“L&D teams need to focus on impact that justifies investment”

Interview of the Day: “L&D teams need to focus on impact that justifies investment”

Raghavendra K, Vice President and Head HR, Infosys BPO

How can companies increase learning and development effectiveness with decreased budgets during a slowdown? 

Amongst the many approaches, a couple of areas where LD effectiveness has been enhanced is the focus on digitisation and proper vendor management.  Where ROI is something which is increasingly being asked for, everyone is looking at cutting costs. The need is to additionally look at impact and outcomes which justifies the investment and this is something the L&D team needs to be conscious of. Based on outcomes, more often than not, it is the people in operations who then become the advocates for additional investments in employee development. There has to be a strong belief and conviction that our employees are our real assets and we need to invest in them to get returns. While developing and firming up the training calendar and interventions the L&D would need to dovetail and prioritize the offerings based on the business need and availability of budgets. The focus has to be on offerings and interventions which will have maximum impact on both the top/ bottom line of the organisation.

What should LD professionals keep in mind?

In order to meet the growing demands of the market and budget constraints, knowledge professionals have to constantly create, innovate and produce learning experiences to help build tomorrow’s enterprises. Today Infosys BPO has translated the L&D expertise into various training programs to create a talent pipeline for the entire Industry. We have taken learning and development outside the confines of the organization and across global borders to build human capabilities. As part of this strategic capability building, collaborating with the experts and leveraging on their experience and expertise organizations should look at different approaches to institutionalize and be ahead of the curve with respect to learning processes and its life cycle. Recently, Infosys BPO and the American Society for Learning & Development joined hands to host L&D Insights Summit where over 150 CLOs and L&D professionals participated. In this learning conference, experts reflected the current L&D trends, the future of L&D, the significance of linking learning to business and valuable knowledge sharing.

How can operations managers be convinced of the ‘ROI’ of LD initiatives during a downturn?

It is important to get buy-in from operations managers for the LD initiatives. In our organisation, we have a ‘Training Council’ which comprises of operations managers who endorse and ensure implementation of new learning initiatives. The council develops the Training Road Map that aligns with meeting the customer’s requirement. Involving the folks from operations and line into decision making provides the required buy-in. We also measure the training effectiveness using the Kirk Patrick model up to level 3 and assess the impact of delta in behaviour and capability.

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