Training and development trends
Nowadays, organizations that fail to adapt their practices and solutions for training management, often hamper their organizational growth or productivity. As a result, leading companies abandon traditional training methods in favor of more efficient solutions, often involving technological innovation that engage talent and improve productivity.
PRIORITIZING PERSONALITY
Organizations are facing some critical pressure points, including lack of leaders, need to develop and engage employees as well as issues related to turnover. Finding and keeping talent is no longer only an HR challenge, but a strategic business priority. And still, most companies are not capable of building lasting relationships with their employees, so they invest efforts in overcoming such challenges. Rather than providing employees with the necessary tools for success, many companies feel threatened by their workforce and are afraid of a change.
In fact, when asked to defy their corporate culture, 41% of companies describe it as a “culture of control” or structure of informal workplace with almost no cooperation. With the advent of the younger generation and the rise of the independent worker, companies are trying to rethink their approach to talent and start giving priority to “the individual.” They need a new coaching tool, which can be adapted to the needs of the variable workforce and to align closely with the goals of the organization.
TRAINING TRENDS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Although corporate training is one of the most developed areas of talent management, it is also one of the most innovative. With recent advances in technology and the rapid adoption of social collaboration, coaching and development have come a long way. Yet the decision to improve their program for training management and investing in it is often a difficult challenge. The five major trends are:
- Become mobile – mobile technologies transformed the way companies operate, interact and collaborate. Despite this fact, most companies still don’t use online solutions for learning. Only 10 percent of the companies use web-based solutions.
Most companies recognize that online training can improve continuity, extend the range and engage employees better, but do not understand how to execute this strategy. In addition, some organizations find it difficult to determine what options are available and which suppliers to engage.
Regardless of the obstacles faced, the organizations searching to improve their training functions will have to make technology and the Internet part of the equation, and determine their own requirements when choosing a partner. - The “Social” wave – most companies quickly embraced social media and are investing in tools for social collaboration in order to engage employees further and promote a culture of training. Although “social” has become the standard, companies still lack the knowledge and insight to use this tool for coaching and development. 59% of the companies are using social training strategies, but only 24% claim them effective. One reason is that companies are limited in the social tools they use. Companies use document sharing, discussion forms and blogs, but not video or micro-blogs, which, as our research discovered, are more efficient at improving training functions. Companies need to understand the value of social training and invest in vendors that offer such solutions, if they need better business results.
- Adaptive learning – a methodology that breaks traditional models and allows employees to learn at their own pace. This method gained popularity in the educational institutions, where it’s practiced as adaptive teaching. Coaches pay individual attention to each employee, assisting him in his training.
Employees can be monitored individually and in real time, to determine what learning approach will best meet their needs. This method has its advantages for younger generations entering the workforce, because they have expectations for flexibility and interaction. Companies can consider breaking the traditional training methods by introducing aspects of adaptive learning. - Business goals alignment – training in the past happened in a closed environment where training specialists had little interaction or contact with other areas of the business. The training of the future must be closely linked to overall corporate strategies enabling companies to achieve results. Business leaders should be kept in touch with each program or technological investment, ensuring that the training provides engagement and productivity. From the companies that align trainings to business priorities, more than 70% are able to improve income.
- Measuring efficiency – to determine whether learning strategy improves business results, companies must find a way to consistently measure its effectiveness. Companies must first define indicators and include both business and HR metrics. Currently, most of the companies are considering team promotion, employee engagement and employee satisfaction rather than specific business metrics such as retention, turnover and revenues per full time employee.
CONCLUSION
Companies should adapt their teaching strategies to meet the needs of today’s workforce. Traditional models of training don’t do much to bridge the gap between employer and employee or to improve engagement and productivity. By aligning learning strategies with corporate objectives and using innovative technology, organizations can significantly improve their training functions.
– Choose the right provider – in the past, organizations had limited technological potential for training and development, but today new solutions appear each month. Organizations should consider vendors with innovative features, but also understand the importance of measuring the effectiveness of such activities.
– Collaborate with the business – professionals involved in training should work closely with business leaders to design the training program and also to gather information for the right technology providers.
– Put the individual in the first place – companies should reconsider how they watch their employees and focus on the individual and his/her training needs. For some companies, this strategy could include aspects of adaptive learning; for other companies, this could mean a different communication strategy.
If you believe that your company needs more effective methods of staff training and professional development, an experienced partner like us can help greatly in this regard. Check out the our services and contact us.