ASTD International Relations Manager Alex Franklin recently visit India. Please see what he learned.

On my recent trip to India I met with some of the top companies operating around the country, including Infosys, Intel, Wipro, IBM, Genpact, Tata, and HDFC Life (to name a few).

During each trip to India it is amazing to see the transformations taking place within the Learning & Development functions at these organizations, and the Indian economy in general! Based on my conversations with different Heads of Learning, I have noticed some common L&D challenges that many organizations are currently facing:  

1) Leadership Development: As Indian companies continue to grow at faster rates and expand into new markets, how do you prepare current and future leaders for the needs of larger, more formalized organizations?  

2) Bridging the Skills Gap: Many companies in India not only face the challenge of training recent graduates to meet global standards, but must also train a large number of new hires over short periods of time. How do you scale effective and efficient training programs to meet the needs of a large and dispersed workforce that faces global competition?

3) Return on Investment (ROI): As organizations continue to understand the benefits of training, more business partners are asking about the ROI of training. How do you measure and evaluate different training programs and what are the different methods used?

Many organizations are overcoming these challenges with new and innovative approaches to L&D and it will be fascinating to see where the profession heads over the next few years.

What are your thoughts on the challenges listed above? Do they apply to all companies in todays global economy? And how are you overcoming these challenges? Wed love to hear your feedback.

Cheers,

Alex