Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill

Enhancement of Employee

Antima Sharmaa, Rinku Raghuvanshib

aResearch Scholar, Bhartiya Skill Development University, Jaipur,
Rajasthan, INDIA
bAssociate Professor, Bhartiya Skill Development university, Jaipur,
Rajasthan, INDIA
ARTICLEINFO ABSTRACT
The main objective of this paper is to determine the informal
Keywords: learning ways at workplace and its impact on employee’s
Informal learning, performance through skill enhancement.
Workplace, Employees, Design/Methodology/Approach- The paper is exploratory and
BPO, Skills, Enhancement. analytical in nature. Target population for thestudy is BPO
employees of Jaipur Region, India. The paper has been analyzed
and concluded on the basis of datacollected. Primary data has
been collected through tools like questionnaire and interview of
employees andSecondary data collected from research papers,
books, journal, articles, and related work done in this field.
Finding- The main finding of the paper is that BPO employees
learn from informal various ways that exist atworkplace. Some
ways of informal learning like are conversation with co-workers,
buddy-up, mentoring & coachingand huddles, through which
employees learn and enhance their skills both technical and soft
skills.
Research Implications- This paper will contribute in identifying
the practices of informal learning at workplacethrough which
employees can enhance their technical, soft and human skills and
perform better in the organization.
Practical Implication- The study’s findings can give
organizations and HR practitioners ideas about how to engage
employees in learning with innovative informal learning
practices, how to relate learning with different activities
ofemployees and how to enhance their skills with informal
learning activities. How, to motivate employees forinformal
learning. The study can also be used as base to develop learning
model in an organization with rightproportion of learning
activities.
Originality/Value- This study is original in general HR
practices, which tries to find out the different informal ways
of learning at workplace and its impact on skills enchantment

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Introduction:
Now a day’s due to radical socio-economic and cultural changes organizations are competing for
success andsustainability. As in fast moving world, the skills and competencies are changing
rapidly. Therefore, theorganizations are putting lot of efforts to keep employees trained, well
informed, skilled and learned. Theknowledge of employees is viewed as a crucial strategic
source for organizations in order to survive in aconstantly changing environment (Poell, 1998).
Due to advancement, changes, and increase complexity intechnologies, it is necessary for an
organization to keep their employees updated with current scenario and tomake them skilled.
One of the important functions of HRM is training and development of employees and
ascorporate training is based on exploratory opportunities instead of obligatory activities, where
the employeesare more occupied into self-skilled development which leads to better performance
of employees, lifelonglearning and making the employees multi-tasking, therefore Informal
learning is the major component includedin the corporate training programs.

Many researchers argue that learning has become increasingly vital for the survival of
organizations (Senge,1990; Pedler et al., 1997). Employees also look at an organization as a
place where they can learn and growprofessionally and personally. Employees expect their
organizations to develop a model for their continuouslearning through which they can develop
their skills and can do their job in an efficient way. Learning at aworkplace is a blend of formal
and informal learning wherein the employees gather knowledge, and skills thatchange
individual’s attitude which leads to better performance and helps in to achieve organizational
goals.Research shows that 80% of the work-related learning occurs informally and this includes
self-directedlearning, networking, coaching and mentoring (Yeo, 2008: 318).

1.1 Informal learning

The term informal learning was first stated by Malcom Knowles, published in 1950 years
"informal adulteducation" (Informal Adult Education). After that many scholars have worked on
concept of informal learningand promoted it.Unlike formal learning, the learning which is not
structured, not based on set of formulas orguidelines is called Informal Learning. Informal
learning at a workplace is self-addressed learning or learningfrom own experience which

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

happens outside the formal learning or structured training. Informal Learning is anoutcome of
incidental learning, self-learning, everyday experience or curiosity of a person. Though there are
regular formal training programs for the capacity building of employees at the workplace but
most of thelearning take place is informal in nature and happens under the line invisible which is
hard to recognize and tounderstand.

BPO (Business Process outsourcing)

BPO industry is growing very rapidly in India. This is the industry which is on boom these days
because offactors like cost advantage, time factor, competency, economy of scales, government
support. NASSCOM reportsays that competition among leading BPO companies, 24/7 services,
India's geographic location and theinvestor friendly tax structure in India have made the BPO
industry in India very popular. In India, Timesjobs.com report 2018 says that demand for young
talent in BPO industry is noted 14 % which is highest amongall industries. In BPO sector there is
diverse workforce in terms of region, caste, state, age etc and it is achallenging job to manage
such diverse force.Most of the National and International organizations hand over few of their
work, unit or sometimes departmentin hands of other organization, who do work on behalf of the
core companies to meet their business goals andobjectives. Indian BPO companies offered
services such as customer support, technical support, telemarketing,data processing, form
processing, bookkeeping etc.

Literature Review
Beatrice Van der Heijden et al. (2009) concluded that informal learning is totally related to the
specific jobbut it also depends on the HRD and HRM policies of organization. Further study
observed that employability ofemployees is enhanced by a mix of formal and informal learning.
Study was conducted on 215 non-academicstaff members of the open university of the
Netherland.
Berg Shelley. A. et al. (2008) in their study focused on to find out factors that influence informal
learning inthe workplace and the types of informal learning activities people engage in at work.
Aftersurvey researcherfound number of factors influences the informal learning such as personal
interest, job itself, workenvironment, and relationship with colleagues etc. Researcher also
noticed that age and education level did notput much impact informal learning engagement.

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

David A. Cofer, (2008), the study suggests that advantages of informal learning cannot be
denied. But this is notto suggest that every corporation rush off to implement strategies for
facilitating informal learning. Informallearning is merely one intervention that, with its known
successes, may be the solution to an organization'sproblems. After analysis author found that, a
combination of the right environment and mix of strategies (thosediscussed here and others) are a
great foundation for an organization's workplace learning efforts.
Donato Antonella, et al. (2017), in they said that self-teaching should be put most attention,
skillsacquired by colleague is a main influencer of informal learning.
Grip Andries De. 2015, in his research he found that 96% of employee’s activities reflect
informal learning. Inthis study observed that, in several countries’ initiatives have been taken to
certify the skills workers acquirethrough informal learning.
Kumar Amit and Bhatt R.K, 2015, in their study found that 67.5 % students opinioned they
use informalspaces for academic purpose and library play important role in this. Researcher
concluded that informallearning spaces is an important concept in academics.
Kyndt Eva, et al. (2006), in their study after analyzed researcher concluded that validated
measurementinstrument on informal workplace learning outcomes contributes to the research on
informal workplace.
Mokhtar Intan A. (2010), in his study he explored that lifelong long learning or professional
developmentthrough formal learning is more expensive than the informal learning. Learning or
knowledge gain from formaltraining may not always be applied to the job.
Objective of the study
1. To find out the informal learning activities of employees at BPO.
2. To study the general awareness and attitude of the BPO employees towards Informal
Learning.
3. To determine the impact of informal learning skills enhancement of BPO employees.
Research Methodology
The paper is exploratory and analytical in nature. Target population for the study is employees of
the fivemajor BPOs i.e. Infosys, Genpact, Teleperformance, EXL and Vertex in Jaipur, India.
Primary data is by thestatistical tools’ questionnaire & interview and secondary data has been
gathered from reviewed researchpapers, books, and journals. To accomplish the above set of
objectives, a survey was conducted through self-structuredquestionnaire for the employees of

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

BPO working as associates, supervisors and middle management.Sample size for the survey is
50 employees from all major five BPOs mentioned above. Sample is selected bysimple random
technique. Collected data was further analyzed with the help of statistical tools to draw the
results of study.

Analysis of Data Using Statistical Test

Appropriate statistical tool MS Excel has been used for analysis and interpretation of the data.
Data analysis isdone through percentage, mean median and mode method to know about
awareness of informal learning amongBPO employees, to come out with different ways of
informal learning at BPO, and to know about the impact ofthe informal learning on skill
enhancement of employees. Questionnaire is divided in to three parts as per theobjectives of the
study:
Table 1: Questionnaire Mapping

Objectives Questions

To know about awareness of informal Q1

learning among BPO employees.
To identify the attitude of BPO employees Q2 (1 to 26 Statements)
towards informal learning.

To know out the effectiveness of the informal Q3 (Matrix)

learning on skill enhancement of BPO employees.

Part – A of questionnaire is to know about General information of BPO employees.

Table 2: BPO Employees Demographics Information
Positions Gender Age Working Qualification
Experience in
BPO(Years)
Associates -50% M- 64% 18-22 – 8% >1 - 14% UG – 4%
Supervisors-40% F- 36% 23-27-44% 1-5 – 56% G - 48%
Managers-10% 28-32 – 24% 6-10 – 18% PG-32%
11-15 – 10% 11-15 – 10% PR-10%
16-20 – 2% 16-20 -2%

33-37 – 14%
38-14 - 85
43+ -2%

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Table 2. shows that:

1.From collected data it is drawn that 50% employees are from Non -Technical profile which is
also known as aNon-voice profile. 40% employees are working on Voice profile and rest 34%
people are belong to technicalprofile which requires professional degree or certificates. Most of
the job profiles which are offered by BPO
employees are Non-Technical, Backhand and Non -Voice Category.
2.Out of the data collected the 64% of employees are male and 36% are females working in BPO
at differentprofiles.
3.Out of the total sample 44% employees fall in 23 to 27 years age, 24% employees are of 28 to
32 years,14%are of 33 to 37, 8% employees belong to 38 to 42 years and 2% employees are of
43 and above years. Theanalysis show that the large number of employee’s at BPO are young
and categorized between 23 years to 27years.
4.As per study it is found that 56% employees having experience 1 to 5 years, 18% experiences
of 6 to 10years, 10% employees having experience of 11 to 15 years, only 2% employees have
experience of 16 to 20years working in BPO. In collected data no employee fall in the category
of working experience in BPO of 21 to25 years or above 25 years.
5.From gathered data out of that 48% of employees are graduate in different streams, 32% are
post graduate,20%are having professional degrees and 4% are undergraduate. This shows that
majority of employees employed inBPOs are graduate.

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Q1. As per your experience which of the learning is more effective at workplace for an
employee.
Table 3: Learning of Employees at .
Workplace. 59
60
Particulars Percentage
50
Only formal
learning 2 40
27
More formal 30
learning and less informal 20
learning 4 8
10 2 4
Less formal learning and
more 0
informallearning 59 Only formal More formal Less formal Both from Only informal
learning learning and
Both formal learning and formal learning
less informal more learning and
learning and informal learning informal informal
learning 27
8
Only Informal Learning Fig 1: Learning ways through which BPO employees learn at
workplace.

Table 3& Fig 1. shows that out of the total target 59% of employees believes that they learn
more frominformal learning as compare to formal learning, while 27% employees think that they
learn equally fromformal informal learning. 8% of the employees said that at workplace they
learn effectively only throughinformal learning on other hand 2 % employees think that they
learn only from formal learning.
Part B – Analysis of Questionnaire
Q2. Attitude of employees towards informal learning at workplace.

Table 4: Attitude of employees

71
towards Informal learning at 80
workplace 70

60
Attitude of Employees 13 16
towards Informal 50

Learning % 40

Positive 71 30
POSITIVE NEUTRAL NEGATIVE
Neutral 13
Fig 2: Attitude of employees towards Informal Learning
Negative 16 at workplace

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

In Table 4.& Fig 2. depicted that 71% believes that they learn at workplace through informal
learning and theirjob requires both technical and soft skills, 13% are neutral neither they are
positive or negative towards informallearning and 16% says that they don’t learn from informal
learning at workplace.

Table 5: Mean, Median & Mode showing Attitude of employees toward Informal Learning
Mode 5
Average 4
Median 4

Table 5. shows that employees responses mean, median and mode lies between 4 to 5 ranking
scale which depicted that most of the employees are having positive attitude towards informal
learning at workplace.

Table 6: Anova relationship between informal learning practices and technical skills & Soft
Skills
Sum of Squares df Mean Squares F Sig.

Technical Skills 4.211 2 21.06 4.217 .021

Soft Skills 2.701 2 1.351 3.303 0.45

Table 6. shows the result of ANOVA test which is conducted to know that whether there is any
significant impact ofInformal Learning practices on technical skills and soft sills of employees.
After test conduct it is found that informallearning practices having significant impact on
technical skills and soft skills as significance level between both is0.021(technical) &
0.045(soft), which is less than 0.05 significance level. It means there is a significant
relationshipbetween informal learning practices and technical and soft skills enhancement of
BPO employees

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Table 7: Descriptive Statistics which technical skill get enhanced

through informal learning
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
DS (Domain Skills) 50 1.00 5.00 3.9800 .99980
AS (Analytical Skills) 50 1.00 5.00 4.1400 .96911
CUSTS (Customer Handling
50 2.00 5.00 4.1600 .84177
Skills)
DOCS (Documentation Skills) 50 1.00 5.00 4.0600 .86685
COMS (Communication Skills 50 1.00 5.00 4.2200 .86402
Valid N (listwise) 50

Table 7. shows that which technical skills get enhanced from the informal learning practices.
BPO employeesbelieves that communication, customer handling, analytical skills are getting
improved more than the domain &documentation skills.

Table 8: Descriptive Statistics which Soft skill get enhanced through

Informal Learning

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

Organizational Cultural Skills 50 1.00 5.00 3.7600 .89351

Presentation Skills 50 2.00 5.00 4.0400 .83201
Problem solving Skills 50 2.00 5.00 4.2000 .92582
Self-Management Skills 50 1.00 5.00 4.0200 1.02000
Inter-personal Skills 50 2.00 5.00 4.3000 .76265
Ethical Skills 50 1.00 5.00 4.2800 .90441
Valid N (listwise) 50

Table 8. shows that technical skills get developed from the informal learning practices. BPO
employees’ experiencesthat Inter-personal skills, ethical, problem solving skills, presentation
skills are get enhanced more rather than theorganizational cultural skills & self-management
skills.
*Statistics shows that employee’s soft skills get enhanced more than the technical skills from
the informalways.

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Part C- Analysis of Questionnaire

Table 9: Frequency Distribution Table showing which Informal way have major impact on
Skills enhancement of Employees.

Ways of Informal learning

Technical Skills Soft Skills
(in %) (in %)
E-library (Reading
Manuals & Documents) 68 50
Trial Error 79 58
Social Media 72 41
Mentoring & Coaching 75 74
Huddles 72 54
Buddy-Up 77 67
Conversation with colleagues/seniors
61 52
Offsite Meetings 50 77

Table 9. shows that major percentage of employees believes that trial & error, Buddy-Up, and
Mentoring & Coaching playvital role in performing task technically. Mentoring & Coaching,
Offsite meetings, and Buddy-up helps in tomagnify the soft skills of employees.

Q4. Do you think informal learning is a 360o learning approach?

Table 10: Descriptive Statistics that Informal Learning is a 360o

Learning

N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation

In Table SENIORS 50 1.00 5.00 4.0200 1.22040
10.
shows PEERS 50 2.00 5.00 4.0200 1.05926 that
mean SUBORDINATES 50 1.00 5.00 4.0400 1.12413 value of
CUSTOMERS 50 1.00 5.00 4.1200 1.17178
all
THIRDPARTY 50 1.00 5.00 4.0000 1.29363
SELF 50 1.00 5.00 4.2600 1.08440
Valid N (listwise) 50

responses is above 4 in each category, which means that employees felt that they learn
informally from all the ways such as seniors, peers, subordinates, customers, third party, and
self.

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Learn from Self, Learn from Seniors,

86% 90%

Learn from Third Learn from Peers,

Party 78%

72%

Learn from
Learn from Customers Subordinates,
80% 76%

Fig. 3. Informal Learning is 360o Learning

Fig.3. Shows that 90% employees believe that they learn from peers, 86% employees learn from
self and customers,78% employees learn informally from peers, 76% learn from their
subordinates in casual way and 72% says they learnfrom third party. So average 81% found that
they are learning from all directions at workplace that’s why InformalLearning is a 360 olearning.

Interviews of BPO employees

The study is based on the mixed method approach quantitative as well as qualitative method. For
quantitativedata questionnaire has been used as a tool and for qualitative data interview method
is used, for morebelievability of data. Interview was unstructured and responses are collected
form open ended questions inquestionnaire and face to face interview from employees from
working as Associates, Supervisor and, at Middlelevel management. The duration of Interview
was 5-10 minutes. Some of the responses of employees towardsinformal learning and their
experiences of learning through informal ways at workplace taken in the form of Interviews.

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

The statements of some of the employees during interview are:

“I personally Believe that a 10-minute tea & coffee break gives more understanding than a whole
presentationgiven by an expert. Because that 10 minutes break give an employee a chance to talk
freely with seniors, expertsand other employee can give clearance of doubts. A whole
presentation contains what is actually known by anemployee already what need in actual is
discussion and their implication.”
(Sumit Vats, HR Executive, Teleperformance, Sitapura, Jaipur)

“I believe that one on one meetings, short meetings, and tea break discussion would help in to
gainknowledge give bonding to learn more rather than formal training.”
(Vasu Dev Shenoy, Sr Manager, Infosys, Mahindra Sez, Jaipur)

“Informal ways of learning play a very vital role in developing an individual although
organization provideformal training but that is one time, costly and time consuming. Due to this
organizations now, a day arefollowing informal learning approach and allocation some marks to
this form of learning. As a team leader, Iexperience that it enhances employees’ skills such as
problem solving, communications, task specific skillsand personality development skills.”
(Sandeep Sharma, Team Leader, Vertex, Civil Lines, Jaipur)

Yes, I support informal learning as a team leader and follow informal learning ways to make
employees learnskills. I found that few things which can only be learn through informal ways of
learning like office manners,understanding of organizational culture. tricks to do work smartly,
etc. The way which I observed as best wayamong all informal ways is offsite meetings which
help in to motivate employees more to learn.
(Jeevesh Sharma, Team Leader, Genpact, Jaipur)

Offsite meeting helps in to build good relation among employees, which will help employees to
put theirwork-related problems in front of seniors more easily and problems can solve
immediately.
(Pankaj, Executives, EXL, Jaipur)

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

Findings of the Analysis

It is found that in BPOs, the employees at workplace learn more from informal learning and less
from formallearning.Most of the employee are having positive attitude towards informal learning
at workplace. After analyzing it is found that there is significant positive relation between
informal learning and skills enhancement of employees.

Descriptive statistics shows that through informal learning, following skills are get enhanced of
an employee:
Soft skills- Problem solving skills, Self-Management Skills, and Inter- Personal Skills.
Technical Skill- Domain Expertise, Analytical Skills, and Customer Handling Skills.
The major ways of Informal learning through which BPO employees enhance their Technical
skills & SoftSkills.
For Soft Skills- Huddles, Mentoring & Coaching, and Buddy –Up
For Technical Skills- E-Learning/ Self, Mentoring and Coaching, and Buddy-Up
The result shows that informal learning is a 360o approach, as employees learn from all
directions.

Conclusion of the Study

After analyzing quantitative data and qualitative data, it is concluded that employees are aware
of informal learningat workplace. Employees learn from the informal learning activities which
take place at workplace and employeesare positive towards the informal learning. Most of the
BPO employees believe that their technical skills and softskills get enhanced from the informal
ways of learning. Further it is also found that employees prefer informallearning to develop their
skills and life-long learning, they stated major ways from which they learn most areBuddy-up,
Conversation with colleagues, self- learning, offsite meetings and huddles. So, from the study it
can besummarized that organization can include informal learning approach in their training and
development program ofemployees. Informal Learning is an innovative HR practice to enhance
employee’s performance by enhancing theirskills.

Recommendation & Suggestions

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

As increased competencies among organizations, there is heavy burden on HR department to

introduce newway of working policies, innovative HR practices, and need to work on morale
values of employees to enhancequality of performance. From result of study, it can be suggested
that organization should make informallearning to be part of employees’ training and
development through which skills and performance of employeescan enhanced. With the help of
Informal Learning not only job specific skills can enhance, other skills ofemployees can also
improve like organizational skills, technical & soft skills, and human skills. Theorganizations
can make informal learning as part of employee’s daily activities in the form of short meetingson
daily basis, allowing time for water cooler talks, expert’s sessions and provide free time for self-
learningand observation. These informal ways of learning at workplace help employees to be
more open towardslearning, innovative, creative, good decision maker and help them in to
improve their other skills as well.Informal learning in itself an innovative process because it is
not followed by any rules, discipline or experts’advice it is by default and it is by choice of
learners. Informal learning activities and program is less costly andtime -consuming than formal
learning.

Limitation
This paper has focused on learning of employees only through informal learning ways at
workplace. The studyhas conducted to know the impact of informal learning only on two skill of
employees that is technical and softskills. The study has targeted the only employees of BPO
sector and of one region Jaipur, Rajasthan in India.Sample size for the study was only 50
employees, due time and money constraints.

Future Scope of Study

Informal learning is new and innovative concept furthermore study can be done with more new
variables, onother sector’s employees and in any other region of India.

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 Informal Learning: An Innovative HR Practice for Skill Enhancement of Employee

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