Fulfilling Employees’ L&D Needs Such That It’s Also Beneficial To Employers Is The Biggest Challenge

“The talent market is competitive, and it is not just about what you and your organization want employees to learn. It is also about what employees want to learn, and how they want to grow. What is challenging today is understanding the unique needs of employees, and meeting them in a way that is also beneficial to the company,” said Khai Jones, Senior Director of Global Talent, at Tektronix.

In an exclusive interview with HR.com, Khai talks about how technology and analytics can be leveraged for L&D to power reinvention, how leaders should lead through these unprecedented times to build a continuous learning culture, and more.

Excerpts from the interview:

Q: How has the learning landscape changed in your company since the Covid-19 pandemic? 

Khai: At Tektronix, we have had to reconsider how we deliver learning content. When the majority of our employees were onsite, we were able to hold in-person training much more easily. Now, we have onsite, hybrid, and fully-remote employees. As a result, we have had to adjust our delivery and also consider how to engage those who are not able to physically connect and feed off of the energy of others in a room.  

Q: What are some of the upskilling and reskilling initiatives taken in your company recently? 

Khai: Tektronix has run a few successful pilots that we look to expand in the coming year. One pilot centered around identifying the most important skillsets for a given business group while also partnering with an outside firm to create learning paths and a credentialing system to help employees navigate their growth and development seamlessly. 

In another group, we reimagined onboarding and built out an end-to-end process for new employees for the first six months of their employment. We have seen promising results from both of these pilot programs.  

Q: What are the metrics you follow to track the progress of your employees undergoing reskilling and upskilling?

Khai: Metrics help us evaluate and understand the value of our reskilling and upskilling programs. We use a variety of tools and metrics including survey feedback, reduction in ramp time, progression, and content mastery to understand how our current programs are working, and where we need to make adjustments.  

Q: As companies are adopting a digital-first environment, what kind of investments should talent leaders make to modernize learning & development?

Khai: It is very important for talent leaders to understand their employee population and sync that with the goals of the organization. For example, non-wired employees do not benefit from a world class LMS when they do not have the time and space to connect and participate in a wired solution. For them, it would likely be better to invest in solid face-to-face facilitation tools.  

Q: What are the key challenges you are facing when it comes to the skilling of employees? 

Khai: The talent market is competitive, and it is not just about what you and your organization want employees to learn. It is also about what employees want to learn, and how they want to grow. What is very challenging today is understanding the unique needs of employees, and meeting them in a way that is also beneficial to the company. 

The great opportunity that we all have is to leverage skilling and learning as a competitive advantage. For me, this is being very clear about what is available at Tektronix, and showing employees that we support them as they explore the various opportunities.

Q: How can technology and analytics be leveraged for L&D to power reinvention and make an impact?

Khai: The use of analytics and data is important in evaluating the success of L&D programs and should be used to validate, improve and optimize programs. Leveraging data combined with listening to employee feedback is key to improving L&D and having the best results.

Q: How can leaders lead through these unprecedented times to build a continuous learning culture?  

Khai: Be present. Leaders need to understand what the employees need rather than making assumptions based on the latest and greatest learning theory or tool that is out there. At Tektronix, we have learned to design a learning culture based on the employee need and the company opportunity. As a technology company, innovating testing equipment for the innovators around the world, we quickly adapted to the remote-hybrid workplace. Even so, we know we have to be present for and listen to our employees to build a strong learning culture.  
 

---