Today’s reality is a digital reality—for better or worse. You check your phone 150 times each day, spend 25 percent of the day reading emails, and are more distracted, impatient and busy than ever before. (Source: Disruption of Digital Learning; 2017 Deloitte).
For Human Resources (HR) and Learning and Development (L&D) organizations, this means making big decisions when it comes to digital learning: How do you modernize your Learning Management System (LMS)? How do you track and monitor learning records? Which types of content do you need and in which formats? Which delivery platforms will work best for your employees? Where and how can you utilize artificial intelligence, augmented reality or virtual reality?
By working closely with HR and L&D professionals across industries, we’ve learned that there are four proven tips that will help you accelerate your learning strategies:
- Get to Know Your Employees Better
For nearly two decades, market research firms have been using sophisticated tools and digital functionality to generate insights on topics ranging from customer preferences to emerging market trends. However, for most talent organizations, employee insights generally come from an extensive annual survey or structured performance management process.Today’s digital world provides many more opportunities to generate insights into employee preferences, views towards leadership and company culture, pain points, etc. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a frequent pulse check on employees – allowing HR and business leaders to shift priorities or adjust communication tactics?
Yes it would, and thankfully technology is here to help. Tools like xAPI and Microsoft PowerBI provide you with the capability to show real-time data on the metrics that really matter, which can be integrated and deployed as part of virtual learning experiences.
Consider redesigning your existing or future digital learning solutions so that they accomplish your learning objectives AND generate meaningful insights about your employees.
- Go for Speed and Scale
Whether it is a great facilitated session, engaging employee offsite or a high-potential learning journey, nothing matches the transformational power of a great in-person session or structured learning journey. But it is clear that innovative and impactful digital solutions provide the opportunity to reach even more people and do things that were once impossible.Most HR and L&D leaders recognize that they need to move faster, use fewer resources and generate a larger business impact, but struggle to identify the proper solutions. The typical avenues—highly choreographed executive webcasts, trainer-led Adobe or WebEx-based training, and standard self-paced eLearning—offer less than thrilling results. Wouldn’t it be nice to deliver key training or communications to large groups of employees faster, with more memorable and engaging experiences?
Consider developing more frequent digital learning experiences for large groups of employees who can benefit from additional training or strategic communications.
- Equip Your Business Leaders with Relevant Tools
The cloud has been a game changer. We live in a world where new functionality arrives to our devices seamlessly and frequent updates help improve our experience—often without us being aware. For most HR and L&D leaders, however, this experience is not representative of the type of support provided to internal business leaders.A real opportunity exists to empower leaders with next-generation virtual experiences that they can take back to their teams. These experiences can now be developed and deployed faster and more easily, allowing for rapid responses to an organization’s most pressing business issues.
There are leaders who are tasked with supporting key strategic imperatives, facing critical marketplace shifts, or supporting a new revenue model or go-to-market strategy. Wouldn’t it be nice to easily equip these leaders with compelling experiences that they can take back to their teams or organizations, driving better alignment or further developing capabilities? Leading HR and L&D organizations are increasingly blending the lines of training, organizational development and business strategy by creating accessible digital experiences that business leaders can use with their teams to generate meaningful interactions.
Consider helping business leaders address their most critical business issues or building their team’s capabilities by developing shorter, digitally enabled experiences that they can use with their teams.
- Personalize, Personalize, Personalize
Netflix rarely recommends a movie or show you don’t like, Alexa knows your name, Nordstrom provides great fashion recommendations, and your car automatically maps your morning commute without being prompted. As consumers, these types of personalized experiences are what we now expect. However, learning within organizations has mostly been relegated to a one-size-fits-all approach. This is not without good reason – the cost and time required to achieve true personalization has historically been too large. Wouldn’t it be nice to provide truly personalized learning experiences to your employees without breaking the bank? In today’s digital world, this is possible through the use of tools like adaptive learning, virtual assessments and virtual coaching. Learners are able to receive the personalized, high-fidelity experiences they crave, while HR and L&D organizations are able to stay within their budget.Consider looking for ways to provide relevant business experiences that are personalized to the needs of each learner.
Technology has shifted every aspect of our daily lives, and now it’s time for organizational learning to catch up. More customizable, cost efficient and effective than ever before, there’s no reason your organization can’t or shouldn’t be using digitally enabled learning solutions to provide the best experiences possible.