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Organisations should not have a status quo learning agenda; it is important to know at which juncture you are, and how it is maturing or progressing, we learn from Zubair Raffiq, Talent & Culture Director, Coca-Cola Beverages, Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei. Arina Sofiah reports.
How do you find the right balance between expanding talent initiatives and still prioritising business needs? This timeless dilemma has long plagued people teams, but currently rings particularly true as pursuing efficiency and productivity while navigating budgetary constraints has become even more crucial for most learning leaders.
In a fireside chat with HRO’s Aditi Sharma Kalra at Learning and Development Asia 2024, Malaysia, Zubair Raffiq, Talent & Culture Director, Coca-Cola Beverages, Singapore, Malaysia & Brunei, talked about how to efficiently take stock of your learning portfolio.
For him, it starts at the very top, which means having a holistic view — what is your intention? What phase are you at with your organisation? Have you just started, and are cultivating a learning culture, or are you at the phase where you're sustaining a learning culture?
Organisations should not have a status quo learning agenda; it is important to know at which juncture you are, and how it is maturing or progressing.
Once you understand this, the next step is to measure against your own yardstick. This includes, for example, understanding what the population of your organisation is that you perhaps intend to put through to either specific programmes or your regular programmes. While doing so, it may also help to have external references, which includes knowing the market rate, or the cause and impact of certain initiatives.
From there, you can segment your approach into some key considerations:
• What are your baseline programmes that all associates will need to go through, and how much would that cost?
• What are your special programmes that you want to invest your high potentials in, and what will be the investment here?
• What are your aspirational capabilities that you want to build in the organisation, and how do you invest in those as well?
Altogether, it is about breaking it down into smaller chunks, building it bottom up, and knowing what your big-picture ambition and direction is.
Part of the process also includes evaluating the effectiveness of the learning providers & partners you engage with. The speaker shares his own secret approach that he utilises when doing so. As a basis, it is important to first and foremost keep in mind what you want with your learning agenda, and what impact and fulfilment your employees can gain.
With this guiding philosophy as a foundation, the speaker then shares a unique strategy he employs for a more thorough assessment — CAFE.
- C: Content — How customisable is the content, how in depth and how will it be developed?
- A: Agile — How agile are the vendors in adjusting and following through with the needs and progress of the programme?
- F: Facilitation — How do you facilitate a meaningful session? What is the creativity & intent of session to deliver maximum impact?
- E: Experience — How can we create a meaningful & memorable experience for employees going through a program to ensure retention of knowledge.
When it comes to linking learning initiatives to business outcomes, the session also explored the potential key business outcomes to measure. Of course, metrics such as productivity hours or even reduction of errors is crucial, but to Zubair, qualitative inputs are also a great measure of ROI especially in the form of receiving personal feedback and results from the business.
"Your business leaders do not need to be sold on ROI. When they learn about the programme and see direct reports telling them about the impact — I think that beats all the numbers that you can turn up in a dashboard."
Evidently, navigating the crossroads of talent development and business priorities demands a deliberate and strategic approach. As highlighted in the discussion, understanding where your organisation stands, measuring progress against clear benchmarks, and building a scalable learning framework are essential steps.
Ultimately, the most compelling measure of success comes not just from dashboards but from the real-world impact learning initiatives have on employees and business outcomes. When programmes spark conversations, inspire teams, and resonate with leadership, they transcend their metrics — becoming a core driver of organisational success.
These are just some of the insights shared at our Learning & Development Asia 2024, Malaysia conference.
Human Resources Online would like to thank all speakers, moderators, panellists, and attendees for being valuable contributors to this event.
We would also like to extend our gratitude to our sponsors & partners for making this conference possible:
Platinum Sponsor
Coachology
Gold Sponsors
Globis Asia Pacific
StoryIQ
Silver Sponsors
Fish Camp Learning
Hong Bao Media
Exhibitors
ArcLab
Edu-CLaas
Leadapreneur
Mango Training
Event Partner
Pigeonhole
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