learning and development in the 21st century_final

8/14/2019 Learning and Development in the 21st Century_final

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/learning-and-development-in-the-21st-centuryfinal 1/12

Learning andDevelopment in the 21st

century

By

` Team



Can you guess one common thing between?

Victorious Army and Soccer champions

Most of us will answer as “Victory” or “energy” or “desire

and drive”. Have you ever seen an army winning battles without

training or soccer teams without practice? The reality is that both

of them undergo significant training and development to emerge

victorious. The trainings these teams undergo are not only

rigorous but also strategic these days.

Let’s look at Brazil soccer team for instance. They have

talented players, but what makes them unique is their playingstyle. In 1970’s they used to play with their samba style which

provides them speed and precision to score and win matches.

But if you look at the same team today, they train themselves to

strategize and plan. In today’s new age strategic trainings are

provided to excel in all kind of situations. This concept of new

learning and development are prevalent in the large and medium

sized corporate houses.

Employees in the 21st

century face different kind of challenges. Strong and Niche competitions, Economic downturns,

war etc… Modern training and development has taken a huge

leap forward to make the employees successful. Trainings can

never be a topic of ignorance or irrelevant these days. For every

organization to be on top of their game, Training and

Development will play a major role. Human Resources will have a

significant role in molding the organization with the right trainings

and development path.



Table of Contents



Part Two

Case Study – NetApp

NetApp is one of the dynamic and fastest growing companies in

the 21stcentury. Headquartered in California, USA they focus on

bringing innovative storage solutions and data management

solutions to large enterprise customers. In short if you ever

wonder where Yahoo and Google store all their data, it is on

NetApp storage devices. NetApp was founded in 1992 and now

with around 8000 employees worldwide. They are known as a

unique company and customers like their “go beyond” approach.

For last 8 years they are rated among the “best companies to

work for” on the planet with $4 Billion in revenue.

In 2009, they achieved a unique distinction of being the bestcompany to work for toppling even big names such as Google,

Microsoft and P&G. Much of their successes are due to their

unique culture, leadership and teamwork.

Our team had a chance to interview the HR Manager of NetApp,

Singapore for a case study and details are below. The meeting

was special as to get to know the HR of the “best company to

work for”.

1. Congrats on being the best employer. What makes NetAppthe best company to work for?

There is no single logical reason on why we are the best

employer. I think it is the great leadership that put us on the

top. The Leadership in NetApp is unique that allows every

NetApp employee to provide valuable inputs.



Every employee in NetApp understands what the company

visions and goals are and work towards it as if it’s their own.

For example, a customer problem in the USA will be

immediately helped by Singapore team once they know

about it. It’s phenomenal when all the 8000 employees rallyaround to make the company’s goals possible.

The key to success is also making every employee feel

important and successful. NetApp has unique rewards by

which you can take volunteer time off to help charity

organization and schools. How many companies provide

every employee with direct access to the founders, CEO,

CTO and president? I think NetApp takes pride in doing that.

2. Every NetApp employee and your customers are said to feel

the “NetApp culture”. What is NetApp culture?

Our Culture

NetApp is committed to achieving market leadership by living

our values and embracing strong principles.

Trust and Integrityour interactions are based upon candor, honesty, and respect

for individual contributions. We are committed to earning the

trust and confidence of our teammates and to always acting for

the absolute good of the whole.

Leadership

The role of leaders is to articulate and demonstrate our shared

vision, values, and goals. Leaders transform individual effort

into high-performance teams that are prepared for expandingroles and challenges.

Simplicity

we embrace the principle that everything should be as simple

as possible and no simpler. We maintain simplicity in our



internal processes and structures with objectives that are

succinct, quantitative, and time bound.

Teamwork and Synergy

we achieve synergy through the skills and ideas of all

participants. Through collaboration, we strive for win/win

solutions to issues and problems. Personal success is realized

through team achievements.

Go Beyond

We set extraordinary expectations and goals and believe in

the joy of achieving significant results. We embrace

creativity, risk taking, and continuous improvement,

enabling us to make and meet aggressive commitments

3. Do you provide Training and Development to your employees

even during recession and why do you consider training as

important?

The professional and personal growth of our employees isa top priority at NetApp. Such development is a keycomponent of our objective to "Create a Model Company."

This objective includes our commitment to "attractingand retaining performance-oriented employees whothrive in a challenging, supportive environment and arerecognized and rewarded for their achievements andcontributions."

NetApp believes that we owe our employees theopportunity to maximize their contribution to success—both professionally and personally. The company alsoaffirms that individuals own their own development.

Therefore, we encourage an active, ongoing partnershipbetween employees and their managers.

Our curriculum includes the following areas:

1. Professional Development for All Employees

2. Management and Leadership Development

http://media.netapp.com/documents/prof_development_curr.pdf

http://media.netapp.com/documents/mgmt_leadership_curr.pdf









3. Engineering Education

4. Sales and Business Education

5. Technical Education

Functional responsibility for professional development atNetApp is shared among two organizations:

1. NetApp University ("NetAppU")—serving the business-driven learning needs for the company and ourcustomers

2. The Learning & Development Department withinHuman Resources—which coordinates all non-technicaltraining programs for managers and employees.

We encourage all employees to take advantage of themany opportunities NetApp provides for your professionaland personal development.

Training and development is very important for NetAppirrespective of the economic situations. We couldprobably say that training becomes even more relevantduring tough economic conditions. You need youremployees to be in their top of the game at such toughconditions to be successful.

Trainings are affected by two major components inrecessions.

(1)Time

Most of employee has slightly more time availableduring recession and in NetApp we use this additionaltime to effectively train them.

(2)Budget

During recessions, the budget is limited, but the scopeof E-Learning increases. NetApp has signed up for E-Learning with Harvard and other top institutes for E-Learning assignments.

http://www.netapp.com/us/services/university/university.html






No matter what the economic conditions, for NetApp Training and development is the key to success.

4. You got some quick training curriculum called TOAST, 101s

and 102s. Can you please elaborate on the same?

T.O.A.S.T. is NetApp's unique one-day orientation programdesigned to help all new employees learn about theculture, values, strategy, organization, and norms of NetApp. Once you register, this program also provides theopportunity to meet a number of the top leadersincluding the CEO, President, and Founders. The dayincludes presentations, lunch, and a Q&A session with topexecutives. Participants also have the opportunity to buildnetworks with colleagues from around the world.

The name T.O.A.S.T. is steeped in culture and reflectsemployee input into our key programs. A company-widenaming contest was held when the program first startedin the mid-90s. NetApp products at that time wereconsidered appliances, and we'd used the symbol of atoaster to underscore the simplicity, speed, and reliabilityof our products. T.O.A.S.T. was the employee favorite, andthe name has stuck ever since.

Today, T.O.A.S.T. supports new employees in providing:

• An overview of NetApp

• An understanding of NetApp's values and culture

• An overview of key strategies in functional groups:

○ Business Operations & Manufacturing

○ Global Services

○ Engineering

○ Finance

○ G&A

○ Marketing

○ Sales

• Clarification of key corporate challenges/opportunities



• Opportunity to meet and network with other NetAppemployees, and to interact with company executives

Based on employee feedback over the past eight years,we believe this program is one of the most distinctive,effective communication vehicles anywhere. It is the firstin a continuum of communication programs the companysponsors—not only to keep employees informed of issuesthat concern them, but also to model the values on whichNetApp's business practices are based. As a complementto the T.O.A.S.T. program, many departments and remoteoffices offer their own customized versions of T.O.A.S.T.

5. Are these training curriculums available elsewhere or have

you seen them in any other company?

T.O.A.S.T is something special to NetApp and I have

personally seen or heard of anything similar to this in other

organization. TOAST gives employees the immediate

knowledge to company’s goals and introduce to the

company’s stakeholders like CEO, CFO, President and

Founders. A general orientation given to a new employee is

just not enough for being successful. Imagine you join

NetApp now and within a week you are requested to attend T.O.A.S.T training in our Sunnyvale Headquarters. Our

employees feel special to meet top executives of the

company. We have our NetApp University, a division that

takes care of Training needs in the organization. NetApp

University ensures that the curriculum is up-to-date.

6. How does NetApp help in growth and personal and career

development of an Employee?

The professional and personal growth of our employees isa top priority at NetApp. Such development is a keycomponent of our objective to "Create a Model Company."

This objective includes our commitment to "attractingand retaining performance-oriented employees who



top data management company attracts a lot of special

talents. NetApp grooms them to be a leader on their own

and adds in the culture flavor in them. Fantastic reward

system is in place to ensure encouragement for knowledge

sharing and teamwork. NetApp problem solving skills evenremove geographical boundaries and imbibe NetApp culture

in them.

NetApp leadership goes by the rule of “Catch someone doing

something right ” in sending appreciation note or phone calls.

Imagine a Fortune 1000 top company CEO calling you and

appreciating for good work done. It makes a special place to

work for really.

8. You mentioned about every NetApp employee access to top

leadership. Does this really happen and how does it create

an impact?

NetApp top leadership takes it in their stride of building the

NetApp culture. They are keen to listen from every single

employee working for them. You may be an engineer, sales,

finance, HR or even admin. It is the extra value you get from

each employee when they realize that they are veryimportant for the organization. Imagine as a kid when you go

for any competition you want to win. Sometimes you really

want to win for your parents so that you don’t let them

down. Same happens in a company when our employees

give that extra effort to make things successful for their

leadership. Huge incentives for top employees include a

executive club trip for the entire employee’s family with

NetApp’s leaders. Another important factor is NetAppleadership takes care of personal relationship as well. In the

executive club trips, NetApp leadership thanks the spouses

of successful people who made sacrificed time and energy

indirectly to make NetApp Successful.



Summary:

NetApp case study proves that a successful company needs

the right training and development always despite marketconditions. It also shows that how a top company in the

world makes their employees feel so special and Human

Resources are vital to make these dreams a reality. NetApp

spends almost 3% of revenue on Training and development

even during recessions.

Amazing company and People.

learning and development in the 21st century_final

Documents