5 Trends that Are Transforming the Learning Experience

Massive change and disruption are a part of everyday life now. With this environment of constant change, the challenge now becomes how to better equip your employees for a world with no normal. Many learning professionals are coming to the realization that it all begins with the learning experience.

What’s great is that walking through the current trends in learning, training, and development can give you a roadmap for creating a stellar employee learning and training experience. 

A Transition to Digital Learning 

Learning and training have been slowly making a transition to a digital environment for a number of years. Even before the pandemic, the traditional model of learning where employees need to be in person with an instructor had already been proven unsustainable as the pace of business continued to increase. And as companies made the pivot to digital during shelter in place, there was still an element missing in terms of the people component. 

While the technology may be there, employees need a tailored learning experience. Employees need to find content quickly and be able to consume it while on the job—this is what drives business agility and results in lower training costs, making fewer mistakes, and ultimately better customer satisfaction. 

The Hybrid Workspace 

More people who can work from home would like to continue to do so in the current work environment. This means that companies need to figure out how to keep people engaged and like they’re part of something bigger. Greater emphasis is now being put on learning content, how it’s consumed, and how interactive it is for employees.

You need to collaborate with subject matter experts more closely and find innovative ways to create and deliver content. The content you create also needs to be device-independent since employees could be accessing training on any number of devices. 

A Fusion of Business and Learning

As executives have been paying more attention to learning, it’s become central to a successful operational strategy. As a result, learning is being absorbed into lines of business. Companies are now seeing that the learning experience directly impacts business continuity. We’ve seen that during the pandemic when employees can quickly access mission-critical knowledge to do the job right safely, customers are happy and the business benefits.

While the technology may be there, employees need a tailored learning experience.

A Global Talent and Skills Shortage 

Employees leaving their jobs at record rates is causing a huge shift in global talent and is only exacerbating the skills gap. Unfortunately, companies have seen that it’s not simply a matter of hiring more people. It comes down to the learning experience, especially when it comes to onboarding.

When you can hire people, there is little margin for error in onboarding within the first 90-days. Making sure new employees feel valued and part of the larger company as quickly as possible is the difference between a happy employee and a vacant job. 

The Need to Demonstrate ROI

Tying learning to business value requires an emphasis on the learning experience. Why? Because a better learning experience drives engagement, and that drives a better customer experience which is the key to business success. When you have data, you can prove that your learning programs are making an impact on individual and organizational performance. 

Make sure you deliver a stellar learning experience that enables employees to thrive in an environment of massive change and disruption. For more insights on how to deliver a stellar learning experience, watch the replay of the keynote from our Inkling Illuminate 2021 conference, Learning in 2021 and Beyond: Where Do We Go From Here?