A culture of learning: How our L&D policy helped advance Ankit and Vijayalakshmi’s skills
“If you want to be anything in this life, be a lifelong learner”
One thing that has kept HR heads on their toes, apart from disruption caused by remote work, is the constantly evolving space of learning & development. Upskilling and reskilling aren’t mere buzzwords, rather imperatives in the merit driven world of work. In the dynamic arena of technology, it is skills that determine the success of individuals and startups.
After all, a company’s growth depends on individual growth and individual growth hinges on the quest to learn and update themselves with latest in technology. Organisations that support employee learning have been known to reap massive benefits- right from lower attrition, better product to happy customers.
At OkCredit, L&D is of paramount importance. That’s why, while learning has been happening across the organisation in various shapes and forms, this year we decided to give a formal structure to it in the form of a L&D policy.
Our L&D policy ensures that employees are supported and enabled to meet changing demands of the company which is in line with the strategic objectives. In fact, it’s one of the key pillars of our employee engagement doctrine wherein the idea is to enhance employee retention and motivation through a consistent learning and development approach.
“Organisations have typically looked at L&D as professional upgrade in terms of skillsets. However, we believe learning is much deeper. It’s also about the passions you want to pursue on a personal level which help in shaping an overall personality. We are therefore supporting employees in their personal development needs as well”, says Vishal Aman, Chief of Staff at OkCredit.
Apart from the hard core skill based learning, behavioral soft skills- empathy, collaboration, integrity and accountability go a long way in building a sustainable organisation. OkCredit has tied up with InnerFit, a soft skill leadership coaching platform which is helping in the transformation of second level managers.
InnerFit helps us identify, measure and bring behaviours that engage and motivate employees. There are fun nudges which help bring an improvement in work life. For example- a nudge to speak up and give actionable feedback helps in lowering manager fatigue and collaboration across teams.
As OkCredit gets into multiple products that solve the pain points of SMBs, expanding skill sets of employees is a must to meet this strategic goal. Some of our new products will be designed on the back of extensive data on the merchant ecosystem. Moreover, because of our focus on first time internet users, design and marketing are of utmost importance.
That’s why when Ankit Goel, our visual designer decided to pursue a UI/UX course, he didn’t have to think twice about costs etc.
“ In marketing, we have to design a lot of landing pages, requiring bandwidth from the UI/UX team. This course will not only expand my design portfolio but will also boost my skills to offer more value in the marketing team”, he says
Enthused by our formal L&D plan, VijayaLakshmi took up a SQL course to hone her data skills. Vijayalakshmi looks after offline sales at OkCredit.
“ I have been taking interest in data analytics lately. With the help of a few colleagues, I have learnt to use Mixpanel. One of my colleagues recommended a SQL course which could help me in Mixpanel as well as enhancing my data skills. The best part about OkCredit ‘s L&D programme is that encourages us to become better not just professionally but personally as well.
In a world where knowledge is fast becoming obsolete, L&D indeed has a huge role to play. We have also seen informal learning- coaching, mentoring, on the job instruction being significantly important for the development of our employees.
