Enabling Excellence: How we foster a culture of continuous learning at Apollo Tyres

All modern companies and employees need a continuous learning mindset. In fact, the majority of employees expect learning and development to be a job perk and view it as one of the main motivations for joining an organisation. Moreover, people are the driving force of a company’s success. After all, their knowledge, skills, and experience directly contribute to the company’s productivity, innovation, and overall performance. Thus, providing regular opportunities for our brilliant employees to learn and grow is pivotal to maintaining our position as a frontrunner in the tyre manufacturing landscape.

?However, every employee has their own diverse set of skills. With approximately 19,000 employees globally, we recognise the need for a robust talent management framework that aligns with each individual’s goals and skillset. We believe that such an approach will help our employees obtain an ‘innovation’ mindset’ that lies at the core of our corporate ethos.

?Having won various awards for our learning and development initiatives, we are confident that Apollo is on the right track to transforming the company into a learning organisation. In this article, I will share how we ensure each employee can thrive in their professional development.

How Training Starts From the Beginning

As many other global organisations do, Apollo Tyres’ recruits undergo a thorough onboarding process that encompasses our history, purpose, values, and management. In the past year, we have launched a learning series, ‘Know Your Apollo,’ designed to enhance our new and existing employees' understanding of the company. Such processes ensure that Apolloites are equipped with all the knowledge necessary for them to develop professionally within our organisation.

Tailored Learning Initiatives

Our flagship Apollo Laureate Leadership Development program aims to empower future leaders. We have segmented the program into three different categories: the ‘established leaders’ program for Heads of Departments or Functions in the region or a corporate sub-function, the ‘emerging leaders’ program designed for middle Managers, and the ‘future leaders’ program, which are similarly for middle Managers. Since we launched the program in 2022, we have witnessed the graduation of over 350 Laureates across various leadership levels globally.

Beyond initiatives tailored to various leadership levels, we also have initiatives tailored to address regional leadership priorities. The APMEA region’s ExCom Leadership Journey, Executive Coaching for Heads of Departments (HODs), Leadership Jumpstart, and the Evolve Leadership programme are examples of our region-specific programmes. Meanwhile, the European cohort of leaders successfully completed the High Impact Excellence Program in FY24.

Many of these processes are facilitated through our internal career portal. Regular performance reviews, evaluated on a scale of 1-5 by one’s by respective reporting managers, are conducted for all permanent employees and workers through the Horizon? platform. The method that we have adopted allows us to give employees clear and measurable feedback and assess where they stand in relation to expectations.

Cross-Training and Multi-Skilling

The introduction of Apollo Capability Academy was a learning vertical that tapped into the potential of our internal experts to institutionalise learning. Through the initiative, we identified functions and then facilitated global learning webinars on vital topics. These global learning webinars serve to build Apolloites' capability outside of their assigned function.

In FY24, we conducted partnerships with our Digital IT and Finance teams to launch the ‘Apollo Digital Acumen’ and ‘Apollo Financial Acumen’ initiatives, which reached over 1,800 employees worldwide. As we have established the importance of building employee skills according to regional priorities, we also have smaller, region-specific capability academies. For instance, we conducted the ‘Marketing for Non-marketeers’ program in Europe.

The past year has been a highly productive learning year. We have surpassed industry benchmarks with a 2% increase in learning engagement among Apolloites. Specifically, we have outperformed our industry peers across several Percipio metrics, including returner learner rates, average content accesses per learner, course application rates, and many more.

We have won several awards for our impactful learning initiatives, including a gold award from the Learning Technologies Award 2023 for Percipio and a bronze award from the Brandon Hall Global Excellence Awards for the Apollo LXP.

In short, as we continue to innovate and lead in the tyre manufacturing industry, our commitment to nurturing our people remains a priority. By investing in their continuous learning and development, we are not just enhancing our workforce; we are empowering the very drivers of our success.