Month: June 2021

In a world which is gradually adjusting after the COVID-19 lockdown, one of the only certainties that we can have is that this will have a lasting impact on how people work from now onwards.

Employees will have to adjust to new workplace realities, and companies will have to keep up with the rapid changes that are occurring in order to maximize the potential of their employees.

According to experts, this might include a mix of short-term remedies targeted at raising worker confidence and limiting the number of employees in the office at any given moment, as well as longer-term design upgrades and alterations that prioritize security and cleanliness in workplace planning.

48% of business leaders say their top concerns over returning to business as usual are health and safety.

26% of business leaders think their organization’s “new normal” will mean more employees working from home.

25% of business leaders say the biggest challenge to working remotely is productivity and motivation. That was followed by 24% who said connectivity with coworkers and 19% home-office setups.

48% of business leaders think technology spending at their company will increase because of the pandemic.

Source: Fortune

It’s said that the worst of times brings out the best in people; as it happens, this is true of organizations as well. All over the world, companies are being challenged by the COVID-19 crisis to find new ways to serve their customers and communities. Many are rising to the occasion.

Now is the time, as one reimagine the postpandemic organization, to pay careful attention to the effect of the choices on organizational norms and culture.

Focus on the ties that bind people together. Pay heed to core aspects of your own leadership and that of your broader group of leaders and managers. Take the opportunity to fashion the hybrid virtual model that best fits your company, enabling a new shared culture for all your employees that provides stability, social cohesion, identity, and belonging, whether your employees are working remotely, on premises, or in some combination of both.

Being a leader in a hybrid model where some of your workers are working from home and others on the company can be quite challenging because what works for one side, may not work for the other. Remote workers sometimes feel left out, and it becomes more difficult to feel the connection to the company’s values and goals. To make sure this doesn’t happen, leaders will need to “show up” differently as they are interacting with some employees face-to-face and others virtually.

Leaders of hybrid teams need to have clear guidelines in place to avoid miscommunication and employee exhaustion amongst the team. It’s important the set them early, so employees know what is expected of them and the processes to follow if those expectations cannot be met. It is also important to regularly revisit and update these goals if needed.

Be more inspirational

On remote teams the hierarchal leadership isn’t the best choice because you don’t have that face-to-face feedback. The dispersed employees working remotely, need a new leadership behavior to compensate to the lack of emotion that are typical of digital channels.

Make communication and feedback a core part of your leadership style.
Be sure to ask employee questions at your weekly check-ins and more importantly, be open to feedback. Encourage both vertical and horizontal conversations as well as off-topic conversations amongst employees.

Track your informal networks

One of the disadvantages of the hybrid virtual model is that it reduces face-to-face interaction and the serendipitous encounters that occur between co-workers, that sometimes lead to amazing outcomes. So, it’s important to leaders to map and monitor the informal networks in their organization with semimanual refreshes of social-network maps, in order to track your informal networks. This way, you can create connections between groups that do not naturally interact or that now interact less frequently as a result of the hybrid virtual model.

In the end, it’s crucial to adopt new norms and change the way we work if we are to maintain and improve productivity, collaboration, and innovation. 

Education is key to competitive edge

As we approach a full year in this new work environment, some employees may feel that they have a good grasp on their current role and see the opportunities for growth on the horizon. This is an ideal time to focus your team on building skillsets that will assist in the long run. The remote environment has certainly uncovered new challenges. The desire for additional or expanded skillsets may now be a necessity. Encourage your team members to take advantage of online learning platforms and allow them the time to invest in their future.

1. IT training: It’s no surprise that this skillset will continue to be useful throughout this year. No matter your employees’ current experience level, focusing on IT and technology security will bring advantages.
2. Video and audio production: Advertising has taken on new meaning in this remote world. The way companies are reaching consumers is evolving through podcasts, Instagram, and TikTok. Developing video and audio production skills within your team can dramatically expand reach.
3. Foreign language and translation: With an increasingly-globalized economy, staff may need additional language fluency and translation skills. 
4. Data analysis and statistics: Data analytics have becoming a top priority in this digital world. Many colleges and universities are offering free courses in these areas.
5. Individual creativity! Creativity is consistently an in-demand skill as employees often need to think outside the box to solve new problems and challenges. Encourage them to participate in activities that spark their imagination and spend time sharpening their creative skills.

Rethinking the workplace

With the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on the rise, a question looms in the minds of many business leaders and employees: To what extent will remote work persist? Most organizations will retain a degree of remote work through a hybrid workforce.

As we look further into the pandemic recovery phase, it is time to reevaluate and recommit to work-from-home policies. Consider these key tips for maintaining remote work:

1. Utilize the proper technology.
2. Ensure a secure internet connection.
3. Implement communication programs across the organization.
4. Set clear expectations in the work from home policy.
5. Test the “work from home” program and make adjustments when needed.
6. Trust your employees.

While some employees will stay fully remote, others will begin to re-enter physical offices and facilities. There are a few things to keep in mind as workplace expectations have changed to ensure safety and cleanliness.

• Health and wellbeing: The workplace must include a sense of health and wellbeing. Do employees feel safe at work while their loved ones may still be social distancing at home? What programs are in place in case stay-at-home orders are enforced again and employees must juggle two workspaces?
• Sharing the workspace: Cleanliness will continue to be a high-priority factor. What are you doing to safeguard the workplace and how can you help your employees maintain a germ-free zone? Privacy may also come into play here. At home, your team members may have had the privacy and focus to knock out key tasks in their day. Can they expect the same when they come back into the office?
• Outdoor and open-air workplaces: Is there an option at your office for employees to spread out in small meetings? Open-air spaces allow employees to interact with each other and clients outside the confines of a conference room.
• On-site eateries: With the return to office life comes the return of the lunch hour. This creates the opportunity for companies to offer innovative options for their employees. Open-air food trucks, pre-packed lunch deliveries, and alternative kitchen spaces can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and help your employees feel safe.

Digitization and automation

Along with people and workplaces, overall organizational processes are experiencing a massive overhaul that will inform the future of business. With the onset of COVID-19, organizations did in a matter of weeks what they would otherwise have done over the course of the coming years: They majorly digitized internal processes. The upside of this unprecedented event was the rapid mobilization of remote work, but the question lingers – how and what should an organization digitize to stay competitive in the long run? In order to support a working world that is going to become more and more “hybrid,” organizations should consider identifying those internal processes that are:

• Paper-based processes: Does a process rely on paper documentation that is scanned and uploaded to close out the loop on the deliverables? If so, automating this system, whether it requires client-facing inputs or employee execution, may streamline an often bogged-down process.
• Manual processes: If an employee must move data or documentation from one location to another (virtual or otherwise), it is important that organizations start working out how to automate this process and remove as many manual tasks as possible from the workflow. This has the upside of reducing human error and increasing accuracy and efficiency.
• Processes requiring a meeting: Does your organization require meetings to sign off on work or come to a decision? Team-based software platforms continue to advance and offer a real alternative to in-person meetings with documentation repositories and tools for editing and updating work. These software options also offer ways to manage, track, and prioritize work as it moves through the organization.

Conclusion

 It is essential to constantly improve your workspace and your processes so that you don’t lag behind the competition. It is also essential to train your workforce for future ready skills. Take a look at our latest virtual training models where we upskill your employees so they are ready for day 1 productivity in a future ready workplace

Everyone’s definition of success is different. It takes many forms, but one thing that most people can agree on is that it contains a sense of contentment and security. The following ten years are expected to be a period of rapid change. According to the World Economic Forum, we would need to reskill over 1 billion workers by 2030, as jobs are transformed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This will apply to current jobs as well as those yet to come into being.

According to the World Economic Forum, 42 percent of the essential skills needed to execute current occupations may change in the next few years. Change is happening at an exponential rate, according to Klaus Schwab, the WEF’s founder and executive chair. One method to provide this security is to gain relevant skills and open as many doors to opportunity as possible.

Data skills

We live in an age of big data, which has nearly become a cliché. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Data is being collected on an unprecedented scale, and it’s being utilized for everything from enhancing industrial processes to keeping shelves stacked to precisely targeting digital ads.

Big data’s scope and range will only expand in the next years, allowing machine learning and automation. Data is the language that will enable the interconnection that will be at the core of Industry 4.0. As a result, those who can organize data collecting, understand the findings, and make decisions based on them will be in great demand. Currently, there is a skills gap in terms of data literacy. Research from Accenture and Qlik shows that 74% of employees are uncomfortable working with data. This has repercussions; on average, businesses lose 43 hours of productivity per employee each year owing to a lack of data literacy.

Relevant careers

• Business analyst
• Data scientist 
• Marketer

Artificial intelligence

While the existing system poses a considerable risk to some job activities, AI has the ability to transform the way we work and live for the better. Employers and entrepreneurs wanting to revolutionize and streamline the way we work and live will be in great demand for those with AI capabilities to build and implement artificial intelligence solutions.

While programming and analytic abilities are essential for AI creation, those in other job categories who will be using AI in their operations, as well as managers overseeing the process, would benefit greatly from an understanding of AI/machine learning.

Relevant careers

• Machine learning engineer
• Business intelligence analyst
• UI designer

Blockchain

Blockchain ranked first on LinkedIn’s ranking of the most in-demand hard talents for the year 2020. While most people think about blockchain when they think of Bitcoin, the technology’s potential economic uses are much broader.

A decentralized public ledger is defined as a blockchain. It provides a secure and verifiable record of trades and transactions while obviating the need for established authorities, such as banks in the case of Bitcoin. The financial impact of blockchain is expected to be enormous. By 2027, the World Economic Forum expects that 10% of global GDP would be kept on blockchain.

Relevant careers

• Blockchain engineer
• Legal counsellor
• UX designer

Sales and marketing

Sales and marketing don’t seem like occupations that are very forward-thinking. These talents, however, will be necessary in future workplaces since they cannot be mechanized. These professions, at least for the time being, require a human touch in order to gain an advantage in the new digital terrain.

Technology has transformed marketing, allowing new channels such as social media, affiliate marketing (another top LinkedIn talent), and digital content to emerge. More crucially, analytic tools enable a hitherto unheard-of level of data collecting and performance evaluation. As a result, the stakes are raised, forcing marketers to step up their game in order to stay competitive.

Human marketers will be required to make decisions and drive campaigns, regardless of how advanced the tools get. Salespeople will also be required to close deals with other people. These job functions continue to bear the burden of generating revenue, whether directly or indirectly.

Relevant careers

• Salesperson
• Social media manager
• Affiliate marketing manager

Training employees is an important part of being a hiring manager or supervisor. But on the other hand, it frequently falls short of expectations. Because their pupil “simply doesn’t understand it,” trainers are dissatisfied. Trainees are dissatisfied because their instructors moved too quickly, made assumptions about prior knowledge, or didn’t pay attention to their inquiries.

Because organizations devote so much time and money to training, it’s critical to get it right the first time. Mistakes in training can do more than just communicate wrong information; they can demotivate employees, set them up for failure, and even put them in danger.

There are so many obvious benefits to investing in employee training, including:

• improved inter-employee collaboration
• attracting and retaining great talent
• creating a highly skilled pipeline of replacement leaders
• improved company culture

LinkedIn research shows that from 2017, 59% of talent developers began to focus their major budgets on online learning. 39% of these instructors spend less on instructor-led training models.

The majority of firms today focus their training resources on improving the effectiveness of their training programs for three main reasons:

• Saving time
• Saving money
• Achieving positive learning outcomes

Your learners won’t care about their training, if their instructor doesn’t care about it either.

Using Outdated Training Tools

 

There are two key gaps identified within different training programs selected for employees:

• making use of generic materials
• not addressing or improving certain staff tasks or skills in a direct manner

Adult learners may be drained of their time and enthusiasm if they are forced to fit within a wide training model. Traditional means of learning, such as textbooks and lectures, provide little to no advantage in terms of information retention for most people. Contextual learning in employee training programs speeds up the learning process in real time.

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Not knowing your audience or their needs

It’s crucial to know what your audience already knows before you start designing training. If the instruction is too easy, the trainer may be preaching to the choir, who may quickly become bored and zone out. However, if the topic is too advanced for them, a teacher may discourage them from learning altogether.

Not training for specific outcomes

When you are spending time and effort to build training programs, it is vital that you adhere to strict outcomes which you can track quantifiably. It should be in a way that even after the training is over, and the outcome is only partially realised, you should be able to create complementary programs to achieve your target goal.

Preaching instead of facilitating

As much as it is about delivering interesting, instructive, and exciting experiences, effective training is about asking strong questions, obtaining buy-in, and utilizing the group’s knowledge to work toward the goal.

Using a One-Size-Fits-All Training Model

No matter what needs to be learned, an effective employee training plan caters for the fact that different employees respond to different types of learning methods.

Using a one-size-fits-all strategy to employee training may appear to be a cost-effective business decision, but this is far from the case.

Employees must use this awareness whenever possible and provide a variety of learning alternatives.

 

How to fix it

• Consult employees and do a needs assessment based only on their learning preferences. The findings will inform the training design, particularly in terms of the employees’ technological comfort levels.
• When choosing a learning management system, always go for the most user-friendly interface (UI). Adult learners, particularly those who struggle with technology, benefit from a well-rounded user experience.
• Keep lines of communication open, especially those leading to tech assistance. Employees should be able to ask questions and get technical assistance quickly. The ideal LMS makes use of discussion forums and other tools to make feedback and communication as painless as possible.
• Allow for a wide range of content kinds in training materials. Visual representations, films, and textual notes are all examples.

The foundation of a productive workforce is training. But how do you successfully adjust your training techniques when your workers start working remotely?

Remote training is similar to in-office training in that it brings employees up to speed on new workflows and work arrangements while they are at home or in another place. While most of the standard training advice applies regardless of where employees are situated, geographically scattered personnel typically necessitate additional considerations for effective training.

Ensure employees are properly set up

Employees at the office often have standardized equipment and a designated training location, such as a conference room. You can’t make the same assumption if each person is working from a different location, such as their house or a coffee shop. Even though all employees work from home, each residence is unique.

Find the right remote training software

There are plenty of remote training solutions on the market, but finding the perfect one for you and your team is crucial. The correct software can assist you in delivering training in a simple, efficient, and adaptable manner.

Check out our AI Powered Remote Training Platform now

When beginning to evaluate your options, make sure you ask yourself:

• What is your budget? You must first determine how much you can afford to spend on software.
• How many persons will require software access? Keep in mind that certain tools charge by the number of users, which might have a direct influence on your budget.
• What characteristics are you looking for? Do you want to be able to keep track of how everyone is doing?

Make it accessible

Training classes for remote training must be accessible on a variety of platforms, including smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The “cloud” provides a common pool of learning resources (e.g., training materials, technical resources, and demonstrations) that can provide a variety of benefits for this purpose. This method allows for flexible, on-demand instruction at any time, from any location, and on any device.

Break up training sessions into smaller parts

“Neither you nor your employee wants to spend the entire day on a video call. Mila Dorosh, head coach and facilitator at Boss Makes You Go Training, recommends breaking up your remote training into manageable parts to avoid burnout for both of you. 90 minutes seem to be the upper limit in her experience. “It’s the perfect amount of time to introduce a concept or skill and have a productive discussion about it.”

Create a buddy system

Your employee is bound to have questions after the initial training. To avoid having to deal with too many questions, it’s a good idea to pair the employee with someone who has previously been trained.

Track results and improvements

Introduce SSO (Single Sign-On technology) to track training session results and progress for each employee. This will give each trainee frictionless access to training resources. SSO not only enhances resource access, but it also allows the administrator to report on trainee system access and usage frequency, allowing you to track each trainee’s development.

“A distributed workforce can present a challenge in terms of employee training, but rest assured that it’s not an insurmountable hurdle.”

You’ve heard the buzzword—microlearning. You’re probably thinking, isn’t it just splitting long-form content into 5-10 minutes chunks? You’re not alone in this misconception. But learners won’t receive the benefits if you try to teach 60 minutes of continuous content in 5 minutes chunks over 12 days. Instead, they’ll receive the information haphazardly because it was originally designed to carefully build on previous concepts. So they’ll either end up confused or misinformed.

It is important to know and understand the workforce because as of 2019, Millennials are projected to number 73 million, overtaking Baby Boomers as the largest living adult generation (25), and by 2025 Millennials alone will make up 75 percent of the workforce (24).

You need to design microlearning modules that will leave learners empowered to do their jobs, while still fitting into the learner’s busy schedule.

Branching Logic

People have limited time to engage with content. Also, everyone starts at a different level with each concept. Branching logic as a simplified form of personalized learning allows every eLearning designer to create differentiated learning regardless of the resources at their disposal.

What branching logic does is shows one topic if the learner chooses one answer and another topic if a different answer is chosen. This maximizes the short time that the learner has to devote to learning. To get practice use a survey creator and see what happens when you apply branching logic to a survey.

Inject knowledge over time and remember more

Microlearning facilitates self-directed lifelong learning, as short activities can be easily integrated into everyday activities. Small learning steps with small chunks of information can be used for learning in between and on-demand. In this way microlearning enables individuals to stay up-to-date in today’s knowledge society. Small injections of information to review what was learned helps to reinforce knowledge, and remember.

The Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve

Pick the Big Idea

With Micro Learning, you have about 5-10 minutes to make an impact on the learner in a way that is transferrable and can lead to demonstrable changes in behavior. That is a tall task! Whereas in traditional eLearning design, you might have picked 3-4 big ideas to cover in a module, in Micro Learning you need to stick to ONE idea. Use this idea to guide all of the decisions you make with regards to learners and what is important for them to experience in the course.

Allow for Testing Out

Consider creating an assessment at the beginning of the content that is everything you would expect the learner to master at the end. If this test can be mastered, then the learner can move on and choose a different micro learning module.

Memory and Microlearning

In the mid-1880s, Hermann Ebbinghaus became the first person to create a scientific approach to study and classify memory and introduce the world to concepts like the learning curve and forgetting curve. Learning is most applicable, when it is remembered.

Repeating

The old phrase, “If you don’t use it, you lose it,” rings true, but could be improved by saying, “If you don’t use it or review it, you lose it.” With repetition and the passage of time, you can convert a short-term memory into the more resilient, long-term memory. There is a lot of research that suggests Microlearning improves the act of absorbing and using information.

In Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve graph shown above, you can see that when someone first learns something, they retain all of that information. As the days pass, memory retention begins to drop. But as you perpetually review information, you retain more and more information.

Precursor to Longer Learning

Even though Micro Learning is the latest trend in online learning, it does not mean that Macro Learning is no longer needed. Sometimes, Micro Learning should be used in preparation for an annual conference or workshop or as a pre-test before a face-to-face training. This type of design helps to prepare everyone for the conference/training session so that they can maximize their time there.

Similarly, Microlearning can be used after a conference or workshop to follow up on what was discussed in the professional development event. In this case, it should be used as a reflection or as a connection to the workplace to encourage a transformation of actions based on the concepts learned.

Granular Learning Outcomes

This can actually be one of the most challenging aspects of Microlearning design. Whereas before large and abstract learning objectives could be sufficient for assessing learning, that is not enough in Microlearning where there are very targeted outcomes. What was originally one learning objective should be made into 3 or 4 assessable outcomes.

Ask yourself

 

1. How will you measure learning results?

Did they look at the content?

• How long did they look at the content for?
• Did they go back to content?
• Did they skip content?
• Did they complete lessons?

Did they understand the content?

• How did they score on assessments, answer accurately in quizzes

Did they like the content?

• Did they give feedback on their level of satisfaction and application of their new knowledge? What did they like or didn’t like? Why or why not?

Did they transfer their knowledge?

• How are you tracking behavioral change?
• How quickly do you expect to see the changes?

2. How will you analyze learning results?

• What specific learning metrics are you concerned with? Beyond completion and time on site?
• Can you identify learning patterns that lead to positive and negative business outcomes?

3. How will you measure business results?

• Who are the stakeholders?
• How do they measure training success?
• What specific KPIs do they want to influence?
• Do you have an agreed upon ROI model to understand the impact that learning had on those results?
• Can you correlate learning behaviors to business outcomes?

4. How will you adjust content based on results and feedback?

• Can you identify patterns that explain if you have high quality content or not (i.e everyone answering the same question incorrectly may prompt you to audit the content to ensure that the question is worded properly, that the answer is actually in the preceding content, etc.)
• Does one modality have a greater adoption than others? (i.e. if video gets better engagement than slide decks, maybe invest more in videos and spend less time creating decks)
  What retrieval practices will you use to reinforce the learning?
• Are you achieving the desired, measurable behavioral change that the content was intended to create?

5. How will you scale?

• Do you have the technology to scale?
• How will you personalize content further?
• Will you use recommendations?
• Will you use AI / Chatbots?
• Will you allow for learner collaboration to create personal connections with team members/co-workers?
• What are your challenges?

Microlearning Best Practices Checklist

1. Microlearning content aligns with business goals

Your learning strategy should be aligned with the overall business goals of the company. Microlearning chunks should build to a greater and applicable initiative.

2. Production quality is superior

Everyone can create content, but not everyone has the ability to make quality content and maintain quality over time. Use high-quality assets like video, audio, and design.

3. Keep Microlearning videos short, targeted and lean

Microlearning’s strength is in short and targeted messaging. The longer the video becomes, the more difficult it becomes to utilize while on the go. Keep microlearning videos no more than 10 minutes per each learning objective.

4. Demonstrate knowledge in a variety of ways

Follow up content with multiple choice questions, but also a demonstration of knowledge.

5. Access anytime on any device

Give users the option to learn on their mobile devices, at any time of day. Give people the flexibility to learn when they want, how they want, online or offline.

6. Create a social learning environment

Give users the opportunity to review and create their own content, create discussion boards, etc. Use feedback to improve content.