chances of it translating into performance outcomes increase significantly. Lastly, leveraging learning analytics to track shifts in engagement, retention, and internal mobility allows us to connect the dots between development efforts and outcomes like succession planning and workforce stability. That is when learning stops being an event and starts becoming a business enabler.

Q: Looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, what key trends or shifts will impact the corporate learning landscape?

Dr. Surender: One of the biggest shifts we are seeing in the learning space is the rise of AI-driven content curation and adaptive learning platforms that can personalize experiences based on an individual’s role, aspirations, and learning preferences. There is also a clear move from traditional skill-building to a more capability-led development approach, focusing not just on what people know but also on what they can apply in dynamic, real-world contexts. 

With an increasingly diverse, multi-generational, and globally distributed workforce, learning strategies will need to be inclusive and flexible, ensuring that growth opportunities are available to everyone, regardless of where or how they work. The real differentiator will be for organizations that can map current vs. future skills, identify gaps in real time, and quickly deploy targeted, impactful learning interventions. That ability to respond with agility will create a strong competitive edge in the years ahead.
 

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