It is no secret that intangible assets such as skilled employees, exceptional leadership, and a strong knowledge base play a critical role in creating well-rounded and sustainable organisational success.
Learning and development takes on special strategic significance in a niche segment such as research and development. And this is the formula Samsung has applied to the Samsung R&D Institute to yield exceptional results.
During an insightful conversation with Manavi Pathak, Head – Learning and Organisational Development, Samsung R&D Institute, she spoke about the importance of focusing on learning, creating the right ecosystem that aids employees’ learning journey and much more.
Shifts in business ecosystem influencing workforce and L&D trends
Pathak outlined the top trends shaping the current talent and learning strategies for organisations:
Skill-based talent outlook: Pathak believes the shift toward skill-based hiring and talent development has elevated the role of L&D practitioners in the workplace. “Earlier, we used to hire MTech and PhD scholars in our R&D setup through sponsored programs in collaboration with I.I.Sc. and I.I.Ts. But now we are spending more on upskilling people on specific skills such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and mobile tech. We are also working with both Indian Universities and Korean Head Quarters to improve our Capabilities ,” she explained. The intent is to create relevance and results, and also increase engagement and ownership in learners.
The importance of need-based learning: With complex challenges including fixed learning budgets, organisations must understand, prioritise and focus on the need for learning. “How do we meet organisational demands while selling growth to learners in a way that they own their growth and development?” Pathak asked.
Learning utilisation and learning-pull: Today, it has become important to be mindful of how much can employees learn when the onus is on the learners – especially when unlimited digital learning is available. 70% of Samsung R&D’s workforce constitutes of Gen Z and millennials, whose attitude towards their jobs and careers is very different from that of, say, millennials and boomers. It has been observed that the self-learning format can lead to ‘lonely learner syndrome’ wherein learners don’t have the focused time, enthusiasm or energy to complete a learning module. Pushing employees to learn more can be challenging, and organisations must figure out interesting and effective ways to create learner-readiness and to get their workforce invested in the growth mindset.
Building a culture of innovation and learning
Pathak understands that continuous learning is an ongoing challenge. “We talk about the importance of learning and we feel we are practicing it, but how much are we actually able to achieve?” she questions.
A culture of creativity and innovation is a part of Samsung’s organisational DNA, and is driven primarily by business strategy. The business context ties into the learning strategy, with a training plan calendar rolled out at the beginning of the year. Hence, L&D is well-aligned to the HR and business strategy, focusing on building talent and skills in critical areas.
“Every year we start with training needs analysis with businesses inputs, a learning calendar is developed and delivered. We also incorporate feedback and check for knowledge and skill improvement as per the Kirk Patrick model,” Pathak said. Strong focus on leadership development has led to certain flagship programs, such as the “Thought Leadership Program” (for senior leaders, in collaboration with IIM Bangalore), the Women’s Leadership Program (for developing women leaders), and the First Time Management Program. These initiatives serve as aspirations, with senior leaders having the opportunity to nominate outstanding employees. They play a crucial role in internal talent recognition, fostering leadership development, and empowering individuals to embody Samsung’s core values such as creativity, empathy, and confidence.
Alongside these flagship programs, just-in-time skill needs are also periodically accommodated and constitute around 10-15% of the total learning interventions.
From a learner perspective, catering to the multigenerational and hybrid workforce requires L&D to make learning interesting in different ways. Hence, multiple approaches, from LXP, LMS, gamification, creating relevant and engaging learning content, are used. “We use learning tech to make learning reachable, engaging and in-the-flow-of-work. Our learning philosophy is ‘whatever works for each learner’’ Pathak said.
Further, tech-driven learning is supported by a range of in-house and external flagship training programs. For example, HiPo and senior leadership programs are mostly conducted in collaboration with external vendors, a lot of the technical training takes place in-house or in conjunction with institutional collaborations. Currently, around 60-70% training is done with external vendors in the tech domain.
Learning is intricately tied in with the overall people agenda. The Samsung learning ethos believes in developing a strong internal talent pool, with heavy investment in developing talent in niche areas. Entry-level talent is hired from top engineering colleges through a strong campus program with evaluation of skills such as growth mindset, learning orientation, innovation, and scaling up in the face of uncertainty. Once candidates join, proper onboarding, culture acclimatisation, and technical and behavioural training is mandated. “We pride ourselves in having talent stay long-term, with low attrition levels. But for new business areas, we do hire externally to a certain extent,” Pathak shared. The learning culture is driven from the headquarters, with well-defined KPIs of 40-50 learning hours per employee.
Upskilling is viewed as a means to support and empower the workforce for employee engagement, and talent retention and to build a strong leadership pipeline. This drives the Samsung R&D learning culture.
Preparing for a digital-first future of work through skilling
Samsung R&D’s learning strategy is incomplete without a futuristic skills-outlook. Hence, stringent hiring criteria for campus hiring involves scouting for advanced proficiencies in digital skills. After joining as well, new hires must pass internal selection tests before they can start working on the job. To enable this, threshold competencies have been defined with a “basket of offerings” enables learners to prepare for the future of work. For behavioural skills, extensive support is derived from the headquarters L&D setup, sending top talent for global programs centered around agility, business acumen, emotional intelligence and strategic leadership. However, the future is difficult to predict, especially in technical skills, so the strategy is to focus on immediate needs and continuously evolve. For example, technical training on generative AI, AI-ML is offered with multiple partner vendors. Good knowledge management practices, ways of retaining organisational information (through own patents and IPs) and a strong focus on recognising people for their work add to the upskilling focus.
One of the key success factors for L&D is the CTO and MD being deeply involved, ensuring apt recognition of work in the L&D space.
In a nutshell
For sustaining continuous learning, it is important to measure the outcomes. “We make sure to not only deliver learning programmes, but measure the impact of learning efforts in organisational success,” Pathak said. Samsung’s way of assessing ROI is to not just focus on the learning objectives, but to analyse the expected business impact, whether it is an increase in engagement scores or an improvement in the Samsung cultural index. Samsung R&D follows the Kirk Patrick model to make learning programs business-centric and aligned with organisational outcomes. However, it is important to note that the current generation is not looking at a diploma or degree, with most learners happy with certificate courses, badges, a sense of completion, and recognition. Generating that sense of ownership and pride around learning is the key to learning success. 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!