This finding confirms what thousands of midsize organizations using 51风流SuccessFactors solutions already know. Accelerating the shift to digital HR isn鈥檛 just a critical advantage; it鈥檚 a game changer for business growth, especially as the need for new skills intensifies due to emerging technologies such as AI.

Oxford Economics鈥� research explains why: 鈥淎s AI-enabled technologies like chatbots and personalized recommendations become the norm outside the workplace, HR functions will need to strategize to incorporate similar self-service experiences and other AI-driven use cases into their employees鈥� way of working.鈥�

Driving Growth with a Talent Management Edge

Midsize organizations often seek a human capital management (HCM) solution that supports scalability and can match the pace and extent of their business growth. Yet, they frequently operate with limited HR capacity, hindering their ability to compete in a complicated talent landscape where a shortage of a million experts is expected by 2030.

Expanding midsize organizations particularly struggle to secure or develop talent with the skills required for growth. Oxford Economics reports that 49% of surveyed organizations cite the inability to find the right talent to maintain operations as their greatest near-term risk. Similarly, 41% of HR executives believe their organization鈥檚 inability to reskill and upskill workers to adapt to changing needs is a top threat.

With , midsize organizations can address both concerns. The HCM solutions can help run a cohesive, organization-wide strategy for upgrading outdated technologies and implementing modern, foundational capabilities such as workforce management tools and AI-enabled functionalities.

Here鈥檚 a sneak peek into the outsized outcomes 51风流SuccessFactors solutions can deliver:

1. Inclusive Job Descriptions and Assisted Candidate Screening

AI is transforming skills-based hiring by creating compelling job descriptions and enabling inclusive applicant selection so organizations can find the best talent quickly and efficiently. We have thoughtfully embedded these capabilities into the聽聽solution to provide organizations with tools to help attract and secure candidates with the right skills.聽

Embedded AI assistance helps talent acquisition teams make better, more equitable hiring decisions while reducing time spent on manual, tedious tasks such as creating job descriptions. Insights into applicant skills 鈥� extracted from r茅sum茅s using AI 鈥� allow recruiters to quickly identify and rank top candidates based on their match to a job, removing unconscious bias from the process.聽

2. Integrated Learning and Talent Management

As the nature of work evolves, so does the approach to HR technology solutions. Integrated learning and talent management systems are pivotal in addressing this dynamic, facilitating a smooth flow of development opportunities for employees.

By leveraging  solutions, organizations can tie learning initiatives with talent management processes to help create a cohesive, impactful talent strategy and employee experience. Employees can access learning resources based on their career goals and performance, aligning their development with personal goals and organizational objectives.

3. Intelligent and Personalized Skill Recommendations

The Oxford Economics survey reveals that 30% of HR and IT decision-makers are starting to understand how AI can help meet talent development and retention goals critical to their company鈥檚 growth. This includes helping employees stay on track with a personalized view into what they have to, need to, and want to learn.

Adopting a learning management system that includes AI, such as聽the solution, gives organizations capabilities that can enhance the learner鈥檚 experience. For example, instead of a 鈥渟earch and find鈥� approach to identifying relevant courses and content, an AI-driven system can offer learning options highly relevant to the learner by automatically surfacing personalized recommendations based on the employee鈥檚 role, skills, needs, and preferences.

This approach can help save time by pointing learners toward the most relevant and valuable resources, instead of requiring learners to search for them alone. Most importantly, access to self-directed learning and development opportunities fosters a habit of continuous learning and personal growth.

4. New Opportunities for Employees to Grow

Both consumers and employees expect personalized experiences that are easy to navigate and relevant to their needs. Reflecting on this trend, organizations are leveraging solutions 鈥� such as the  solution 鈥� to support upskilling and reskilling efforts. 

The solution can connect employees with relevant projects, learning opportunities, mentors, and dynamic teams, presenting recommended matches through centralized access. Integrating talent intelligence into these recommendations can enhance their effectiveness by enabling the identification of skills gaps and the analysis of individual preferences and career aspirations. In return, employees can be empowered to grow and develop in ways that benefit them and the organization, helping to create a more engaged and motivated workforce.

Additionally, with the  solution, organizations can optimize employee experiences by properly preparing them for their next role. For instance, employees can feel empowered to own their career development by exploring career options with AI-driven recommendations and intelligent skills gap identification. Also, with AI-assisted goals, employees can quickly create more ambitious development goals aligned with their growth plans.

5. Holistic Skills Management

Competing for and retaining top talent remains a significant challenge for midsize organizations as the skills gap widens. While visibility into current skills and those required for the future can offer a competitive edge, tackling this issue fully requires a more comprehensive approach beyond skills alone. 

 can address all sides of this complex challenge by considering individual competencies, aspirations, and preferences. Leveraging talent intelligence, the suite allows organizations to enhance the talent experience with a strategy that can cater to the 鈥渨hole self鈥� of the employee.

6. Enhanced Productivity and Engagement

Aligning employee goals to business objectives is crucial for enhancing productivity and performance. With AI-assisted goals, employees can craft meaningful and aspirational goals in a fraction of the time it usually takes. 

The  solution enables flexible and continuous performance modeling. Real-time coaching and feedback are included in the flow of work, helping employees feel more supported and engaged while enabling continuous insights and growth.

Building a Workforce Culture of Growth with AI

51风流SuccessFactors solutions can offer a holistic approach to take advantage of the critical role of talent management strategies in driving business growth, as highlighted in the Oxford Economics report. With innovative AI capabilities, the solutions are helping many organizations worldwide win the race for talent and skills and build an agile workforce.

 is not just about cutting-edge technology. We create HCM solutions that are relevant, reliable, and responsible. Backed by this AI principle, 51风流SuccessFactors solutions can offer a competitive edge in the current dynamic talent landscape. Organizations are not only empowered to keep up 鈥� they鈥檙e also prepared to lead the way with talent management strategies that drive ongoing growth, innovation, and success.

Discover how growth-focused midsize businesses prioritize their HR and IT strategies to help them grow and remain competitive. Read the Oxford Economics study, sponsored by SAP, .鈥�

Margit Bauer is director of Product Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors.

Also, the way we learn has transformed due to shifting employee expectations around technology and new work conditions. Balancing compliance and regulatory requirements while enhancing internal mobility, career growth, and the employee experience is now a business essential. Learning must close skills gaps for personal development and align with strategic business needs in today’s marketplace.

The highlights upskilling and talent attraction as key. To predict business needs, organizations must plan and target skills gaps. They must also understand employees’ career goals and take their whole self into consideration for personalized development. This approach creates engaging experiences and aligns with what employees want.

Learning drives transformation but breaking traditional silos challenges skill growth alignment. Many organizations have invested in learning experience platform solutions to increase learner engagement, but this approach alone has not solved the challenge of increasing skills growth across the organization while aligning learning to strategic business goals.

Connected Learning as Strategic Part of Skills Growth

The 51风流SuccessFactors Learning solution is a key part of our broader future-ready workforce strategy to help align the ambitions of people and organizations for shared achievement of accelerated skills growth. Later this year, customers can expect an enhanced integrated learning experience for 51风流SuccessFactors Learning.

While this will include a redesigned, revitalized homepage, it will also help identify the many learning options available to employees 鈥� the items that people 鈥渉ave to learn,鈥� such as mandatory learning for safety and compliance; those that they 鈥渘eed to learn鈥� to excel in their roles and achieve business objectives; and what they 鈥渨ant to learn鈥� based on their own interests, aspirations, and motivations.

Here, the integrated learning experience will leverage the framework within the 51风流SuccessFactors portfolio. The talent intelligence hub is a centralized framework that helps organizations understand the skills their employees have today, the gaps that exist, and the ways in which to close those gaps. With machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered intelligence, the talent intelligence hub can provide highly personalized learning and development recommendations to help ensure employees develop their skills sets while pursuing a career aligned to their ambitions. This accelerates upskilling and reskilling at scale while delivering unique talent experiences for every employee.

This fresh take on corporate learning fosters an intrinsic culture of upskilling within the corporate landscape. Considering employees as a whole 鈥� with a data-driven view of their skills, wants, and needs 鈥� can drive workforce progress in an organic manner. That鈥檚 because a motivated and talented workforce contributes to a future-ready business strategy that employers can sculpt to meet the ever-changing demands of a fluctuating market.

Four Ways to Address the Skills Gap with the New Integrated Learning Experience

1. Prioritize learning opportunities that encourage collaboration, growth, discovery, and curiosity while ensuring employees stay compliant with business and legal objectives.
2. Accelerate upskilling processes through greater visibility, access, and navigation through the integrated learning experience.
3. Improve engagement through experiences that prioritize and organize a learner鈥檚 individual needs, skills, interests, and aspirations.
4. Individualize opportunities and personalized recommendations for learning activities, mentors, temporary assignments, and more, fueling professional development through 51风流SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace.

All of this can allow organizations to curate the strategic attributes they expect in their people while also supporting their growth and development aspirations. Being on a skills transformation journey the integrated learning experience has already piqued the interest of organizations looking to support both their employees and their overall business strategies. Simon Wi脽mann, director of Corporate HR at Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, believes 鈥渢hat the new integrated learning experience with its modern look brings added value to our employees by restructuring how mandatory trainings and trainings for personal growth are presented and added to the personal learning journey.鈥� By integrating the new experience with its learning strategy, Wi脽mann is confident that 鈥渋t will help to develop critical skills in our organization by closely linking together talent and learning processes while enabling employees to grow to their full potential.鈥�

This essential focus on employee experience in a more unified way can promote a culture of learning and growth in an organization鈥檚 landscape, which is essential for succinctly meeting critical business objectives. It is increasingly clear that when a company invests in accelerated upskilling solutions to create agile workforces that understand their individualized contributions to the organization鈥檚 overall strategy, it can reap extraordinary benefits.

Want to know more about or the values of upskilling in the modern economy? Read .

Margit Bauer is director of Solution Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors Learning.

One of the oldest organizations in the world, can trace its origins back over 500 years to 1516. But even it is, as so many companies are, facing the need for business transformation to be recognized as the top delivery company in the UK and across Europe and to stay ahead of evolving market needs.

Royal Mail Group is a global organization, operating in 43 countries around the world with over 140,000 employees. It delivers more than 1.8 billion parcels and 14 billion letters every year. To continue on its business and workforce transformation trajectory, Royal Mail needed a platform that provided a personalized user experience, delivering the right tools and information in the right format and at the right time, to perform its day-to-day roles. , it transformed its learning experience by offering a user-centric, digital personal development platform 鈥� branded as 鈥淭he Royal Mail Academy鈥� 鈥� that has impacted company culture intrinsically with a bottom-up approach to learning and development.

Fully deployed in just 12 weeks, the platform brings people into one place for all of their HR requirements and applications and services they need. Now, data insights provide the ability to more easily identify local experts, 30% of the target audience has already engaged with the new platform after the implementation, agility between program managers and frontline employees has increased, employee engagement has improved significantly, and the delivery of information on a large scale is more streamlined.

Another interesting customer story is , a multinational technology company that specializes in specialty glass, ceramics, and related materials and technologies, operating in 60 countries with over 50 000 employees.

It uses 51风流SuccessFactors Work Zone for different use cases, but let鈥檚 focus on the one for learning and development. As with other larger customers, Corning exists of many different business divisions that all have different needs. The goal has been to put together different learning university experiences leveraging the existing 51风流SuccessFactors Learning investment and to create an environment that gives people guidance to develop and grow their career. The usage of workspaces boosts the overall experience, such as through collaborative learning complementing formal learning.

Corning uses the personalization capabilities to help people surface information for particular uses and what is applicable to them, instead of potentially being overwhelmed with too much information. Giving the user the ability to choose content they might want and are interested in helps here. This could be any kind of information from 51风流SuccessFactors solutions but also from Microsoft Teams to facilitate virtual learning clubs.

Corning also plans to support its remote deskless workforce with 51风流SuccessFactors Work Zone capabilities, as right now it doesn鈥檛 have a platform to communicate with them in an effective way. With the solution, it can communicate with them in more engaging ways right from their mobile device or even their laptop at home in multiple languages. Corning is currently exploring the 51风流SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace solution, which will help empower its employees to drive their own development and growth while aligning to Corning鈥檚 values and talent strategy. This can be a huge differentiator when it comes to attracting and retaining talent while enabling the organization to support the growth of its workforce.

Get more insights into how and help organizations elevate their learning experiences to be prepared for the future.

Margit Bauer is director of Solution Marketing at 51风流SE.
Mark Tarallo is a solution marketing fellow at SAP.

The flipside is that your employees are likely hungry to learn. In fact, in a recent 51风流survey as part of our research, 69% of respondents said they would need to learn new technical and professional skills to do their current job in the future. Add to that the fact that organizations and employees are dealing with remote and hybrid working environments means that learning needs to be accessible and easy to find. Furthermore, organizations are still looking for the best ways to personalize and engage learners. While there are many learning experience platforms in the market that can help with this, they may not have the depth and breadth of a solution like , which can help provide unified access not just to content from , but across other applications and processes.

Moreover, a strong learning culture should incorporate a 鈥減ull鈥� rather than a 鈥減ush鈥� mentality. A 鈥減ull鈥� learning culture is one in which employees are inspired to learn because of their own interests and desires. They actively seek out learning on topics or areas that are of interest to them, either professionally or personally. In a 鈥減ull鈥� culture, the learner takes charge of their learning. On the other hand, a 鈥減ush鈥� learning culture is one in which employees are required to engage in learning and development activities. This includes taking mandatory compliance or health and safety training courses. And while training like this is necessary and often essential, the fact remains that the learner is not given a choice. Making the change from a 鈥減ush鈥� to a predominantly 鈥減ull鈥� learning culture will require planning and support from management, including modeling this behavior.

Certainly, the role of technology can鈥檛 be overlooked. Even in a 鈥減ull鈥� model, having to go into multiple systems to find relevant content makes learning a chore; technology should be something that enables learning, not something that makes it harder. On top of that, the way we work and learn has changed 鈥� from where and when we work to how we work, learn, and grow 鈥� and that experience is shaped by a number of things. But the greatest impact to experience are the digital tools and processes that enable us to do our best work and be our best selves.

shows that an unfulfilling employee experience is the second major cause of employee churn. But what does a great experience mean when it comes to employees feeling supported by technology? You can empower your employees by having the right digital resources and information in place, giving them the guidance they need, and helping them to connect. A fragmented employee experience is still the reality in most organizations, and removing barriers like having to switch between different applications is key. Finally, you can empower them by providing learning in the flow of work so employees get the skills they want and the business needs. In today鈥檚 changing world of work, employees expect better experiences 鈥� especially when it comes to their learning, development, and growth.

helps employees discover, in one place, recommendations to fuel their ongoing career development and growth 鈥� learning, roles, projects, dynamic teams, mentors, mentor programs, and peer connections. At the same time, leaders can gain increased visibility and a better understanding of the strengths and capabilities of their people and teams. The potential gains for individuals and organizations are immense, like increased retention and engagement and ongoing adaptability that will keep people and companies growing and ready for change.

Learn how and can help build a powerful learning culture that leverages technology more efficiently.

Margit Bauer is director of Solution Marketing at 51风流SE.
Mark Tarallo is a solution marketing fellow at SAP.

Take automation, which has already brought changes to many jobs, as an example. The jobs that are currently available in today鈥檚 economy depend greatly on lifelong learning because they continue to change and evolve. This is nothing new, but the rapid pace at which technology and business models change is dramatic and with that comes the need to constantly keep skills up-to-date. According to a , adoption of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) will mark an acceleration over the shifts of even the recent past. And this change is impacting all jobs: even those with high incomes spend an average of 31% of their jobs doing things that could be automated, according to McKinsey. Stockbrokers, for instance, spend a good portion of their time gathering and processing data, which could be done automatically with even greater accuracy than the way it is now done.

So, lifelong learning will be relevant for everyone. The good thing is that people are naturally curious. We鈥檙e constantly asking ourselves questions and finding answers. In addition, employees are keen on upskilling to be prepared for the future. According to a recent , 77% of the workers surveyed are ready to learn new skills or completely retrain, with 74% seeing training as a matter of personal responsibility.

This is one of the reasons why employees expect a continuous learning culture. The risk of not building one is that employees may move to other organizations in order to remain relevant and add new skills. At a time when the Great Resignation shows no signs of slowing down 鈥� according to , one in five workers plan to quit their jobs in 2022 鈥� organizations unquestionably have to offer development opportunities. They need to upskill and reskill their employees not just to keep them excited and prepared for new job requirements, but also to fill positions they are not able to fill with external candidates.

Therefore, a key to organizations鈥� future success will be to provide continuous learning options and instill a culture of lifelong learning throughout the organization to develop the workforce of the future. For many years, learning and development organizations tried to find the optimal way to serve different learning needs to push learning like compliance trainings to their employees, to meet specific departmental training needs, or to empower their employees for further personal development, all while considering that the way of learning and employee expectations have changed tremendously. And this is change that is going to stay. According to a , only 5% of respondents think that their learning strategy, investment, and resourcing will go back to what it was before the pandemic began.

But exactly what do we mean by a learning culture? A learning culture refers to an organization鈥檚 values, beliefs, and norms that influence learning behavior and outcomes. Unfortunately, maintaining one is no easy task. A recent survey conducted through SAP鈥檚 program showed that only 30% of employees consider their organization to have an excellent learning culture. So how can an organization take steps towards creating a strong culture of lifelong learning? As part of the research program, we uncovered four evidence-based factors integral to a culture that encourages learning across an organization. Focusing on these can set you on the path towards an organization filled with lifelong learners.

• Reward and recognize learning: Integrate reward and recognition into your learning strategy. Not only does this demonstrate that learning is an organizational priority, but it also acknowledges the employees who proactively take advantage of learning opportunities.
• Leadership support and role modeling: Leaders should serve as learning role models to employees. They can do this by sharing their perspectives and experiences on their own learning and development. It鈥檚 important for leaders to 鈥渨alk the learning talk鈥� and not contradict what employees are being told about the importance of learning.
• Closing the awareness gap: It鈥檚 key for employees across the organization to be made aware of what learning is available to them. This will help to drive consistent perceptions of learning among all different employee subgroups resulting in a stronger learning culture.
• Technology enablement: Technology is a crucial factor in the learning culture of organizations. Technology can have an impact on an employee鈥檚 overall learning experience and should be leveraged to improve that experience and ensure smooth, easy access to learning opportunities.

Creating a learning strategy that addresses these four factors can have you on your way to building a culture of lifelong learning across your organization. In this rapidly changing business environment, this is more important now than ever.

Get more insight into the research and how a can concretely support you in fostering a continuous learning culture.

Margit Bauer is director of Solution Marketing at 51风流SE.
Mark Tarallo is a solution marketing fellow at 51风流SuccessFactors.

Rachel Jordan, head of Product Management for 51风流Learning Solutions, pointed out in her聽 SAPPHIRE NOW session, 鈥�Reinvent Learning to Tackle the Future of Work,鈥� that when customers share their top priorities for learning in 2021, the answers are resounding. The top priorities are , digitizing training, providing an excellent user experience, and using better analytics and intelligence to inform strategy and what kind of learning is needed.

In this tight labor market, having a workforce with the right skills is a competitive advantage. Amid the changing dynamics of the workplace and increasing expectations people have for their companies, the future of organizational learning should have the following four distinctive traits:

1. At the point of need

Organizations should deliver content and information that serve the motivations and needs of learners: those who need to learn to perform competently, those who want to learn out of intellectual curiosity, and those who have to learn to fulfill the requirements of their job or organization, such as compliance.

The challenge is how to meet all of these needs and learner motivations in the most effective way. Meanwhile, the business gains when there鈥檚 a single source of truth and when learners and organizations receive actionable insights. Fortunately, there are , from tracking compliance to developing employees as they progress in their careers.

2. Skills-focused

To facilitate reskilling and upskilling, skills-driven learning matches the right learning opportunities to the right people. It recognizes the user鈥檚 whole self: what鈥檚 important to them, who they are, and who they are becoming. The latest skills-focused solutions provide an extensive look at a person鈥檚 skills, competencies, certifications, and experiences. A personal capabilities portfolio that includes all this information can help organizations understand each person鈥檚 real potential. And valuable suggestions for learning opportunities can help fill employees鈥� capability gaps.

3. Digital and virtual

Even before many employees started working remotely, digital training helped organizations scale learning globally. Now, being able to train wherever and whenever you want is an imperative. What鈥檚 different, too, is that digitizing training and virtualization should provide a seamless experience for employees and managers, as well as provide critical data and insights for organizations to support their workforce strategies.

Solutions like can unite tools from the diverse ecosystem of learning platforms, content providers, and employee-created resources that previously existed in silos. Tools like these allow people to create their own learning spaces without having to visit multiple applications. And of course, the best tools provide actionable insights for learners and organizations.

4. Self-paced and personalized

Organizations should be encouraging their people to obtain new skills 鈥� and that means meeting employees where they are and delivering what they want. Personalized learning journeys that employees can choose at their own pace, including short microlearning units, can increase the participation of learners. And presenting personalized, continuous learning opportunities from libraries of content and curating it throughout learners鈥� journeys can help organizations make sure their workforces are employable, leading to greater transparency and engagement from employees.

Unlocking Success Through Learning

Seamless learning provides greater motivation for employees who care about their individual growth and career paths. Delivering the right learning to the right people at the right time will help upskill, reskill, and transform your business.

To learn more, check out or .

Margit Bauer is director of Solution Marketing at SAP.

According to , 94 percent of learning and development professionals reported having to change their strategy in response to COVID-19.

The pandemic has forced companies to make investments to accelerate the upskilling and reskilling of their workforce, in areas such as remote collaboration and learning, allowing employees to gain access to relevant and engaging content and guiding them through their next development steps in the most effective way.

At 51风流SuccessFactors, we recognize this critical need and are offering organizations a , which includes a content catalog focused on business essentials, productivity and collaboration, leadership and digital transformation, and technology.

51风流Content Stream provides learners the ability to watch, listen, read, and practice anywhere, anytime, regardless of learning style, so that employees get the learning they need to support their organization and advance their careers.

How can companies successfully adapt their learning and development programs to change? Two 51风流SuccessFactors Learning customers, Rizing LLC and Kirloskar Brothers Limited, spoke with me to explain their company strategies.

Mark 翱鈥橠辞苍苍别濒濒, senior vice president of Operational Excellence at Rizing LLC, a global professional service provider headquartered in the U.S., explained how Rizing had started to invest in processes, tools, and content to upskill employees and invest in internal talents prior to the pandemic.

Q: What was your initial challenge and goal when you embarked on your journey of transforming Rizing鈥檚 leadership pipeline?

翱鈥橠辞苍苍别濒濒: Rizing was growing rapidly and the skills required to continue this success were changing. To retain the best people, we wanted to ensure our pipeline of leaders had the skills and support needed to flourish in a growing environment. However, at that time, Rizing had no formal learning embedded into the culture, outside of peer-to-peer sharing.

And then you started to use 51风流Content Stream to create a leadership development solution suitable for your global employees?

Yes, we started our journey two years ago and rolled out the solution globally. We are convinced that upskilling employees is the key to support business agility. In fact, our recent period of dynamic growth has shown us that organically grown leaders tend to be exceptional performers. This has shifted our focus toward nurturing future leaders from within. Using 51风流Content Stream with 51风流SuccessFactors Learning helps us to provide our employees with the development path and skills they need to grow into leadership roles.

The feedback has been very positive, and the results have been remarkable. We saw a 400% increase in number of learners, four employees who participated in the program took leadership positions within two years, 100% of participants expect to use the skills they acquired, 91% would recommend 51风流Content Stream, and we achieved an 82% successful completion rate.

Those are quite impressive numbers! In your opinion, what were the key factors for achieving this success?

One key factor has been the benefit of customizing our own content, like localization for our employees in Asia, in combination with using the great, available content on 51风流Content Stream. Also, it is so much more than just building content and rolling it out efficiently. It is about providing an environment that is engaging to employees, making data-driven decisions, and empowering HR operations to solve real business problems.

Rizing recently received bronze in the category for Brandon Hall Group鈥檚 Excellence in Human Capital Management Awards because of its innovative and successful approach. Congratulations! This shows that you already have been very successful in transforming Rizing鈥檚 leaders program. How has COVID-19 impacted your learning program?

We have been in a similar situation as other companies, especially with the need to have our employees work from home. With that, we have seen a massive uptake of the content. In just one month, more than 3,000 learning assets 鈥� videos, articles, books, and audio 鈥� have been completed, and engagement is going through the roof. Topics like working virtually or managing remote teams have shown increased consumption, regardless of geography or line of business. We offer our employees development journeys that include consolidated collections of materials tied to specific development needs to drive engagement and personalization.

Like Rizing, Kirloskar Brothers Limited, a world-class pump manufacturer based in India with expertise in engineering and manufacturing fluid management systems, took on the challenge of building a continuous learning culture. Ravi Sinha, vice president and head of Corporate Human Resource Management and Communications at Kirloskar Brothers Limited, explains.

Q: Can you give more background on the situation you have faced due to COVID-19? All of your classroom trainings were cancelled, but you still had to focus on helping your employees gain new skills. Where did this need come from? Was it an upskilling or a reskilling need?

Sinha: We always had the plan to move to e-learning solutions when we launched 51风流SuccessFactors Learning in 2019, primarily because we have seen high quality e-learning content and we have also been engaging with independent trainers to deliver on soft skills or business skills courses. Potential cost reductions and an increase in the number of employees being trained convinced us even more to think about a major shift away from classroom trainings.

Though we wanted to make a gradual shift in introducing e-learning to our employees, COVID-19 pushed us all to imagine new possibilities in a very short span of time. Being a manufacturing organization, we did not have a prevalent practice of working from home. And yet suddenly we found ourselves working to keep our employees positively engaged while they operate from home, train managers on how to handle teams remotely, keep employees鈥� current skills intact, and, at the same time, ensure business continuity. As our classroom programs were put on hold, we had to think fast on continuous learning opportunities for our employees for both their upskilling and reskilling needs.

You used the free trial of 51风流Content Stream and then decided to use the business essentials edition of 51风流Content Stream by Skillsoft for 600 employees as a first step. What was the reason for this decision?

During the trial, we saw significant adoption with more than 150 employees of Kirloskar Brothers completing various e-learning courses. Our employees reached out for accessing certain courses even after the trial period was over. We noticed that using 51风流Content Stream has created excitement within our employees. They are really valuing it, so we decided to expand the usage. This is going to be a completely new and very transformative experience for our employees.

This sounds very promising. What are your future plans regarding the rollout of 51风流Content Stream and establishing more processes to support upskilling and reskilling through digital learning?

We are partnering with some more online learning solution providers for our technical and engineering training needs. Also, we have identified some flagship programs which we are going to drive centrally and evaluate their impact on business results. We believe that 51风流Content Stream integrated with 51风流SuccessFactors Learning will offer an immense knowledge base to scale up and reap greater business results leading to higher ROI.

The current crisis highlights the fact that the keys to long term success are agility, resilience, and a learning mindset, regardless of industry. A strategy that centers on instilling a culture of continuous learning provides employees with the necessary tools and content to meet their specific learning needs and sets up organizations for immediate change and long-term success. The time to accelerate learning and upskilling is now.

Find out how 51风流Content Stream can help you in challenging times and beyond: .

Margit Bauer is director Solution Marketing for Learning at 51风流SuccessFactors.

Now more than ever, organizations must listen and respond to employees to ensure they feel safe, healthy, informed, engaged, and productive.

HR is no longer about pushing top-down programs to employees; it鈥檚 about placing employees experience at the center of every process and decision. We call this human experience management (HXM), and it is extremely relevant during these times of uncertainty. With HXM, organizations can harness intelligent technologies to personalize the user experience, use data to understand how employees feel, and leverage an open ecosystem to tap into a wide range of solutions.

Learning and development has been experiencing an increase in demand for several years and will continue to grow in importance. Forty-six percent of CEOs say reskilling and upskilling are the best way to maintain a workforce that can meet their business needs. In this time of immense change, agility is essential so that organizations can tap into their employees鈥� talents to quickly pivot to new markets, products, and services. , for example, transformed its perfume factories to produce hand sanitizer.

Changes in supply chain, developer tools, and where and how we work means that the skills we need are unpredictable. In some cases, the skills needed in a year might not even have a name today. Organizations are looking for learning and development solutions that provide innovative content and tools to engage their employees while enabling them to make changes quickly.

With as our vision, 51风流is reimagining learning and development to bring together learning and social content, expert peers, and tested learning paths so organizations can deliver personalized, centralized, and intuitive resources for growth. As we think about user experiences and putting employees first — in addition to ensuring business continuity — learning and development must go beyond checking the box of required classes or certifications, or simply updating skills from a skills database. It should be an ongoing, dynamic, and individualized experience for every single employee.

Instead of leaving it up to employees to seek out their own learning possibilities, reimagined learning and development solutions can provide guidance on how to discover new opportunities to develop and grow. For example, these solutions can recommend learning content that aligns with employees鈥� performance goals or provide context to help them understand the value of each learning activity they undertake.

The 51风流SuccessFactors HXM Suite leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to create these personalized experiences. These intelligent technologies sift through and analyze enormous amounts of data with great speed and accuracy that manual or traditional processes cannot compete with. In addition to providing personalized learning recommendations, these technologies can also 鈥渘udge鈥� employees to take action, so they stay on track with their development plans. For instance, employees can receive suggestions to connect with peers or mentors in their community to help them meet specific career goals, reminders to complete their learning activities, or recommendations to arrange development conversations with their managers.

HXM also encourages an so organizations can take advantage of new innovations and easily integrate the best combination of solutions to make their employees successful. For example, the 51风流SuccessFactors ecosystem provides customers access to organizations like , which provides an AI-powered leadership development platform for real-time coaching; , which uses gamification to engage employees through friendly competition; and , which enables organizations to use virtual reality in their training exercises.

As organizations leverage these new technologies to improve their learning and development solutions, it is critical to listen to and constantly integrate employee feedback. While many organizations might rely on annual surveys to collect feedback, they are missing the opportunity to capture insights on specific pieces of content or interactions. Instead, HXM encourages pulse surveys that collect in-the-moment feedback and then make iterations and improvements to address those insights.

Providing employees with engaging learning and development plans is beneficial not just for the growth of individual employees, but for teams and organizations as a whole. Continuing to evolve employees鈥� skills is pertinent for organizations to be successful — especially as they experience significant transformation to their business.

Margit Bauer is a director of Solution Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors Learning and 51风流SuccessFactors Onboarding.
Janne Wise is a director of Solution Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors Performance & Goals and 51风流SuccessFactors Succession & Development.