Ravindranath - I Strongly Believe in the Power of Facilitation and Conversation Which Provides Me With Energy

Head - Learning & Development

GATI Kintetsu Express Private Limited

24 years of industry association (17 years in Learning & Talent Development and initial 7 years in Business Development) across FMCG, Telecom, Insurance and Logistics sectors revolving around enabling human intellect and capability.

Experience in Business Development in the initial phase of my career and having held responsible positions in Direct Sales, Channel Sales, Key Account Management and Business Development has helped me graduate seamlessly into Training Operations & Management, Learning Solution Development & delivery, Trainer Capability development and Consulting.

1. Tell us about your background and journey.

In the past 17 years as a Learning & Organizational Development Professional, I have enjoyed working in the areas of leadership transitions, cultural assimilation, succession pipeline building and strengthening the pillars of culture.

I had conducted workshops for Front-line, Channel Partners, Supervisory, Middle & Senior Management levels of Organizations such as Matrimony.com, Bharti Airtel, ING Life Insurance, TATA Teleservices Limited,

I am a specialist in conceptualising and delivering Behavioural and Leadership interventions from a practical view point and mentor the learners towards implementation of the learning at the Workplace.

I am also adept at setting up Learning Academies for end-to-end Learning & Performance Solutions right from Training Need Identification to measuring effectiveness of Learning interventions (ROI) covering the entire gamut of Learning & Organizational Development. I have been part of Strategic Teams in Talent Management, Talent Development and other Governance and Values cascades across Organizations.

I strongly believe in the power of facilitation and conversation which provides me with energy. I resonate well with methodical approach, hard work, simplicity, humility and immense patience.

2. What is your opinion about remote working?

Organizations that provide for automation support for Employees at home may have and would have benefited from their employees working from home.

However, when it comes to industry sectors which are labour-intensive (including our industry which is Logistics and Supply chain), remote working would apply to a very few Support Functions / Departments and therefore those Organizations need to have a fine and sensitive blend of remote working and working at offices / warehouses / factories.

3. What are some of the shifts in engagement strategies of employees?

Engagement strategies have gone virtual due to the pandemic. We could not imagine or visualise engagement activities could be done virtually. To quote a couple of examples, we had online / virtual Yoga sessions conducted for our employees through Zoom with active participation from the family members of our Employees; we also experimented with cookery contests for our Employees remotely and declaring winners of the competition in terms of participation from the spouses of our respective Employees; we had virtual dance competitions on account of Ganesh Chaturthi with Employees exhibiting their dance skills live on Zoom with us and sharing the video recording for us to place them on our intranet portal.

4. How important is skill development for employees and how do you do that?

Skill development happens to be the backbone of our set up since we deal with Drivers of Trucks, Material equipment Handlers and Trainees who join our Warehouses as equally as it is important to Employees who perform a blend of desk and field jobs.

We have a strong L&D Team with Learning Specialists very well supported by Functional Subject Matter Experts co-facilitating skill-building workshops up to the level of our Associates and Executives in addition to the above mentioned segment while we have structured learning plans for various levels of Managers in the Organization namely Front-line, Middle-level and Senior Leadership Members.

A unique way that we have been practicing on skill development is that we expose select Managers / Leaders across levels to external certifications on specific skill building interventions conducted by Industry bodies such as Institute of Logistics, CII etc., and assign them the task of retraining our existing Employees on the same. This is similar to Train-the-Train interventions that Organizations conduct for select Managers and their internal Trainers.

5. How according to you has this profession evolved over the years?

L&D, as a Function and a Profession is no longer considered (at least by matured Organizations) as Support Functions but as business enabling Partner Function.

The transition that I have seen and experienced of L&D is that this Function, as and when given the relevant importance, has gradually become one of the most admired and strong pillars of building an Organization in terms of its facilitating culture, ethical practices both business and people alike in addition to the specific role of building capabilities and skills of Employees.

My Supervisor who also heads our HR always drives us to introspect if L&D as a Function, has a “Seat on the Table” meaning does L&D have a say in formal and informal strategic forums / meetings and on the board of key Stakeholders.

This is a very important aspect for L&D Heads to understand if they are relevant to business, are they adding business value and is the L&D Function constantly making strides to enhance business value.

I am proud to state that L&D in our Organization indeed has a “Seat on the Table”.

6. How do you develop and implement strategies, programs, courses or workshops? How do you maintain budgets and relationships with vendors?

To answer the first part of the question, all our learning interventions are based on a logical methodology of addressing objective business and operations issues which can be sorted through learning interventions.

In addition to the learning needs recommended by Managers of Teams as part of the Performance Management Process, a parallel structured approach of learning needs identification is done by the L&D Team with proactive support from Heads of Departments / Business & Support Functions and learning frameworks are created for various bands of Employees.

The content for Workshops is created in-house thanks to the shared wisdom of our Subject Matter Experts and the learning specialists who are part of the L&D Team in order to make them business relevant and sustain value. This effectively results in minimal dependence on external Consultants.

To answer the second part of the question, we work with less number of Vendors thus enabling us to have deep insights and qualitative relationship with the few that we work with.

Budgets are finalized at the beginning of the financial year with great detail on what we wish to achieve, what are the key initiatives to be focussed for the financial year and so we have been able to allocate and utilize the right amounts of investment for the right kind of learning and capability building initiatives.

7. Which is your favourite book and why?

I am a voracious reader of Books thanks to my Mentors during the initial period of my career in training. They have influenced me a lot to develop the habit of reading and it did not stop there.

Of the many books that I have read, “The Business of Paradigms” by Arthur Joel Barker stands out to be my favourite.

I love this book as it have been so elegantly written and insightful and hugely influenced my professional and personal lives. I have read this several times and it gives me several new perspectives each time I read it.

- Interviewed by - Sanjana Jain