Written By Steven Lange, Principal Consultant, Explorance
In today’s fast-paced and ever-changing business environment, employee learning and development (L&D) programs are more critical than ever before. The continuous acquisition of new skills and knowledge is essential for businesses to remain competitive and for employees to stay engaged and motivated. The terms “upskilling” and “reskilling” have gone from mere jargon to critical topics on the HR and CEO agenda.
However, the traditional approach to L&D was shattered recently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Gone are the lengthy, multiple-day classroom instructions. Truly blended and informal learning (now hailed as Multi-Modal learning) is here to stay, with virtual delivery every day as checking email.
What hasn’t changed is the need to measure. Companies are still spending money on training, especially on topics such as all things Digital, DE&I initiatives, and the ever-popular Leadership Development. When a company spends money on something, it’s usually a good idea to find out if there are positive outcomes linked to business results. This is where the concept of measuring training in the flow of work comes in.
What is measuring training in the flow of work?
Training in the flow of work refers to the process of integrating learning and development opportunities into the daily work routines of employees. It involves creating a continuous learning culture in which employees can access the information and training they need to improve their performance and stay up to date with industry trends when and where the need arises.
By incorporating learning into the flow of work, organizations can provide employees with the tools they need to succeed without disrupting their day-to-day activities. This approach not only improves employee engagement and retention but also helps organizations achieve their business objectives. Basically, upskilling and reskilling on demand!
Why is training in the flow of work important?
The traditional approach to L&D has its limitations. For example, classroom-style training can be time-consuming, expensive, and difficult to measure. As previously stated, it’s also falling out of favor for cost and efficiency reasons. During the pandemic, L&D did almost too good of a job showing how well training could be delivered virtually, making decisions difficult about returning everyone to the classroom.
Delivering or making available training in the flow of work addresses these issues by making learning more accessible and relevant. Employees can learn and apply new skills as they work rather than trying to apply what they learned in a classroom setting. This approach not only makes training more effective but also improves employee productivity and job satisfaction. One classic example is an intact work team that has people from different departments working on a corporate initiative/project. Part of the project involves needing to learn a new tool, and the team learns this new tool together in real-time while working on the project. Or an employee on a manufacturing line sees something breaking and needs to learn how to fix it on the spot.
In our next post, we will look at how to measure training in the flow of work.
About the Author
Steve Lange – Principal Consultant
With 25+ years in Learning and Development, Steve provides expertise and insight for organizations to measure, evaluate, and manage their people and talent programs strategically and consistently. Within Explorance, Steve works with clients to craft talent-focused measurement solutions. As the L&D Practice Area lead, he assists clients in developing and streamlining strategies, tools, and analytics with the goals of improving efficiency and effectiveness and ultimately increasing business returns on human capital investments.
Prior to working at Explorance, Steve worked for 11 years with McDonald’s Worldwide and US TL&D groups managing projects from designing training for McDonald’s mobile app to performing impact studies and people analytics reporting.