Corona Outbreak: New Virtual Opportunities for L&D

No pandemic should stop the wings of knowledge. No organisations want to push the button of capability building. But as it pans out, among many other business functions, workplace learning too has emerged as one of the worst-hit business activities. But, to keep its competitive edge, businesses can’t afford to put continuous ‘training and development’ on hold. Be it reskilling, retraining or upskilling, to keep new perspectives of workforce planning relevant, organisations need to get the ball rolling. As the world of learning faces a sudden disruption, companies need to rethink their L&D mandates as an urgent business priority. 

To continue aligning its corporate training with business objectives and consistently enabling value creation, there are number of tactical and strategic steps that L&D leaders can consider. Be it adapting to new programs and delivery or empowering and engaging employees to successfully bring adoption to meet the changing needs of the organisation. Though digital and virtual training were always in the offing, it never soaked the arclight it deserved. Now with the moving equation, when an unexpected event forced widespread experimentation around digital and remote learning, we are going to experience a tectonic shift towards all things L&D, among others.  

Here are four tactics and strategies to consider as learning leaders are gearing up for org wise virtual learning:   

1. Promote and enhance digital learning ecosystem: Making the transition to remote learning possible through building new policy and then enabling the transition through technology, resources, trainings and communication. Ready or not, organisations have been forced into world’s (so far) the biggest work-from-home imperative and it’s far from being easy for the most of them. No wonder, as per a recent survey, HR leaders believe that the biggest challenge stems from the lack of technology infrastructure and lack of comfort with new ways of working.

2. Better RoI: Remote training can revolutionise the way employees, teams and organisations can build skills and knowledge. It can deliver training and ancillary objectives efficiently to the right audience across locations for a time they are most comfortable with. Determining the success of digital learning programs is important to confirm that it delivers tangible benefits. According to a Deloitte survey last year, 4.8 minutes per day per employee training can lead to a 218% higher revenue per employee. Such large scale knowledge proliferation can be attained by remote microlearning.

3. Personalised reusable curriculum: It’s possible to crate and administer highly persoanlise, responsive customise learning as per the employee’s strengths, needs, skills, and interests.  Instead of never-ending same cookie-cutting training, personalised training catering to employee’s personal needs, learning style, retention speed not only empowers new hires but it also works wonderfully for tenured candidates.

4. Building a knowledge-based culture: According to a survey, a great learning culture not only sets champion brand aside from its competitors but also encourages its employees towards digital adoption, continuous knowledge accumulation and knowledge sharing. In this time of the pandemic, when remote working is the need of the hour, building a great remote work culture where everyone succeeds is important, where employees know and be respectful about who is doing what, where good communication thrives, as well as team’s motivation and connectedness.