What working from home taught us about improving skills training
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 10 seconds.
Have you noticed that skills learning and development in many organizations is still paused? My colleagues and I sure have. Decisions about fall training initiatives are running at least a month behind. Whether because of inflation, supply chain bottlenecks, or the delta variant, businesses are still in risk management mode. But here’s the upside:
As an L&D leader, maybe you have a little more time on your hands for research these days. If so, this is a great time to take stock of the innovations that have emerged during the lockdown. Doing so will arm you for the time when the flood gates re-open and your business partners are looking for your advice and counsel.
Before COVID-19, in-person, hands-on learning experiences were the skills training gold standard.
Where we were…
Why don’t we start by looking at where we were before the pandemic? Fact is, as learning folks, we’ve struggled for years with capability development. And business leaders’ confidence that our training solutions will result in sustained performance improvement, has been low. Now there were exemplar skills training solutions: in-person, hands-on learning experiences using real business problems or realistic, immersive simulations.
Sadly, for those who worked so hard on them, the COVID-19 crisis made those solutions unviable. But working from home offered an opportunity to innovate and to test new approaches to virtual skills development, some of which were extraordinarily successful. Here are some tips based on resulting studies:
What we’ve learned…
Evolve virtual learning delivery
Keep on improving virtual delivery, emphasizing skills development. The traditional, passive, and digital-learning experiences put in place to bridge the gap during the pandemic won’t be enough. Instead, seek to:
Deliver the skills employees need the most for the future.
Inspire consistent application of those new skills.
Ensure behaviors — and performance — have improved as a result. Building in measurement is more important than ever.
Focus on improving engagement
With the over-reliance on web-conferencing and in the absence of in-person discussion, problem solving, and practice, engagement has suffered.
Future virtual learning solutions need new tools and approaches that can engage and motivate learners. We’ve been working on learning solutions that:
Consider inclusivity and psychological safely from the start.
Include digital fluency skills development.
Build out crucial conversation skills.
Teach the critical thinking skills that on-going innovation requires.
Adopt novel approaches to ongoing practice and reinforcement
In a hybrid workplace, organizations will need simple, robust reinforcement techniques linking desired behaviors to the outcomes relevant to employees—and the business. As innovation continues to accelerate, you should consider:
Planning for ongoing, sustainment solutions such as deliberate practice.
Ensuring that managers make a clear connection between desired behaviors and business outcomes.
The payoff
Our clients tell us that virtual deliberate practice is a potent and reliable method for improving the quality of virtual learning, driving up learner engagment, and improving retention. It is a novel approach to skills training that is as effective as best-in-class in-person solutions.
If you’d like to learn more, please Contact Us, or call us at:
Toronto: 416.366.6296
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We’re here to help your teams master business communication skills.
