IN THE BLENDED LEARNING SOLUTIONS ERA

COVID-19 has created an unprecedented situation for organizations, through its magnitude as well as consequences. Indeed, organizations operating in China are stuck between an imperative of achieving results to survive and stagnating sales, why their Human Resources Directions must face the paradoxical obligation consisting in delivering better top line results (but without recruiting additional talents) or bottom line (but without letting go of resources which can become strategic at the inevitable time of rebound).

In this context, what are the options for a Fortune 500 or a mid-size MNC which needs to optimize Human Resources in order to maximize competitivity, to enable those who need it to best navigate the worst crisis of the XXIst Century?  How to make sure talents will be ready to be mobilized to deliver immediate and sustainable results at turnaround time?

An element of answer can be found at the intersection of digital transformation and training solutions to fuel the purposeful development of the company.

Since several years now, Nego Asia has been proposing to its clients (close to 100 companies, over 2500 people trained) blended learning solutions developed with Halifax Consulting, of which Nego Asia is the official China representative. Combining digital, asynchronous remote training / e-learning, synchronous remote training / coaching, they enable Human Resources Directions to implement “glocal” programs, which respect the global culture of the company and the local specificities of each of its markets.

With e-learning, HR Directions open minds and lay the foundations of a shared culture, for instance of #sales, #negotiation #keyaccountmanagement, or differentiated #leadership in adaptive learning mode, or with negotiation #seriousgames with personalized debriefing by a virtual coach.

At a time where home office is gaining ground, remote meetings via Zoom or teams have become the norm, and Human Resources Directions must take that into account for target groups ranging from a few employees to over 10,000, in particular when putting together learning & development itineraries for high potential talents. The pace of trainings has also become a hot topic, since the attention span differs depending on whether you are 15 to 20 in a training room or spread by groups of 2 or 3 in 6 different countries, albeit in different time zones.

But this challenge bears in itself its own solution: indeed, the obligation to replace several-day long workshops (I have personally delivered 1-week marathons in sales, communication and negotiation to a Fortune 250 in China) with 2-hour blocks, the obligation to open the minds of the people who are going to be trained, with micro-e-learning or serious gaming, before the first “localized” web classes, and the obligation to anchor newly acquired skills with customized exercises on a digital platform in English or Mandarin, fits with the “learning sprint” approach sought after by “digital native” learners.

Thus, post-Covid learning itineraries serve Human Resources Directions to guarantee them a multi-dimensional ROI on their training initiatives:

1 – retention of better trained talents, more competent and therefore more motivated. This enables Human Resources Directions to elaborate strategic HR plans to offer to a greater number of talents career opportunities better fit to the employee and to the company at the same time.

2 – dramatically increased competitivity, through the immediate in-the-field implementation of newly acquired skills , anchored by means of a variety of training strategies and tools, which also enable Human Resources Directions to monitor progress and put in place targeted reinforcement actions, thanks to automated and customized digital dashboards.

More than ever, Nego Asia positions itself as the China and Asia partner of Human Resources Directions, so they can reaffirm at all times their strategic role in the purposeful development of the company.