Delivering Success in Corporate Learning During the Pandemic

? Corporate training programmes have been fluid with the COVID-19 pandemic hitting in 2019. Not only do business directions have to stay agile, it was reported that 94% of L&D professionals had to change their learning strategies in response to the pandemic (Fosway, 2020).?

We have clearly seen an uplift in L&D activities turning to online channels. Study has revealed that the global corporate e-learning industry is expected to grow by US$38 billion from 2020 to 2024 (Tamm, 2022). In terms of growth rate, Asia Pacific region is expected to have an annual growth of 20%, being the highest among all markets (Griffith, 2021). While there is no doubt that COVID-19 has sped up adoption of digital learning, there is abundant research support that e-learning is a wise strategic decision for businesses.?

Statistics showed that investment in e-learning has a return rate of up to 30 times (Pappas, 2019). E-learning can effectively improve employee engagement (18%) (PapersOwl, 2021) and company profits (25%) (Chernev, 2022). 72% of corporations said online learning gave them a competitive advantage (Pappas, 2019).

This article is going to look into what e-learning brings to the table to understand why it is particularly useful for adoption when face-to-face training is undecided:?

No Time and Geography Boundary

Compared with traditional classroom training, e-learning allows employees to learn anytime and anywhere. Whether they are in the office, taking transport to work, at home, or in a quarantine hotel, they can freely learn. With materials available online, learners can choose the most effective time and location to study, without work commitment constraint. In other words, employees have the flexibility to set their own schedule, which arouses the learning initiative and enthusiasm, strengthening the learning outcome (Arkorful & Abaidoo, 2014).

Time and Cost Efficiency

Digital learning makes training across time and space possible, since employees would not have to come to the same venue at a fixed time. A recent study found that training time consumption of employees was reduced by 40% to 60%, and 95% reported more efficient training experience with the help of digital solutions (Tamm, 2022).?

Let me share with you 3 success stories from global corporations with demonstrable business results:

“The use of virtual learning has delivered dramatic savings. Being part of the 15 years digital transformation journey for the business, the e-learning platform has delivered results promptly, with the promise of more to come.” said EVP, HR Strategy, Shell.

• Shell has developed an interactive learning platform which minimised the cost of their priciest training programmes by 90%. Over 12,000 virtual classes were delivered, with more than US$200 million retained (Annesley, 2017)?
• Corporate e-learning allows manager grade of IBM to learn five times more content at one-third of the cost. As the whole company, IBM has saved US$200 million, which has accounted for near 30% of their past training expenses (Tamm, 2022)
• Dow Chemical has lowered the training cost from US$95 to US$11 per learner by moving from in-person class to online digital tools. The move has significantly conserved US$34 million (Tamm, 2022).

Employee Empowerment

As training can take place virtually with an e-learning platform, unnecessary travel could be eliminated, reducing pressure to reschedule training activities with the COVID outbreak. Together with the flexibility to customise individual learning pace, higher learning efficiency would be resulted, driving more positive feedback from employees.?

Study has shown that companies offering e-learning have an elevated employee retention with a range of 25% to 50% (American Heart Association, 2018). Airbus is among the successful cases, where their employee engagement and satisfaction levels were uplifted by establishing an e-learning library (Annesley, 2017).

Personalisation

Online learning also places employees to be the center of learning. Instead of having the company or trainer to determine the rundown of a traditional training class, digital learning permits employees to pick their interested topics and courses from the readily available resources. The learning would not be bound by the roles and positions. Learners are granted control over their own learning, enhancing the motivation to learn more and possibility for self growth, in addition to solely sharpening skills necessary to performing job duties. These all correlate to a superior learning experience.

Diversity and Availability

The above advantages of e-learning joint forces to contribute to better training impacts. What’s more, there is a great variety of digital learning materials. With diverse and interactive content, memory retention of skills and knowledge acquired will be facilitated. (I’ve mentioned about how to make learning engaging in the previous article, read here if you have missed it.) Learners can choose their own preferred material styles, this ownership empowered a better recall rate, thus increased application at their work (Puri, 2018).?

Also, employees are able to revisit learning content whenever necessary as the resources are available online. When they revise the materials repeatedly, memory is consolidated and knowledge retention is enhanced (Fig.1).?

The pandemic has created a new normal, with hybrid and remote work earning their place as a permanent way of work, digital learning is certain to be staying.

If you would like to get your employees excited about their own growth despite working dispersed, with a focus on driving engagement, learning experience and business results, learning transformation adopting digital means is the trend that you must seize.

Whoever adapts more quickly to leverage technology in corporate L&D will gain their competitiveness in this digital era. ?

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References

American Heart Association (2018). ELearning Statistics and Value for Your Organization.?

Annesley, C. (2017, October 31) Shell makes $200m saving with virtual learning environment. Computer Weekly. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from: https://www.computerweekly.com/news/450429126/Shell-makes-200m-saving-with-virtual-learning-environment

Arkorful V. & Abaidoo N.(2014). The role of e-learning, the advantages and disadvantages of its adoption in Higher Education. International Journal of Education and Research, 2(12), 397-410

Chernev, B. (2022, February 6). 21 Astonishing E-Learning Statistics For 2020. Tech Jury. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from: https://techjury.net/blog/elearning-statistics/#gref

Fosway. (2020, August 10). The Impact of COVID-19 on learning and development. Elearning infographics. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from: https://elearninginfographics.com/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-learning-and-development/

Griffith, N. (2021, October 28). 50+ eLearning & Digital Education Statistics (2021). Retrieved February 16, 2022, from: https://supplygem.com/elearning-digital-education-statistics/

Online Learning Statistics & Infographics 2019-2020. (2021, September 6). PapersOwl. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from: https://papersowl.com/blog/future-of-online-learning

Pappas, C. (2019, September 24). Top 20 eLearning statistics for 2019 you need to know. eLearning industry. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from: https://elearningindustry.com/top-elearning-statistics-2019

Puri, S. (2018, November 16). 5 Advantages of E-learning. Training industry. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from: https://trainingindustry.com/articles/e-learning/5-advantages-of-e-learning/

Tamm, S. (2022, January 7). 100 Essential E-Learning Statistics for 2022. e-student. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from: https://e-student.org/e-learning-statistics/