Building the future of work will take a mammoth collaboration of business intelligence, human capital management and technological transformation. At the core of this shift is the vital role of continuous learning and development in enabling businesses, leaders, employees and teams to work optimally. To design and implement impactful learning programs, it’s imperative to decode what’s driving the L&D agenda today. In this conversation with Binu Phillips, CHRO – Greater India, Schneider Electric, we dissect the leading learning trends in the industry and discuss how to be future-ready.
Industry trends and their impact on the L&D strategy at Schneider Electric
Binu shares that two significant trends are impacting how organisations are designing their learning strategies:
Emerging technologies: In the last couple of years, the emergence of new technologies has impacted operations across industries and verticals. Schneider Electric has one of its largest R&D and digital communities in India, which ensures that the organisation evolves with emerging technologies, which is critical for our success. Since the pace of this emergence is swift, organisations also have to shift their gears rapidly.
Business transformations: Changes in business models and operations, both in terms of offerings and modes of working, have shifted a large part of business to the cloud, which requires a change in the way people are skilled. For the Indian market, specifically in the energy management and automation landscape, there is a shift to renewables, which adds another layer of skilling requirements specific to the industry.
Besides, geopolitical and legislative situations can change the skills requirements in different regions without much notice, which means organisations need to build skills according to new market realities, which depend on factors primarily out of control for businesses.
Creating a culture of continuous learning amidst such challenges is vital, and Schneider Electric has recently revised its people’s strategy to focus more on building a skills-first culture. As a part of this overhaul, the organisation has launched a set of new values, the primary of which is impact, and in multiple elements, like inclusion, action, curiosity, teamwork, along with developing mastery.
This new value statement for the company is about learning, gaining the required skills and achieving mastery on an individual and organisational level. Where many organisations struggle, and Schneider Electric is also trying to find answers to these questions, is how to measure this learning, empower people and enable a culture that makes learning the norm. It is the duty of the HR and top leadership to provide the right environment, both at a macro and micro level.
“At Schneider Electric, we believe curiosity is the foundation for innovation, so we have designed programs that directly impact these values that help people build an innovative mindset. We have consciously built a culture of curiosity to ensure that employees across levels and functions are more accepting of new ideas, willing to experiment and find creative solutions. People are generally curious, and we design our learning programs as expeditions to encourage that innate quality,” shared Binu.
For instance, Schneider Electric has distinct academies in HR, marketing, digital skills, and other vital competencies to help people build the skills needed for the future. At the same time, it’s essential to make this information accessible in a very localised and individualised manner so that learning is effective. For a global organisation like Schneider Electric, having the right mix of global and local context is essential. The final component of this mix is giving people the freedom to build their careers by offering different development pathways and letting them choose. By tying up with prominent educational universities, the company allows people to create not just learning capabilities but also upgrading their professional abilities. They also have a learning platform, called My Learning Link which encompasses all these diverse training programmes online. This combination of a business-led agenda that empowers learners while giving them choices makes an effective and employee-driven learning program.
Learning at Scheider Electric: Breaking down the data and trends
Given the variety and composite structure of many learning programs at Schneider Electric, it can be challenging to segregate all programs as purely internal or external, but there’s a roughly 70-30 mix favouring internal programs, Binu explained. While the goal is to have seven training days for every employee, there is a continuous effort to achieve that goal, and the organisation has committed under the UN Charter to provide training to all employees. About 98% of the company’s global employees receive some form of training; the eventual goal is to take it up to 100%.
Regarding talent building and development, the company balances internal processes to strengthen the workforce and external hiring to bring fresh perspectives through a 70-30 split, particularly for management and leadership roles. Similarly, when upskilling entry-level talent, there is a requirement to train nearly 1200 new employees. Through Schneider’s sustainability indices, the company can cater to the needs of a multigenerational workforce.
There is a heavy focus on training, which can last for several months. Depending on the role, different university acceleration programs have varied durations to make new employees market-ready. Several leaders, managers, and partners deliver these learning programs. The fact that there has been very low attrition at the entry-level shows the effectiveness of university acceleration programs in engaging and retaining younger employees.
Binu added, “Our Sustainability School has three levels to help learners understand environmental and sustainability concepts like net zero and carbon emission in the company’s business context, as well as our role in building a better future. This program has enriched several learners in comprehending sustainability from an entirely different lens and developing expertise by developing actionable future-oriented capabilities.”
There are various targeted programs with distinct objectives to support the organisation’s multi-dimensional skilling requirements. Consider the high-investment four-layered learning program in partnership with INSEAD that allows all global employees to upskill based on real-life and practical learning pedagogy, designed to offer a hybrid training approach. The program has been refined to match the offerings of any top business school in the world and has been instrumental in developing internal leaders.
Similarly, there’s a Champions Club for entry-level employees to hone young talent for leadership. There are also OJAS and TEJAS leadership programs for mid and senior-level leaders respectively. URJA is a self-nominated program that helps people develop and grow their careers independently. Gurukul, a recent program, is targeted at sales personnel to deepen their knowledge of company products. Furthermore, to ensure that Schneider Electric is able to leverage the talent of a skilled pool, there’s an open talent market platform where people can simply apply for roles that interest them without having to seek their manager’s permission or completing a minimum employment tenure.
Defining learning needs and establishing ROI
Binu said that it’s crucial to design the learning needs of any organisation around two significant factors: one, the change in business models and technologies, and two, the people who can drive your change agenda. There’s a certain sense of synergy between the two, as employers need to identify the shifts happening at the macro level and translate that into actionable learning for their employees. To understand where organisations want to go next and give people the room to decide the same, we need to make learning gradual and easy to articulate so that an individual can build the fundamental skills necessary to thrive in the future. Embedding these vital skills in every role and business process can help prepare for the future by designing programs or academics with significant engagement and participation.
“For Schneider Electric, people are at the centre of our learning initiatives. We balance business agendas and personal aspirations to ensure that while the organisation continues to transform, we simultaneously build the skills needed for a particular role and empower people with the support to deliver. This allows for harmonious organisational and individual growth,” said Binu.
While measuring the ROI, we must focus on what we want to measure instead of what is the norm. For example, instead of traditional measurement metrics, we can focus on gauging program access to measure enablement and understand how many programs are available versus what is being consumed. Similarly, L&D leaders need to explore if they can link learning to actual rewards and career impact, which can also elevate the overall employee experience. The default metric for many programs in the industry is attrition, but expanding this entry point to incorporate talent growth, feedback from people and their experience can make the calculation of ROI more robust.
External recognition is an indicator that you are doing something right. Forbes India recognised Schneider Electric for developing global leaders, SHRM did the same for developing leaders of tomorrow, ETHR recently recognised their learning culture with a gold award, and the Indo-French Chamber of Commerce recognised us for our upskilling initiatives.
We are thrilled to announce the release of the Skillscape 2024: Navigating India’s Talent Horizon. Brought to you by UNext Learning & People Matters, this report offers valuable insights into navigating the future of work. Download your copy now!