Where are the corporate training trends going and do we really need it? My 2016 crystal ball says..........

Customization and Content

We are in a “want it my way society” and must face the needs of the millennials. Innovations in technology has created a world of portability and scalability in that all devices- laptops, phones, tablets and desk top computers are learning devices that simply make our jobs and personal lives crave information at all times. Training is now what I am calling off-the-shelf training, if companies want to thrive in the new age economy we must create training programs to reflect organizational needs. As we often hear- “how much is all this training going to cost us?” My simple answer is the cost of not training your people is substantial to your organizational growth and why pay all this money for your technology when you only know how to use a fraction of it?

Training will become more personalized and adaptive.

One of the biggest sources of frustration for learners—in both instructor-led training and e-learning—is having to sit through courses that aren’t particularly relevant to them. For example, they don’t see how the content will help them in their daily work activities, or the course is too fast or too slow. Especially in a training environment, learners all come to the table with different levels of prior knowledge, different abilities, and different needs. For consideration of training, we need to remember that the goal is not to have employees attend courses, but rather to have them acquire new knowledge and skills. New technologies and methods help to personalize training programs so that they can adapt to individual learners who can then help departments achieve their desired goals.

 Training is becoming more data-driven.

Big data has been a buzzword in business for many years now. But for training the key component isn’t so much the size as the data. Training has not historically been a particularly objective endeavor. This is largely due to a lack of using relevant metrics (or sometimes any metrics at all) to quantify the results of training programs. The well-known problem is that instructor-led training sessions are often evaluated according to how the participants felt about the instructor themselves, rather than how much participants actually learned. The result, unfortunately, has been that employees don’t learn as much as they are supposed to and quickly forget what they do learn- that is unless we provide refresher courses or help desk support following training. Collecting data and using analytics to make sense of that data can help training departments significantly improve the effectiveness of their courses and programs. Using this data, training departments can both track the learning happening within their organization and link that learning with measurable ROIs is worth its weight in gold.

 Training will become more networked.

While the world in general is becoming ever more networked and connected, many areas of the business world, including training, have remained stagnant. In 2016, however, we should see this situation start to change. Social Media, such as LinkedIn and other new technologies are bringing networking to training by making the learning environments more social, collaborative and let’s face it- more fun! As companies start to focus less on simply providing training and becoming more of a growth/personal development organization, we will see training programs that foster networking, team learning and collaboration among employees, departments. So I ask everyone one last question- Did you build your career and organization through only experience and luck? Or were you trained to open these doors of opportunity and have continued to adapt with the changes in technology?