How Should HR Approach Training In 2020

The workforce is changing and training needs to follow suit

Learning and development is an evolving practice for enterprises. Depending on the organization, training might be tackled by HR, or for larger enterprises, an entire Learning and Development department is put in place. In 2020, HR departments need to begin approaching training with an open mind. That open mindset needs to consider that training, and by extension, learning, is not happening company-wide at a general level. Instead, it is being served on a departmental and team-based level. 

This year, HR departments should orchestrate and enable independent and super-specialized training teams that can use different training tools and strategies to execute learning. For example, organizations may be looking to develop an extended enterprise training program while also looking to launch internal training focused on compliance or sales enablement. Both of these use cases can be deployed at the HR level, but for a higher chance of success, training needs to be owned by, or at the very least come at the direction of, the teams and managers who are directly responsible and accountable for the success and utility of that program. 

Additionally, HR professionals should start thinking of itself as a Research & Development department experimenting with new technologies and content formats. We’ve all heard it before - there is no one-size-fits-all training delivery method, so instead, HR departments must take a more pragmatic approach to their training, while employing the help of artificial intelligence algorithms and machine learning to determine what content is the most effective and engaging. Ultimately, training is not only for growing people - it’s a strategy for talent attraction and talent retention, which makes the function critical to long-term organizational success. 

Think about the last time you learned something new at work - did it come from a formal learning module, or through a more informal interaction? Chances are, the experience is what provided you with that opportunity. 

Every social experience is a learning opportunity. Throughout any given day, week, or month, there are countless opportunities for personal and professional development. 

It is up to an organization to provide platforms and channels for a social experience to be an impactful learning experience, and develop places for those social experiences to extend beyond 1:1 interactions between co-workers. Learning opportunities often happen directly in the flow of work, during a conversation, or, for example, through an IM conversation where one colleague shares a useful training video with another. These interactions, however, are informal, and without the right technology in place, they’re not captured and therefore cannot be learned from on a more macro level. 

In 2020, organizations need to determine how to capture the informal. As an example of this, Docebo’s Coach & Share feature allows individual users to upload, share, comment and ask questions within the contributions of others, creating a digital location for experiential learning opportunities. In order for this to work correctly, there needs to be a wider organizational strategy for adoption in place. Additionally, businesses have to implement enablement efforts to ensure learners are aware of what is available to them and how to leverage the technology to develop a place for shared experiential learning. 

Empowering employees, customers and partners with the right tools allow learning experiences and social experiences to become one and the same. Creating a shared location for learning also allows the knowledge to be captured and redistributed to a wider audience. By doing this, those learning opportunities become grander and learning is elevated to a social activity instead of an isolating one. 

Artificial intelligence is smart, and it’s growing smarter by the day. AI can help gather non-structured data and information dynamics that standard tools can’t find. Imagine identifying skills gaps through group chat conversations on your internal messaging platform, or through a social learning platform that allows for skills assessment where peers can evaluate colleagues. In both examples, AI can analyze the conversation or interaction and take opportune actions to then distribute the knowledge, create a module, or alert necessary parties of the gap in knowledge to a much wider degree than could be done on an individual basis. This type of support is what makes AI such a significant opportunity for the HR and L&D manager. It is important that in 2020, organizations recognize the opportunity for data collection and jump on it. Playing the waiting game with this technology will only place them increasingly behind their competition.

Enabling learning to happen on an intuitive, digital platform ultimately allows businesses to gauge employee progress on a much deeper level than would ever be possible if not for technology. For example, training resources that are informed by AI are able to account for employee preferences, from learning pace to where and when employees participate in courses, in order to suggest content that might best support their development. Those insights are also delivered to executives on the back-end, allowing them to determine where gaps or strengths exist based on how individual employees interact with learning content. 

In essence, AI-powered learning platforms significantly strengthen HR’s ability to identify issues (and successes) among employees. In many ways, the technology acts as HR’s watchdog, anticipating challenges or growth opportunities and delivering those insights to executives in real-time. Ultimately, this technology allows HR professionals to keep a more informed pulse on the state of the workforce, which enables them to perform their job better. 

We are in the midst of a tech-revolution where automation continues to threaten the job stability of millions. To address concerns and transition workers through this change, it’s critical that corporate training is quickly revamped with adaptability and creativity at the forefront. 

Tech and IT skills are obviously vital to the success of many businesses, especially as the workforce becomes increasingly tech-driven. However, the skills that enable employees to anticipate and face workforce changes - like adaptability, resilience, creativity - can’t be overlooked. While you might not necessarily consider creativity to be valuable within a technical job role, it will be critical that tech professionals are equipped with these soft skills as the industry continues to evolve and new jobs emerge. With that, it’s imperative that organizations supplement more structured skills training with soft skills to ensure a strong culture of adaptability.

Training for creativity relies on a format that encourages learners to quite literally take creative license with learning content. The standardized, one-size-fits-all approach to learning programs not only assumes that all employees have the same learning style, but this type of training typically focuses on technical skills development rather than critical thinking skills. Adopting a learning platform that encourages users to customize their own learning paths based on their individual preferences is the best way to “democratize” training. This gives employees the freedom to personalize learning and embrace their creativity in the process, ultimately allowing them to perfect and refine those soft skills. 

The bottom line is, the workforce is changing, and training needs to follow suit. With advanced training programs supported by the right learning technology, organizations can combine the soft and technical skills training necessary to close skill gaps and transition workers through current and impending industry changes.