‘Does E-learning work? Employees just click through the screen, how do we ensure effective learning?’ These are standard queries many HR professionals grapple with, when it comes to skilling initiatives.

The truth is, nothing works like E-Learning, for a large number of employees, scattered across geographies, on an ongoing basis. But we need to remember, that this is a remote medium – so, an effective organizational push is needed to make it work!

We got an opportunity to see how it can be done when we recently rolled out our Finance & Banking Fundamentals (International) courses across a technology company – a leader in banking products.

How did it all start?

This is a company, where domain knowledge is paramount. They’re a banking product company – so all their employees need the same domain competence.

They wished for every employee, to have foundation knowledge of the banking & financial services (BFS) domain. They decided to start with a pilot program with FLIP.

Ten employees – a mix of junior developers, senior business analysts and project managers – went through the program. Each week, they met for half an hour, to discuss topics, and keep the pace going.

The assessment was scheduled for 2 months later – and supervised. Not only did they all pass with flying colours, but they were delighted with what they learnt out of FLIP training.

“It was really interesting to relate the work I do, to the business functions. When a client spoke to me about interest accrual on a daily compounding basis, I knew exactly what he meant. It was quite a Eureka moment, after 10 years’ experience as a developer, a project lead and then a project manager!” said Smita, one of the First Ten.

The decision taken to roll it out, the leadership – including the MD - was involved and committed. Nothing can work without this critical buy-in.

Their HR & business leaders, and FLIP, worked together, to ensure employees participated, and learnt with zeal.

What made it possible?

We used three key initiatives:

• Ongoing, clear communication from SBU heads. This included a kick-off session for all employees, where they were addressed by the Global Delivery Head; and taken through the learning platform and courses, by FLIP.

• Carrots

• Sticks!

The Carrot & Stick Approach

• All employees who completed the internal assessment could take the FLIP certification exams – and get re-imbursed. They could then move on to the Intermediate and Expert level certifications, too.

• This would enable them to look at Business Analyst career options

• High scorers, get a congratulatory mail from the MD – and their photograph in the company Intranet!

These, obviously, were the carrots. What about the sticks?

• The Assessments were linked to the variable component of compensation (10-20% of CTC). No pass no get!

Outcome

FLIP provided excellent e-learning and ongoing support: the company provided the organizational push. The employees got skilling opportunities on an ongoing basis! E-Learning – done correctly - is the way to go . It works!