The changing face of corporate training

March 22 2011

Times Ascent

Sanjay Kamlani puts a global slant on employee training.

By Sheetal Srivastava

Do you still associate corporate training programmes with boring classroom sessions? Think again, as it has undergone a major makeover in India Inc.

Ever wondered going for a corporate training programme away from the hustle and bustle of city life? Not only that, a training programme which is full of adventure activities like Zorbing, Flying Fox, Paint Ball, Jet Ski, artificial rock climbing, para gliding, dirt biking, etc. Says Jimmy Mistry, founder, Della Adventure a company that organises corporate training, “There is a constant need for corporates to train their staff. Outdoor training in India has never been a permanent set up. There is much more to it than just a ‘tug of war.’ In firms these days, they make teams compete against each other on radio controlled cars, high rope obstacle course, rappling, paintball, etc. This helps them unwind and also improves their concentration, while laying extreme amount of emphasis on safety. We’ve also set up a telly games centre for corporate games.”

"In the modern day corporate world, the pressing need is that of execution, strategic thinking, working in dynamic teams and relationship building. In all these, an outdoor setting, which is less informal and more interactive are found to work better. We usually conduct programmes at sites which are far removed from the office environment, which force people together, and foster building of trust and relationships. In an easy and informal environment, strategic thinking comes easy," says Archana Shiroor, Head – Human Resources, Barclays Corporate – India.

While the standard needs to train professionals remain the same, a lot of impetus is now on innovation to make training more effective and impactful. “In 2010, Pangea3 University (the learning & development division of Pangea3) launched ‘Leadership Quest’, a bi-weekly leadership seminar for approximately 25 of their most senior managers and leaders. This program utilises leading business and management books and periodicals which the participants read and then meet to discuss in a guided round-table breakfast session. “Most recently, the participants read the book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard’ by Chip and Dan Heath. During the session, the group applied lessons from the book to develop solutions to influence changes in the behaviour of our 700 plus staff ranging from issues like time reporting, attendance, billing, interviewing, employee referrals and more,” says Sanjay Kamlani, co-founder and co-CEO, Pangea3.

“At Mirae Asset, to train our sales team we encourage experiential learning via role plays and quasi-reality scenario-based case studies. On the other hand, for our senior management executives, we conduct sessions on international business etiquettes wherein we tweak the class room training in such a manner that it emulates the real life scenario to the extent possible,” adds Surbhi Shweta, head – HR, Mirae Asset Global Investments (India).

An interesting study shows that what we read in universities becomes obsolete in a span of four years. “We believe in a holistic learning approach through a principle called the ‘70/20/10’ learning philosophy. 70 per cent of the learning happens on the job, 20 per cent is through feedback, coaching and mentoring and 10 per cent though the classroom,” says Subhankar Roy Chowdhury, executive director-HR – India, Middle East and Africa, Lenovo.

Training is an important aspect of a working professional’s life and it can only get better if organisations come forward and devise newer methods to upgrade their skills. In such a scenario, redefining corporate training is certainly the need of the hour.

What’s new?

Sumedha Nashikar, head - HR, KPIT Cummins Infosystems Ltd. enlists some new ways of corporate training:

- Experiential training
- On-the-job training
- e-Learning
- Usage of networking forums
- Virtual classrooms
- Webcasts
- Online certifications