Larsen and Toubro (L&T) is a multinational conglomerate with more than 45, 000 employees all over the globe. The organization is spread across several different verticals and needs to ensure that its diverse workforce is equipped with the most relevant skills to be future-ready. It has started on the right foot towards achieving its long-term goals to ensure that the organization is ready for a digital-first future. Let’s take a look at how L&T used technology and analytics to achieve its learning and upskilling goals. 

The challenge

The organization’s ‘Lakshya 2021’ and long-term plan Perspective - 2026 feature digitalization of learning, competency development, and upskilling as key themes. The objective is to impart training to the entire workforce in a cost-effective manner as per L&T’s competency framework. An integral part of this program is to use data analytics to gain insights and uncover hidden data patterns to suitable learning interventions. Thus, the challenge was to create an effective learning program that was aligned to the organization’s overarching business goals and continually improve it using advanced data analytics. 

The intervention

L&T created a learning portal, ATLNext, for its employees that was based on four fundamental pillars:

• Personalized learning paths: The data generated from the user behavior was used for personalizing the training by corroborating the physical and digital usage patterns, identify buddies and mentors, and improve searches and recommendations. 
• Curated content: In addition to following the visual-auditory-kinesthetic (VAK) model of learning, the learning platform provided curated content to all learners, which was uniquely suited for their learning needs. 
• Robust Metrics: A very robust and comprehensive index was developed to track the learner's progress and measure the improvement in competencies. 
• Social learning: AI and ML-based virtual personas were developed for all employees, alongside gamified leaderboards, and interactive dashboards that displayed the progress made. 

Another vital factor to consider is that the organization did not rush through the process of creating or rolling out the platform. It took almost one year for the portal to roll out across the organization, before being piloted with 5,000 learners across ten competencies. The data generated during the pilot were analyzed to gather insights on how learners used the portal to enhance it further. Additionally, HR council members and HR heads facilitated intensive one-on-one discussions to identify the value proposition for each stakeholder. All the data generated in these exercises were used to enhance the program design and execution.

L&T’s use of the latest digital technologies in ATLNext shows that a learner-oriented platform can enhance user engagement, knowledge retention, and save costs

Naturally, it wasn’t a smooth ride. The biggest challenge was altering existing behaviors and user patterns, increasing the adoption rates, and curating relevant learning content for a diverse workforce. Furthermore, multiple active directories meant that the IT landscape was dispersed, and there were multiple sources of data. Then, restricted internet access at some office locations and project sites also added to the challenges. 

The result

Despite its relatively young age, ATLNext has shown tremendous results and potential. Here are some of the most notable successes: 

In FY18-19, nearly 35 percent of the workforce completed at least one program

• The learning portal receives more than 5,000 unique hits every month
• More than 1,000 learning courses are completed every month
• More than 1500 buddies and mentors are currently active on the portal and are helping their peers
• Talent discovery within the organization has increased, based on learning index parameters
• The learning portal has helped reduce learning expenses significantly since its launch 

Currently, ATLNext has more than 125 courses across 46 competencies and more than 7,000 pieces of web-curated learning content. As per the user engagement and consumption trends, this year will have higher usage and savings as compared to the last. L&T’s use of the latest digital technologies in ATLNext shows that a learner-oriented platform can enhance user engagement, knowledge retention, and save costs.