eLearning Professionals In 2019: What Should Be Their Top Priorities
eLearning has reached a tipping point of sorts in the corporate learning/Learning and Development industry presently. Organizations are embracing eLearning now more than ever before, and statistics confirm that. According to LinkedIn’s workplace learning report for 2019, 59% of organizations now spend more on eLearning and 39% of organizations now spend less on instructor-led/classroom training since 2017. eLearning is moving up with the support of technology and is becoming increasingly efficient in fulfilling the learning needs of corporate employees. So, what should be the top priority for eLearning professionals like Instructional Designers, L&D managers, and talent developers? This is what we’ll discuss in this article.
What Is Required?
We’re near the end of the decade, and things are changing like never before. Already, many skills that were considered essential to have at the beginning of this decade are being rendered obsolete as technology replaces human-beings in performing certain tasks, and human-beings learn new skills to make better use of that technology. Not only that, with the pace we’re going, skills are increasingly having shorter shelf lives. As a result, employee training and development becomes all the more crucial if organizations want to cut down on the costs of hiring new talent every 2-3 years or so. Thus, the top priority or focus for eLearning professionals right now should be to create eLearning programs that can be used to identify, assess, and close skill gaps as quickly as possible.
However, just addressing skill gaps in itself won’t do, although it is the top priority. There are other focus areas which need to be addressed as well. These include increasing employee engagement, training employees for soft-skills and delivering company-specific insights to close skill gaps. Let’s discuss these focus areas in a little detail:
1. Addressing Skill Gaps
The ability to prevent and resolve skill gaps has always been essential for any business, but that zeal to upskill oneself must come from within, and that goes for each employee. Employees must learn to train themselves without the organization breathing down upon them to complete eLearning courses. This mindset, one of continuous learning must be in the air of the organization. Employees are an indivisible part of an organization, and shouldn’t be treated as something that needs to be modified using eLearning to profit the organization. Treat them like what they are and hand them the responsibility to better themselves. If they don’t, their skills and they themselves are going to end up obsolete.
2. Employee Engagement
And why would employees not want to upskill themselves? They do. It’s just that they are used to engagement, and they don’t get that from your organization’s eLearning courses. Use microlearning, gamification, VR and whatnot in your modules to ensure employees are engaged! Modern eLearning has to be engaging and entertaining enough so that employees sit through them with attention and absorb the learning being presented to them.
3. Training For Soft-Skills
The so-called “soft-skills’ are actually becoming more and more essential, and increasingly “hard” to master these days. These skills, which include work ethic, attitude, communication skills, emotional intelligence and a whole host of other personal attributes are crucial for career success. Some of the fastest growing job roles like sales development, customer success, and customer experience jobs, are largely soft skills-based. As automation increases, these soft skills, creativity being the one topping the list, are what will keep the word “human”.
4. Closing Skill Gaps
What can an organization do on their part to close skill gaps? A lot! It is a process that involves many steps, but it goes somewhat like this. First, there needs to be an assessment to identify the skill gaps of every employee, then create eLearning courses that adhere to business goals, but that can adapt to the skill gaps of each individual employee (adaptive learning). This will require the support and input of senior executives of the organization. Get them aboard. All the while looking to industry trends to prevent skill gaps and ensure that employees are engaged and like your eLearning courses. While there will never be an instant, cure-all solution to identify the most pressing skills to train for, eLearning can help organizations improve how they measure skill gaps and benchmark them against similar organizations.
