L&D

Subterms

    Latest story

    113 Shares169 Views

    4 Trends Shaping Learning & Development for Multinational Companies

    by

    The pandemic and the economic downturn in recent months has forced many business leaders to reconsider their approach to Learning and Development. A report by TalentLMS reveals that 67% of HR managers have an increased L&D budget in 2022 while LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning report states that L&D leaders are twice as likely to have a seat at the C-suite table today, compared with during pre-pandemic times. With international talent management being one of the most challenging areas in the post-pandemic era, there are four trends that can help L&D pros reframe this new pressure.
    1. Upskill & Reskill
    The pandemic has pushed forward digital transformation across many industries. In the public sector alone, 34% of jobs are expected to be replaced by automation by the early 2030s. Companies willing to keep up with the rapidly evolving digitalization while also keeping down their recruitment costs need to focus on upskilling the employees they already have. Building in-house upskilling and reskilling programs might thus be a great investment in helping your business grow sustainably. Many prominent MNCs like IBM or DHL have already launched such programs to make sure they have all the skills they need in the future within their company.
    2. Create Ecosystems
    Given the pace of digitalization mentioned above, organizations should rethink the ways to encourage their employees across different regions to acquire new skills more actively than before. An effective and easy-to-use learning ecosystem could be a great help in engaging the staff in new learning programs. At Milengo we define a learning ecosystem as a digital environment that brings together three training content, learning analytics, and feedback tools, and is available to all the employees regardless of their geographical location. Fortunately for L&D managers, there are plenty of companies providing ready-to-use non-code solutions for creating a learning ecosystem, such as Leapsome, 360Learning, and many more.
    3. Emphasize Video Content
    CIPD research says that the usage of video content has increased over pandemic, and continues to be the most successful and engaging format of corporate learning, followed by curated content, and microlearning. This is definitely a reason to consider making multimedia content a cornerstone of your employee learning strategy. However, video content has longer production cycles and higher costs compared to traditional text formats. This might be an even greater problem for multinational teams that need to deliver their L&D materials in multiple languages and adjust the content to multiple markets. So, make sure you maximize the use of automation tools for video creation, editing, summarizing, and transcription to optimize your production cycles.
    4. Localize L&D Materials
    With cultural and language barriers being a big challenge for many remote multicultural teams, standardizing all your L&D materials in English might not always be a way out. Depending on the industry you are in, your employees might not all master English well enough to complete an upskill or learning course. Also, there’s evidence that using English as a shared language between non-native speakers may lead to “invisible errors”: situations when both the speaker and the hearer misunderstand each other but neither of them realizes that they get something wrong. At the same time, employees who are addressed in their native language have more resources to identify and resolve misunderstandings. If you are following the pathway of multilingual learning content production in your company, services like AI Voiceover might save you time and costs on localization and editing of your learning materials.
    The fact that L&D is gaining more attention from organizational leaders is great news, considering the number of tasks L&D managers are facing in 2022. Now L&D leaders should ensure they are using their time and budgets in the most effective way with a good deal of outsourcing, automation, and upskilling themselves.
    By Julia Staszak, Head of People and Finance at Milengo.
    Share this post: More

    More stories

    • 113 Shares159 Views

      in Workplace

      Working to Learn Must Underpin the Future of Work

      by

      Technological innovations have helped humans separate industrial ages and define periods of time throughout history, thanks to their transformative effect on people’s lives. From the rise of industry to the dawn of the internet, innovation has provided regular timestamps which we have used to define eras. But categorizing history in this way assumes innovation and major socio-economic developments occur simultaneously. In reality, the time difference between the two can be vast.
      For example, business models that have characterized work since the outset of the First Industrial Revolution in the late 18th Century can still be seen in otherwise modern workplaces. Organizations often still view work by the ‘input/output’ model established more than a century ago, measuring employees by their cost (input) and value (output).
      Despite drastic changes to work over the past 100 years, this model has remained largely unchanged. As innovation continues apace and working practices rapidly evolve, how much longer can we measure humans based on input and output?
      Prioritizing agility and adaptability
      More recently, workers have begun to reject the idea of the input/output model by mastering a specific skill set and becoming an expert in a particular field, decreasing costs and increasing value for businesses. Developing this concentrated expertise made sense when demand for skills lasted at least as long as a person’s career, but the constant and accelerating change of the 21st-century workplace means this is no longer the case. Now, due to the relentless pace of innovation, demand cycles for certain skills, or even specific job roles, can rise and fall within the space of a few years. We can only expect these timeframes to get shorter in the future, too.
      As a result, agility and adaptability are superseding specialization as the most valuable qualities for workers to exhibit. Organizations must shift their perception of workers so they are no longer viewed as ‘assets’ with an inherent cost and value, and are instead viewed as part of a humanistic approach predicated on constant development.
      Putting learning and development at the heart of work
      Traditionally, people began their careers with little experience and knowledge, joining a business to grow industry-specific skills and progress upwards by mastering one role. Today, we’re seeing a shift away from simply ‘learning to work’, as modern generations must now incorporate a ‘working to learn approach’. Where individuals could once expect to obtain a job for life and hone a specific skill set for the duration of their career, modern workers must continue the learning process. The speed of technological change means the next workplace disruptor is always right around the corner. To embrace the challenges and opportunities that innovation presents, employees should view their skillset as an ever-evolving toolbox – one that adapts to new demands and expands in accordance to change.
      Replacing expertise at work
      It’s not just the responsibility of the employee to adapt to new workplace demands. Business must also alter their approach by no longer prioritizing and rewarding specific expertise. Instead, employers should recognize that the needs of the business could shift at any moment, and acknowledge the value in rewarding and celebrating employee adaptability. Fortunately, tools exist that can assist businesses in this process by helping them identify which skills will be more in-demand in the future. This allows employers to focus their efforts on reskilling employees and augmenting their existing skillets to meet anticipated future demands.
      Hiring practices must also change too. Businesses must cultivate workforces that are open to – and actively embrace – learning and development. The ability to learn and develop new skills not only helps employees in retaining their roles but also presents a more cost-effective approach by reducing the time and monetary investments needed to recruit new employees. By prioritizing adaptability, businesses can be confident in their ability to deliver a workforce that is fit for the present, and the future.
      By James McLeod, VP of EMEA, Faethm.
      Share this post: More