Faces of HR: Avinash Kohli on Boeing International's new approach to learning

Avinash Kohli, Director of Leadership, Learning & Organisational Capability, Boeing International, shares the firm's unified, global approach to learning and development.

Q What is your organisation’s approach towards creating a learning culture that is connected, continuous and collaboration-driven?

It is important to understand that Boeing has a heritage that is a century old. Overtime, it has undergone multiple transformations, mergers, and acquisitions that have formed the large organisation that we see today. Our enterprise strategy reflects the learnings that we gained through this century-long journey.

As an enterprise, we are focused on implementing 'One Boeing 21st Century Learning' and developing a world-class digital workforce. This unified, global approach to learning and development is built through our commitment to the Boeing Behaviors – namely, Be Empowered, which charges leaders and employees to invest in our team and empower each other. We are moving from traditional learning models to digital learning that is recognisable and relevant to the rising workforce, and empowers people to drive their own destinies.

Q What do you think is driving the change in learning culture - is it the changing demographics (Millennials) alone?

It is a known fact that Millennials have started to emerge as a majority proportion of the current workforce, and their expectations of learning and development opportunities differ from previous generations.

However, changes in learning culture can be attributed to variety of other macro-economic factors like dynamic business landscape, talent/skill markets, customer needs and technological advancements. Today, Boeing is not only competing for top skills and talent within the aviation industry but across all industries.

According to Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends Report 2019, by 2020, there will be triple the number of self-employed workers, going up to 42mn in the United States. 50% of employees in the same survey also said it’s easier to quit their job to get a promotion and advance versus grow internally. This poses a big challenge to learning teams within the organisation to build a culture that provides opportunities for continuous learning and growth.

Q What is the L&D’s role in developing and sustaining high performance work teams?

High performing work teams are characterised by highly skilled individuals working together under the right leadership and focusing on established organisational objectives.

In today’s day and age, with the shelf life of skills diminishing, L&D’s responsibility to keep employees upskilled and motivated through curated skill-building resources becomes ever more important.

According to the 2018 Workforce Learning Report by LinkedIn, 93% of employees would stay at a company longer if it invested in their careers –making it critical for L&D to fulfil learning aspirations amongst employees. Sustaining skill building is a growth imperative for our business.

Q What do you want people to get out of your session during the Learning & Development Asia 2019?

My session focuses on 'Building a learning culture to develop high-potential workforce in a global organisation'. Some of the tangible takeaways for the attendees would be:

• Busting the myths around developing a coherent learning culture in global organisations, what are some of the challenges that we face
• Some practical tips and steps that we have incorporated in our learning culture framework
• Stories of some of the ongoing initiatives at Boeing where we are trying to make learning opportunities available for our diverse dispersed workforce

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Catch Avinash Kohi’s session at #LearningDevelopmentAsia this 17-18 September 2019 as he discusses on some practical tips and initiatives in Boeing towards creating a culture framework to develop high-potential workforce.

Visit the event website to check out the stellar speaker list and reserve your seat! Or you can simply email our friendly colleagues at renamelt@humanresourcesonline.net and ryanc@humanresourcesonline.net to find out more.