Video: Here’s a guide to creating a robust learning strategy

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Here’s a guide to creating a robust learning strategy

The future of work brings in newer challenges and opportunities and requires leaders to build new skills or sharpen some existing ones. But talent leaders often struggle through many challenges while creating a robust learning strategy. Here are some ways to help them through.

 

Automation is expected to replace many repetitive tasks and operational jobs. Talent across sectors then fears how to stay relevant in this digital era. They grapple with several questions. What are the skills they need to build? What training programs would be relevant? Employers and employees together struggle to find the answers of these questions. Talent leaders and L&D professionals in this case have to step in and drive the learning and career growth of the entire workforce. 

In a recent webcast hosted by People Matters and Hughes Global, Anurag Bansal, Senior Director & Business Head, Hughes Global Education highlighted that globally, majority of the employees (45 percent) leave jobs because they were concerned about the lack of opportunities for advancement. 

Now more than ever it is important for organizations to acknowledge the need of investing in the high potentials and their growth to be able to retain them. However, it is important to identify the skills that must be focused on and the ways in which organizations can enable employees to build them. Anurag Bansal along with Manoj Sharma, Head HR - AEML at Adani Electricity deliberated on the same. Here are a few insights from the session:

Skills in focus: Technical vs Behavioral 

While it is crucial to build technical and domain specific skills, harnessing management skills have become all the more crucial for sustainable growth. As competencies like curiosity, innovativeness, agility and learnability would be relevant forever, investing in them has become important. 

Anurag Bansal hence shared how Hughes Global Education through various modes of learning from classroom to e-learning is focusing on the development of management skills, strategic mindset, leadership, innovation and people management, enabling organizations to prepare a more future ready workforce. 

Here are some things to be kept in mind while creating a robust learning strategy:

Learning from day one

Manoj shared how at Adani Electricity they have introduced learning at every stage of the employee lifecycle starting from onboarding. They help new joinees identify the skills they would need to build for their respective career growths. Each employee is then given necessary training as per their needs. 

Moving in tune with time: Designing relevant learning programs

The world of work is moving at a fast pace and the demands from the business keep on changing rapidly. To be able to make most of the opportunities in the market and ensure business continuity, employers have to ensure that their workforce has all the relevant skills. 

The employers hence have to regularly monitor the market and ensure that their learning programs are relevant in terms of both skills in focus and the modes of learning. 

Programs with clear learning outcomes 

It is very important to choose programs for the development that have comprehensible learning outcomes. Today many programs are available in asynchronous mode i.e recorded sessions and no assessments prior to awarding the certification. This may not lead to the desired skill development in an individual. Hence it is essential to choose learning programs which have live interactive online learning, coupled with rigorous assessments to measure the learning outcomes. 

Leverage gamification: Make learning fun

Manoj suggested that to gain maximum ROI out of these learning programs and create a larger impact, talent leaders should leverage gamification. This would not only ensure more engagement but will also help the leaders gauge the participation and track the success of their learning programs. 

Collaborate to amplify learning impact

To be able to create more relevant learning initiatives, various stakeholders have to work together. The in-house HR and L&D leaders must identify the necessary people or subject matter experts and collaborate with them to create a more successful impact on learners and truly enable them to have better careers. 

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Topics: Learning & Development

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