Papiya Banerjee is a Senior HR leader with more than 20 years of HR experience of partnering with the business to deliver performance using talent interventions across the Human Resources domain. She brings in the specialization in change management, coaching, learning, leadership development, organizational diagnostics, designing OD solutions, HR strategy, and planning, rewards and benefits, Talent Management. She has worked across Industries i.e. IT, ITES, Financial Services, and Telecom in various leadership positions.

Papiya will be speaking on ‘What We've Learned About Learning: 4 Keys For Organizational Success’ at People Matters L&D Conference 2020. In an exclusive interaction with People Matters, Papiya shares how organizations can reimagine reskilling and post-COVID-19.

Here are a few excerpts from the interview-

The pandemic has also brought back the importance of reskilling and upskilling of resources as part of the larger business transformation in the wake of the crisis. What do you think are some of the trends around reskilling and upskilling post-COVID-19?

Some of the trends that we have observed around reskilling and upskilling are as follows-

• Reskilling and upskilling is not a choice but a necessity, a true differentiator for success and survival.

• Not only building digital skills but digital mindset including collaboration, networking, and data sensing will get focused.

• Multiskilling and the ability to do different jobs and fit into different roles will be key to remain relevant.

• Computational intelligence and date based decision taking will be as important as emotional intelligence and resilience.

• Self-care and wellbeing will be given due importance and people will focus on physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing

How can leaders lead through these unprecedented times to build a continuous learning culture?  

Leaders both need to be a role model and an aspiration. Humans are naturally influenced by success, and when they find leaders are in the process of continuous learning and evolving the motivation to learn becomes higher.

Leaders need to emphasize and re-emphasize the need for taking ownership of learning and career, creating awareness of future skills, jobs, opportunities, and also about the skills and jobs becoming obsolete. Learning Agility to be mandatory for survival-this lesson needs to be driven home.

Also, they need to create platforms and opportunities to learn and recognize and celebrate learning experiences and learnings.

Companies that continue to invest in training and offer learning opportunities for their talent will emerge as winners on the other side of this crisis. What are some of the L&D initiatives initiated by Airtel in this pandemic?

We had increased rigor and drive for learning during these difficult times. In addition to our existing learning framework, we initiated

• Drive on online and digital learning for skill building

• Learning journeys focusing on role-based functional learning

• Focus on physical and mental wellbeing

• Friday Masterclass

• Learning Forums / Gurukools

The pandemic also highlights the need to reskill and upskill workers towards stronger data science skills, a better understanding of artificial intelligence, and to expand digital literacy overall. What is Airtel doing in that direction?

Building Digital Airtel remains to be strategic people pillar. We encourage our Digital teams to remain abreast of the newest technologies. Also for the employees in other functions, the intention has been to build a digital mindset and develop digital skills specific to the function.

Know more about the latest trends in the learning & development landscape at the People Matters L&D Conference 2020 coming to your screens from 21st-22nd October. Click here to register.