rd3 NHRDN Summit on Learning & Development

New Strategic Mandate for the Learning & Development Function

rdThe NHRDN 3 Learning & Development Summit thwas held at Taj Connemara in Chennai on the 16

thand 17 of October, 2015. Over the course of six sessions chaired by eminent speakers from the Business and HR fraternities, the summit arrived at a new strategic mandate for the learning & development function.The summit was led by Mr. Anand Pillai, Managing Director at Leadership Maters Inc. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP joined NHRDN as knowledge partners for the summitThe summit began with discussions on how learning & development is a game changer in business and how the bell curve could be passé. The other critical discussion points included a) Learning & development in the times of open source talent and mass career customization, b) Gamification and technology in learning & development, c) Learning & development for a multi-generational workforce and d) The many hats of the CLO (Chief Learning Officer) Inaugural Session: Setting the ContextSpeakers:• Welcome Address - Mr. Kamal Singh (Director

General, NHRDN)

Date 16 - 17 Oct 2015

Venue

• Summit Overview – Mr. Anand Pillai (Managing Director, Leadership Matters)

• Keynote Address – Ms. Meetu Goel (Senior Manager, Deloitte)

• Inaugural Address – Mr. Ashwini Mehra (Deputy Managing Director, State Bank of India)

The inaugural session touched upon a wide range of topics within the realm of learning & development and the strategic importance that it holds for business. Setting the context for detailed sessions to come, key themes such as measuring the effectiveness of training programs, learning through social media, blended learning were discussed by the speakers.In specif ic, speakers deliberated on how in organizations today, individual development programs include the presence of proxy boards and leadership labs that provide a ful l - f ledged development experience to the employees. The way talent was traditionally managed has changed. The aspirations that new comers bring into organizations today mandate that the focus be more on development than on judging or delegating.Session 1: L&D – The Game ChangerSpeakers: • Dr. J.K. Das (Director, FORE School of Management)

Taj Connemara

Chennai

From Business Partner to Business Sprinter

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st1 Runners-Up of L&D Case Study Competition – Mr. Amitabh Jha (BHEL)

Winner of L&D Case Study Competition – Mr. Tushar Vaidya (Mahindra Finance) receiving the Prize from Mr. Ashwini Mehra (Deputy Managing Director, State

Bank of India

• Ms. N. Dhamayanthi (Head TEX & Fresher Academy, HCL)

• Mr. Anup Lewis (Director Learning Solutions, Schneider Electric)

• Dr. Joseph Shields (Managing Par tner, Leadership Matters)

Learning & Development has taken up the centrepiece stance in talent management. With focus on development being key, related elements and HR subsystems such as per formance management and career development will now have to revolve around the platform of learning & development.Leaders and the audience discussed that while the bell curve is not passé, it faces a challenge in the atmosphere of fostering development, especially when the employee engagement, morale and the propensity to rake risk are low and when the teams are smaller.To help support an entire organization’s talent management system on its shoulder, the learning & development function must innovate and come up with new-age effectiveness boosters such as just-in-time learning, experiential learning and disruptive leaningOrganizations have moved on to new methods. Gamified learning (detailed further in the next segment), dance-based learning, global classroom and tele-presence are just some of the trends that are catching upSession 2: L&D Integrated Talent ManagementSpeakers: • Mr. Anand Pillai (Managing Director, Leadership

Matters Inc.)

• Mr. Ashish Anand (Director HR, Religare)• Prof. Sahji Kurian (IIFM Business School)• Dr. P.K. Biswas (Director, IFMR)The session on integrated talent management was conducted in a bristo format with groups breaking out to discuss how the L&D integrated talent management vertical will work. Shifting from annual performance evaluation to continuous coaching requires a new role for managers. In high performing teams today, employees take ownership for their learning and their performance. A critical element here is decoupling feedback given to employees from compensation decisions. Rather than directly equating ratings and salary increases, compensation decisions can be based on criticality of the employee’s skills, cost and effort involved in finding a replacement, value of the role to customers and market parameters. Session 3: L&D and TechnologySpeakers: • Prof. S. Sriram (ED Emeritus, Great Lakes Institute of

Management)• Mr. Saurabh Nigam (VP HR, Snapdeal)• Mr. Sujith Peter (HR Business Leader, Infosys)• Mr. Sriram Rajagopal (CHRO, Cognizant)• Mr. Rajendra Sud (CEO, Max Skill First Limited)In a session that served as a breakthrough discussion on the topic of technology and specif ical ly gamification, leaders from across industries came together to spell out the methods for organizations to adapt to the rising phenomena of learning through technologyTechnology and digital learning are two great enablers and the challenge is to create virtual environments in

Issue 20 | November - December 2015

nd2 Runners-Up of L&D Case Study Competition – Mr. Anand Mishra & Ms. Rinku

Mirgh (Wockhardt)

Session 1 in Progress

organizations. Digital learning could be made effective through front-end delivery, back-end analytics and a cloud platform to support. Gamification must now progress beyond points, badges and learning boards and must sustain the virtual environment of the organizationEffectiveness also depends on how accessible, user friendly and hindrance-free the technology is.Session 4: One Size May Not Fit AllSpeakers: • Mr. Prem Singh (President Global HR, Wockhardt

Ltd.)• Dr. V. Kovaichelvan (Senior Vice President HR,

TVS Motor Company)• Mr. Sanjay Muthal (ED, RGF Management

Search)• Mr. Shyam Sunder (Co-Founder, Green Books)Gen Y and Gen Z are set to radically transform our workforce learning. It is time to create employee value proposition that embraces an abundance mind-set, to create intrapreneurial opportunities which help employees unlearn and relearn management styles. A good way to help this is talent incubation which involves a larger interaction between corporations and the academia with both par t ies learning and acclimatizing with each other in the processCase Study CompetitionTeams: Case study competition organized by NHRD for this summit featured nine teams with the best three belonging to Mahindra Finance Services Ltd. (For their towards training their rural sales force through a very innovative WhatsApp learning program to

achieve top business results during the festive season), Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (For developing two e-learning modules, one internal and one in collaboration with Harvard University for the EPC team – this being a business focus area for BHEL) and Wockhardt Ltd. (For developing and implementing talent management-integrated coaching initiatives pan-organization)Session 5 (Concluding Session): The Many Hats of the CLOSpeakers: • Mr. M.M. Singh (Director Maruti Centre for

Excellence, Maruti Udyog Limited)• Ms. Deepa Mukherjee (VP HR, NIIT)• Dr. Joseph Shields (Managing Partner, Leadership

Matters)• Ms. Sujata Deshmukh (Partner OD, Alternate

Consultancy)In the concluding session the leaders debated on how capability building is today’s concern. There is a need to redefine and revisit the role of the chief learning officer. Some of the responsibilities of the CLO do include capability building, culture, understanding people aspirat ions and leading the change management in the organization. As CLO, it is imperative for the incumbent to immerse in business and with people and to speed up the process of change. Some of the CLO’s pitfalls were also identified in this session. These include lack of clear business and engagement alignment. The CLO and therefore the learning function itself must look at three spheres – human capabilities, social capabilities and cultural capabilities to effectively support organizations in their path to continuous learning and growth.

Issue 20 | November - December 2015

Session 3 on Day1 of the L&D Summit

Concluding Session