Personalised learning

Some time ago, at a seminar, a delegate told me during a break: “Coming here is ok for status, but we should never ask for training. It shows weakness.” I rarely heard a more stupid comment.

Willingness to learn, on the contrary, shows maturity and confidence in one’s potential. Just like encouraging it, on the company’s side, shows a correct understanding on how the value of its human capital is built, maintained and increased. A proactive approach from both sides is particularly important.

Corporate training programmes are excellent in improving general skills, but if someone takes the initiative to highlight a specific need, that’s where organisations have an opportunity to really let someone shine.

To spot these opportunities, HR professionals should know the profiles of their people well, and have a clear understanding of their current roles. Internal training from expert colleagues is an option that is often underestimated in individualising learning and development programmes.

Chandrani Chakraborty

Head of Organisation and Talent Development, Citi South Asia

At Citi India, we champion the “Personalised Organisational Development” plans that engage high potential employees to deal with three pillars:

»   Job Challenges: What are the aspects of the current and future aspiration role that challenge the individual? Our belief is that as long as individuals are challenged, they continue to learn out of those challenges and engage in the role.

»   Assessment: 360-degree assessments form the key of a personalised assessment programme. Our belief is that self awareness and matching of self perception with peers is a powerful point to initiate any need and motivation for development.

»   Support: This is the culmination point of challenges and learning needs of the role and development needs of the individual. This is where a detailed personalised plan is drawn out and has a committed sign off from all stake holders.

The three pillars are brought together by creating “learning value” for the individual with commitment to the development plan.

Vincy Ng

HR Director, Asia Pacific, Brady Corporation

We are building up our leadership bench strength, part of Brady’s plan to quadruple in size over the next ten years. The vision that I have is that every employee will have the opportunity to be trained to ensure that they have maximum effectiveness and they can reach their potential.

This will be achieved through four separate training areas:

»  Foundation: Looks at orientation and new hire training. This is a key building block for the next two areas.

»   Professional: Looks at key functional areas including HR, Finance and Marketing

»   Personal: Looks at soft skills development and individual effectiveness. These both lead to the final area.

»        Leadership: Looks at relationship and people development skills, and getting the most out of the people that work for you.

These are the building blocks for a comprehensive matrix of training options that give all Brady staff the chance to be their best.