In the last two years, the working style of almost every company has changed
fundamentally with a major shift to remote/ hybrid work. The pandemic has altered
the way we perceive work and workspaces accelerating the journey towards a
hybrid workforce.
Learning For the Hybrid Workforce
Hybrid work and the flexibility that it brings has meant that there have
been a number of alterations in various verticals, including L&D, to adjust
to the concept. L&D teams have worked overtime
to address the learning challenges for a hybrid workforce with the help of innovative learn-tech.
In fact, L&D teams have been lauded for
their efforts for quickly pivoting their learning programs to
help employees manage through change.
During this time, learning programs have been designed to integrate the
flexibility of self-paced online training sessions with highly engaging live
interactions to suit the hybrid workplace culture. L&D teams have offered a
varied mix of engaging learn-tech through live, interactive sessions coupled
with pre-recorded ones, in-classroom training integrated with remote ones, live
lectures, quizzes, group assignments, on-demand videos, presentations and so on.
Through bite-sized Microlearning nuggets, learning has been made easily
accessible and is integrated as a part of work. This has been offered to
learners in the form of shorter sessions spread across multiple days supporting
learning continuity and retention.
All in all, during this time, businesses have leveraged the entire
spectrum of digital learning including immersive learning technologies like AR
and VR and not just one aspect of eLearning. While the proportion of digital
training has been higher in fields like IT and ITES, where a maximum of the workforce
has been remote, in sectors like manufacturing, classroom training has been higher.
Gig Economy and
Learning
Additionally, with the workplace evolving rapidly, companies have also
been paying more attention on how to create learning for the gig economy. Given
the uncertainty in traditional employment caused by the pandemic, many organizations
have expanded their ratio of gig workers to achieve agility in scaling their
workforce as per business needs.
This has meant that L&D teams have had to focus on creating unified
learning for all work profiles within the organization since learning of every
profile is likely to affect overall business productivity. The L&D strategy
for gig workers has been modelled to suit their needs by making learning
available remotely and in flexible formats. Since gig workers are seldom likely
to be a physically present in learning sessions during work hours, it is necessary
that the learning for them is engaging, so as to inspire self-learning as per
their convenience.
Evolution of Learning Platforms
This has also been the time when technology has started playing an even
vital role in ensuring that learning systems are easy for learners to use and
L&D teams to deploy. Digital tech is now helping to make learning easy, efficient
and effective so as to meet the learning needs of not just today but
of the future as well.
L&D teams need to anticipate the requirements of the next five years
and then decide how the learn-tech they are using can make it better. They also
have to answer questions like how they can offer learners the right mix of
learning.
What’s In Store for L&D
In 2022
For starters, L&D teams and businesses have to constantly answer the
question as to why learners have to learn something – the ‘what’s in it for me’
question. While learning has gone digital like everything else around us, it is
still not possible to expect employees to dedicate a huge chunk of their time
only to learning.
This is where aspects like Microlearning or bite sized learning come
into the picture. When content is curated in such a way that it can be consumed
and used at the “moment of need”, it can help learners who are busy to learn
well as per their schedules and nature of work.
I had the opportunity to discuss insights like these and many other interesting points with a panel of experts at the L&D 2022: Trends that will Make a Mark webinar.
Amit Gautam