Driving training intervention virtually is not easy.
In the last one year, I have experienced a 360 change in strategies in the domain of employee development. Starting from Innovative learning platforms to enhanced training methodologies to exciting techniques, everything is being tried and tested to enhance the learner experience yet instances like these are not uncommon:
- Employees demotivated and not interested to attend training
- Employees unaware of the purpose of the training
- Inconsistency in attempting eLearning modules or any pre training exercise
- Low turn around in virtual sessions
- Lack of participation during training sessions
Inspite of having concrete indicators of success for any learning intervention, the essence of learning fails and that is a huge failure to own. This brings me to a big question – Who owns training?
Is it HR, The Requesting Manager or the Employees who undergo the training?
Are we being fair to our learners?
I have often been in sessions, where participants don’t know why they need the training or don’t know what to expect from the training.
Worse, when they are asked to join the session at the 11th hour to complete the quorum. The maximum they know is they have been asked by their manager or the Learning Team to be attend the session.
I don’t understand how is it fair to the learners but what I do know is that, we can definitely create more value for them by identifying courses which are more aligned to their KPI. Without a performance goal, training will always remain a nice to have.
Is training still a tick in the box item for Managers?
Managers most often wash their hands off after nominating their team member, assuming that the learning team already has a learning partner who will do the job.
The managers wait for the HR to share the learning objectives, not realizing that the learning objectives are best derived when the learning need is clear, specific and relevant.
This is where the managers can be of most help to the learning team. They can share their observations, inputs, insights proactively with the HR team to make the learning content tailor made for their team and thus make the training a must have.
Is HR just coordinating the training calendar?
Everyone wants training to be interactive yet of value add and wants ROI. Yet when often asked about the performance goal related to the training the answer is wobbly.
As HRBPs it is imperative that we know our business and how the current skillset in the workforce is impacting or could potentially impact the business.
Knowing these would help HRBPs gather more insights and thus cocreate a valuable learning experience with the learning partners.
I have worked with organizations where employees look forward for training opportunities and consider it is an important yardstick of their career development path.
HR is definitely the driver but the onus of success lies with everyone.
Author: Sumitra Paul Chatterjeee
Associate Director
