Speculation is ripe off late about the impending global economic crisis and
the inevitable fallout it is set to affect. Analysis of global economic
indicators is increasingly referring to a looming global economic slowdown and the risk of a
global recession. According to the The Independent, “Next global financial crisis will strike in
2020, warns investment bank JPMorgan – sparked by automated trading systems.”
Meanwhile, Forbes suggests, “2020s might be the worst decade In US history,
triggered by contagion from a global credit crisis.”
The predictions are certainly
alarming, and with trade disagreements, slackened global demand, coupled with
geopolitical crisis, the world economy is onwards its weakest expansion, and it
appears that 2020 is the year that crash 2.0 will finally make landfall.
Especially in India,
the government has acknowledged the beginning of a crisis. Car sales are suffering, while automakers are laying off employees in
an unprecedented way, and the ludicrous loan scams have crippled the financial
markets.
What does this mean for L&D?
In an economic
crisis, organizations increasingly focus on cost cutting, and guess which
business function will be one of the first ones to witness budget cuts? That’s
right- it’s Learning & Development (L&D). Improving employee engagement and productivity remains a top priority
for organizations, yet in the face of a global
economic crisis, the percentage of budget allotted to L&D will inadvertently
shrink. However, minimal budget doesn’t necessarily mean compromising your
training. “With budgets shrinking,
L&D leaders must target approaches most likely to boost performance,”
says Sari Wilde, a Gartner research leader.
L&D certainly has the potential to subdue the panic of an economic
meltdown to some extent by helping organizations reassure the workforce through
talent development and re-skilling and up-skilling opportunities. However, in
order to function effectively under a tighter budget, L&D professionals
must align themselves to be agile and prepared with the best possible learning
tools.
With a vast array of tools available, like Learning Management Systems (LMSes) that provide multi-device learning, social learning and analytics and reporting, it might seem like L&D professionals have enough training resources at their disposal to function effectively. Yet, most of these L&D professionals are unlikely to respond effectively to the changing business environment. This is a result of a lack of understanding between the organizations and L&D professionals. Thanks to Off-the-shelf elearning, L&D professionals and organizations can finally agree on a suitable L&D strategy in times of grim economic conditions.
Importance of OTS courses in times of economic meltdown
The main focus of L&D professionals is seldom about planning and developing elearning courses and more often about deploying an effective and sustainable training program. With a greater focus on the employees’ learning experiences and their professional development and less focus on the design of the course, L&D professionals have more to gain from leveraging tools and solutions that ensure the success of their eleanring project. And one of the first solutions to prove highly effective in this scenario is Ready-to-Use Catalog Courseware.
L&D professionals
will always have the option of producing effectively designed and highly engaging
learning courses and a customized training program with a healthy budget
and enough resources. However, with the lack of a budget and resources, L&D
needs to focus on deploying an effective training program that saves money as
well as time by leveraging off-the-shelf courses.
Off-the-shelf courses are lighter on the pocket and don’t require extravagant budgets to buy. And, learning technology solutions or an LMS with built-in off-the-shelf courseware are nothing less than a blessing. Customized training requires you to select the courses, create content, give inputs on the design and then await the testing and verification, all of which takes up a lot of time that businesses have no patience for. But, with OTS courses, organizations can plan training initiatives whenever they want as the courses are readily available on several online marketplaces, like Cegos, Biz Library, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning among others. And, equipped with an LMS with built-in OTS courses, organizations don’t have to worry about wasting time anymore as accessing quality OTS content has never been easier andfaster.
In addition, OTS training
courses open up an array of learning resources, including videos, text, microlearning
bits, surveys and more, and L&D professionals need only add newer courses
to enable continued employee training. OTS courses also save time by negating time-consuming
course development processes and attending training events. So, instead of
going spending time on planning, developing and executing elearning content,
L&D professionals can have elearning come to them in the form of readily
available OTS courses.
One of the greatest advantages of OTS courses is the limitless availability of diverse courses, including Business Skills, Information Technology, Marketing & Innovation, Finance & Management and many more. With OTS courses, there is something for everyone to aim for individual as well as collective development goals. With the ability to choose courses on diverse topics, OTS elearning can effectively help employees build the necessary skills needed for the future of work.
More importantly, OTS
courses are a great resource not only for small and medium businesses but also
for any and everyone who is in need of training. Enterprises especially leverage OTS courses to complement their custom elearning projects with OTS courses to
achieve a greater learning impact.
Takeaway: Instead of
looking at the economic meltdown as a challenge and fretting over the lack of
budget and resources, L&D professionals can truly consider OTS elearning
courses as the savior that can kick start employee training in no time, and with limited to no resources.
To learn how we can help you augment your L&D initiatives with our ready-to-use library of eLearning, mLearning and microlearning courses and videos, schedule a demo now !
