In contrast to past generations, graduate employees will spend more time working from home and using technology-enabled collaboration tools to work and communicate with colleagues.

For all organizations, including technology companies, it’s the responsibility of the employer to ensure that any new entrants are comfortable in this new environment, provide the right tools to ensure productivity and provide career advancement opportunities to retain the best talent. To do this, organizations need to define the right KPIs for passionate and skilled engineers, while allocating mundane tasks to automated technologies.

This article will explore the new landscape defining the future of work in the Iberia region, while looking at how technology organizations—like HCLTech—are providing an inclusive, remote, technology-enabled and productive environment for graduates to flourish in a career in technology.

The work landscape in Iberia

During COVID-19, most employees were thrust into a remote work environment, with very little warning.

In Spain and Portugal, the situation was no different and HCLTech enabled remote working for nearly 100% of its employees across three locations.

“The impact on the way of working has been huge and we have changed a lot. The pandemic has influenced how we design and set up working environments. We are opening a new office in Malaga and have created smaller locations that are orientated to facilitate better teamwork. We are using our offices for teamwork, with day-to-day work taking place at home,” says Adolfo Calviño, VP and Country Head of Spain and Portugal at HCLTech.

He adds: “This hybrid situation has enabled us to attract talent from outside our core bases in Lisbon, Madrid and Barcelona, from all over the region and beyond, because of the quality of life in Iberia.”

Governments are encouraging this and in Portugal, a new tech visa program has launched, which enables people from within Schengen to seamlessly move to and work in the country.

In addition, over the last few years, most of the top cities in Spain have started programs to upgrade digital skills within public unemployment agencies.

Barcelona Activa is one of the most complete and active programs with whom HCLTech have already started a collaboration. València also has its equivalent: València Activa.

Additionally, thanks to negotiations between the EU, the Spanish government, the Madrid regional government and top global technology companies, the region will build a series of cloud centers and initiatives to promote digital jobs in the upcoming years.

Continued learning in a hybrid world

In the past, graduates were mostly learning and collaborating in a physical environment. In this setting, they had daily access to senior professionals and were able to effectively acquire new technology and soft skills. Now, the situation is more difficult.

“In this environment, we need to establish a standardized process that mirrors the benefits of work in the past, in a remote environment. We need to ensure that work is a dynamic environment, where younger employees can interact and learn from the more senior figures within the company,” says Calviño.

He adds: “We are already providing all the tools and the processes that are needed to support and take advantage of this new hybrid way of working.”

A career at HCLTech

When hiring employees, Calviño says that it’s HCLTech’s responsibility to offer two key things: flexibility and interesting work.

“We are offering very interesting projects in data, DevOps, the world of engineering, the Internet of Things and more. All of these will deliver a real, tangible and innovative impact on business and society. This is what interests graduates,” explains Calviño.

He adds: “It's true that as of today, HCLTech is not as known as the big global multinationals that have been in Spain and Portugal for 40 or 50 years. But we are growing the awareness of our brand and the value proposition for our employees (or as we call them ideapreneurs). We’re the fastest growing Indian-headquartered technology company in the world and there are lots of opportunities. As we grow, we want to hire more graduates and provide them with flexibility, interesting work and opportunities for career growth.”