LEAD Awards 2018: Interview with Ruby Dhaliwal, Dimension Data

Offering a Great Learning Platform for Our Employees

 
  Category: Best Use of a Learning Management System
  LEAD AWARD RANK: 1
  Category: Best Use of Mobile Technology
  LEAD AWARD RANK: 3
 
  Organization: Dimension Data
  Program: Dimension Data University
  Program Director:  Ruby Dhaliwal, Learning and Development Manager, Dimension Data Americas
  Visit: www2.dimensiondata.com
   
Our editorial team interviewed Ruby Dhaliwal from Dimension Data at the LEAD2018 Awards this past February. Here are some excerpts from the exclusive interview.
 
What is the overall objective of the program’s curriculum?
Through Dimension Data University, we strive to improve business agility and employee productivity by providing a robust learning platform for our employees to keep abreast of their ongoing skills development. With over 1500+ courses from 25 different academies, our employees can pick and choose courses that are aligned to their professional learning goals. The academies and courses range from technical skills development, to business acumen, to personal effectiveness, and much more! To further elevate learner engagement, Dimension Data University also acts as a social collaboration tool that allows access to virtual classrooms, blogs and groups, which translates to a highly interactive learning experience.
 

Who do you impact with your program?
All Dimension Data’s 30,000+ employees globally, including the 2,200+ located within North and South America, take advantage of Dimension Data University as the primary venue for online learning, social collaboration and continuous professional development.
 
What are the lessons you’ve learned this year from facilitating your program?
Learning Organization are not built overnight. Cultivating a culture that exemplifies learning and continuous knowledge sharing is owned by everyone, regardless of level, role or responsibility. In this vein, Dimension Data University is an enabler of our goal to become a learning organization, by embodying a platform that promotes agility, collaboration and efficient skills uptake. We’ve learned that the best way to leverage these attributes is to integrate the use of Dimension Data University into key employee performance and development programs, such as our annual Performance Promise. The Performance Promise underpins our annual review process, which is enabled further by linking Dimension Data University courses to performance goals. This acts as a pre-destined opportunity for our employees to access the learning courses, accelerating resource adoption and encouraging them to become more familiar with Dimension Data University.  This fuels empowerment and engagement within our employees to take a personal and active role in their professional development and education.
 
How do you measure the return on investment and success of the program?
We have consistent measures in place to review the uptake of Dimension Data University courses. For instance, those courses that are assessed as “outdated” are replaced with their most updated versions, ensuring that our employees learning remains fluid and fixed on their professional development. This in-turn enables service delivery excellence to our clients, which contributes to profitable results to the entire business.  
 
What lies ahead for the program and how will it continue to succeed?
With the rapid changes taking place in the external sphere, we understand what it takes to stay ahead in a highly competitive race. Thus, in the new financial year, we will be introducing an entirely new platform that represents an even more agile, savvier and highly collaborative learning experience. This platform will serve as another step towards fostering a continuous learning culture, allowing our employees to view their learning and development from an entirely different lens. We are very excited about this new venture - more information to come next year!
 

 

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