TeamLease Edtech conducts a one-on-one conversation with industry leaders and L&D heads to discuss the changing framework in L&D strategy. Everyone is aware of the outburst of COVID and its repercussions on day to day life and work. No one could have predicted the effects of these uncertain times in L&D teams as well. To continue the conversation about the ramifications in HR and L&D, Mr Manjith Mohan, Head – Learning & Organizational Development, Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited was invited to share his views on how the business world is reconfiguring and rebooting several of its paradigms to deal with the transformed scenarios.

Manjit comes with years of experience in core banking domain and held functions like HR, BD, channel management, digital sourcing, digital marketing, etc. He has also presented himself in key leadership roles in designing the learning experience and ecosystem for some of the big Indian brands like ICC bank, Kotak, Mahindra bank, etc. And now is a part of the leadership team at Murugappa Group's financial services Cholamandalam Investment.

How does the L&D function cope with COVID aftermath?

This question has two aspects. One is for organizations who have actually had a slight headway in terms of making the learnings digital, and for organizations where the COVID came as a reason for really translating their brick and mortar functions into digital. Manjith’s organization was already into the process of making a shift to online learning but the covid made it compulsory. The organization’s efforts were to make it more engaged learning rather than a temporary solution to the uncertainty. They set up separate teams in the L&D ecosystem, which were exclusively looking at managing learning, engagement and learning analytics.

The challenge that all learning heads would have faced is probably to really bring on board a common understanding of the business for the L&D folks and the employees in terms of how was this really going to shape up? Or how digital, if not better, has an equally good methodology and a mode of really bringing in learnings. So it was actually to make them feel and realize that it's only a shift in the mode, but the learning remains the same.

Key challenges while changing the mode of learning

The first challenge or the first initiation of change itself happened within the learning ecosystem or within the l&d department itself, because it was imperative for all the learning leaders and the learning head to understand what it is that they are really wanting to achieve? Virtual versus doing training in standing mode, or physical mode is absolutely different. So having virtual training tools, ensuring that one is comfortable using these tools, ensuring that one can create and save the kind of engagement similar to classroom training was not easy. And of course to learn to be very comfortable with silence. Watch the conversation here.

Irrespective of the platform, whether it's an LMS, or an LXP, it's the organization and the employee appetite that really decides what kind of a model they should really invest in to make it a seamless learning experience. Manjith’s approach for his organization was to bring in systems which are very simple and need not necessarily be fully driven through technology. Earlier learning was a standalone process but now it's a flow of work. One benefit of technology is definitely shedding light on the importance of coaching and mentoring. Earlier the importance of coaching and mentoring was very less. Now it has really picked up pace because people have realized that you need support and you are not a master of all right and for you to really proceed further in career, one needs support from people who are good at doing something for collaboration and networking. Watch the conversation here.

Also, technology has opened doors for communication. No need to walk into someone's office to get status or report, everything is up on the dashboard now. Everything that is linked to your work is really being hosted and shown right to you be it through automated emails or schedule posts.

A new way of learning - Gamification

Now e-learning and videos are used viably as a mode of storytelling. Nobody is willing to really look at investing more than 10-15 minutes on any learning content. So it became bite sized. Micro sized content which is not more than one or two minute, not just in video but in audio podcasts as well. And then the second kind of transition that has happened is upcoming technologies like bots, artificial intelligence and machine learning. So these have actually started playing a role of replacing a lot of rudimentary or mundane tasks which used to be done by humans.They have taken over tasks beautifully.

The new type of learning through games and scores are also making the buzz. But game based learning is based on the interest of the learner. The games have to be personally appealing to get engagement from learners. Otherwise, it will be just another tactic to force learners to try new things. Watch the conversation here.

Technology and game-based learning are definitely the talk of the future but few things are still irreplaceable. On the final note, Manjith calls soft skills as mandated skills or power skills. They are still very relevant for any learner to possess. For example, speaking a language is one thing but communication is just going beyond talking, beyond being proficient in a language, it has a lot of other nuances.