Wai Leng Low of Zimmer Biomet on why learning culture is essential

In an exclusive interview with Wai Leng Low, the Director of Talent and Engagement for the Asia-Pacific region at Zimmer Biomet, People Matters delves into the world of talent management and cultural transformation in the dynamic field of medical technology. With a background in psychology and a profound understanding of human behavior in times of change, Low discusses the challenges and strategies involved in shifting from a traditional implant company to a cutting-edge, data-driven MedTech leader.

Zimmer Biomet is undergoing a deep transformation from an implant company to a medical technology, data-driven one. From your background in psychology, what reactions do you anticipate employees having to this transition and why?

Change is a process, steeped with complexity.

It involves letting go of the old practice and embracing the new. For many people, change is often a discomfort. It requires us to disrupt habits that we have built and reinforced over many years, and at the same time, do something that we are unused to and probably unfamiliar with.

From a neuroscience perspective, our brain likes routine, certainty, and predictability, and it stems from a basic instinct to survive. If the change is seen as a threat, the primal brain, or amygdala is triggered and leads to distress because the demands are thought to be too taxing, forcing us to go beyond our limits or capacity to cope.

On the other hand, when change is perceived as a challenge, think from a growth mindset perspective, eustress is what we end up feeling, making us approach the change with greater ease. We want our team members in Zimmer Biomet to fall in the latter category. This is a constant process at our organisation.

As team members go through the transition, this means that they will be placed to acquire new knowledge, skills, and traits that may not be needed in a previous capacity.

From a talent management perspective, significant change will impact organisational performance and can cause engagement and motivation to dwindle, leading to poorer productivity, well-being, and worse attrition from the organisation. It is thus vital for our leaders to be equipped with skills in coaching and have the capability to guide their teams through change. At the end of the day, the workforce of today is looking for purpose, belonging, care, and growth opportunities during their service with the organisation. We want team members to have psychological safety so that they can bring their own selves to work, to feel comfortable in asking questions, taking calculated risks, and even voicing their disagreements constructively. These all enable them to inculcate a sense of belonging, allow them to embrace their role, and take ownership to learn new skills. Essentially, we are talking about a positive employee experience, an area where we have put focus on creating.

What specific tactics or initiatives are you implementing to foster the desired mindset change among employees?

Often, transformation efforts fail to materialise as great ideas and strategies do not permeate deep enough within the organisation to influence those who directly interact with customers or who are involved in product creation.

Throughout our transformation, we have designed and deployed continuous, high-engagement, and all-employee training programs in the region, involving senior leaders to frontline managers who interact with surgeons on a regular basis.

In addition to training sessions, we believe it is equally important to establish a safe space for team members to share their honest opinions. With that in mind, we have implemented the Inclusion Habits program, which focuses on creating and sustaining an inclusive culture in the company. This program emphasises the importance of our leaders' commitment to creating an environment that is safe for team members to share their voices, contribute to solving complex problems, and keep our care of patients top of their minds.

Only through ongoing dialogue and reviews can we ensure that leaders and team members are engaged, committed, and thus more motivated to support our transformation efforts.

What are the best practices in cultivating the talent pipeline and assimilating new leaders into a niche industry like MedTech?

Managing talent is like managing a supply chain. You must plan early, diversify your talent base, and invest in the continuous development of your team members. We are an advocate of skill-based hiring and focus a lot on nurturing our own talents, so they can grow with us. In fact, more than 30% of our team members globally have worked for the company for 10 or more years.

The fact that we are in a highly specialised industry can only accentuate the importance of talent training. For example, we need to teach our medical sales representatives the soft skills in communicating, connecting, and supporting doctors and nurses. We also require our team members to complete robust training courses on integrity and business ethics to ensure they are aligned with company standards.

Training is particularly critical when an organisation welcomes new leaders. The movement of a leader from one position to another will involve the acquisition of new knowledge, skills, and traits. Such change does not just impact the leader, but it also impacts the team members. Therefore, we have set up the New Leader Assimilation (NLA) Program, which provides a structured, quick, and yet non-threatening way to introduce and integrate new leaders into the culture and relationships of their new team. This ensures that the team becomes productive quickly after a leadership change. During the NLA session, the leader and their team clarify, define, and establish how they will work together. This helps to build strong relationships, set clear expectations and align goals and objectives.

How do you encourage a culture of self-directed learning to enable employees to seek out new challenges, explore emerging trends, and enhance their knowledge independently?

Fostering a culture of learning is essential for organisations, especially when we are constantly evolving and advancing. To take it a step further to motivate self-learning, we work to tie our team members’ self-interest with the collective interest of the company.

We have put several mechanisms in place to embed a Learn and Grow culture, which includes structured as well as unstructured learning.

Annually, as part of our performance management cycle, we established the Career Check-Ins as a commitment for team members to discuss their professional aspirations with their manager and develop a plan of action. Throughout the year with ongoing check-ins—which are tracked quarterly—managers provide real-time feedback; help overcome obstacles and help ensure progress on their development plans.

Last year, we revamped and updated our learning programs to target the learning needs of team members at different levels. This includes our global Executive Leadership Program, targeting strong performers at the director level. Our newly promoted or hired managers and female team members are included in leadership development programs as well.

Besides structured learning programs, we have Mentoring Connections in which experienced team members guide and provide feedback to those who seek self-directed opportunities. The team members or the “mentees” take the lead in such relationships, and they set the objectives and goals. In many cases, these entirely voluntary relationships are mutually beneficial where the mentors also pick up new knowledge from their mentee and find professional and personal value in the relationship.

On a more informal basis, there are lunch-and-learn sessions, as well as communities of practice where team members gather to share their knowledge about new products and solutions.

Our learning systems host courses covering both soft skills and functional knowledge that managers can assign to team members or team members can self-enroll to augment their proficiency.

How are you using analytics to support and advance your L&D strategies?

It is not the data and algorithms that shape learning motivation and team development, but rather how the organisation uses them.

As the British physicist and mathematician William Kelvin said, “what is not measured is not improved.” Analytics is a crucial component in any L&D strategy to optimise training programs and ensure that they align with organisational goals and deliver the ROIs that they are meant to. After all, every organisation puts significant investment into their team members’ growth.

We have established data collection practices that gather relevant information about our training programs, like participation rates, completion rates, feedback on the content, usefulness, effectiveness, and relevance of the programs as well as assessment scores.

We also use such data to analyse and identify skill gaps within our organisation – this helps us to tailor our programs accordingly.

And of course, we cannot run away from measuring the ROI of our L&D initiatives – we track improvements in employee performance, promotions and satisfaction scores in our engagement surveys.

All these contribute to a feedback loop for us to continually identify areas for improvement.

How do you anticipate the evolution of the skilling landscape in 2024 as companies seek to tackle skill deficiencies?

As we walk out of the COVID-19 shadow, we find ourselves in a permanently altered environment. The pandemic introduced new modes of working and drove new forms of automation and communication, underpinned by a rapid adoption of technology.

Today and in the future, team member engagement will continue to focus on purpose, connection, well-being, and development – with our team members at the heart of our strategy and these have to be designed to operate in both physical and virtual contexts.

In 2024, there will be a great emphasis on skill acquisition, or reacquisition. We have all heard that skills are the new currency. I see that companies will shift beyond paper qualifications and place more emphasis on skills.

Along the same lines, companies will continually and increasingly invest in learning experiences for team members. This may include leveraging data and AI-driven insights to tailor training programs for individual skill gaps and learning needs to ensure that they get what they need, they are interested and motivated to learn. This, of course, will vastly improve training effectiveness.

Certification, credentialling will continue to gain importance, as they provide tangible proof of skills and competence to help team members advance in their careers. This will also propel team members to own their development and learning achievements.