Nowadays, everything is all about speed. It’s all about how fast can a product or service be delivered to you. And with the continuous progress of technology, most aspects both in business and in life are struggling to keep up. Learners, too, have changed—they have different skills and they need a different set of skills. This 2018, what are the key trends that training professionals and the learning and development professionals have to look out for?
2018 Learning and Development Trends
Customization
Learners now expect a unique and customized learning experience for them. The one-size-fits-all training is now not enough. Learners want and require training programs fit for the context of their job. And, those programs must also be essential to their work’s functions and roles. Because of this, designing learning programs must be customized, covering the entire learning experience.
Digital Skills
Before, computer literacy is a huge advantage for a talent. As technology advances, the shelf life of digital skills shrinks. A talent must have digital skills and if he or she talent doesn’t, then it’s surely a disadvantage. Leaders must ensure that employees have access to the necessary resources should they need to learn new digital skills.
People Skills
Technology advancement helped so much with connecting people from different parts of the world and making it “borderless”. But, it seems like while we indeed created forms of communications that would have been impossible years ago, we get less and less human interactions. The rise of Artificial Intelligence or AI will make technical skills less a priority and the focus will shift to soft skills. Because of this, L&D should also start focusing on allowing people to hone their soft skills such as emotional intelligence, collaboration, negotiation, etc.
Artificial Intelligence
As much as a lot of sources now hint about Artificial Intelligence or AI as a threat to a lot of things, there’s no denying how it can augment processes and analyses. Through the help of AI, L&D could better understand learner behaviors and needs, and as such, be able to provide to them the best options.
L&D as a key benefit
Employee development is one of the top three non-financial motivators and according to a post by Corbett, 76% of employees want opportunities for career growth. Learning and development, as part of employee development, is now a key benefit to attracting and retaining talents. If you’re still doubting, here are 5 reasons why you should invest in employee development.
With change coming in fast waves as more days pass, learning and development would surely not be left behind. The shift in the demography in the workplace also creates new needs and demands for the improvement of the practices that are happening. But the good thing is, you could start improving now!
