{"id":397,"date":"2017-02-13T09:30:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-13T09:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modernworkplacelearning.com\/magazine\/?p=397"},"modified":"2018-12-24T13:36:57","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T13:36:57","slug":"5-factors-driving-modern-workplace-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/modernworkplacelearning.com\/magazine\/5-factors-driving-modern-workplace-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Factors driving Modern Workplace Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u201cIf you were an employee on Henry Ford\u2019s assembly line in Detroit in the 1920s, you received a high degree of training and preparation before you ever set foot in the factory. You learned what your role was, and were given all the tools you needed to accomplish your job from Day One. From then on, your role never changed\u2014you did your part to move a product forward along the assembly line, from the day you began until the day you retired, 40 or 50 years later. Since those days, the business world has transformed .. but the workforce training process hasn\u2019t kept up with the pace of change.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I believe this quote from Karl Mehta<\/a>\u00a0 summarizes the situation pretty accurately, and like Karl (and others) I think this means we need to adopt new practices to support learning in today\u2019s workplace. So I in this article I want to take a look at 5 factors that are impacting the workplace and driving a new approach to workplace learning.<\/p>\n

1 – DIGITIZATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been a lot written about the effects of digitization on the workplace, as Microsoft<\/a> explains<\/p>\n

\u201cThe exponential growth of digital connectivity, devices and information is driving profound changes in the way we work, all around all the world \u2026”
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But in a business this involves far more than converting paper-based or off-line processes into online processes. And in workplace learning terms it involves far more than converting classroom training into e-learning – as Microsoft explains (my emboldening)..<\/p>\n

\u201cIn order to survive in this world, companies need to rethink everything<\/strong> from culture to tools and environments.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So L&D will also need to rethink its whole approach to workplace learning: the culture, tools and environments – by adopting a new, modern understanding of what it means to learn at work.\u00a0 The second factor gives us some clues as to what that might look like.<\/p>\n

2 – CHANGING LEARNING HABITS
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is increasingly clear that learning habits are changing. Individuals no longer rely on being trained as the only way to learn for work, many appreciate they learn as they do their work as well through their interactions with colleagues, clients, their manager and maybe even a coach. They also make significant use of the Web \u2013 not just to access online courses, but also a variety of resources (in different formats \u2013 particular video) as well as to build their professional networks of connections from around the world on social networks (like Twitter, LinkedIn). And in doing so they often bypass L&D to solve their learning and performance problems more quickly and more easily.<\/p>\n

For L&D this means no longer trying to maintain the role of learning gatekeeper. Nor does it mean being the learning police<\/a> \u2013 banning access to anything that hasn\u2019t been created by them. What\u2019s more beliefs like \u201cour people don\u2019t know what to learn\u201d or we \u201ccan\u2019t trust them to learn the right things\u201d are no longer appropriate. A \u201cwe-know-best\u201d attitude no longer works! In fact the recent Towards Maturity Learner\u2019s Voice<\/a> report showed that employees like to be in charge of how they learn, with 91% wanting to learn at their own pace and 82% knowing what they need to learn in order to do their job.\u00a0 Laura Overton, Founder of Towards Maturity, commenting on the report, said \u201cThe message is clear: L&D teams must adapt to the needs of colleagues rather than force them to do what L&D wants them to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

So L&D needs to embrace these changing learning habits. But they doesn’t just mean creating courses and resources in ways that are more consistent with the ways people learn on the Web (although that\u2019ll be part of the future). It means\u00a0 actively encouraging and supporting individuals to find their own solutions to their learning and performance problems in the ways that suit them best.\u00a0 <\/strong>This is particularlh important for the next reason.<\/p>\n

3 \u2013 MULTI-GENERATIONAL WORKFORCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are now seeing a multi-generational workplace \u2013 4 generations in the workplace for the first time. Much has been been written about the different attitudes to work and learning of each of these generations, in particular their exposure and use of new technologies. But rather than stereotyping people on generational grounds \u2013 <\/strong>e.g. assuming that a Baby Boomer will have no interest or experience with social media whilst a Millennial will be a fully Web savvy person, or that a Baby Boomer will prefer a classroom course whilst a Millennial will prefer to watch a YouTube video – what needs to be recognized is that everyone is different, and that a one-size-fits-all (\u201csheep dip\u201d) approach to training is no longer appropriate.<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t mean creating resources in multiple formats to ensure everyone\u2019s preferences are met (a pretty impossible task) but rather supporting flexibility and autonomy so that individuals can construct their own<\/em> learning experiences in the way that suits them best. And there is another good reason for this approach too.<\/p>\n

4 \u2013 EXPONENTIAL INFORMATION GROWTH<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are now living in an era of exponential information growth. Huge amounts of data are being created every day. But what is more, the half life of a piece of knowledge today is just around 5 years. In other words, knowledge is decaying and skills are quickly going out of date. It has been said that a college degree will be out of date before the loan is paid off.<\/p>\n

So whereas, in the past, as we have seen, individuals were trained to do their jobs once and this would last them their whole careers, over time, as job roles became more sophisticated or new technology or procedures were introduced, training became a full-time operation just to keep people knowledgeable, skilled and up to date. So this doesn\u2019t mean L&D needs to work even harder – \u00a0<\/strong>creating even more training. There is a finite amount L&D can do. Rather it means adopting a new approach \u2013 one that comes from not trying to do it all themselves and controlling it all, but recognizing that everyone need to be constantly keeping themselves up to date \u2013 learning and developing new skills and expertise – in the ways that best suit them \u2013 encouraged and supported by their manager. So L&D\u2019s role won\u2019t be to create more stuff, but focus on helping people with the new skills many will need to learn things for themselves. And there is an additional factor influencing this \u2026<\/p>\n

5 \u2013 THE EMERGING GIG ECONOMY<\/strong><\/p>\n

The emerging Gig Economy means that there is no longer such a thing a job for life.-\u00a0 in fact, for most individuals this means they are going to have a life of jobs. One estimate is that current students will have more than 10 jobs by the time they are 38. Companies are also going to be seeing a growing contingent workforce (made up of freelancers, independent professionals and temporary contract workers). Research from Ernst and Young<\/a> shows that two in five organisations expect to increase their use of the contingent workforce by 2020.<\/p>\n

This means that people are going to be recruited WITH the skills to do a job; not recruited AND THEN trained to do the job. So if employees want to stay in a company they will therefore need to keep their skills up to date themselves. But in fact, supporting individuals to do just this will actually be beneficial to the organisation as it will reduce the costs of recruitment, So this means helping individuals organize and manage their own professional self-development inline with organizational objectives to achieve a\u00a0 new level of performance.<\/p>\n

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All this means a very different organizational learning culture from the long-standing traditional culture that exists in most workplaces. I call this Modern Workplace Learning (MWL)\u00a0 and\u00a0 I’ve summarised the key differences in the diagram below.<\/p>\n

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Clearly such a culture change won\u2019t happen tonight \u2013 but there are a number of steps L&D can make to do things differently and doing different things\u00a0 to help build this new world of workplace learning.\u00a0 MWL doesn’t JUST mean\u00a0 providing modern training<\/strong> – Designing and delivering modern content and learning experiences in line with new ways of learning on the Web <\/em>but also\u00a0 supporting manager-led learning<\/strong> – working with managers to help them value and support everyday learning <\/em>\u2013 both individually and in work teams and groups \u2013 <\/em>as well as empowering employee-led learning<\/strong> \u2013 Helping individuals take responsibility for their own continuous <\/em>self-development aligned with organisational objectives,\u00a0 and sharing their\u00a0 experiences so that the organisation can benefit from it too.<\/em><\/p>\n

[Find out more about Modern Workplace Learning in my latest book, Learning in the Modern Workplace 2017<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

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