How digital is driving L&D through the pandemic

COVID-19 is no time for L&D professionals to take a break. Jerene Ang finds out how Circles.Life, Digi, Lemi, Moët Hennessy Asia Pacific, and OCBC Bank are adapting their L&D programmes to suit the current climate, and how they will evolve to become the ‘new normal’.

The pandemic has put the brakes on business growth across many sectors, but there’s no time for L&D professionals to take a break.

The need for L&D hasn’t changed in light of COVID-19. Alex Nicolaus, Head of People & Culture, Circles.Life, and author of Startup Culture™, says: “If anything, it has highlighted how important learning and development is, as part of enabling the future workforce to be resilient and adaptable in the face of uncertainty.”

Talk of e-learning – digital, mobile, and virtual – has been on the cards for months now. But with the outbreak, those companies that haven’t already had plans in place have been forced to reconsider their choice of learning platforms.

In this feature, we find out how Circles.Life, Digi, Lemi, Moët Hennessy Asia Pacific, and OCBC Bank are adapting their learning programmes to suit the current climate, and how they will evolve to become the ‘new normal’.

Upskilling 101: How Circles.Life overcame a key challenge of online learning

Making virtual learning more engaging was a key focus for Circles.Life when offline learning had to be moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, says Alex Nicolaus, the firm's Head of People & Culture, and author of Startup Culture™.

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Upskilling 101: How Digi advocates a ‘freedom to learn’ culture among employees

At Digi, one big change that helped pave the way for online learning was the shift away from the mindset that learning only happens in classrooms or through courses. Rafey Majeed, Head of Talent, Learning and Rewards, talks about how employees are empowered to take responsibility of their learning, the key tools it invested in on this journey, and more.

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Upskilling 101: How Lemi has ensured a productive L&D approach during the pandemic

Having always operated remotely, with a team based across the globe, training at growing start-up Lemi has been, for the most part, virtual. Elaine Carag, Chief of Staff, Lemi, shares how this helped when the pandemic first struck, the brand's long-term vision for its L&D strategy, and more.

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Upskilling 101: Autonomy, empowerment, and more - Moët Hennessy's key to taking learning virtual

While going fully virtual had its perks, such as enabling learning beyond geographical borders, the firm believes that one form of learning does not replace another shares Amy Kong, Regional Senior Manager, Organisational Development & Learning.

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Upskilling 101: Content, experience, branding. How OCBC Bank enabled learning during the COVID-19 crisis

Yap Aye Wee, Head of Learning & Development and Organisational Development, Group Human Resources, OCBC Bank, shares how the bank enabled employees to continue learning throughout the COVID-19 crisis, and its L&D plans as it transits into the 'new normal'.

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Learning from the pandemic experience

Whether an organisation already has a foundation of virtual learning or not, moving L&D fully virtual at a moment’s notice is definitely no easy feat. Nevertheless, such an experience of a lifetime, and the key learnings that emerge, are likely to prove useful when approaching similar projects in the future where change is the only constant.

This article first appeared as part of a feature in the May-June 2020 e-mag edition of Human Resources, Singapore, and will appear in the upcoming Q2 2020 edition of Human Resources, Malaysia. Read the case study in the e-mag, or the full feature here. 

Photos / Provided