To Deliver Personalized Learning at Scale, Step Into the Role of 'Air Traffic Controller'

L&D is operating in a new world of work. Digital transformation and a rapidly changing economy have hastened the need for workforces to learn new skills. And because skills have an attenuating life-span, the need to continuously reskill and upskill is paramount. It’s also challenging.

In this hybrid and remote-first environment, how can L&D keep up with the pace of change and serve up the right content to learners?

Increasingly, L&D pros are turning to technology and virtual learning resources to help people develop business-critical skills. As they embrace these new resources, they’re also embracing a new role — that of air traffic controller.

As People Science Senior Consultant Kate Feeney explained in a recent interview: “The role of the modern L&D professional therefore is more akin to an air traffic controller than a teacher. A great L&D department gets high volumes of people where they need to go, by leveraging data to anticipate needs, provide resources, provide safety, and track impact.”

Just as air traffic controllers rely on intelligent systems to manage busy airspace, L&D leaders can lean on intelligent learning experience platforms (LXPs) to efficiently deliver personalized learning programs at scale. Here’s how:

• Leverage data to identify skill gaps 
• Harness your peoples’ passion and purpose
• Combine self-directed and curated learning 

Leverage Data to Identify Skill Gaps

Learning platforms are rife with information — most popular courses or learning modules, course ratings and reviews, industry benchmarking, and individual and team-based course completion rates and skills mapping — all of which you can use to create relevant learning paths for individuals and teams to develop new skills. 

This data is also valuable for learners themselves, who appreciate the value of analytics in pointing them to specific courses. As Ralf Buechsenschuss, Global Head of Org Design, Analytics and Digitalization at Zurich Insurance, shared in a recent podcast interview, “analytics can provide a very clear view where you as a professional have to re-skill and up-skill based on new technologies, or new requirements with your job, and give you this tailored view.” 

By aggregating data from different platforms, LXPs make it easier to collect, store, analyze, and present on data. The LinkedIn Learning Hub, for example, sits on top of LinkedIn's Economic Graph, which provides administrators with up-to-date insights on skills employees need to develop so they and their companies can stay competitive in an ever-changing market.

Harness Peoples' Passion and Purpose

People have a hunger to learn. As our Employee Well-Being Report showed, learning and growth are top drivers of a good work culture. That means the more L&D can tap into this collective desire for growth and help individuals find their interests, the more engaged they’ll be in learning. 

Leena Nair, Unilever’s CHRO, has seen this first-hand, sharing that “We believe that people learn better when they know what they’re truly, truly passionate about. What is it that gives people meaning? When they discover what they’re truly passionate and purposeful about, they learn much more easily.” According to Nair, 92% of employees who have been through Unilever’s “Discover Your Purpose” workshop have higher engagement levels, feel better at work, and feel more ready to learn.

Learners who are passionate about a particular skill or growth area are eager to dive into learning, but they still need help understanding which courses are right for them. While learning platforms can effectively use artificial intelligence (AI) to deliver recommended courses, it doesn’t always get learners what they need. There may be multiple courses with similar titles and descriptions, leaving people unsure about which courses are most relevant to their job or career path. That’s where human experience — and L&D expertise — comes in.

Combine Self-Directed and Curated Learning 

L&D plays a vital role in combining the mix of self-directed learning and curated learning paths for employees. In addition to AI-powered course recommendations (based on input like someone’s profile, job description, and previous courses they’ve taken), LXPs like LinkedIn Learning Hub allow administrative users to create and showcase relevant and timely learning paths. For example, if you want to follow up on a webinar training with additional resources, you can build them into a learning path and push it out to learners.  

To design effective learning paths, combine insights from your LXP with both the needs of the business and the interests of your learners. As Alyson DeMaso, CEO of Raising Beauty, put it: “Spend as much time understanding the needs of your learners as you do understanding the needs of the business and you’re going to have a breakthrough program where everyone is engaged.”

When you design learning paths in this way — by serving them up to people and teams to complete at their own pace — learners dig in: data shows that companies that recommend courses on LinkedIn Learning see 69% more hours watched per learner. It also fosters a learning culture where people learn in the flow of work and feel empowered to learn skills relevant to them and the company. 

Connecting AI to L&D Expertise 

As digital transformation continues to accelerate and impact so many industries, jobs, and careers, we’ll see a more symbiotic relationship between technology and the people using it — L&D teams included. Embracing this shift will help you not only match learners with the content most relevant to them and the business, but it will free up your L&D resources to intentionally build strategic learning paths that close skills gaps and prepare your organizations for the future.