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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

At the outset I would like to thank The Strategist for providing me the opportunity to attend the summer internship program at The Strategist Hyderabad. The Summer Internship Program has been a great value addition to my profile and I hope to contribute immensely towards Research Strategy provided I get an opportunity for the same in the later years of my career. It was a pleasing experience to work on this project under the able guidance of Ms. Saumya Goyal and K Srinivas Rao. I extend my sincere gratitude to them for their constant support and guidance towards the project. I extend my sincere gratitude to Prof. Jagrook Dawra (Goa Institute of Management, Goa) for the constant support and guidance during various stages of the project. I would also like to thank my fellow colleagues who extended wholehearted support and cooperation in completing the project.

The Future of Learning and Development: Trends in India Inc.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In the world of corporate there is a cut throat competition to move ahead of time. With the dwindling economy and increase in global competition there is further pressure on companies to outshine the others. Every function is evolving to keep pace with the changing corporate world and Learning and Development is not immune to this trend. Learning & Development has evolved over the years from being a support function to an enabling function which is energizing the growth of the organizations by making them Future Ready. The success of learning and development is a major determinant for the growth and sustenance of a company. There are various techniques in which companies impart knowledge to their employees. With changing times, the Learning and Development function has evolved based on the needs of the workforce and the organization. There has been a change in the methodology of imparting training and learning as well. With a mix of generations at workplace, it is necessary to customize the Learning and Development methodologies. The Strategist, has been tracking these changes over the years and has been successful in building some far reaching Hypotheses (for example Role of Gamification in Learning, The ideal time of a session, The Role of Leaders as Teachers etc.). Keeping these as a premise, this research has been undertaken to understand the transformation of Learning & Development in the Indian Corporate scenario. The study would facilitate the senior leadership to understand the ways in which Learning and Development functions have evolved over the years.

Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................................................................. 0 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................ 3 ABOUT THE COMPANY ............................................................................................................................. 3 NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE ......................................................................................................................... 3 IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................. 3 OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................................................................. 4 MOTIVATION ............................................................................................................................................ 4 BUSINESS OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................................................ 5 SCOPE ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 BACKGROUND .............................................................................................................................................. 5 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ....................................................................................................................... 5 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 6 DESK RESEARCH .................................................................................................................................... 6 QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH ................................................................................................................... 6 DATA COLLECTION.................................................................................................................................... 7 QUESTIONNAIRE................................................................................................................................... 7 REPORTING ............................................................................................................................................... 7 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......................................................................................................... 8 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 34 KEY LEARNING ............................................................................................................................................ 36 CHALLENGES FACED ................................................................................................................................... 36 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................................................................ 37

INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THE COMPANY The strategist is a Global People Practices Advisory & Research Firm. The companys aim is to enable the businesses to fuel their dreams through innovation and intellect. The company is headquartered in Hyderabad, India. The Strategist operates in the following three entities with a global presence. (Strategist, n.d.) The Strategist Strategist HR Advisory Service, LLP Strategist People Support Private Limited The company works in advisory, research and technology fields with specialization in HR domain. The company specializes in public research as well as customize research for a particular organization need NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE The learning and development is the field which is concerned with activities aimed at improving performance of the employees and the groups in an organization. The success of learning and development is a major determinant for the growth and sustenance of a company. There are various techniques in which companies impart knowledge to their employees. The Strategist wants to do a research analysis to understand the transformation of Learning & Development in the Indian Corporate scenario. The study would facilitate the senior leadership to understand the ways in which L&D functions have evolved over the years. IMPORTANCE OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT Learning and development or training and development is necessary for the individual development and progress of the employee in an organization. Apart from individual development it also helps in the following

Bridging the Skills Gap Enhancement of skills of the employees Increase in employees productivity Improving team bonding Overall Quality improvement Increase in the Productivity and Profitability for organization Increase in the versatility and reduces labor turnover Improving core competencies
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The dwindling global economy and increasing competition have forced the companies to relook their existing strategies. In order to succeed in these challenging times, all the functions are reinventing themselves and even Learning and Development is not immune to this trend. Companies thrive to gain competitive edge which is possible only if they have superior quality offering, and a forte of well-trained and highly skilled employees. This is where Learning and Development (L&D) function becomes critical to the organizational growth. OBJECTIVE The objective of the survey is to study changes in the Learning & Development function over the years and predict the future trends in this domain, based on the perception of Senior Leaders in the areas of Learning & Development. MOTIVATION The basic premise for the study was to identify the changes in the Learning and Development function over the years and the view of Senior Leaders on its future. The basic questions which the study focused on What are the current industry trends in L&D? How organizations view e-learning and its future? Could Micro-learning be the new trend in Indian organizations? How companies measure success of their L&D program? What are the metrics used by L&D function? What is future of Gamification in Learning &Development? What is the Role of learning in culture building? What is L&Ds impact on business focus?

The study is an accumulation of discussions with Learning and Development heads of India Inc. across industries. The report is intended to be used by Chief Learning Officers across the Indian Corporate Industry to know the following What are the current trends in Learning and Development in the Indian Market? How should the training structure be for more effective learning? What should be the best methodology to teach the employees? What are the metrics that could be used to evaluate success of L & D program? How much should the company invest in training and development?

BUSINESS OBJECTIVE The business objective of this report is that once the final report is compiled then the company would send the document to the head of Learning and Department of various companies to give them a glimpse of what The Strategist could do and also to solicit new projects from the potential clientele. SCOPE The scope of the project would include a sample of senior management Leaders from top firms across India. Since the objective of this survey is to know the perception of senior leaders in the areas of L&D we have limited our scope to only the senior management leaders in the learning and development function.

BACKGROUND
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH Research methods in education (and the other social sciences) are often divided into two main types: quantitative and qualitative methods. When you think of quantitative methods, you will probably have specific things in mind. You will probably be thinking of statistics, numbers, and many of you may be feeling somewhat apprehensive because you think quantitative methods are difficult. Apart from the last one, all these thoughts capture some of the essence of quantitative methods. The following definition, taken from (Gunderson, 2000)), describes what we mean by quantitative research methods very well: Quantitative research is Explaining phenomena by collecting numerical data that are analyzed using mathematically based methods (in particular statistics) Other Definitions of Quantitative Research "The kind of research that involves the tallying, manipulation, or systematic aggregation of quantities of data." (Henning) "An inquiry into a social or human problem based on testing a theory composed of variables, measured with numbers, and analyzed with statistical procedures, in order to determine whether the predictive generalizations of the theory hold true." (Creswell) "The collection of numerical data in order to explain, predict and/or control phenomena of interest." (Gay)

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY The research methodology included both the primary and secondary research. The descriptive analysis is carried out to understand the Learning and Development function. The primary research is carried out using questionnaire and phone calls whereas secondary research was done through internet and experiential interviews with the mentor. DESK RESEARCH PURPOSE Our search of secondary sources was carried out to refine the objectives and to provide a better understanding of learning and development strategies in the Indian corporate industry. We also looked into the existing methodologies being implemented in the corporate industry. The desk research was an attempt to get in depth insights into the following The Prevalent methodologies of teachings. (BRUM, n.d.) The measures and practices concerning the appraisals and salaries across the industry (Employment-studies) The future trends in the Learning and Development (www.trainingjournal.com, n.d.). The metrics to be used to measure the success of learning and development.

PROCEDURE The secondary research was carried out with the help of using the journal studies, Magazine (HRMagazine, n.d.) and research work of various organizations (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2008,2013). The survey questionnaire was made up following the secondary research analysis (Learning-Futurethink, 2009). A lot of books (Noe, 2005) were reviewed to understand training and development. The source of the materials was internet and there was experience sharing sessions by the mentors at the company. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH PURPOSE This stage aims to determine the answers to questions mentioned in Objective and motivation. The current Learning and Development trends, the scope for new training methodologies, the current scenario of appraisals for trainers as well as some innovative training methods like gamification are studied with the help of a questionnaire and on the call interviews with senior Learning and Development heads of companies.
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POPULATION AND SAMPLING We have made the decision to carry out 15-30 survey strength because the company wanted to focus only on the top CLOs of the organizations, who were usually busy wi th their tasks on hand and were very skeptical to share their insights.

DATA COLLECTION
The process of data collection took 2 weeks. A reminder was sent to the survey takers to complete the survey on time. The process of data collection was through online as well as phone calls. We mailed the respondents to fill in the survey and had asked for them some convenient time to talk to. Few respondents had given us time to talk to and we finished the call. QUESTIONNAIRE Please double click on the picture below to view the questionnaire.

PROCEDURE The questionnaire was a result of discussions with experienced panel on Learning and Development, peer interactions, existing research studies, articles from journals and internet. Where possible, questions were made close ended. Most of the questions had an options for respondents to fill in their views. The questionnaire was validated by the mentor and was uploaded online on survey monkey website (Link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/76T3WKL). The emails with the survey link was sent to a sizeable population of 56 respondents who hold a position of CLO or its equivalent rank and 20 among those had filled the survey and 3 calls were made to get deeper insights in this regard.

REPORTING
Following the quantitative research a final report was made so that Learning and Development departments across the industry could get some critical insights in the domain of Learning and Development. The report is still pending review from the Research lead at The Strategist and very soon the company is going to print the report and circulate it to various companies.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Executive BeholdSummary the Future of


Learning and development . The dwindling global economy and increasing competition . have forced the companies to relook their existing . strategies. In order to succeed in these challenging times, all the functions are reinventing themselves and even . Learning and Development is not immune to this trend. . Companies thrive to gain competitive edge which is possible only if they have . superior quality offering, and a forte of well-trained and highly skilled employees. This is where Learning and Development (L&D) function becomes critical to the . organizational growth. . The basic premise for the study was to identify the changes in the Learning and Development function over the years and the view of Senior Leaders on its . future. . The basic questions which the study focused on What are the current industry trends in L&D? . How organizations view e-learning and its future? Could Micro-learning be the new trend in Indian organizations? . How companies measure success of their L&D program? What are the metrics used by L&D function? . What is future of Gamification in Learning &Development? What is the Role of learning in culture building? . What is L&Ds impact on business focus? . The study is an accumulation of discussions with Learning and Development heads . of India Inc. across industries. . .

Learning & Development has evolved over the years from being a support function to an enabling function which is energizing the growth of the organizations by making them Future Ready.

Demographics
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For the purpose of attaining deeper insight into Learning and Development functions we had contacted L&D heads from a

diverse industry set. A look at the figures below gives an idea


about their experience and expertise.

Combined employee strength of more than 814300 employees

Combined turnover in excess of $220billion

Diverse industry background with domains including consulting, aviation, pharmaceutical, conglomerate, IT/ITES, healthcare among others

Combined industry experience of respondents in excess of 300years

LD = LD
Leadership Development to be the focus area for Learning and Development

What will be the focus areas for your organization's learning department in coming years?

What the industry feels

Leadership development is going to be the focus area of Learning and Development in years to come. It is chosen as the top priority by 38 percent of companies. Employee engagement (23 percent) and organizational capability (23 percent) emerge as the next important focus areas for organizations' L&D function. In addition, the areas which will be least focused by L&D function are employee growth (3 percent) and loyalty (0 percent). The long term impact of Learning and development is Leadership development hence the mantra LD = LD.

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Business Growth Outruns Employee Productivity

What is the Impact of Learning and Development on business focus of your organization?

What the industry feels

Learning and Development helps in Business Growth of an organization with 30percent of companies rating it as top outcome. A close second is Employee Productivity with 28percent. Employee Efficiency (18 percent) and Employee Commitment (15 percent) emerge as the next important results of Learning and Development. Interestingly client satisfaction comes in at last with only 9% of companies choosing this option. The Learning and Development helps in business growth hence should be seen as an investment.

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Learning and Development has major impact on Business Growth and Employee Productivity.

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Encouraging Innovation through Learning and Development

How would Learning and Development help in culture building of your organization?

What the industry feels

43percent of companies have said that Encouraging Innovation is being strengthened through Learning and Development. Value instillation is not far behind with 38percent of companies choosing this. Cultural assimilation in induction (18 percent) is third while a small number (3 percent) of companies have chosen learning from failures as how L&D can helps in organizational culture. Learning and Development fosters innovation and Value instillation. For Value Instillation Learning and Development could use o o Orientation/ induction program for new employees Refresher courses for tenured employees for value instillation.

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Learning and development fosters innovation and Value Instillation.

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Performance Change is the best way to measure!

What metrics do you use to measure the success of your Learning and Development division?

What the industry feels

Performance change is how organizations measure the success of Learning and Development. It is chosen as the top priority by 40 percent of the companies. This is followed by participation percentage in trainings (20 percent) and faculty rating post training (20 percent). Improved income generation (5percent) and other metrics (5percent) are least used metrics for measuring success of Learning and Development. This result shows that industries expect Learning and Development to increases productivity.

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Performance change is the best way to measure the success of Learning and Development.

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Opportunity Cost doesnt form a crucial factor to calculate ROI on Learning and Development

What Important factors do you use to calculate ROI on the Learning and Development programs?

What the industry feels

The direct costs (34 percent) and indirect costs (27 percent) form the two important measures used to calculate L&Ds ROI. There is tie for third spot with 14 percent of companies choosing both income generation and indirect cost savings. Interestingly indirect cost savings (14 percent) out-does the direct cost savings (9 percent) when it comes to calculating ROI on Learning and Development. The costs incurred in giving the trainings are more often looked as an investment as companies are concerned about generating ROI on it.

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Quote from industry: Measuring productivity by having a productivity index to measure, how participants profiles have changed after taking the training, should be used in measuring ROI

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The Learning and Development has a long way to go to be seen as strategic business partner

How do you classify the Faculty in your Learning and Development division?

What the industry feels

Majority of companies (38 percent) feel that faculty should be viewed as facilitators or trainers (23 percent). Only 18 percent of the companies think that their faculty is considered as strategic business partners. In addition, curriculum developers is at fourth with 13 percent. Companies have also chosen education specialists (8 percent) as the least preferred faculty classification. There is still a long way to go before companies classify the Learning Development division as strategic business partners. This could be attributed to the fact that mentorship to employees as well as providing trainings on- the- job are gaining popularity and hence the classification facilitators is apt.

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In person interactions favored over technology

What is the main form of delivery for the Learning and Development programs in your company?

What the industry feels

Faculty in classroom or formal trainings still rules the roost when it comes to the major form for delivering the trainings. This is followed by e-learning and seminar conferences. Interestingly, mentoring comes in at fifth while webinars/video recorded training methodology is least used. In person interactions are dominant way for delivering the training for delivering the training whereas video based are the least used.

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Formal trainings still rules the roost.

Quote from industry: Video recording/ webinars etc. are not effective because there is no involvement/ participation of participants

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Faculty in classroom is the most effective training methodology

Which of these is the most effective training methodology in your industry?

What the industry feels

Faculty in classroom is considered the most effective training methodology by L&D leaders. Mentoring comes in second and seminar/conferences come in at third. Video recorded/ webinar is viewed as the least effective training form. Mentoring is the most effective training whereas it is one of the least used training methodologies across the industry. An industry head shared that Mentoring is the way to go. e.g. TASS in which participants become versatile/ adaptable as they get to work with varied managerial styles. Technology based training methodology are amongst the least effective. An industry head opinioned that, Video recording/ webinars etc. are not effective because there is no involvement/ participation of participants.

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Seminars/ conferences is more of networking and less of learning

Least favored + Most effective = Mentoring

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E-learning is not effective in inculcating soft skills

Do you think e-learning is effective in learning technical skills, soft skills and new tools?

What the industry feels

E-learning is considered effective in developing the technical skills and new tools as a majority of companies have voted for the same. A general consensus is that Soft skills are something which could not be taught using e-learning as a sizeable number of companies have voted against it.

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Faculty fees Linked to feedback for trainers not happening today but will happen soon

How much faculty fees is linked to feedback for trainers?

What the industry feels

More than half the companies (60 percent) have said that there is no link between feedback for trainers and their salary. There is tie for second spot with 15 percent of companies saying that up to 15% of trainers salary is dependent on feedback for trainers where a similar number have voted for 16-30% of salary being dependent on feedback for trainers. Interestingly a good number of companies (10 percent) have linked a very high percentage of trainers salary (31-50%) to the feedback for trainings. The faculty fees being linked to feedback for trainers will happen in near future.

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Leadership Development is the prime reason for coaching

What is the main purpose of coaching in your organization?

What the industry feels

The main purpose of coaching is Leadership Development with 50 percent of companies selecting this option. Personal Development and Increase in employee productivity are chosen next with both managing to get 20 percent favorable response. The main purpose as well as the focus area for Learning and Development is Leadership Development.

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Blended training (Virtual 25% classroom 75%) methodology is the way to go

Which coaching methodology do you feel is more effective?

What the industry feels

An outright winner, with more than half (60 percent) of companies opt for a blended coaching methodology (in which physical trainings comprise75% and virtual trainings constitute 25%). The reverse blend (physical 25% and virtual 75%) are selected next by 20 percent of companies. 15 percent of companies have opted for only physical trainings while 5 percent have chosen exclusively virtual. Blended coaching methodologies are helpful in getting the desired output of the training which helps the companies to stay ahead of the competition. An industry head said that Learning and development head can have a small team which can pull and stretch L&D programs in every direction within the organization.

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Quote from industry:


Training will shift from classroom to on-the-job. (25:75 ratio)

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Outsourced outscores inhouse

What type of training is more effective?

What the industry feels

External or outsourced trainings are considered to be more effective by 55 percent of the companies. In house trainings managed to garner 45 percent responses from the participating companies.
An industry head said that Design, Content and Organizational applicability should be developed internally; whereas delivery can be outsourced but it needs to be monitored.

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Quote from industry: In future Outsourcing is the way to go

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Gamify you soft skills trainings& induction program

The gamification techniques are effective for?

What the industry feels

More than one-third of companies (35 percent) believe that gamification is effective to impact soft skills. Induction training is not far behind with 28 percent of companies choosing it. Gamification is yet to be evolved to impart company policy trainings (23 percent) and technical trainings (14 percent).
Industry head said that With time gamification is going to be used in all the areas in future (technical skills, and even soft skills).

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Gamification Increases the level of interest in trainings

How would gamification in training be useful?

What the industry feels

Gamification will increase the level of interest in trainings with 40 percent of companies choosing it as their top priority. Better Engagement (28 percent) comes in at second. In addition, meeting the training objective (17 percent) and more productivity (15 percent) have are also found useful by some companies.

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Leaders as teachers(2-5days commitment in a year)

How much time do the leaders take out for giving trainings?

What the industry feels

Leaders in the industry give a window of 2-5 days in a year for giving trainings. This has been selected by more than half of the companies (60 percent). 6-10 days is next at 15 percent and there is a tie for fourth place in between 1 day and 11-15 days with 10 percent each selecting them.

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Manual feedback form is the dominant way

What is the dominant way to conduct feedback for Learning and Development?

What the industry feels

Manual feedback form is the most prevalent way to conduct feedback for Learning and Development program. It is chosen as the top priority by 40 percent of the companies. We also asked whether training data is captured online for feedback purpose and the result revealed that 55 percent of the companies do so.

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E-learning is most effective forGen Y

For which age group is e-learning most effective?

What the industry feels

Gen Y is considered the most responsive when it comes to e-learning. An overwhelming 80 percent of companies hold this view. Gen X comes in next at 20 percent while none of the companies felt that elearning is effective for Baby Boomers. Gen Y is more responsive to technology based trainings whereas Gen X and Baby Boomers are more inclined towards formal classroom trainings.

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Trainings yet to be linked to appraisals

What Recognitions are given to the employees on completion of a training program?

What the industry feels

Certifications are the most used method (60 percent) to recognize employees on completion of trainings. E-recognitions are next with 20 percent. An interesting fact is that points related to appraisals come at third with just 13 percent of companies choosing this. Trainings are yet to be related to the appraisal.

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Quote from industry: Baby-boomers will warm up to the idea of anytime-anywhere training as they realize it is convenient and reachable on various formats.

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90 minutes of magic

What is the ideal time period for a training session in a day?

What the industry feels

Majority of the companies (45percent) think that 90minutes in a day is the ideal time for a training session. 180minutes of training session comes next with 35 percent of the companies choosing it. In addition, an equal percentage of companies (with 10percent each) have chosen 45 minutes and 180+minutes training sessions in a day.

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Internal Branding of learning and development a must?

Does your company carry out internal branding for learning and development function?

What the industry feels

Majority of companies do carry out internal branding of their Learning and Development function. It is chosen by 80 percent of the companies. Only 20 percent of companies have said that presently there is no internal branding of Learning and Development function.

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Trainings on Smart phones will become popular

Will the concept of trainings on smart phone become popular?

What the industry feels

An outright majority believes that trainings on the smartphones is going to become very popular. This has been chosen by 90 percent of companies. A very small number of companies (10 percent) think otherwise.
Mobile learning/ smart phone is going to become popular.

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Learning by Storytelling is gaining popularity

Is learning by telling used in your organization in the form of organizational storytelling?

What the industry feels

Learning by storytelling is gaining popularity and is chosen by 55 percent of the companies. As per our interactions with industry heads, most of the companies are presently exploring this method. 45 percent of companies are not using this training technique.
An industry head said that Best format is to have a small group of 24 participants and include a lot of case studies/ discussions etc. Small group also enables the facilitator to be closely involved.

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Shorter timeframe for trainings

What percentage of Learning and development sessions that will shift to micro learning'?

What the industry feels

Most of the companies (45 percent) feel that in future 26-50% of trainings will shift to shorter timeframes. A significant number of companies (30 percent) believe that 11-25% trainings will shift to micro learning. A small number of companies (20percent) predict that more than 50% of trainings will shift to micro learning.

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Effective Human Resources Frameworks Can MEASURE the IMMEASUREABLES, QUANTIFY the INTANGIBLES and TOUCH the SENSITIVITIES.

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CONCLUSION
The Learning and Development team have always been seen as aid to improve employee skills. The long term focus of these trainings is leadership development. This is inline with aspirations of many companies who seem to investment in employees to make sure that they are skilled enough when the any leadership opportunities arise. A very interesting trend that appeared here is that none of the respondents felt that loyalty could be a focus area which they can target through Learning and Development. This could possibly be attributed to the fact that in many companies loyalty is built upon by factors such as the kind of work, team members, salary etc. Business growth has emerged as the primary impact area of Learning and Development overtaking the employee productivity. These two attributes are correlated as increase in employee productivity would result in business growth. Another interesting observation is that Client satisfaction is the least when it comes to business impact due to Learning and Development. A possible explanation is that Learning and Development is one of the factors in client satisfaction along with many other higher precedence factors like Quality product, on time service etc. Learning and Development helps in encouraging innovation for the employees. Not far behind is value instillation. A trend which would be useful for companies looking to improve and innovate and to those who want to inculcate a values in their employees. The respondents have chosen performance change as the best way to measure the success of Learning and Development. This is followed by Participation percentage in trainings and faculty rating post training. This result shows that respondents expect Learning and Development to increases productivity. A notable suggestion from one of the respondents was effectiveness followup. The direct costs and indirect costs form the two important factors used to calculate ROI on Learning and Development. A considerable amount of respondents had chosen Income generation and indirect cost saving as the factors for calculating ROI on Learning and Development. These trends indicate that companies are concerned about how trainings could help in generating revenues. The costs incurred in giving the trainings are more often looked as an investment. The respondents feel that faculty for Learning and Development programs can be termed as facilitators rather than trainers or strategic business partners. The shows the trend that Learning and Development programs are moving towards mentorship to employees as well as providing trainings on- the- job. Hence the faculty for these programs is looked upon as facilitators. The opinions from the respondents clearly indicate that the formal trainings given by faculty still rule the roost. E-learning is fast catching up with formal trainings and has been voted by respondents at second place. Seminars and conferences come in at third place. Mentoring and
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webinars/video recorded trainings are the least frequently used methods to deliver the trainings. It goes to show that a major portion of Learning and Development activities are taken care of by faculty in classroom and e-learning. The added costs attached to deliver trainings through webinars/video recordings make it the least preferred. The faculty is classroom is chosen as the most effective methodology. The impact which faculty in classroom is able to generate clearly outweighs the effectiveness of the other delivery method of trainings. The least effective method is video recorded/webinars which could be a concern for companies who are investing heavily in equipment for providing these services. The Faculty fees is fixed across a majority of the industry which shows the mindset of the both corporates as well as trainers who believe in traditional ways of handling the salaries. Blended Training methodology is gaining popularity with the classroom training being 75% and virtual trainings at 25%. This goes a long way in showing that the training methodology have started to evolve and the virtual trainings are slowly gaining popularity. The most effective duration for the trainings is 90 minutes. A general consensus is there across industry that 45 to 90 minutes of trainings have yielded better results in terms of participation and high levels of interest. Gamification is another area which the industry experts feel could improve the efficiency of the soft skills domain as it increases the levels of interest in trainings. The companies would definitely want to try out this methodology and are using the soft skills trainings as a pilot study to analyze the benefits and drawbacks of using such a methodology.

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KEY LEARNING
Market Research: It plays a very important role in any business today. The basic premise for any strategic decision are the findings of a research study. Today the studies are carried out with deeper insights and made exhaustive to get a better understanding of problem. Secondary research: A lot of success of the research study is dependent on the secondary analysis of the study. The better the quality of secondary analysis, the better will be the result. Research Instruments: The data collection instruments are the source based on which the analysis is done. Questionnaire is one of the instrument which is the most common method of data collection. The questionnaires are to be prepared based on the type of respondents which we are targeting and should always be validated and tested for reliability. In-depth Interviews: The in-depth interviews are done to get a deeper insight into a problem. These interviews are carried out with experts who share their experience which would form as valuable input to solve the problem.

CHALLENGES FACED
During the course of the projects many challenges were encountered which are listed below: Respondents: Since the respondents were top Chief Learning Officers or of equivalent position, who would hardly have 10 to 15 minutes to spare for a survey we had tried to reduce the number of ranking questions in the questionnaire and instead directly asked them to select two most appropriate options. Company: The Company works on a small scale budget so it is not possible for them to get licensed tools for running statistical analysis so most of the questions were so designed that there is no need to include any statistical analysis. The percentages for the answers were used to interpret the research study. Data Collection: The data collection process involved constant reminders to the respondents to fill in the survey. The respondents, being in such high responsibility position, had very little time to fill in the survey.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY
BRUM, S. (n.d.). uri.edu/research. Retrieved from uri.edu/research:
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