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“L&D is not an investment, it’s a value-addition.”

"While e-learning is a buzzword, it becomes important to understand that attention spans are low and work with this knowledge when developing programs and strategies."

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In a session moderated by Sunil Kumar, the President of exchange4media Group, an eminent panel that comprised of Manoj Sharma the CHRO of Aarti Industries Ltd, Amit Kataria the CHRO of Hanu Software, Kaushik Chakraborty- Director of Human Resources at Savills India and Anubha Batra the Director of TORAH Learning Solutions broke down the nitty-gritty of what can be expected from an assessment tool and how it has to be linked to performance management. 

From a manufacturing perspective, Manoj Sharma began that the first step in the process of assessment is always refining a clear resolved state that one would like to see as the L&D outcome. He aptly conveyed the phrase “clarity brings competency” which set the tone for the discussion forward. 

Following this, Kaushik Chakraborty enumerated the need for a clearly defined competency framework that is India specific as the necessary first step. He answered that companies need to work bottoms up- where they would have to look internally, develop an exhaustive training and development need analysis and then formulate a training agenda. 

With the perspective of a solutions provider, Anubha Batra explained that while e-learning is a buzzword, it becomes important to understand that attention spans are low and work with this knowledge when developing programs and strategies. Working backwards from end outcomes, key capabilities and the interventions that can be built for these capabilities make assessments future-ready for newer situations. 

Contributing insights from the software world, Amit Kataria maintained that L&D goes beyond formulating training calendars and publishing material. Evidencing his company and how they aligned their L&D and Performance management system, he added that the goal was elementary and simple. To keep the platforms and assessments engaging and identifying the needs and reverse-engineering the way towards it, that is adopting an outcome-based approach for each batch of employees to be trained. 

As the discussion tapered into the realm of measuring results, Batra added “L&D should be viewed as value addition and not an investment alone. ” She proposed that skills and performances that were required must be identified and organizations should effectively draw a line from where they were to where they have reached post L&D intervention to effectively gauge outcome.   

Chakraborty noted that internal figures like annual rates and retention rates also add to the analysis as there is a direct correlation between how much you invest in people and the results you will achieve in numbers.    

Dealing with a heterogeneous talent pool in manufacturing, Sharma explained that “measuring L&D has two parts to it- the skill and the style part. The skill part is- What are the new skills that are needed for the organization? Which again is something that has to be diagnosed scientifically encompassing the technical, functional, and behavioural aspect...the style part is the attitude towards challenges and the ecosystem you (as a company) are developing. Are leaders being future-ready and how they are dealing with situations?” He added that results are measured in terms of the new skillset needed, the competencies to assess and the culture that the leader aspires to bring in. 


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