In the new corporate landscape dominated by remote and hybrid work, L&D teams are facing challenges in terms of constant upskilling, budget constraints, and catering to a digital workforce.
This is the time to focus on helping employees develop
‘new age skills’ centred around content curation, personalized learning,
knowledge sharing and collaboration to enhance the learning and development
process.
Future of
work at our doorstep
While the pandemic accelerated the transition to the
future of work, businesses have been forced to undergo digital transformation
rapidly. Amidst such disruptions, it is upto L&D to upskill employees,
especially on the virtual system of working, as quickly as possible.
There is also an urgent need to ensure that the
workforce is well accustomed to emerging trends like Artificial Intelligence
(AI) and Machine Learning (ML) which are revolutionizing the ways of working.
With all these changes on the path to the future of work, it is now imperative for
L&D to undertake constant strategic upskilling and reskilling initiatives
to build a resilient workforce for the future.
Let’s deep dive into the steps that can be followed in
the training and development process to ensure that employees are
future-proofed:
# Implement Virtual
Learning
It’s an understatement to say that virtual learning
has become a very dominant norm in the new normal. According to the Deloitte and National HRD Network
(NHRDN) report titled ‘Future of learning in the wake of COVID-19’, organizations have said that
virtual learning will constitute at least 40 percent of the formal learning structure,
with some even expecting this figure to reach as high as 90 percent. Josh
Bersin Academy reports that there has been an increase in the consumption of
online learning in most organizations.
Bottomline is: to be successful in the new normal, it
is necessary that every employee is comfortable playing in the new digital
sandbox. Even for those who are digital natives, making efforts for improving
digital fluency is a must. Of course, not all technologies may be relevant to a
particular business, so it is important for L&D to identify the emerging
digital technologies.
# Leverage
Content Curation
This is the time to consider an AI-powered learning
platform that has the ability to analyze and curate all the content in order to
ensure that the right recommendations are made to a particular learner. AI-powered
platforms automatically put content that is relevant to the learner in front of
him or her, in the process filtering the unnecessary ones. Such platforms also have
a proper understanding of various aspects like needs or the learners, their
roles, industries etc on which they create and curate the appropriate style of
learning course with the help of historical results.
# Harness
the power of Personalized Learning
At a time when personalization has become an integral
part of daily life, L&D too can benefit immensely by adding personalization
in the learning experiences. They can provide a personalized learning
experience through the LMS or LXP to re-engage workers, irrespective of their
locations during this time of remote/hybrid working.
Employees appreciate learning that is specifically
tailored to their needs, interests and goals. They also find such kind of
learning more relevant and useful because it engages them better and helps them
improve their daily work experiences.
# Focus on Knowledge
Sharing and Collaboration.
This is the time to hone digital platforms and
encourage knowledge sharing at every level in the workforce. Employees need to
have the opportunity to share the lessons they learnt and their insights with
their peers through a common platform of knowledge and best practices. Besides,
in this stressful remote work landscape, they can benefit a lot by interacting
with their colleagues in an informal environment.
Many LMSs have components that can be leveraged as a
collaborative knowledge base. L&D can use these tools to harness the power
of social learning and knowledge sharing while fostering a culture of sharing.
In
conclusion
Even as remote working and virtual learning are here to stay, L&D needs to design learning
strategies to build a resilient, intelligent, and empathetic workforce. Moving forward,
L&D will have to look at a learning ecosystem that makes the best use of
technology to provide anytime-anywhere learning as they lead the workforce of
the future.
