In today’s business environment, organizations understand the significance of learning. Technological advancements are altering the nature of work and the roles that are associated with it. Moreover, they realize that workforce training, modelling effective behaviour, and adapting continuously is crucial for sustained success. The L&D function must consequently play an enhanced role in enabling organizations to learn effectively, rapidly, and at scale by working in partnership with business leaders.
The COVID-19 crisis pushed the challenge of creating effective workplaces by replacing standard office with working remotely. Immediately, it was clear that employees will need to distribute their focus into learning new skills – particularly technological. In fast-changing operating environments, agile-transformed organizations and functions are delivering higher customer and employee satisfaction, lower costs, and faster time to market. The success of this transformation depends on adopting an operating model in which every element of an organization or function is more dynamic. This dynamic structure is supported by a stable backbone that ensures efficiency and consistency.
Integrating Learning in Daily Lives
Corporate Learning and Development functions are aggressively restructuring their approach towards training employees and making them more effective. One of the earliest peak is in shifting employee behaviour towards lifelong learning and expanding portfolio of skills. A growing number of jobs will become obsolete in the coming years, even according to the most conservative statistics. Employee training and development trends will shift toward alternative skill requirements and learning requirements where a great deal of human work is expected to be automated. Both intellectual dexterity and technical expertise are valued by companies. The future of work will require a combination of uniquely human skills and technical knowledge as well as advanced problem-solving abilities.
Hybrid Model of Learning
Traditional classroom-based training has been ranked ineffective considering the new normal of remote work and digital collaboration. With Hybrid Learning, three experiences are combined into a single program. Trainers can combine experience-based learning objectives, classroom instruction, and digital delivery of courses to deliver very effective and lasting skill development. Hybrid learning primarily aims to provide a more immersive and concentrated learning experience for learners, as well as making sure that all participants are able to participate equally regardless of circumstances. It is fair to conclude that hybrid learning will offer employees more than they want now and will be needed in the future.
Data Driven Learning
Various sectors dipped into the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to achieve strategic business goals and eliminating redundant costs. Learning and Development is no exception – there are various uses cases of using AI in the L&D field. Data about how employees engage with learning material and subsequently perform in quizzes or tests can provide insight into modulating the content and delivery styles. Moreover, analysing learning activities could also unlock individual regular feedback to ensure that all learners acquire the adequate skills by the end of the course. Interestingly enough, the content can be valued based on how learners engage with it and therefore provide a better ROI overall on any course.
Hyper Personalisation
Creating unique learning experiences that are tailor adjusted to each learner’s interests, retention pattern and learning mode provides a better ROI on the budget towards Learning and Development. The very same applies to not only new hires – those who choose employers invested in their career progression – but also senior employees that, over a period of time, might find tasks redundant or boring. Moving ahead from static webinars to state-of-the-art platforms that can curate and present a hyper-personalised experience to learners is the future. Moreover, personalisation of course content and delivery can ensure relevancy and highly application-based delivery of knowledge. The hybrid learning model and data driven learning points mentioned above contribute to the need of personalisation.
Real Time and Actionable Feedback Driven
The critical point of failure with past methods of training programs was the lack of transparency of each employee’s performance until the end of the program. Managers can recognize top performers and offer course corrections early and often through a culture of feedback. Employee accomplishments are tracked throughout the year with real-time feedback, reducing bias. A constructive feedback program can help employees reach their goals throughout the year. Besides promoting engagement to remote employees, real time feedback fosters transparency and trust in the L&D initiatives by management as well as employees.
Parting Takeaway:
According to the OECD, more than a billion jobs worldwide are going to be impacted by technology. With the evolution in the job descriptions, L&D departments take a pivotal role in ensuring upskilling of their employees to keep them relevant and efficient in the dynamic business world. Nowadays, providing corporate sponsored learning opportunities to employees is a must have as opposed to a implicit bonus.
The use of hybrid models built on data driven mechanics can enable the future of engaging with employees. Upskilling employees and teams will assure steady innovation in corporates making training a very profitable initiative. The silver lining is that with rise in investments in the Learning and Development sector, there are golden opportunities to partner with leading EdTech firms that can disperse knowledge efficiently.
