In the realm of the existing world health crisis, companies small or big had to transition towards digital mediums. This unprecedented move is not just limited to the way people and organizations work but also the way learning and development (L&D) is conducted. This rapid transition was fraught with challenges. According to a survey conducted by Brandon Hall Group, maintaining employee engagement and productivity were the biggest challenges faced by organizations. That said, for some company’s continuous flow of work contributed to the biggest factor that enabled employee productivity. Others suffering a downfall relied heavily on L&D, which itself required a complete overhaul.
As companies embraced remote working, new learning opportunities and remote training had to be adopted to sustain during the pandemic. Face to face sessions switched to virtual mode. Having undergone this change, what does the future of L&D look like. L&D managers have to rethink their strategy as switching to the old regime is highly unlikely. Questions relating to adjustment of workers to remote working and committing to L&D schedule need to be resolved. What kind of strategy shift is required for L&D managers to focus on? Here are a few measures organizations can consider making the transition.
Invest in communication technology
For online learnings to replace the experience of instructor-led training, seamless digital mediums are required. However, the unprecedented budget cuts have forced managers to rethink and implement a cost-effective L&D strategy. To conduct online training, a plethora of tools like Zoom meetings, Microsoft Teams, skype are available. Considering the overall environment, investment in the right set of tools and technologies is required.
Adopting innovative software’s
Many organizations across the world are adopting new innovative technologies to support learning. Post-COVID, the transition to smarter ways of conducting trainings will become even more important. For this, companies can focus on embracing learning management systems. These systems have a repository of content that employees can download and can take training basis once availability. Further, tools that can enable collaboration with remote employees needs to be incorporated. For instance, Teams software enables remote people to connect through invitations. Guest speakers are now mostly relying on this to provide training online
Since employees are preferring working from home it will be a challenge to coordinate training. For this, employees need to be trained to work on various platforms and get employees accustomed.
New training methods
The business landscape is changing at a lightning speed and the need to keep the teams updated on the latest training methods is really important for the organizations. Various social media platforms have started offering learning opportunities. For instance, LinkedIn has a platform called LinkedIn learning which can be leverage to practice various modules, take training, and also get a certificate post-course completion. While this might not be available free of cost, L&D teams need to be aware and make investments in such training dissemination methods and make them accessible to employees.
Bottomline
As organizations are forced to work remotely due to COVID, the existing L&D strategy had to transform. L&D professionals are eager to inform employees on how L&D has changed, what opportunities are there for employees and where can one access them. To do so, regular communication through open channels, and emails is essential. Communicating employees on various accessible training, modules, and ready-made materials on subjects that will help employees grow is a must to ensure engagement even while working remotely.
Online learnings have also become one of the key traits of a modern workplace. These trainings also help employees maintain adequate work-life-balance as they can plan their training basis one’s availability. Facilities such as technical skill development, soft skill training, and on-the-job skill enhancement sessions also help employees upskill their capabilities. Providing hands-on training on tools and software such as Microsoft Office suite will not only increase employee skills but will help employers retain skilled talent.
