The widespread and seemingly overnight digitalization of how we work has created an enduring necessity and dependence on digital tools. To stay agile and adaptable in our novel work environment, there is now a pressing need to reskill the workforce so that talent can utilize new digital tools and software to collaborate and learn essential job skills with ease.
In fact, a recent Gartner survey revealed that roughly 60% of employees have had to learn and hone new skills in response to COVID-19, while only six in 10 learning and development professionals say their organizations have created new trainings in recent months. Therefore, it is imperative that organizations and management teams shift their focus toward developing and sharpening the skills necessary to create an environment for employees that is productive and engaging. With this in mind, here are some key considerations to acknowledge when designing corporate training models that help your workforce adapt to ever-changing tech and sharpen job skills:
One-Size-Fits-All Teaching Materials (and Methods) Aren’t Enough
To offer employees an effective training experience that fosters critical skills, organizations must consider designing tailored and customized learning journeys. According to a McKinsey report on COVID-19 recovery, the path to emerging from the pandemic slow-down stronger than ever begins with reskilling workforces to overcome new obstacles and environmental changes. As such, organizations should be looking inward at their own data, utilizing key insights from their workforce’s behavior to create the most effective corporate training. With three in four companies stating they would rather create personalized training content in house as opposed to purchasing premade course materials, organizations should dig deeper into their productivity and workplace data. This way, they can better analyze the scenarios and tasks that their staff face every day to create hard-skill and software training programs that fit highly-specialized needs.
Welcoming AI Applications
As AI technology continues to drive business transformation across industries, organizations should be looking to integrate growing applications into learning and development plans.
According to a new study by Oracle, one in four human resources (HR) leaders currently see artificial intelligence (AI) technology having a positive impact on learning. With a learning management system (LMS) that can automate grading and analyze performance across exams, topics and competency levels, for instance, organizations can easily utilize AI applications to identify areas of improvement and provide extra training to employees who need it most.
Innovative technology solutions using machine learning (ML) can automate data analysis, enabling the creation of wholly informed and personalized online learning programs. With these enhanced data driven insights, training managers and HR professionals gain the power to develop unique modules and questions for individual users, strengthening the learning and skill building process.
Unifying Your Collaboration Space
With the mass migration to digital work, organizations have become reliant on collaboration software and services to stay in sync. However, without a unified platform, online learning can be a juggling act. As some employees and learners might even voluntarily use external digital tools to collaborate, operational inefficiencies and security obstacles can arise. To create effective learning programs and ensure that teams are collaborating safely and efficiently, organizations must implement a single point of truth for sharing data, documents and ideas.
Additionally, when designing training programs for reskilling purposes, and rethinking everyday workflow for employees, it’s important not to discount the value of using one, familiar platform. Using a team collaboration platform enables the ability to chat, share files, and meet virtually in a safe, familiar setting. In the digital work environment, implementing collaboration tools offers the motivation to inspire timely and more engaged participation.
With workplace structures and procedures shifting rapidly, organizations need to remain limber to stay ahead of changing technologies and trends. That way, they can ensure that their teams are always prepared to learn new and essential job skills. There’s no longer room for standardized training modules that fail to meet employees where they are. In 2022 and beyond, the key to ensuring that all members of an organization are prepared to master crucial job skills starts with designing insightful, engaging, and data-driven training and reskilling programs that foster every company’s most valuable asset: its talent.
