S&P Global’s Bhavna Batra on The Future of Workplace Learning

Bhavna Batra has worn multiple hats over the years with roles in Global HR Leadership and Management Consulting. She currently serves as Vice President – People with S&P Global and holds two roles as the Global Head of People for S&P Global’s Enterprise Data Organization and as the Head of People for India.

She is an Advisory Board Member and Angel Investor with Eubrics, an AI-based upskilling organization. Her past work assignments include stints with PwC, Genpact, SHL, and Grow Talent/Right Management.

An alumnus of MDI, Gurgaon and Loreto College, Kolkata, Bhavna has been the recipient of several prestigious awards. Her passion for spiritualism, teaching, animals, travel, writing, cuisine, and photography help her evolve and flow with dynamic realities.

Q1- How do you identify and prioritize future-critical skills in a fast-evolving data and analytics landscape?

Ecosystem evolution is multi-layered, and complexity is a result of accelerated pace of change, blurring of boundaries between traditionally distinct job families and role types (e.g., data and tech) and a heightened rate of skills obsolescence. At the same time, organizations that thrive have trust, courage, and alignment of purpose as key tenets, on a bedrock of integrity.

In this context, I view “power skills” such as complex problem solving, collaboration, learning intelligence, empathy, end-to-end systems thinking, and digital fluency as evergreen human skills that are distinct and vital to enable growth, even as technical and functional skills continue to evolve with greater technological advancement.

These power skills are like building blocks, which come together in different permutations and combinations to deal with evolving realities in a more dynamic manner.

Another relevant skill area is unlocking the art of the possible through effective questions and authentic conversations that enable us to confront biases and siloed thinking and make the most of new options while factoring in conventional wisdom that continues to be relevant. 

At the heart of future-readiness lies the ability to explore in flow, being open to all sources of value add, while remaining mindful of ethical considerations. 

Q2- What role does L&D play in driving business agility and innovation across the organization? 

Learning and development is vital for agility, innovation, and growth, but it is not the accountability of a single team or function. High-impact learning and development is the onus of every leader, every team, and every colleague in an enterprise ecosystem! Working in a quintessentially learning organization, I find that a few distinct characteristics foster learning intelligence in a sustainable manner.

These include (a) focus on continuous development built into the cultural ethos of the enterprise, (b) the primacy of continuous learning being believed in, practiced and role modelled by every leader, across levels, (c) each individual feeling empowered to drive their development journey, in line with their purpose and enterprise expectations, and (d) learning experienced being celebrated as a core part of every success story, and acknowledged with grace and reflection in every exploration that does not work out.

The L&D function is a “sutra-dhar”, the forward-looking navigator who ensures that the building blocks of relevant learning tools and diverse approaches are available to help people learn in their preferred context. Without exception, the accountability of leveraging the power of learning to drive ecosystem impact is one of the best examples of shared ecosystem accountability! 

Q3- How are you integrating learning into the flow of work to enhance productivity and performance? 

The reality of learning, be it for human beings, machines, or LLMs, is that it is embedded in every experience, interaction, action, and reaction. The impact starts to sink in and get magnified when we acknowledge the lesson, thereby moving from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, moving the needle to build the skill sets that are required to create conscious competence and embed it in our psyche through practice and habit formation, leading to unconscious competence.

In organizations, the unit of “team” is a powerful platform to create effective foundational learning. This gets amplified when work in teams is augmented with work in cross-functional work groups or task forces that come together to solve complex problems. No matter the day-to-day work context, it is useful to have diverse supplementing forums to integrate learning so that productivity and performance are enhanced on the go.

Examples could include (a) brainstorming forums that create mind-map type environments for ideation, (b) situation or case discussion groups to break down past successes or failures and learn from the experience of others, (c) expert and thought leader sessions to leverage inspiration from different walks of life, (d) fish bowls or learning circles to distill skills application meaningfully.

Q4- How do you future-proof your workforce against disruption through strategic capability building? 

I am a strong believer in Charles Darwin’s famous words – “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change.” Remaining centered and focused in the flow of disruption and change is perhaps the biggest life skill of the 21^st century, and I dare say beyond.

Therefore, future-proofing the workforce is about (a) normalizing the reality that change is a part of life just like the changing seasons or stages of life are a reality, (b) equipping people with the opportunities, knowledge and tools that they require to upskill themselves to be relevant in an evolving context, (c) creating psychological safety for people to be able to authentically talk about what is making them uncomfortable and partnering with them to find solutions that help navigate things real-time and more effectively, and (d) empowering people through transparent communication and accountability for themselves and their growth. 

Learning, unlearning, and relearning have always been a part of life, and be it in the course of day-to-day work or through strategic capability building efforts, the onus needs to be to maximize relevance and growth potential in the context. 

Q5- What governance model ensures alignment between L&D investments and enterprise-wide business goals?

We live in times where episodic, one-and-done training sessions have had to yield and make way for immersive, contextually relevant, multi-faceted learning journeys. Learning interventions are not a perk or engagement tool. It is a foundational investment for business impact.

Read Also: Alstom’s Sumedha Pal on New-Age Performance Management

Therefore, investments in learning need to be anchored on tangible results as their picture of success, which is Level 4 of the classic Kirkpatrick model.

The second ingredient for effective governance is Data. The baseline of where we are starting from is non-negotiable to ensure that we run the course on what we are looking to achieve, while making room for timely course corrections along the way. Quantitative and qualitative check-ins are key for measuring progress.

Third, learning solution architects need to be anchored in business operating reality, and not just “L&D experts”, so that there is primacy of context and focus on application coupled with business believability and ownership to drive the discretionary human efforts required to make the most of learning journeys.

During the design phase, these architects curate the solution, and during the governance phases, they help ensure the necessary tweaks are made, learnings acknowledged, and successes celebrated visibly. This holistic approach ensures a well-balanced governance framework.

Thank you, Bhavna!

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