Ask yourself: Are your organization’s employees really learning the skills they need, or are they just going through the motions? It’s time to get real about the future of employee training.
A lot has been written lately about where K-12 education is heading. It’s a critical topic and we’ll be weighing in on that in a future blog post. However, today I’d like to turn our attention to the future of employee training. Many industries are counting on employees to upgrade their skills, so let’s examine three important elements with an eye to future-proofing your organization’s employee training program.
Edtech
With two decades under its belt, edtech isn’t new anymore, but there is still a tendency to try to improve learning simply by adding more technology. Employee training, however, should be moving towards a more discerning future. Employee training programs need to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff and reject technology for technology’s sake.
The use of edtech in employee training must be tied to its ability to achieve specific objectives. Anything else is just window dressing.
Storytelling
Storytelling is an engaging way to pass on knowledge, help people to remember facts and encourage analytical thinking.
Incorporating a lot more storytelling into employee training can lead to more engagement, bringing dry facts to life and allowing learners to connect more thoroughly with the content. Storytelling can also help learners to more easily address new topics, manage conflicts, better navigate the reasoning process and forge bonds with others. People crave stories.
The Human Element
Until relatively recently, learning often only took the form of a teacher-expert lecturing to a classroom of learners who listened, took notes and sometimes asked questions. Changes in education and training have put greater emphasis on facilitating, guiding and assisting students in the learning process. At the same time, the importance of effective human interactions and the personal skills needed to create a successful learning environment have been somewhat de-emphasized.
The facts say that employees typically form better relationships through face-to-face classroom training than through completely online training. Yet, for skills acquisition, online training can be just as effective as classroom training.
What kind of workforce do you need? In environments that value collaboration and teamwork, employee training should increasingly consider the kinds of human interactions available throughout the training, and the frequency and quality of those interactions.
What does the future of your employee training program hold?
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