Article: Workforce learning need to be personalized, hyper-segmented

Learning & Development

Workforce learning need to be personalized, hyper-segmented

With robots set to take away a lot of jobs, a qualitative shifts in growth and capacity of individuals during their professional careers is the need of the hour.
Workforce learning need to be personalized, hyper-segmented

We are in a different world today characterized by people with diverse mindsets. And so are businesses that require people with different skill sets. With the advent of technologies such as AI, Big data, and predictive analytics and IT sector witnessing a huge technological evolution; skill development has become one of the top priorities for many organizations.  As a study predicts, over a third of the core skill sets in most jobs will be replaced by new ones by 2020 and insufficient understanding of the disruptive changes will be the foremost barrier to the disruption. With repetitive jobs likely to be replaced by machines, a qualitative shift in growth and capacity of individuals during their professional careers is the need of the hour. 

At the backdrop of this, it is critical for learning and development professionals to design and come up with learning interventions that can help the workforce adapt to the new world of work. HR professionals have to deliver when it comes equipping their workforce in the wake of the greater digital transformation. This is a big challenge for organizations which also offers new opportunities for them.

RPG Enterprises –a conglomerate with offerings in the areas of infrastructure, tyres, information technology, health, energy, and plantations, for instance, has employees belonging to several categories such as baby boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, and Millennials. Traditionally the organization used to run on one-size-fits-all HR policies. However, studies show that different segment requires different levels of services and products. But for the organization, it was largely about the same policy that applied to a millennial and at the same time for somebody who is retiring in the next few days. This has led the management to come up with customized and hyper-segmented policies for different sets of people. This is one of the initiatives that the organization has taken as part of its digital transformation journey. 

The company, says S. Venkatesh, management board member and president group HR of RPG Enterprises, is building an ecosystem where learning itself echoes pleasure. The company is in a process of curating specific experiences for different sets of employees, Venkatesh said while addressing a gathering of HR leaders at the People Matters L&D Conference 2018. The overall motive behind was to create the learning process a pleasure. What this essentially means is that organizations need to deal with changing talent requirements and customize as per the audience, says Venkatesh.

Coming back to the digital transformation from an HR perspective, what is it that makes an organization digitally enabled? Venkatesh puts four traits that define digital enablement. It includes agile thinking, faster decision making, preferring speed over efficiency, having the ability to take risks or embracing risks, and most importantly learning from the failures. These are the core capabilities that the workforce in general needs to embrace across the organization for them to turn digital transformation into a reality. For employers, it is critical to provide a learning experience which is personalized, hyper-segmented and engaging, adds Venkatesh. The transformation journey and learning also bring with it certain responsibilities on the part of HR such as leadership development intervention, concludes Venkatesh. 

Note: This session is curated from the session hosted by Kamal Dutta, Managing Director India, Skillsoft & SumTotal, and S.Venkatesh, Management Board Member, President – Group HR, RPG Enterprises, at People Matters L&D Conference 2018 in Mumbai.

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Topics: Learning & Development, #PMLnD

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