For many people simply hearing the word “training” is enough for them to glaze over and lose the will to live. Mental images pop up of a day spent enduring death by powerpoint and being talked at for 7 hours in a conference room at a hotel next to an industrial estate, or going round the room and introducing yourself with a “fun” fact to the group one by one at the start of the day as an ice breaker. It’s fair to say that we’ve all had similar experiences which have possibly left us with a prejudiced idea about training.
To be fair though training has moved on massively in recent years. The pandemic forced us to think about training and how it is delivered in a different way. Nobody wanted to sit on Zoom or Teams for a full day and so typical structured training sessions became more condensed, more focussed on what was actually important and therefore gave attendees a better return on their time and their investment in training. Short, sharp webinars have become much more popular and with the ability to record sessions, the on-demand training market has grown as people access the content they want, how, where and when it is convenient for them.
This shift has largely been driven by technology and the availability of a range of collaborative apps means that formal and informal learning can be facilitated more quickly and more easily. Leading training researcher and advisor Josh Bersin recently introduced the concept of what he has called, “Learning in the flow of work”. Essentially, this is where a training need is identified and then a form of learning intervention takes place with little or no disruption to the employee’s normal work activity. For example, if an employee needs to learn about a certain element of a specific piece of software or a process then the typical approach would have been to send them away on a generic course. Learning in the flow of work though means that the next time the learning subject comes up the employee, having been supported by their manager or an L&D professional in the business, will have a suite of relevant how to videos or online guides to access and will probably have a buddy on Teams or Slack waiting to support them so that they learn directly by doing the task with relevant support around them as a scaffold for the learning.
If they had attended a course it might be that they don’t get the chance to implement their learning for some time afterwards, by which point they have forgotten what they learned. Learning in the flow happens in real time and with easily accessible support resources there is back up on hand if needed.
That isn’t to say that the more traditional methods of training are a thing of the past. Face to face learning certainly still has a part to play in developing employees, and employers need to assess what the needs in their businesses are and the best way to enable learning to ensure that they remain productive and successful. It is likely that this will include a combination of styles of training intervention which reflects the increasingly flexible working environment in which many of us now operate.
Do you have questions about training?
Give us a call at CUBE HR on 01282 678321, we’ll be happy to advise you and we have policies and templates available to meet every HR need.
Why not check out our blog on a similar topic Training and Development – 3 Things You Should Know
We also have a YouTube channel with loads of handy videos.
