Corporate training is beneficial for both the company and its employees. Not only will people learn new skills and improve existing ones but the best training also boosts morale and improves retention rates. The workplace is constantly changing and so is the way that employees are being trained. So, to ensure your training is beneficial, you need to keep up with this and adapt where necessary. Employees won’t get the most out of outdated methods, processes and analysis – and they won’t get the most of modern technological trends without any support.
So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at what corporate training will look like in 2020.
Artificial Intelligence: A new study by Oracle and Future Workplace found that 93% of people would trust orders from a robot at work. Companies are now starting to use learning experience platforms that harness this technology. This uses AI to collate data and creates personalised and relevant content, meaning training is specific to the individual and delivered at speed.
Virtual and augmented reality: This relatively new technology enables the employee to practise a skill before they actually need to use it. This reduces risk and enables them to build their confidence. This is particularly beneficial for those who work in healthcare, for example, but is also useful for many other sectors including customer service.
Individualised training: Historically, employers would train all their employees in the same way. This is usually just when they start the businesses and when new processes are put in place. As a result, they may know how to do the job but don’t grow beyond that. Increasingly, however, they are now seeing the benefit of training which is specific to the individual rather than group training. This may mean one-to-one training for an employee who feels they have a weakness in a certain area or external training from a specialist. This could mean sending them away for a day’s training or a conference over a few days. It’s important to take the time to do this properly, however. Employees shouldn’t feel rushed to squeeze training in around other things. Bosses should take a look at hotel booking sites to save on costs to ensure they can afford to give people the time they need to develop as individuals. After all, individual flair and styles of working should be encouraged in a healthy, balanced team.
Microlearning: While longer learning sessions are necessary, there’s no reason why training should be confined to dedicated days. John Bersin, an industry analyst, argues that the average employee can only spend 1% of their day training – but even that does still leave time for microlearning. This can be done in a matter of minutes and could just be a video or quick quiz. This won’t take up too much of someone’s time but will ensure they are continuously learning and making minor improvements to their day-to-day practice that could add up to a lot in the end.
Soft skills: According to the Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation, 25% of long-term job success relates to technical skill while a whopping 75% relies on soft skills. You may not have seen these soft skills as being important previously but that needs to change to reflect their importance. Consider training around soft skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication, problem-solving and so on and you’ll feel the benefit throughout an organisation.
Do you need to make changes to the way you train your employees? Then start by seeing how you can implement some – or all – of the above in 2020.
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