Empower employees through learning: Unlocking the skills of the future

Across industries the skills gap is one of the biggest challenges companies face today. But hiring your way out of a skills shortage is not the solution. Instead, you want to bring out the best in your employees to keep your best talents engaged, productive and knowledgeable to drive performance, business growth and innovation. Read on to find out how your people can acquire the skills of the future by learning with SAP’s future-focused learning and engagement resources: when they want – what they want – how they want.

Adapting to the learning needs of a multi-generational workforce

In our multi-generational workforce, we need to offer the right formats and channels for the learning needs of Zoomers to Boomers to embed learning into their daily lives and to foster lifelong learning. In 2024, GenZers, will outnumber Boomers in the workplace for the first time. With instant access to information via the web they are highly independent learners. In contrast, Boomers usually prefer structured training with direct instruction and scheduled sessions. This generational gap can cause friction, as the majority of Zoomers prefer instant access to information, while Boomers tend to prefer step-by-step guidance.

At SAP we knew it was time to rethink our learning strategies to bridge this gap and create opportunities through learning and development for all generations. Training should be accessible, immediate, and adaptable, especially in today’s hybrid work environments. We can enhance employee satisfaction and retention when we cater to the individual needs of our learners, be it a digitally native workforce or boomers who are also open to new learning experiences like GenZers.

So how do you upskill your existing workforce, onboard new hires and create an environment for dynamic, lifelong, and individualized learning?

Our learning strategy

With our world class learning experience platform we want to help our customers, partners, and employees to master SAP solutions with confidence. We have 3 strategic bets driving our learning strategy:

1.?????? Simplification, harmonization and native integration of learning along the customer journey across channels to maximize the value and adoption of SAP systems.

We have a broad portfolio of learning content with more than 200 learning journeys and more than 80 SAP certifications. Embedding these learning content buckets natively into our channels while also keeping them in a dedicated learning environment on learning.sap.com is key for us to change the experience for our customers, partners, and SAP colleagues.

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2.?????? Modularization of content and use of AI to offer individual self-paced as well as instructor led trainings and live sessions to cater the needs of every individual learner.

We have already started the transition from purely product-based learning, to a more business relevant and individualized learning experience.

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3.????? Active learning paths and career progression programs supported by communities, user groups and mentoring accompanied by a world class certification and recognition framework. ??

Initial results show that completion rates that include badges saw a marked increase.

?Acting as SAP on these strategic priorities will make it easier for our customers, partners, and employees to be ready with the right content in the right context at the right time.?

The biggest challenge is ensuring employees become independent in their jobs quickly but not losing sight of accuracy. Our goal must be to help people reach a level where they are confident, independent, and consistent in their performance, always having the correct answer just a search bar hit away. Thus, aiming to help everyone to master SAP solutions with confidence. This applies to all learners, emphasizing the importance of continuous learning and upskilling to adapt to new challenges effectively.

To support this learning approach, where social interactions and recognition are key to maintaining motivation, we are launching digital learning paths in 2024 and continuously improving our communities. This ecosystem promotes lifelong learning and career progression for individual learners. Our "Get and Stay Certified " program provides deserved recognition to active learners, and we are committed to ensuring that our certifications always offer the latest and greatest information.

An outstanding experience and learning platform is key to move from memorizing facts to building a platform where people can quickly find the information they need in smaller learning bites, packaged with practical use cases. We're increasing meaningful learning time, speeding up on-the-job learning, and making it easy for everyone to get the SAP info they need.

Future of learning: Now that’s what I call Edutainment!

We are convinced that the future of learning is Edutainment. Edutainment frames our innovation exercises to improve the learning experience for all of us. It means you can learn when you want, what you want, and how you want. Let me give you a couple of examples of where we are investing.

Streaming style: We are infusing elements the user connects with. We will enable quality learning time, ensuring an improved experience, simplified engagement and emotional connect for the user.

Multi-Device Usage: Multi-device learning offers a convenient, flexible, and personalized way to learn – anytime, anywhere.

Gamification: Gamification in learning apps makes learning more fun, engaging, and effective. It boosts motivation, reinforces knowledge, and improves retention, leading to better learning outcomes.

Interactivity: Interactivity transforms learning from a passive activity into an active and engaging experience, leading to deeper understanding, improved retention, and better application of knowledge.

Multisensory Learning: Multisensory learning engages multiple senses (sight, sound, touch, etc.) during the learning process. It can cater to different learning styles and preferences, making education more inclusive and accessible for diverse learners.

To summarize, SAP will help your people to acquire the skills of the future and close the skills gap with our learning offerings for all generations of learners from Zoomers to Boomers. We can help you along every step of your learning journey and are ready to help you and your business master SAP solutions with confidence. With SAP, what you see is what you learn.

I am excited about the future of learning with SAP.

Explore our learning experience platform on learning.sap.com and let me know what you think in the comments.

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