Digitalisation of L&D to Augment Learning Experience | Poonam Chandok | Head L&D | Corporate HR | Larsen & Toubro

Larsen & Toubro, a USD 21 billion conglomerate is an Indian multinational engaged in EPC Projects, Hi-Tech Manufacturing and Services, is aggressively pursuing “Digitalisation” as a strategic theme. It is one of the focus areas in long-term strategy plan Lakshya-2021 and Perspective Plan-2026. Management is committed to put significant investment and talent into the digital efforts to change the way oragnisation works.

Traditional Instructor Led Training (ILT) or Web Based Training (WBT) is not able to meet the growing demand of upskilling in an effective and efficient way. Many changes are happening in the way learning function is being processed e.g. Human generated competency models are being replaced by machine generated taxonomies, company-identified experts to community-identified experts, academic mindset to learner journey mindset. To remain engaging, relevant, and topical, the traditional learning approaches needs to be augmented by emerging technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing.

At L&T, we have undertaken an OD project to shift upskilling efforts towards effective utilisation of emerging technologies and align the learning outcomes to personal development plans and functional competency requirements, provide personalised and gamified experience by using a blend of digital platforms and physical setup.

A state-of-art technology was implemented and branded as ATLNext. It is a customized LXP (Learning Experience Platform) powered by AI, ML & NLP technologies to provide a personalized learning experience to the learners. It makes learning fun and intuitive. To put in perspective, it is like Netflix in L&D space. It automates the learning process and improves the learning effectiveness by providing a very personalized experience while keeping it aligned with organisation’s competency needs.

A very large-scale pilot, taking sample from seven business units and ten competencies conducted to get feedback from every nook & corner of the organisation before organisation wide rollout. Five Thousand users voluntarily chose to participate in the pilot.

To augment the ILT & WBT, the typical learning path offered to the learners were five complementary learning objects to foster engagement, effectiveness, and retention. These are small video called Inspire, an eLearning module called Session, graphic summaries called Essentials, a summary document called Action Tips and pre & post assessments. A strong recommendation engine reinforces the learning by recommending relevant byte size learning objects spaced in time.

To gauge the business impact, effectiveness of learning and learner’s engagement, a comprehensive index is developed and tracked called “Learning Index”. It holistically measures progress in competency enhancement by tracking twenty-three parameters in three planes namely “Retention & Recall”, “Depth & Width” and “Educate & Share”. Each parameter has different weightages and differs based on hierarchical level. e.g. for senior management, weightage of educate & share is more compare to junior or front-line managers. This is a very robust index which provides a good proxy to the increase in competency level on a weekly basis and helps in talent discovery to the organisation.

The last three years of implementation of this OD project of digitalisation of L&D, reaped many benefits for L&T. It democratized the learning for the employees, provided an effective channel to work-on competencies employees want to improve upon. The ultimate success story is use of “Learning Index” data, which gave us a pool of learners who can be potential SME in their respective topics.
When pandemic hit all of us and WFH became a norm, it tested the experience learners were getting at its core. It was so good that in one month of the pandemic, more than two lakh training hours were consumed by employees and that trend is continuing, even though majority of L&T-ites are back at their project locations.

Due to various interventions and institutionalization efforts, ATLNext is very firmly placed on top of the learning ecosystem of L&T, providing an engaged and augmented learning experience to the learners.

Authors:
1. Ms Poonam Chandok- Head L&D, Corporate HR, Larsen & Toubro
2. Dr Rajiv Sinha – Head Business Excellence, L&D, Corporate HR, Larsen & Toubro