Insufficient participation, low commitment, lack of satisfaction – when it comes to in-house training, companies today can find it difficult to motivate their employees to obtain a qualification.
Why is that? According to a U.S. Bersin by Deloitte study, the main reason for this is that companies themselves, their employees, and trainees are experiencing rapid changes. Many personnel development departments have recognised this, but usually lack a starting point and a clear definition of employee development.
Who are today’s employees? And what do they need to stay up-to-date in their jobs? According to Bersin, five types can be identified.
1. Overwhelmed types
Between receiving and sending countless emails per day – not to mention meetings, telephone conferences, and the irrepressible burden of information overload – there is increasingly less time for “real” work. This leaves many people very little time for formal training and development – on average, only 1 percent of a typical week. What does it look like in your area?
2. Distracted types
Since everyone is connected virtually, employees are now interrupted every 5 minutes – ironically, often with collaboration tools such as emails and instant messages meant to facilitate cooperation with each other. Many people check their smartphones up to nine times per hour. Such digital “snacking” can lead to superficial information rather than more valuable activities and insights.
3. Impatient types
Maintaining the attention of adults for more than a quarter of an hour has always been a challenge. Now, however, attention spans and patience are measured in minutes and seconds – especially on laptops, tablets and smartphones. More than 70 percent of trainees turn to search engines to find out immediately what they need to do for their work.
4. Collaborative types
People also want to learn from their colleagues and share what they know. 80 percent of all workplace learning takes place through business interactions with peers, teammates, and managers – often without involving HR. The distribution of knowledge is correspondingly uncoordinated and inconsistent. In the best case, this leads to an at least rudimentary applicable half-knowledge. In the worst case, there are blatant gaps that lead to disorientation and lack of productivity.
5. Empowered types
Increasingly fewer people have the time, patience, or inclination to learn on a “just in case” basis. They want to know whether what they have to know is really being used in their daily lives. Only then do they have the necessary motivation to really absorb the knowledge. If this is not the case, many skills have a half-life of less than five years. Nothing is permanent, everyone has to keep on learning without knowing where to get “quickly” secured information. A greater number of people are looking for opportunities for themselves for further education. At least 50 percent of the approximately 10 million people enrolling in open online courses are adults who volunteer for further qualification.
What does this mean for the adaptation of learning strategies?
Companies seeking effective training for tomorrow’s work environment should identify the composition of their workforce, learning strategies, and opportunities accordingly. Personnel development that wants to keep up with the times should at least know some modern, innovative working and learning methods. It is best if they also apply these to themselves and set a good example. At this level, they achieve more coherent, continuous learning experiences that better meet trainees’ needs and ultimately help their organisations perform better.
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This article first appeared on TR Academy. Click here to read the full article.