How To Fuel Employee Engagement In The Hybrid Workplace

3 tips you can employ now to improve your L&D efforts

It's just not field workers today who are working outside the office. As a result of Covid-19, employees have become accustomed to working outside the traditional office, and expect to be able to continue to do so at least part of the time following the pandemic. 

The role of the office is changing, according to PwC's U.S. remote work survey, "It's Time to Reimagine Where and How Work Will Get Done." More than half of employees have indicated they would prefer to be remote at least three days a week going forward, and an even larger percentage (68%) of executives believe that employees should be in the office at least three days a week to maintain the company culture.
 

One of the top factors for returning to the office, the surveyed employees noted, was training and development. So, as the hybrid workplace becomes more of a reality in the near future as more employees return to the office part-time, organizations must consider strategies that will increase both the engagement and effectiveness of their learning and development (L&D) programs in this new work environment.

There are three tips you can employ now to improve your L&D efforts and ensure that employees have the knowledge and skills needed to remain productive in their work, satisfied in their jobs, and continue advancing in their careers.

#1 Make Learning and Connection Easier with Digital Platforms

Over the past 18 months or more, learning has been a lonely endeavor as many employees working in the isolation of their homes during the pandemic. But this is not the most effective way for employees to learn. Employees who feel a sense of belonging are 5.2 times more likely to be engaged, according to LinkedIn’s 5th Annual Workplace Learning Report. However, this number drops dramatically if they’re feeling disconnected and lonely. In fact, 91% of L&D professionals agree that teams who learn together are more successful, according to a LinkedIn report.

In a hybrid workspace, L&D professionals need to reinvent learning to accelerate employee onboarding and ramping to feel like they are truly part of the team and part of the culture. 

Onboarding, reboarding, upskilling, and reskilling, should all be easy to find and complete using a blended learning approach (virtual instructor-led learning plus digital learning) with features like organized, easy-to-use knowledge libraries, search, course recommendations, checklists, online groups, or surveys. Learning is enriched as employees take courses together, and then discuss what they’ve learned through chat. 

#2 Create Learning Pathways

Many employees are likely experiencing decision fatigue after the last year and a half. To make it easy for them, create a learning path that’s intuitive to find and follow, and relevant to their roles and career goals. 

Whether it’s onboarding, development of new skills or gaining certifications, it’s important that employees can navigate their learning so they know exactly what courses to take and when. Learning pathways also can be more accessible if offered in multiple languages and made available on any device, anytime.  

The advantages of learning pathways are clear when your learners have assigned learning paths and managers can easily check their progress and stay engaged with them every step of the way with convenient dashboards. Learning teams should make sure that the content included in the learning pathways is also available to employees in the flow of work after the initial class is taken. This requires the initial training to be searchable a few weeks or months after the initial training through a powerful online search, voice search or search through barcodes. 

#3 Drive Career Growth

The hybrid workplace of today has made it harder to retain employees and we are in the midst of what the press is referring to as the great resignation.  That is why it is critical for learning teams to ensure that employees feel they have opportunities to learn, grow and advance in their careers.  While most L&D programs don’t focus on internal mobility, it’s an area of importance for your employees. In the LinkedIn survey, 71% of Gen Z learners, 61% of Gen Y learners and 56% of Gen X learners said that learning is key to success in their careers. And 47% of Gen Z learners, 51% of Gen Y learners, and 31% of Gen X learners want to learn new skills to perform a different function. 

Given the importance of this to employees of all ages, L&D professionals have a huge opportunity to capitalize on this as part of their content development activities. Since many employees are spending more of their time learning how to be more productive—including mastering hard skills, like learning how to code or performing online marketing functions – it is important to make sure that course recommendations are highly personalized to the individual’s role and career goals.

Even though most companies were expected to start welcoming employees back to the office already, many of the largest companies have pushed back those return dates until the first few months of 2022, due to concerns about Covid variants. As organizations prepare for bringing employees back at least on a part-time basis, now is a good time to ensure your company’s success in today’s modern learning environment. Assess your L&D strategies, prepare your team to lead and deliver the power skills your employees want, and ensure your employees are able to successfully work and thrive in a hybrid environment. 

Chris Tratar is the Director of Product Marketing for Inkling. Connect Chris Tratar Follow @inkling