FM CAREERS - TRAINING
MARCH 2021 53
It’s safe to say
that 2020 was
a challenging
year for
business.
From the
unprecedented
switch to
homeworking for millions of us to
depleted supply chains and furlough
schemes, we’ve all had to adapt
quickly to life in the pandemic just to
stay operational.
Given these dramatic shi s, it’s easy
to see how training could have fallen by
the wayside for business leaders facing
other, seemingly more fundamental
challenges. However, I would argue that
a well-trained workforce makes for a
more robust, flexible workforce, and that
continued training is, in fact, a key way
for organisations to keep up with the fast
pace of changes as we enter 2021.
Indeed, by keeping the workforce
up-to-date with the latest processes,
procedures, and best practices, you’re
helping to future-proof your business
against skills-shortages and keep it
safe. Training is paramount when it
comes to mitigating risks, increasing
the engagement of employees, and
supporting your short/long-term
business goals.
TRAINING SURVEY
In a recent survey we asked 1,000
employees across the country how
they felt about their company’s training.
The goal was to find out how much
training employees receive and their
sentiment towards this training, e.g.,
how e ective and engaging it is, whether
the training achieves it goals, how it
helps employees reach their potential,
and so on.
The answers were telling, with over
40 per cent of respondents rating their
company’s training as ‘average’ or
worse. Furthermore, only one in five
employees said they felt very engaged
or enthusiastic about their company’s
training, and one third of employees
reported feeling apathetic towards it.
A quarter of respondents said they find
the repetitive nature of their mandatory
training ‘frustrating’, while others dubbed
it ‘boring’ (19 per cent), ‘long-winded’ (13
per cent) or ‘irrelevant’ (13 per cent).
As worrying as these outcomes are,
perhaps the most concerning result to
come from the survey was that almost
half (48 per cent) of all respondents said
they would look for another job due
to poor training – a testament to the
adage that good employee training is
an investment in people that businesses
cannot a ord to ignore.
Given these results, it seems obvious
that workplace training isn’t always
hitting the mark when it comes to
engagement or e ectiveness; a fact
that’s evermore concerning given the
crucial nature of mandatory awareness
training - essential learning like firesafety,
data-protection, and equality and
diversity.
MODERN LEARNING SOLUTIONS
Businesses that have managed to stay
agile and successfully adapt to various
challenges and changes over the years
have one thing in common: they never
stop learning. For employees at these
organisations, training isn't a one-time
event that (o en frustratingly) interrupts
the flow of work simply to fulfil a legal
obligation. Neither is it repetitive,
regurgitating the same information year
a er year in a sort of lazy ‘one size fits all’
approach.
Indeed, companies that view and treat
compliance training, or any training for
that matter, as such are far more likely to
get the type of employee feedback and
disinterest we see above – and it’s not
hard to understand why.
A er all, force-feeding your employees
dull, legislatively focused learningcontent
for the sake of ticking a box is
not conducive to real learning, nor does
it help instill the types of behavioural
change we need to see when it comes
to reducing workplace risks and
encouraging performance.
Thankfully, the rise of learning
delivered in digital formats has meant
that companies can keep employees
on track with their learning journeys,
whether they’re o ice-based, working
remotely, or even on the road. Cuttingedge,
cloud-based learning platforms
can help support continued learning
since they can be accessed on mobile
devices as well as traditional PCs
and laptops. Training results are then
automatically uploaded once the device
is back online.
ADAPTIVE LEARNING
Another digital innovation, adaptive
learning removes the repetitiveness
from compliance training, by – first
diagnosing – and then targeting only
the gaps in knowledge each individual
employee needs to fill. By doing so,
it also removes a lot of ‘wasted’ time
going over information that’s either not
relevant or that the employee already
has awareness and understanding of.
As well as showing you value your
employee’s time and knowledge,
adaptive learning doesn’t subject
employees to the same learning content
year a er year either. Rather, the AI
leveraging modern learning platforms
suggests di erent learning styles to keep
things fresh and to suit the individual’s
personal taste and requirements (think
detailed study, immersive learning,
short-courses, or microlearning, - all
dependent upon the learner’s actual
needs and time constraints).
LEARNING IN THE FLOW OF WORK
Intelligent eLearning platforms also
have the ability to learn about specific
employees’ gaps in knowledge,
delivering training and other information
as and when it’s needed, alongside work
rather than instead of it.
This process of ‘learning in the flow
of work’ is a fairly new idea and it
recognises that for learning to really
happen, it must fit around and align
itself to working days and working
lives. Rather than think of corporate
learning as a destination, then, it’s now
something we can access ‘on demand’.
In this way, it can bridge the gap
between learning and doing.
ADAPTIVE LEARNING Darren Hockley, Managing Director of eLearning provider, DeltaNet International on
ensuring your training is innovative and accessible in 2021 and beyond