Insights Success The 10 Most Valuable Engineering and Infrastructure Companies

CXO Standpoint
PURPOSE of the LEARNING
FUNCTION.
Learning & Development as a function
has evolved with times and is again at
cross roads today. Traditionally it was
seen as a function which simply
facilitated ‘Fulfilling GAPS’, in terms
of skills / competencies and thereby
enabled the overall development of
capability building both at the
individual and organizational level.
Then came a phase where it became a
strategic function by enabling the
business to identify its future leaders
and groom them. In time, now it has
again reached a threshold of evolution.
Learning as a function is poised to
enable Organizations and its
employees to ‘EVOLVE’.
‘Evolution’ is drastically different from
‘Fulfilling Gaps’ in many ways,
starting from the fact where Fulfilling
Gaps is perceived more as ‘near’ term
and transactional in nature; whereas
Evolution is more Futuristic and
Strategic in purpose. Fulfilling Gaps is
seen more as a responsibility of
Learning Function whereas Evolution
is a co-creation process between the
various stakeholders. The biggest
difference is Evolution thrives to make
the organizations and its stakeholders
Future Ready in a more comprehensive
fashion than we do now.
Evolution is not possible to achieve if
the following fundamentals are not in
place. The Learning function has to
ensure that foundations for these
fundamentals are established:
We will Focus to make
Organizations Future Ready
Fundamentally the Learning function
should focus on making the
organization future ready. It could be in
terms of making it more flexible to
adopt to change, or having a leadership
pipeline in place, or Institutionalizing
Values as cultural ethos and thereby
creating a unique DNA for retention or
attraction of Talent and so on. This
doesn’t mean Learning should not
focus on the daily bread & butter
issues of gap fulfilment of immediate
needs, but it also needs to draw a line
on how much do we invest in today
and how much for tomorrow?
We are not responsible to make
Employees Resume Sexy
Knowingly or unknowingly Learning
function has made needs identification
from Performance Appraisals as the
Primary and only source. More than
often it has been observed that the
needs identified during this process are
more aligned to the individual personal
aspirations rather than business
requirements. It is no wonder that at
the end of the year we often realize that
much of the budget could have better
utilized or optimized if we gave up the
responsibility of making employees
resumes future ready.
We will focus on those who are
geared up to make a difference
Learning is a two-way process. We
can’t force adults into rooms and
expect them to learn, absorb and
implement if they are not ready or keen
to do so. So why do we invest equal
amount of time and energy on those
who are keen to learn and those who
are there only to warm the seats? It is
imperative that we focus only on those
who are geared up to make a difference
as that would be a winner for all the
stakeholders.
We are not responsible for food &
sanitation
In the quest for evolution, we can’t be
held ransom on issues like food or
sanitation of the training facilities etc.
We should refocus our energy on issues
like the alignment of learning
programs and aspirations, the
applicability of the learning’s at the
workplace and so on. It’s time to dump
the existing measuring parameters of
our learning interventions and focus on
issues which would truly reflect the
spirit of evolution.
We are ready to Risk it
As a true business partner, we should
be accountable for some measurements
which we strive for and should be
ready to risk our reputation on the
same in a similar fashion in which
business does. Our measurements
should focus on how much more
businesses we could generate, how
much the productivity and profitability
grew, how ready are we for future in
terms of a leadership pipeline, how
ready are we in terms of organizations
overall capability, what is our build v/s
buy ratio and so on. Evolution isn't
easy, but it is the top priority in all the
CEO agenda. Evolution is the
opportunity for us to recast ourselves
from being perceived as a reactive
support function to being projected as a
futuristic business partner. It is up to us
now that how we make the move and
move on...
26 November | 2016 |