‘Learning Needs To Be Employee-Centric’

Deepa Damodaran interviews Kshitij Kashyap from Optum Global Solutions

"India, as a country, is catching up when it comes to micro learning. It has been happening for quite a while now and various companies are advancing their learning agenda with adopting newer technology in learning at a much faster rate. Innovation and experimentation are essential to upskill or reskill the new-age workforce. Learning agility needs to be there to ensure a mix of training models that align across generations of employees," notes Kshitij Kashyap, Vice President and Head Human Capital, India at Optum Global Solutions. 

Excerpts from the interview:

Unlike in the past, where industrial revolutions and changes used to happen over a long period of time, today it is happening a lot quicker. The required skill sets to cater to these changes are too changing at the same pace. However, the education system is not matching up with this pace of change. Our education system is at the lowest rung of the ladder in terms of adopting changes. Individuals adopt new technologies first, then government forms new policies around it, then come the corporations who want to utilize it and grow business and last comes the education system. The education system should be more agile in addressing skill gaps.

Our education system has been traditionally focused on the left side of the brain, which is about math, physics, chemistry, etc., all of which are learned in a structured manner. There is not much focus on the right side of the brain, which is about your creativity, ambiguity and abstract skills. We see a huge gap here. Most of today’s mundane jobs will be taken up by robots and technologies such as machine learning. Machine learning is a great technology; however, it falls short when it comes to emotional quotient and social quotient. You would still need humans to look past the machines and judge what is right and what is not. 

There is a huge gap when it comes social, emotional and communication skills. You can teach someone to code, but to know how to behave and take decisions in a particular situation that comes with experience, knowledge, and insight. This could be paramount in the success of a business. 

Machine learning, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things will continue to be important in the future. Apart from these, there are some other skills such as leadership skills, functional skills and communication skills that would gain more importance in the coming days. 

Gone are the days when leaders can demand respect owing to their position. Today, your talent is coming from all over the world and it is important how you would be able to influence and inspire them. This would be crucial for any business in the coming days.

On one hand, employees will continue to be trained in the traditional manner to help them do their job better, improve performance and increase productivity. On the other, employees are looking at ways to advance their skills, to learn what would keep them relevant in the future and gain more skills. 

With organizations undergoing paradigm shifts, they need a new set of skills. Employees who want to advance their career will seek for re-skilling more voluntarily. However, with reducing attention spans, learning needs to be cut down to bite-sizes and then imparted to employees. This is where microlearning will play an important role. 

India, as a country, is catching up when it comes to micro learning. It has been happening for quite a while now and various companies are advancing their learning agenda with adopting newer technology in learning at a much faster rate. Innovation and experimentation are essential to upskill or reskill the new-age workforce. Learning agility needs to be there to ensure a mix of training models that align across generations of employees. 

Any organization would start with the big picture like what are the business goals and strategy that you have laid out for you to accomplish. You will then look at how you can achieve it. Employees form a big part of that journey. 

Look at what you need to make it happen, whether it is enhancing skill sets, or developing people, or engaging employees or retaining your top talent. These become the parameters of your ROI calculation. 

Calculating ROI on bite-sized learning is not easy. There is no one way of calculating ROI. Instead, you see what kind of shifts you are making. Are you improving your time to hire, or time to deployment of the projects, or business outcomes, or customer experience, etc. And, if you are, then it relates back to how your workforce is improving in terms of flexibility, agility, learning new age technologies, etc.

Irrespective of whether it is the traditional classroom training or modern learning, learning and development has to be employee-centric. It has to be employee-led and customized to each employee’s need. No longer will one module work for all. You need to break it down to individual learning. People like to learn when and what they want to learn. 
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