Evolution in Learning That Drives Employee Growth

Katrina Faessel:
Workplace learning is evolving to meet changing market forces that affect small and medium-size business. Given the advances in technology, should training employees still be a priority for organizations? We will find out the answer to that question and more as we welcome DeAnn Alcantar, Manager, Learning and Development, here at TriNet, to our virtual stage.

DeAnn Alcantar:
Thank you for joining me today for this presentation on the evolution and learning that drives employee growth. It's a pleasure talking with you about this topic. Let's begin with a quick poll.

Given the advances in technology, should training employees still be a priority for organizations? What do you think? Is it a yes? Is it a no? Or are you not sure?

Thank you for responding. As you can see from these statistics, training needs to remain a priority. Eighty-four percent of employees receive the training they need in the best performing organizations versus only 15% of employees receive the training they need in the worst performing organizations. When we think about learning at individual, team and organizational levels, what we see is that we're experiencing a shift in the way we learn.

There was a recent study from Accenture which highlights that 47% of organizations have arranged or funded digital webinars or virtual classrooms, 41% are providing digital e-learning or online courses, 35% have used digital content and 11% have used augmented or virtual reality.

While we are looking at these new tools and see that they're gaining traction, we must be careful about being blinded by the technology and the jargon. What we know is that learners, instructors and management are still key players despite the technology. In particular, supporting and training the people who are designing and delivering the training are key for effective learning.

As you think about training strategies your organization is using or may be considering, you might also be concerned about challenges or anticipate upcoming challenges. So let's take another poll on your perspective for this. What are the top challenges organizations face for training their workforce?

Is it too many conflicting priorities? Too many organizational or technological changes? Not enough time to attend or complete training? Do people quickly forget what they learn? Is the training itself irrelevant or maybe even inaccessible? And what about training expense?

Thank you for your responses. The answer is—these are all common challenges. Even though there may be some challenges, there are also some great benefits when we train our employees well. Let's also get your perspectives on the benefits of training. Which of the following do you think are benefits of training employees?

Thank you for your responses. All of these are benefits that organizations realize when employee training is provided. You can tell that the impact of training is impressive as we look at the benefits and the impacts of training. An active learning environment for your workforce drives positive impact across the organization in the areas of general benefits of employee training, which include increased productivity, performance, skills and job satisfaction.

And when leaders receive training, there are improvements in management quality, employee satisfaction and an increase in positive organizational culture. When we think about diversity, equity and inclusion training, this actually increases awareness, collaboration, innovation and an inclusive workplace.

Aspects of technical training include contributing to increased self-confidence with upskilling and cost savings because employees are now better equipped to troubleshoot technical problems rather than seeking external support. Then, finally, team training facilitates increased employee engagement and communication and team cohesion.

New ways of learning are more effectively helping to address employee and organizational needs. Employees are interested in a wide variety of learning options. Traditional training approaches such as instructor led, on the job, e-learning courses and discussions or role plays are still part of effective learning strategies, yet because of the pace of change is ever increasing and employees are asking for instant access to information, new ways of learning are more effectively helping to address employee and organizational needs.

New ways of learning are more effectively helping us address, not only employee, but our organization's needs. These new ways of learning are essential because the institutional knowledge in your organization is your greatest asset. Collaborative learning platforms, where employees can learn with each other, are what employees are most often requesting because in this particular format of collaborative learning, they're able to more effectively reskill and upskill to not only progress in their current roles, but also to prepare for new roles.

Traditionally, workforce training took people away from their work. Learning in the flow of work helps people gain access to just in time information, such as through microlearning modules that are accessible on demand and they offer quick and digestible bursts of information as our employees complete their daily tasks.

Keep in mind that continuous learning organizational cultures are those that truly enable their employees to acquire knowledge without significant disruptions to their daily tasks. Let's review some of the key elements for learning in the flow of work.

Learning in the flow of work includes contextualized knowledge within the employees' organization and honestly typical workflows, which helps boost retention and application. Technology does help with creating and customizing training programs that target specific requests on an individual or team level. And part of that includes frequent email reminders, or something called push notifications, that can help keep ideas and the frameworks that are being learned at the top of the learner's mind, as well as increase the likelihood that they'll actually be used.

Thirdly, you want to consider how learners apply what they learn. They need time to reflect and they need time to apply what they learned to help them better understand that information. There's also short online micro learning courses that can be easily woven into workers' weekly schedules. This enhances their ability to apply what they learn, as well as revisit key concepts as often as they need to.

The 360Learning collaborative learning platform is a new tool at TriNet that supports these new ways of learning. Let's see how the 360Learning platform works.

Actor #1:
This is a game changer. This could help us finally get ahead of our competition. Anyone know anything about this big new idea?

Actor #2:
I heard it's big. And new.

Actor #3:
It's complicated though.

Actor #4:
We'll need an expert to teach everyone all about it fast.

Actor #5:
If I could offer up a suggestion. Let's use 360Learning. It's a learning management system. As the team's learning and development manager, I live for this moment.

No, you'll like this one. It's all about collaborative learning, which makes it easy for us to share knowledge throughout the company and easy to ask around and see who knows what, so we can find our Big New Idea experts right here. I think we just found him.

Hiya! You're the new guy I know about big new idea, right?

Actor #6:
Uh, yeah. An entirely new way of working. It's going to change our whole industry.

Actor #1:
Great! We need you to get everyone up to speed on it. Like, right now.

Actor #6:
Oh no. Am I going to have to give a presentation to the entire company? That's one of my top two nightmares.

Actor #5:
Oh no, don't worry. Just make a course using 360Learning.

Actor #6:
Oh, this is slick.

Actor #5:
Mm hmm, yep. 360Learning streamlines everything.

Announcer:
Creating the courses, sharing them, keeping people engaged, getting real time feedback and then inspiring everyone to share their own knowledge.

Actor #3:
Cool, I get it now. That course made Big New Idea really simple to understand and. I know a few things that might make it even better.

Actor #6:
Hey, if you leave a comment, we can update the course.

Actor #3:
Wait, what if I made my own course?

Actor #4:
I'd definitely upvote that. When we're all empowered to share our knowledge, the whole team grows.

Actor #5:
That's collaborative learning in action. Now the entire company can adapt, grow and beat the competition.

Actor #3:
In weeks instead of years because we can…

Actor #5:
Upskill from within. And now 360Learning has us finishing each other's…

Actor #3:
Sandwiches.

Actor #5:
That's my sandwich.

Actor #3:
This is all tomato.

DeAnn:
In summary, collaborative learning is about learning with others by creating courses to share knowledge, by accessing just in time information and linking to on demand courses, along with sharing and accessing information. We comment on and ask questions about that learning experience and that facilitates learning in the flow of work.

Finally, when employees react to their learning experiences, this helps the organization refine the experience, which in turn contributes to a learning organizational culture. Let's close with a call to action. These are some of the recommended actions that contribute to collaborative learning, upskilling, reskilling and learning in the flow of work.

Again, we're talking about reflecting, having the employees reflect on what has been working well and then also adapting our strategies to help build our employees' growth. Embracing digital innovation is gonna be key, so please make sure you're defining your technology strategy and have it be in line with your learning strategy.

Start small. Experiment with the tools that you already have available. Co-create organizational value through continued cross team working and cultivate collaboration between business and learning leaders. You'll also want to harness the wider learning environment by encouraging peer-to-peer connections and supporting individuals to apply their learning.

Please make sure you're encouraging continual learning. Create clear learning pathways and career choices and be evidence based. Define your desired outcomes, engage key stakeholders, gather evidence and measure learning impact on performance. The more these actions are incorporated into your training strategies, the more you're creating a learning culture, which is so essential for today's evolution in learning that drives not only employee, but also organizational growth.

I've received word that we're at time. So, if you've asked questions that haven't been answered or like to ask questions, please go to the questions booth to get those questions answered. You can also access additional resources directly from the session as well.

I wish you all the best with your training and learning practices. Have a great day.