Here are just a few examples of how to effectively implement workplace learning in your organization
Amid an era of rapid organizational transformation, learning and development have a mandate to evolve and stay ahead of these changes. This means Learning and Development (L&D) professionals need to integrate workplace learning into every aspect of their organizations by knocking down traditional silos and start collaborating more with their employees to offer a more holistic workplace learning solution for their organization.
They are reaching for fresh solutions to tie skill-building to career paths, internal mobility, and retention, while also bringing a new sense of care and humanity to employee well-being, diversity, and inclusion. Tackling the new responsibilities of a transforming role is an enormous challenge for organizations, especially for L&D Practitioners.
The rapidly changing workplace and business requirements require companies to adapt rapidly to these changes. In this module, you will learn about the verification of your competency in workplace learning and development, enhance learners’ competency, credentials, and confidence, and create a workplace performance diagnosis report to identify learning gaps.
What is Workplace Learning?
Workplace Learning is the acquisition of knowledge or skills by formal or informal means that occurs in the workplace – International Labour Organisation
Understandings about Workplace Learning (WpL) vary. In addressing some basic but critically important questions about WpL—what is it, what does it “look” like, and how do we know learning is taking place. Workplace learning is more concerned with informal learning than formal education and qualifications. Workplace learning is the umbrella term for the many ways companies provide their employees with learning and development opportunities, such as coaching, workshops, consulting, training, etc. Workplace learning occurs in several ways: through classrooms, e-Learning, blended learning, face-to-face tutorials, and the like.
Source: National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning (NACE)
According to the 70:20:10 Model of Learning proposed by Michael M. Lombardo and Robert W. Eichinger, 70% of our learning comes from working on-the-job or from our experiences in the workplace, 20% of our learning comes from observing, being coached, and mentored by others, while 10% of our learning comes from attending classes or formal learning programmes.
The National Workplace Learning Framework
The National Workplace Learning Framework provides a pathway for organisations to build up a sustainable organisation-wide workplace learning eco-system that forms the foundation of a learning organisation.
By adopting the framework, organisations can align capability development and business needs and establish best-in-class workplace learning practices that can potentially enhance staff performance, improve retention rates, advance talent development, and foster a learning culture.
Source: National Centre of Excellence for Workplace Learning (NACE)
The six components of the National Workplace Learning Framework include Strategy, Leadership, Planning, Training Needs Analysis, Environment, and Implementation & Processes.
How L&D Succeeds and Takes the Lead
L&D practitioners can thrive by investing in relationships, political capital, resources — and themselves. Today’s successful L&D function needs to break out of its vertical silo and spread itself horizontally across its organization in strategic and intentional ways.
The following are 8 growing trends in L&D and Workplace learning.
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L&D has become more Central, Strategic, Cross-Functional
According to the latest LinkedIn 2022 Workplace Learning Report, there is a growing demand for learning and development leaders to live up to high expectations by implementing effective workplace learning solutions for their company. The percentage of L & D leaders who expect to have more spending power has reached a six-year high, and their influence is growing. In the report, nearly three-fourths of L & D leaders agree that L & D has become more influential over the past year.
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The Need to Rethink Training and Skill Building
While training and reskilling are essential and will act as the major levers to bridge the skills gap, a company needs to adjust its L&D and workplace learning approaches to meet the new challenges. Leaders can expand their impact by connecting skills to internal mobility and employee retention.
Organizations must prioritize enabling employees’ personal success through career development. Learning leaders can create more robust, sustainable programs by connecting skill-building to career pathing, internal mobility, and employee retention. Companies that excel at internal mobility retain employees for an average of 5.4 years, nearly twice as long as companies that struggle with it, where the average retention span is 2.9 years.
“We really need to change and think about more productive and sustainable ways to help connect talent to opportunity, and our view is that that’s going to be done through a skills-based approach.” Ryan Roslansky CEO, LinkedIn
3. Strategic Thinking Requires New Metrics
With L&D’s to-do lists exploding, time pressure and ROI on training are becoming important metrics that L&D professionals need to report on a quarterly basis. Even as L&D programs become more strategic and cross-functional, many L&D pros have not changed how they measure success. In 2022, the top way learning leaders are gauging the success of their potentially highly impactful upskilling and reskilling programs is the same way they’ve measured broader online learning programs in the past: qualitative feedback.
4. New Challenges as Pressure Mounts on L&D to deliver Quick and Measurable Results.
Learning leaders are responsible for producing high-impact, quality learning experiences. But now they are also confronting bigger, meatier problems—like future-proofing their organizations. This will require new skills and ways of working, and a lot of prioritization.
“Make sure your learning is aligned with business skills. Rather than looking at hours of learning and course completion rates, instead, focus on identifying what skills are lacking in your organization. With that alignment and clarity, L&D can create a skill-building program that’s in lockstep with your business strategy.” Lori Niles-Hofmann, Senior EdTech Transformation Strategist, NilesNolen
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Link Re-skilling to Recruitment and make the company Attractive to Talent
Organizations should advertise continuous growth and development as key parts of their talent-management process and culture. This is becoming more important in recruitment as workers belonging to Generation Z value continuous learning as their main career goal. In addition, this will also be a key way to demonstrate the ability of a company to maintain the “employability” of employees and reassure them that they won’t be left behind as their occupations and industries evolve.
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L&D Professionals need to Continue to Grow and Expand their Professional Network
Source: Aventis Graduate School’s Student Network
Most L&D leaders said they have gotten more cross-functional over the past year, but there is a lot of room to grow. Partnering with talent acquisition is an area of opportunity as skills-based hiring becomes more important, and L&D leaders should get closer to people analytics to better understand the impact of their programs. L&D’s cross-functional partnerships have also grown.
“We’re partnering with other HR functions to ensure we are ultimately facilitating a performance life cycle that fits employees’ aspirations — from talent acquisition and onboarding to overall increased engagement and thriving within an inclusive culture.” Jodi Atkinson Senior Director of Global Learning, Deltek
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The Need to Formalized Knowledge Sharing through Effective Workplace Learning Solutions
A structured learning and development program also ensures that employees have a consistent learning experience and correct background knowledge. Consistency is particularly significant for your company’s basic policies and procedures—it sure helps if every employee is aware of the expectations and procedures within the company. Providing teammates with regular training in these areas ensures that everyone has exposure to the material and awareness of resources, at the very least.
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Engage constantly with your stakeholders
L&D leaders are twice as likely to say they have a seat at the C-suite table now as compared with during pre-pandemic times. Tying learning programs to business impact based on key organizational priorities like internal mobility will be crucial in maintaining this seat in the future. The percentage of L&D pros who agree that L&D has a seat at the executive table continues to grow.
Takeaway – The Rise of chief learning officers, CLO
A Chief Learning Officer is a C-suite employee, so they need to be steering the learning of the organization in the same direction as the overall goals of the corporation. One of the CLO’s main goals is to develop the key skills of the employees and also to advance the company.
“It’s unsurprising that we see more and more progressive companies naming chief learning officers — as was the case with chief diversity officers when diversity was no longer an HR topic but a business advantage. Learning is not an HR topic; it’s a business topic.” Andrew Saidy Vice President, Global Talent, Ubisoft
“Once the curators, designers, and executors of learning content and curriculum, L&D is primed to evolve as the connector of people, resources, and experiences that provide continuous growth and success for the employee. From onboarding to career development to exit, L&D will merge business needs with employee needs and create relevant ways for employees to stretch themselves daily throughout their entire career.” Alyson DeMaso Founder and CEO, Raising Beauty
Is Your Organization Supporting Workplace Learning?
One possible step for your organization and professional development is to invest on upgrading the skills of your L&D Professionals. Aventis Graduate Diploma in Workplace Learning Design & Solutions is a 6 months part-time programme designed for L&D professionals to develop innovative and effective workplace learning solutions.
If you’re part of an organization that’s considering or planning to ramp up learning efforts, now’s the time. This programme is IHRP (Singapore) Accredited and will equip you with key competencies in job redesign, workplace learning, curriculum development, and instructional design, students will learn how to conduct learning needs analysis, design blended curriculum, and develop learning resources and assessments while actively practicing self-reflection for constant self-improvement. Find out more here or visit www.aventis.edu.sg