How to create a high-impact learning culture

To stay relevant in today's VUCA world, learning and development is essential. However, for effective learning to take place, having a high-impact learning culture at your organisation is crucial.

According to HR professionals who sat on a panel at Human Resources' Training and Development Asia 2015, a high impact learning culture is all about re-framing the concept of learning and integrating it into the work that employees do on a daily basis.

It is about making sure that what companies are doing in the learning space benefits the business and employees at the same time - in terms of being aligned to the vision and value of the business, improving employee engagement and embracing curiosity at the workplace.

Now that we know what it is, how do we go about building that culture at our workplace?

"What we do is allow employees to say they are curious. It is a capability that we want to grow and applaud," said Anna Tan, MD of Wentworth People.

"When our team meets, we ask everyone to share a nugget for the month, what you learnt, what is interesting and what might be useful," she added.

Ujjwal Sarao, regional director of talent management at Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) Southeast Asia, agreed and introduced the concept of the DAN Learning Academy, where the company is "developing people on how to be curious".

"Yes, the research shows you can actually teach people how to be curious," she affirmed.

The Academy, she said, is based 60% on developing skill sets and 40% about developing the mindset.

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Tan Ong Jin, regional HR business partner at AXA Insurance, spoke about the importance of leadership buy-in.

"The leadership has to believe in it and and they have to create the roles to allow their people to develop.When you get the leadership in place, everything else flows."

At Royal Dutch Shell, where learning is centralised under HR, Manojit Sen, head of HR, APAC (Lubes) added that it was also about "ensuring that what we brought to the table was really relevant."

With that said, merely creating this culture is not enough, it also has to be reinforced.

The budgets for learning and development have to be in place, HR has to remind business leaders that learning and development is for the good of the organisation, and make sure enough is done to support that in the organisation.

At the same time, the impact of learning and development has to be measured and people have to be held accountable for developing others, the panelists agreed.

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Image: L-R Cynthia Stuckey, MD APAC of The Forum Corporation (moderator); Ujjwal Sarao, regional director, talent management of Dentsu Aegis Network Southeast Asia; Manojit Sen, head of HR, APAC (Lubes) at Royal Dutch Shell; Tan Ong Jin, regional HR business partner at AXA Insurance and Anna Tan, MD of Wentworth People.