TeamLease EdTech conducted a one-on-one conversation for its next edition to the L&D Dialogues Series. This interview series was started in 2019 with the L&D fraternity to come together and discuss and debate on topics of interest. Vivek is a seasoned learning and development professional with more than two and a half decades of experience. He has helped pan India role handling, training and developing spearheading large scale training interventions. Since May 2019, Vivek has been associated with Aavas Financiers, leading the training and development initiatives.

Outbreak of pandemic and its impact on every aspect of life.

Needless to say, the business world has reconfigured and rebooted several of its paradigms to deal with the transformed scenarios. The ramifications in the HR and L&D world are witnessed broadly. But somewhere it is like a blessing in disguise, said Mr Vivek Sharma. He continued by saying, ‘some of the things in L&D that we are witnessing right now might have taken five years, maybe even a decade, but all that has been compressed in around one and a half years’. Making a shift to the virtual world has been proven to be cost effective to the Aavas organization. The biggest cost element of travelling and accommodation for the training dramatically reduced. They got a Zoom license and training functions became an important element for employee engagement during the pandemic. All of these were done by building a training studio in the head office with the best equipment like video cameras, interactive boards, etc.

During lockdown obviously Aavas Financiers worked from home through Whatsapp and Zoom calls. But they bounced back really quickly as the WFH scenario was not feasible for them. The customer segment that Aavas operates isn't typically tied to a tier three city and these are underserved markets. They could manage with the customers virtually in metro cities but for small towns they needed to reach out to customers in person. They have 3500 relationship officers who work as fieldforce that travel and collect documents and do the credit appraisal. So yes, they have innovated and are leveraging technology but at the same time the physical element is also maintained. Click here to watch the conversation

Vivek has explored the option of game based learning and opportunities. But his concern is a little different. Content is the most important thing in training, the design of learning, that needs to become a catalyst for the learning to happen. He believes creating a game just for the sake of trying something new and interesting should not be the intent of this type of training. From concept to strategy to execution, a lot needs to be done before getting into the world of gamification. The users or the trainers should not be left confused or disappointed with any lame training, which didn’t even serve them the purpose. Click here to watch the conversation.

The workplace wellbeing can be really affected by many aspects, including too much screen time, stress, anxiety, lack of exercise and poor physical health or maybe the bad work life balance. At Aavas they conducted a three day brand management program that included Happiness at Work, delivered by Dr. Prabhat Pankaj. Webinars and sessions on powerful engagement, how to keep your energy up, and how to be a corporate athlete, were organized to keep morale high in such uncertain times. The message that they tried to give to the team members and employees is that they are a corporate athlete, with 25-30 years of work in front of them and therefore, it requires the right kind of balance of energies. Click here to watch the conversation.

The session concluded with a thank you note to Mr. Vivek Sharma for taking out time from his busy schedule and enlightening everyone with his share of experience in the L & D front. It was quite an insightful session and a lot of takeaways to take from it. Something with contradictory views and opinions which makes it even more interesting and engaging to listen to. Click here to watch the conversation.