TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      Consortium makes unsolicited bid for state’s 40% stake in Telkom

      12 August 2022

      Actually, solar users should pay more to access the grid – here’s why

      12 August 2022

      Fixing SA’s power crisis is not complex: it simply takes the will to do better

      12 August 2022

      Telkom says MTN talks remain on track

      12 August 2022

      Analysis | Rain muddies the waters with approach to Telkom

      11 August 2022
    • World

      Tencent woes mount, even after $560-billion selloff

      12 August 2022

      Huawei just booked its first sales rise since US blacklisting

      12 August 2022

      Apple remains upbeat about iPhone sales even as Android world suffers

      12 August 2022

      Ether at two-month high as upgrade to blockchain passes major test

      12 August 2022

      Gaming industry’s fortunes fade as pandemic ends

      11 August 2022
    • In-depth

      African unicorn Flutterwave battles fires on multiple fronts

      11 August 2022

      The length of Earth’s days has been increasing – and no one knows why

      7 August 2022

      As Facebook fades, the Mad Men of advertising stage a comeback

      2 August 2022

      Crypto breaks the rules. That’s the point

      27 July 2022

      E-mail scams are getting chillingly personal

      17 July 2022
    • Podcasts

      Qush on infosec: why prevention is always better than cure

      11 August 2022

      e4’s Adri Führi on encouraging more women into tech careers

      10 August 2022

      How South Africa can woo more women into tech

      4 August 2022

      Book and check-in via WhatsApp? FlySafair is on it

      28 July 2022

      Interview: Why Dell’s next-gen PowerEdge servers change the game

      28 July 2022
    • Opinion

      No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

      11 July 2022

      Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

      8 July 2022

      South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

      4 July 2022

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»Promoted Content»The big mistake companies make in their approach to learning

    The big mistake companies make in their approach to learning

    Promoted Content By Prime Reason2 August 2021
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    Many organisations today are more concerned with the impact of learning on their BEE scorecard than using it to build organisational capacity.

    The B-BBEE scorecard is a real thing and has huge commercial impact on all companies. According to Angus Young, director at Prime Reason, submitting a workplace skills plan (WSP) or workplace skills report (WSR), is a tick-box exercise that consumes a huge amount of resources. “It’s all about trying to hit the numbers, not just in volumes of people trained to meet targets, but in terms of financial requirements.”

    “Investment” into learning is often driven by the financial director looking at the forecast and determining how much should be spent on training. Enter Excel – everyone scrambles to find the numbers and make sure it’s a fit.

    Organisations need to look for a system or process that helps them to create a coherent training plan that uses a skills gap analysis…

    Building a WSR is often as unsophisticated as logging employee names against courses, then importing information into a report that’s used to determine the learning plan for the following year. Worse still, this is often used to “build” and submit the WSP for the next year … so an imperfect process is used to create an imperfect plan.

    To build an effective learning strategy, one that focuses on building organisational capacity, requires an organisation to unpack its short- to medium-term strategy and ask, “How will or must our business change to remain competitive and viable?” says Young.

    Coherent plan

    “Critical aspects are understanding the impact of the fourth Industrial Revolution and looking at what skills we need to teach existing employees. Recruiting all these resources is simply not viable and new joiners will most certainly ask what commitments the company has to their future development. It could be argued that this is more relevant and important for smaller businesses than enterprise organisations.

    “Organisations need to look for a system or process that helps them to create a coherent training plan that uses a skills gap analysis to unpack exactly what kind of training is needed, by whom, and in which area of the business,” says Young.

    In the perfect world, training requirements should be a natural part of every employee’s development discussion (not to be confused with performance management). Instead of asking the managers what training they want and adding lists to a spreadsheet, identify meaningful skills development and training courses (including internal training) and let employees choose from these. Managers should ensure that the training offered to their teams is relevant and interesting, as this will foster deeper engagement across team and company culture.

    “By analysing the entire workforce, the organisation can find the skills it needs today, uncover any looming gaps that may impact on performance, and plan ahead for the skills development it will need over the next few years,” says Young.

    A learning philosophy that meets genuine needs and fills important gaps ensures the company is creating a skilled pool of people that can fundamentally impact productivity and the bottom line. Done correctly, both organisational capacity and B-BBEE skills development mandates can be achieved and sustained.

    Platforms impact opportunity

    “A robust learning platform can become the repository for intellectual capital within the organisation,” says Young. “By creating a portal that’s easy to access and that includes all the company’s training and compliance mandates, you are giving people the chance to further their knowledge beyond the boundaries of their current roles. Human capital is incredibly important to nurture, and most talent today looks to what training a company offers as part of its decision-making process – if you want the best talent, you need to invest into talent.”

    A well-designed learning platform should also include policies, programmes and regulations around occupational health and safety, onboarding, compliance, electronic communications, disciplinary conduct, and more. If the system is simple and user friendly, then it will tick another box for the business, perhaps one of the most important – making sure that compliance and management tools are accessible and efficient so that the business is on a sound legal footing.

    “The impact of a compliant and experience-driven learning platform is massive,” says Young. “If the system is easy to use and relevant, it will deliver return on its investment time and time again. And yes, the investment can be hefty for an enterprise-grade learning system. But there are ways of building learning platforms slowly and steadily within carefully managed budgets that achieve the same results.”

    If the system is easy to use and relevant, it will deliver return on its investment time and time again

    With the right infrastructure, the organisation can start with only a few training courses and policy documents, slowly building up its library over time and as finances allow. This gives smaller companies room to expand their skills development portfolio without losing out to the bigger companies.

    “We help organisations to gather all their artefacts, training courses and learning done in the past and to create a platform that pulls together all the relevant elements into one central space,” says Young. “This can transform engagement and skills development without a heavy cost outlay. You can then add to the platform as required, growing a skills resource that will stand the business in good stead for years.”

    Angus Young offers insight into all aspects of the human capital lifecycle. Read his views on recruitment, onboarding and the value of analytics.

    About Prime Reason
    Prime Reason helps companies unlock potential – intelligently. We provide you with a blend of market-leading talent acquisition and management expertise with next-generation platforms and toolkits to provide a boutique talent and HR solution that meets changing market needs. Find us on Facebook and LinkedIn.

    • This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned
    Angus Young Prime Reason
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleMTN Nigeria earnings soar despite Sim restrictions
    Next Article FNB rolls out mobile ATMs in unrest-hit areas

    Related Posts

    Get your brand in front of TechCentral’s amazing audience

    12 August 2022

    Pricing Beyond CMYK: printers answer the FAQs

    11 August 2022

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Get your brand in front of TechCentral’s amazing audience

    12 August 2022

    Pricing Beyond CMYK: printers answer the FAQs

    11 August 2022

    How secure is your cloud?

    10 August 2022
    Opinion

    No reason South Africa should have a shortage of electricity: Ramaphosa

    11 July 2022

    Ntshavheni’s bias against the private sector

    8 July 2022

    South Africa can no longer rely on Eskom alone

    4 July 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.