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      Training and Development skills for the digital age

      by Susan Dumas

      Talent management , Learning and development strategies

      Training and Development teams have been asked to provide better services and make a bigger impact on their businesses for the best part of 10 years now. Away from work, we have easy and (usually) free access to high quality digital content on the internet and from our smartphones. This ease of access isn't filtering into most workplaces however. Most organisations still rely on classroom training and poor quality elearning content. This has to stop.  

      eLearning is part of the training and development skills challenge

       

      The frustrating thing is that elearning was seen as an investment in training and a problem-solving way of the future. Yet for the most part it has just replaced classroom training methods like-for-like, without being able to improve the performance or provide richer learning options for staff. At best, it has reduced costs and provided a bit more flexibility for where and when training can take place. But – the big training and development shake-up still hasn’t happened, and the impetus for the business function to transform digitally across all areas is putting more and more pressure on learning and development teams to create effective training programs.

      Jane Hart’s annual workplace learning survey, validates our observations: 

       

      • Classroom training and elearning are the least valued methods of learning in the workplace
      • Google searches, day-to-day working, sharing with colleagues and learning from professional networks rank higher

      moment of opportunity

       

      New training and development skills to embrace the messiness of learning

      Learning is a messy business. As adults, we all know that and we’re happy to learn in a messy, unstructured way outside the workplace. But once inside the workplace, the tendency is still there to put learning in a box. This approach isn’t engaging our learners, nor is it making it easy for a learning and development manager to have an impact on the business. We don’t have time to build a formal learning program for everything our staff need to learn, such a management training programs, in the workplace.

       

      The current state of training and development skills

      The Towards Maturity Annual Benchmark report recognises the need for change in L&D and the training and development of employees. The top priority for companies in this era of constant change and disruption are: 

      • Improving organisational performance (98%)
      • Increasing productivity (97%)
      • Increasing learning access and flexibility (97%)
      • Increasing self-directed learning (96%)

       

      "The new role of learning and development will be to become a trusted advisor to the business There’s also important work to be done in helping to establish a strong knowledge sharing culture in teams, groups and across the organisation.  

      Jane Hart, 2018 workplace learning survey 

      Self-directed learning continues to be a high desirable in the workplace. The pace of change in business nowadays is so fast that we need our staff to take charge of their own learning. But we must meet them halfway. Learning and development teams should move from providing highly structured formal learning experiences to looking at long-term learning across the whole organisation. What’s needed is a set of flexible learning resources, different opportunities for employee learning, and different methods of learning to support the performance of the employees. 

      What’s stopping l&D from improving their capability?


      The typical barriers to success are: (Towards Maturity Benchmark)

      • Lack of skills training among employees to manage their own learning (65%)
      • Reluctance by line managers to encourage new ways of learning (58%)
      • Lack of skills among L&D staff to implement and manage technology enabled learning (53%)
      • Unreliable ICT infrastructure (52%)  

      ultimate guide to the lxp

       

      "It isn’t just learning and development who need to develop new skills – it’s the entire business."

       

      Managers need help to think about new ways of learning and staff need help with self-directed learning skills. Learning and development can work throughout the business to develop everyone. The business should support learning and development skills. Read about 'what CEOs really want from L&D'. Top organisations assist in people and training and development programs, and will create a learning and development skills matrix. They investing in ICT infrastructure and other learning tools.

      But one of the biggest challenges for learning and development is the lack of understanding of what motivates staff to learn:

       

      69% of staff undertake learning to further their career, but only
      20% of L&D teams support staff’s career development or personal job goals

      The 5 most important skills that learning and development need now

       

      Looking at the research organisations who frequently report on the state of learning and development, including Towards Maturity, CIPD and The Learning and Performance Institute – and from talking to our clients, here are the top 5 skills we think learning and development needs to focus on.

       

      1. Business strategy and business acumen

      How to develop it: Find a coach or mentor. And, if you’re a senior leader in your business, offer to support your learning and development specialists.

       

      2. Technology and learning solution know-how

      The technology we use for sharing information, communicating and learning in the workplace is changing all the time. It is an exciting time businesses you are going through digital transformation - but only if everyone can make best use of the new tech.

      How to develop this skill:

      • Join online communities, attend industry conferences and build your professional network – find out more about who’s using what technology.
      • Attend the top elearning conferences
      • Join an industry professional association
      • Follow top research organisations – Towards Maturity

      3. Learn about learning!

      The science of learning  and behavioural psychology are popular topics among leaders and business owners.  There are lots of free online courses and practical books on this subject. Google is your friend! Some recommendations:

      4. Coaching and mentoring skills

      To help build capabilities in your managers and staff, coaching and mentoring skills are invaluable. 

      5. Data-led decision making

      The modern digital organisation is data-led in all its critical business decisions, and learning and development should be no different.

      How to develop: Most new learning platforms include detailed analytics, so it’s up to training and development to start using those analytics regularly.

      10 key skills

      Digital transformation for training and development

       

      The time is right for training and development to welcome the new skills of the messy, fast-paced, disruptive world of business. There are opportunities to embrace new ways of working, but only if L&D professionals can help their staff and managers to embrace new ways of learning.

      When it comes to personal development, there’ll be a willingness to learn.  Percipio, our intelligent learning platform, is built to help L&D meet many of the needs outline here in this blog. Verify, our agile, adaptive microlearning platform is having a hugely positive impact on learner engagement and knowledge and skills retention.

      Contact us today to talk about your organisation's needs.

      Or, if you would like to know how you can be more successful in your role, increase job satisfaction, and make a bigger impact on human resources development and the learning strategy of your organisation - read our corporate guide to digital learning.   

       

      the corporate guide to elearning

       

      Links in this article:

      http://blog.logicearth.com/learning-and-development-the-modernisation-agenda

      http://modernworkplacelearning.com/magazine/classroom-training-and-e-learning-are-the-least-valued-ways-of-learning

      https://towardsmaturity.org/2017/11/27/ld-where-are-we-now

      http://blog.logicearth.com/what-ceos-really-want-from-ld

      http://blog.logicearth.com/the-surprising-impact-of-ld-on-digital-transformation

      https://towardsmaturity.org/building-skills-of-the-21st-century-ld-team/

      http://www.brainrules.net/about-brain-rules

      https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn

      https://coachfederation.org/join-icf

      http://blog.logicearth.com/the-moment-of-opportunity-for-learning-development

       https://www.logicearth.com/percipio

      https://logicearth.com/verify

      https://www.logicearth.com/contact

      https://logicearth.com/elearning-learning-management-system


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