Employee Training and Development for Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Critical Skills

These days the skills employees need to succeed are different from that of only three years ago (the pandemic sort of changed everything). Skills like emotional intelligence or design thinking aren’t as easy to put into a neat 45-minute e-course so once an employee finishes the course and passes an assessment, they’re done. At the same time, employee training and development must be quick and effective so employees can practice new skills and capabilities faster than ever. 

As an L&D professional, you’ll also need new skills and capabilities to navigate the new challenges and opportunities in 2023. Here are a few things for you to consider.

Learning Digital Dexterity

This kind of sounds like a buzz word but it’s about how you use technology to deliver learning and training. Emerging trends and technology can be useful here instead of daunting. An example is to use “Tik Tok-like” video formats for teaching a new skill or capability. Learning digital dexterity is a new skill for you, the L&D professional because communicating skills in a 45-minute e-learning course versus a short 15-30 second video is very different. But L&D organizations are already doing it, you can see an example from our customer Orangetheory Fitness. 

Generational Learning Differences

You are likely constantly looking at the generational makeup of your employee population because different generations learn in different ways. How do you train these groups on new skills they all need to learn, keeping in mind how they prefer to learn? You’ll need to make sure training and learning content are available in a variety of formats to meet generational learning differences. Baby Boomers prefer long-form learning content whereas Generation Z appreciates dynamic learning opportunities and training that uses short-form videos.

Meeting Employees Where They Are

Taking all of the above into consideration, this doesn’t mean that you need to throw out all 45-minute or longer training content. A robust employee training and development program for 2023 definitely needs traditional learning and microlearning: making learning and training available to employees in the format and at the time that makes the most sense to them. You can’t just build the same kind of e-Learning course for everything. 

Once you start to realize that when you create programs and content on a smaller scale, you’re going to be able to be more prescriptive and targeted with the way you create them because you’re going to build them for specific outcomes rather than for everything. 

Relying More on Data

The world runs on data, and you know you’ve got to measure the learning impact. One of the skills you’re going to need to continue to develop in 2023 as an L&D professional will be data and analytics. Being able to look at data that helps you understand what skills and training your employees need, explain what the data means to leadership, and connect data to business objectives and business results are all critical skills. 

Essentially, you’ll need to become a performance consultant to show how L&D is going to drive business performance. In 2023, L&D needs to be laser-focused not just on learning outcomes, but on the outcomes your programs are delivering to the business as a whole.

To view the full Learning 2023: New Challenges, New Trends, New Thinking on-demand webinar replay, click here.