Work from home is here to stay; and the stress on social distancing is more than before. However, business continuity is a must, and therefore, everything must go on. A crucial part of business continuity is efficient and effective talent management. As the current work set up has become Normal, talent management has transformed to incorporate new ways of training and employee engagement.
A study conducted by LinkedIn stated over 66% of learning and development professionals agreed how their roles in their said organizations have grown significantly in this year as the focus on employee management and training has heightened. Around 68% respondents stated that employers will now focus on learning programs to have more internal collaboration within the organization. One of the key takeaways of this survey has been that blended learning will be key for employee skilling and training, as classroom methodology becomes obsolete.
Across the globe, organizations have realized this and are on their way to transition to newer methods for eLearning to support the current operational framework. Given the challenging and harder stay at home lifestyle the pandemic has pushed us into, companies are constantly working to help employees to explore new options to learn and enhance their skillset, offering them sabbaticals, and external counsel support to make their lives easier and facilitate their growth.
A combination of eLearning mixed with conventional learning content is helping many organizations to keep the workforce motivated and offer an interactive platform for better engagement. Platforms not just include online trainings and discussions on Zoom or Teams, but companies are investing into customized learning programs, use interesting and interactive content and provide learning in shorter capsules that help retain better. Some examples include micro learning modules, peer to peer collaborations and mobile learning via applications for employees. While trainings and conventional classrooms will resume in the coming months, webcasts and podcasts are not going to vanish either. eLearning will enable organizations to build better platforms to have an interactive process where both learners and trainers will contribute, moving away from the presentation and excel handouts.
Many organizations are also already witnessing the benefits and agree that eLearning methods will form a large chunk of how employee skilling will operate post COVID. Trends also include gamification, use of AR/ VR and how such tools will be helping the staff be engaged and then also learn new things without having to put a lot of mental bandwidth.
Digitalization post COVID has seen a remarkable uptake, and organizations are not shying away from it anymore. Even if some day, we do return to Pre COVID times, the learnings and innovations will stay. The current times have paved the way for a flexible approach, and a departure from traditional systems- which is also applicable in employee growth and development. As organizations demand better skill sets, and the methods to upskill will evolve too. Blended learning, storytelling and collaborations which will replace the classroom in the workplace, and the experience will be enriching for employees. L&D teams will be seen working on a rather blended approach, with a focus on eLearning and modern technology.
Ushering in to the new normal will be to drive new age skill sets in the organization, and organizations that have not realized this, need to perhaps upgrade their L&D approach to stay competitive. Now is the opportunity to not just develop new skills and be creative, but also have the capabilities to cope with unprecedented realities, and be relevant.
Author Profile:
S.K Nigam is the HR Head for Stratbeans, a company that drives digital transformation through AI-based online learning.
Industry Speak, captures insights from industry professionals, subject matter experts on areas of business, people processes, workplace practices etc.
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