Kohler India redefines learning through Kohler Radio and Learning Wallet

These new internal initiatives for interaction and effective learning have made news globally.

Technology has disrupted every aspect of modern workplaces and its influence on learning methodologies has been significant. It’s no news that traditional learning is shifting towards anytime, anywhere, any device learning. Taking into account the need for bite-sized content and the increasingly short attention spans, Kohler India came up with the unique concept of Kohler Radio.

Kohler Radio is an IVR-enabled learning platform, wherein audio messages are recorded and relayed in the form of a call to individual mobile phones, which the participants can listen to, take part in, learn and get assessed through a few objective questions asked after each session.

The purpose behind launching Kohler Radio was to make training and engagement content effortless, fun, essentially millennial-ready and to have a new-age platform to deploy content. As Pankaj K Rai, director-HR, India & Sub-Saharan Africa, Kohler K&B says, bite-sized content disseminated in a fun manner is the way to go forward.

“We have about 130-strong sales force spread across various parts of India. Earlier, we were utilising Webex-enabled sessions in addition to the classroom approach for learning. However, that required either travelling to a set location or logging in to the systems wherever one may be. Given the high growth plans we are targeting right now, there is always a paucity of time, and therefore, we came up with this idea of offering content through a medium that’s quick, convenient and capable of generating a captive audience,” he elaborates.

Furthermore, Kohler Radio-Training Podcast System, which recently relayed its first session with the second one lined up for this Friday, was conceptualised to be used as a tool for internal training. This system allows leaders and audiences to listen and interact. The communication machine has features of automated voice calling, texting and inbound call management. The system is also supported with Interactive Voice Response, Outbound Dialer and Mobile SMS facility.

There are three things which get podcasted twice a month:

Management Talk: It’s a message from the leadership team for the spells when there is not enough time to go through the mails and thus miss some critical information. The message is followed by a ‘Feedback’ option. The users can record their voice feedback/views, if any. This enables a connect between the top management and the workfrorce.

Product Talk: Product managers are interviewed and their views on new launches and focussed products for the year are recorded. They talk about the latest innovation and key highlights of the products. It’s then followed by a short quiz for the participants in an IVR format for which they earn points.

Best Practices: It’s an interview format with the top sales associates from the sales team pan- India. A platform to share how they achieved their numbers, this gives a chance to the company’s revenue earners to become popular as RJs!

The programme has been christened Kohler Radio and has received immense global attention as well. The radio podcasts are planned to happen twice a month (with content lasting not more than five minutes) with over 200 associates participating each time. The communication design has been appreciated on internal social platforms.

Apart from Kohler Radio, the company also has another unique initiative, which boosts both learning and engagement. The Learning Wallet is an e-wallet that lets employees earn as they learn. After each learning session, as employees take the assessments, their scores add up as points in their Learning Wallet. Each point is equivalent to five rupees, and these points are then available to them to be redeemed for online shopping at Amazon and other similar e-shops. The Learning Wallet ensures that the more the employees learn, the more they earn.