Article: Western ingredient with Indian flavor

Learning & Development

Western ingredient with Indian flavor

Training tools and content need to be structured keeping our own needs and culture in mind
Western ingredient with Indian flavor
 

Choose a provider who delivers end-to-end solutions and encompasses everything, from need identification to implementation to knowledge transfer

 

With an enormous workforce seeking suitable employment, the Indian L&D domain is undergoing drastic changes. As globalization took place, we started focusing on resource and development of human capital. With increased emphasis on measurable performance now, the trend has largely shifted from conventional delivery approaches. To keep pace with the cutthroat competition, organizations are now more interested in imparting skills that are specific to the key result areas of their human resource and measure their performance at workplace for a given skill. As opposed to the classic picture of training that companies usually bear in mind, the interest in training and development activities now stems from the learning speed and the ability of individuals to achieve the level of competence required by their organization.

The organizations, on their part, are now looking far beyond just a well-executed training intervention. What they need is a quantifiable change in skill, knowledge and attitude which will result in good returns for them. I feel this paradigm shift is only for the good because it has results in people coming out of the process-oriented mold that had set earlier and becoming more result oriented. A major concern is the failure of learners to transfer their newly acquired skills and knowledge to their work environment or apply them well enough to achieve a satisfactory performance. The new trends in L&D are slowly but promisingly creating learning transfer at workplaces which will address this transfer failure.

In my view, L&D is a lifeline for a manager or a leader. It is more important to learn to use L&D services effectively rather than merely selling them as training programs. It should be a complete package that delivers learning as well as transfer of knowledge, since the latter is necessary to complete the learning process. L&D’s proper application is what must be sought rather than its fantastic delivery alone.

When we talk of L&D, the mantra is ‘creating intrinsic and extrinsic motivation’. It is true that most organizations only have budgets for training interventions and not for ‘learning transfer,’ but as they realize the inherent inefficiency of such solely one-time deliveries, I’m sure they will make provisions for the application aspect as well. Another major concern that is becoming increasingly conspicuous is the use of western training tools and content that do not go well with the Indian masses. The need of today’s market is a well-researched and tailored content that keeps in mind our people, the specifics of our work culture and the unique requirements that emerge because of these two factors.

To make this happen, organizations have to lay more emphasis on creating a learning atmosphere to make their training interventions a success. The relevance of the run-of-themill programs should be reconsidered. If it is observed that they do not offer any post-training support, their implementation should definitely be questioned.

As businesses are evolving more rapidly than ever, the ‘hire-train-deploy’ model is coming into existence, wherein training plays an indispensable role in deciding the success of individuals and thus, by extension, the company.

The emergence of e-commerce has created opportunities for plain undergraduates and this is what has necessitated the use of the hire-traindeploy model. So it is highly essential to choose the right L&D service provider.

While choosing a provider, the key factor should not be delivery alone. A service provider who may have an excellent track record of highend deliveries may fail to achieve any learning. One needs to focus on a provider who delivers end-to-end solutions and encompasses everything, right from need identification to implementation to transfer of knowledge to action at workplace.

Unless this complete package is offered, training will become something of an antique formality and most companies would refrain from wasting resources on such futile ventures. Hence I would like to strongly prescribe western ingredients with Indian flavor, keeping in mind the specific requirements of the workforce in this country, for the L&D domain to give just the right direction to Gen ‘X’ and Gen ‘Y’.

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Topics: Learning & Development, #HRInsights

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