FM CAREERS - TRAINING
JUNE 2021 57
ZOOM FOR
IMPROVEMENT? David Sharp, CEO at International Workplace, believes there might have been a
missed opportunity for employers in learning and development over the past year
While it’s been a tremendous
year for digital learning
providers, there is plenty of
evidence to suggest that employers
are barely scratching the surface
where the opportunity of online
learning is concerned. For many, the
move online has allowed them to
focus on continuity (keeping the show
on the road) rather than opportunity
(growth).
Research suggests that employers have
taken training digital, but at the same
time become less innovative. The initial
response among employers was to put
training on hold, either cancelling it or
deferring it until COVID-19 was “over”.
As the pandemic struck, 60 per cent of
employers had a training plan in place to
respond to it. However, a rapid transition
to remote learning allowed businesses to
continue to train their people by moving
learning online, with 69 per cent of
employers providing learning during the
early stages of lockdown in the UK.
This apparent contradiction is borne
out by more recent survey data. While
use of digital learning during the
pandemic has grown – with 70 per cent
of CIPD survey respondents reporting an
increase in use and 36 per cent reporting
an increase in learning technologies
spend – overall investment in learning
budgets and headcount has dropped (31
per cent and 32 per cent respectively).
Going strongly against longestablished
trends, the number one
issue in digital learning among learning
and development professionals in 2021
is reskilling / upskilling. A new entry in
Donald H Taylor’s Global Sentiment
Survey (a leading indicator of trends in
online learning), it’s turned the focus in
recent years on emerging technologies
on its head – the 2021 survey shows a
big drop in interest in learner analytics,
artificial intelligence and the use of
virtual / augmented reality (VR/AR)
technologies.
What it would seem has happened
is that employers have switched to
Microso Teams and Zoom to carry on
providing instructor-led training, but
remotely (‘live online’) instead of in the
classroom. The label given to this is a
virtual learning environment (VLE), but
at the simpler end of things, it could
just be using Teams meetings to deliver
a training course. It’s proved ideal for
collaborative training in management
(International Workplace has seen a
six-fold increase in demand for IOSH
courses online) and so skills; and to
meet the demand for training, coaching
and support in health and wellbeing, the
number one topic for employers during
the pandemic.
Using Teams and Zoom isn’t innovative
to the learning technologies sector. But
its sudden adoption, borne of necessity,
has been innovative for many employers.
And I think this explains the apparent
contradiction here.
GETTING THE BEST FROM
DIGITAL LEARNING
It’s important to keep an eye on what
good looks like where digital learning is
concerned. As a medium it’s proved to
be a flexible tool. Some of the intimacy
and serendipity of physical in-person
learning is inevitably lost, but it can be
quick and easy to set up, can encourage
collaboration and social interaction,
and can track activity and attendance
to provide detailed learner engagement
data.
As attention spans are getting shorter,
so is the length of courses. Microlearning
(resources of five minutes or less) has
moved from being the exception towards
becoming the norm. The same thing is
happening with the technology we use.
This month sees the biggest change
to Google’s search algorithm in years,
which will prioritise mobile over desktop
performance when ranking results. In
digital learning, mobile-first design is
now the norm, not at an a erthought.
If the training you’re providing to your
people isn’t fostering collaboration,
broken down into smaller digestible
chunks, or mobile phone-friendly, the
chances are it’s not working for them. If it
doesn’t let you track and report on who’s
undertaking which learner activities, and
whether the outcomes from that learning
are valuable to your organisation, the
chances are it’s not working for you as
an employer either. There are too many
eLearning content libraries out there that
fail to tick either of these boxes.
Artificial intelligence and learner
analytics may appear to have been
side-lined as employers have sought to
maintain training programmes during
the pandemic. And physical in-person
training will of course return – something
I’m sure we’re all looking forward to.
But a data-driven approach – one that
integrates learner engagement across
the physical, virtual and digital spheres
– is what learning and development
professionals should be aiming for.
Anything other than that is a sticking
plaster: perfectly fine in an emergency,
but little help in the long term.