Article: Setting gold standards for learning

Learning & Development

Setting gold standards for learning

The People Matters & CIMA L&D Leadership League Awards saw 15 nominated companies battling it out to get into the top league
Setting gold standards for learning
 

The L&D gala evening started off on a more somber note – with the annual conference where L&D leaders agreed that the goal should be to create a learning culture and organization and look beyond delivering training programs

 

During a cold winter night, the L&D community waited with bated breath. No, it was not the cold; it was something they had all encountered for the first time. Amid all the laughter and conversations, there was nervous anticipation for what laid in store.

This is the moment they had been waiting for since the past six months. The People Matters & CIMA L&D Leadership League Awards, the only award in India designed for the L&D function, had debuted and the excitement was too much to be contained at the Leela Ambience, Gurgaon, where it was held on November 15.

It had all the makings of a potboiler -- A stellar jury team, a rock-solid process and best-in-the-class partners and most importantly 83 best practices from across sectors. There could not be a stronger start for what People Matters & CIMA aspires to be, the gold standards for the learning excellence. Six months ago, People Matters along with Center for Creative Leadership, CIMA, Great Lakes Institute of Management and Cornerstone OnDemand conceptualized this league with an objective to energize, mobilize and raise the bar for the learning community.

The L&D gala evening started off on a more somber note – with the annual conference where L&D leaders agreed that the goal should be to create a learning culture and organization and look beyond delivering training programs 70/20/10. The conference was the culmination of a long process where more than 400 leaders were engaged with events in three cities, monthly webinars, newsletters and digital content.

Anand Pillai, Sr. Executive Vice President and Chief Learning Officer at Reliance Industries Ltd, emphasized the need for learning leaders to become change champions and said the focus of an L&D leader is to get the people ready and enable them to change. As all talent professionals would agree, recognition plays a crucial role in community building. Hence, the first step towards the 2013 People Matters & CIMA L&D Leadership League Awards in association with the process partner, KPMG India, was asking the participants to fill up an in-depth application. In the second stage, the jury members shortlisted 14 qualified best practices (out of 83) through anonymous scoring. The shortlisted companies then submitted a presentation along with their testimonials. In the final stage, all the finalists were then subjected to an intense Q&A from the jury.

The eminent members of the jury were: Aarif Aziz, HR Head, GE India Technology Center; Dr. Shalini Lal, Director HR, DBOI; Purva Misra, Group HR Head, India Today; Rajit Mehta, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer, Max Life Insurance; Richard Rekhy, Chief Executive Officer, KPMG, India; Anand Pillai, Executive Vice President & Chief Learning Officer, Reliance Industries.; Kedar Vashi, AVP & Head – Learning & Development, Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages; Vikram Bector, Chief Talent Officer, Tata Motors, had the challenging task of selecting the best from the best.

On November 14, the jury met the 14 finalists at the KPMG office and were grilled on their presentations and testimonials. It was a difficult task for the experienced jury as every team fought the battle fiercely. After much discussion and debate, the winners were finally revealed at the L&D Leadership League Awards the following evening.

The category winners were: Genpact for “Best Accelarating Leadership Development”; Philips for “Best in Culture Transformation”, JLT for “Best in Technology and Learning”; Genpact for “Best in Career Mobility; and MakeMyTrip.com for “Best in On-boarding”.

During the L&D Leadership League Annual Conference, the nominated companies made an elevator’s pitch that best described it in three minutes and were vying for the “Most Popular Award”. This time, the jury was the audience and the winner was Aircel with their theater-based culture transformation best practice.

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Topics: Learning & Development, #Awards

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