The workplace learning trends you need to know: mobile learning, hiring, VR and millennials
The Learning and Development Department could be the most important area to a company’s future fortunes. Now more than ever, the resources of L&D can be the fine line between the ability of a workforce to do their job well, and their ability to simply do.
With such a wide variety and means to provide workplace training to staff, there’s little reason not to include this vital learning opportunity to give employees that extra edge.
According to LinkedIn’s 2017 Workplace Learning Report, learning and development aims to fulfill 4 major objectives:
- Develop Managers and Leaders – Through courses that are tailored specifically to the needs of one business, managers and leaders can be developed through the ranks to further implement the specific skills required for the successful running of this business. Managers can evolve with the business to identify with the needs of the organization and better steer towards them.
- Develop Technical Skills of Employees – Making sure that an organization’s employee base has the appropriate level of technical skill is now absolutely essential. All companies use technology in one way or another, so the ability to properly operate them is a must.
- Internationally Standardized Training – A global workforce requires globally standardized training to provide the same high-quality services that clients and customers expect from businesses.
- Career Development – To retain the best employees, it’s important to offer them clear steps in career development and improve their skills on the job.
Now that we’ve established what it is that workplace learning can offer, let’s take a look at some of the future trends we’ll see in business training.
Virtual Reality Will Further Enhance Training
Virtual Reality isn’t just for the gamers. In fact, the business world is waking up to the enhanced possibilities that VR offers by including it more and more in their workplace training. Not only do pilots or doctors train using this incredible technology, but techs, designers, and consultants will be using seen with a pair of goggles strapped to their heads more and more in the coming years.
The power of VR is that it gives the best possible replication of real-life, and real working life simulations. It allows employees to practice their skills in the safety of a virtual world that they will need in their job roles, to bolster the standards of the services they provide.
Mistakes can be costly in business, and with the help of VR these mistakes can be dramatically reduced.
Hiring From Within
On first glance you may think that this point isn’t connected to workplace training, but it absolutely is. As the shortage of skilled staff candidates rises throughout technology and finance in particular, organizations are beginning to act to resolve the issue. Companies are beginning to focus on their own ranks for candidates who could be promoted into higher roles with the right training.
This is attractive to companies for a number of reasons.
One reason is that hiring from outside of a company is more expensive than hiring from within.
Another is that the company already know how well the staff member is performing in their current position, so the promotion of staff they know is a lesser risk than hiring an unknown. The company can use their own workplace training to properly prepare the employee for their greater responsibilities. This training can be uniquely tailored for best results.
Mobile Learning Will Continue to Grow
Mobile learning will come to play a larger part in workplace training. Much like VR, but further down the line, organizations are realizing the benefits of fully mobile learning.
Flexibility of learning methods to address important points from a variety of angles, and the portability of our mobile machines themselves, are some of the many benefits of mobile learning.
As Forbes has noted, the advantage of “mLearning” isn’t only the fact that they can be done anywhere, it’s also the bitesize approach that’s dominant in the industry that means that learning can be continual - offering benefits for all.
Millennials to Increase the Demand for Workplace Training
As millennials continue to make their mark on the workforce of the day and more enter the job market, their very modern perspective on the job market and career development is set to be seen through their demand for more workplace training.
Having grown up with mobile technologies, the leaders of this generation see downtime as a wasted opportunity to learn or train. Rather than flicking through Facebook on the train, millennials with high aims would rather use the commute to brush up on beneficial skills, like foreign language knowledge.
In work, this desire to always learn translates to more workplace training, refining skills and continuing their development.
The job market is more competitive than ever, and this is a generation that knows what it must do to get ahead of the pack.
There will be More of It!
Seeing the improved productivity and skills that their workforce has gained from their workplace training, companies are pouring more and more money into the arena.
Learning and Development is more important than ever. With fierce competition for limited personnel and a millennial generation that expects the ability to develop their skills while at work, workplace training needs to fulfill many important demands.
Workplace training has widely-felt consequences that effect on the entire culture of a business. From CEO’s at the head of the table to workers on the factory line, workplace training is now being understood as one of the most cost effective ways to quickly improve the quality of employee output.
