How the lockdown helped training reinvent itself
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 40 seconds.
Virtual learning experiences are the present and future of corporate learning and development.
The lockdown has been hard on just about everyone. But for people working in training and development, it’s been particularly rough. Sure, they made the same shift to working from home that we all did, but, unlike the rest of us, the intensity of their work increased massively at the same time.
“(There is) pressure on the training team to flip all training to virtual platforms to ensure productivity is not impacted”
A new survey from Practica Learning confirms that and uncovers some surprises. It turns out that while a sudden and deeply disruptive event like the pandemic can spin off lots of challenges, it can also spur innovation and optimism. Here’s a peek at the early results.
Lesson one: everything has changed for almost everyone
Before March 15th, most of us were waking up to the alarm and heading into the office. If we had kids, they were out the door to school before 9:00 a.m. Corporate universities were full of learners. and most training departments had a five-year strategy to shift in-person training to virtual options.
Somewhere around March 16th, the pandemic changed everything. After that, 100% of respondents told us, no one went to the office:
Training centres and corporate universities were shuttered…
…and training was almost completely disrupted: deferred, redefined, redesigned, or flipped to virtual. Only 10% of respondents said they were able to continue training normally.
We certainly expected to see a major change in how training is delivered. What surprised us was the scale of the change. Before the pandemic, virtual training tools (aside from eLearning) were routinely used by only 15 to 50% of respondents, depending on the tool:
Since the pandemic started, the number of respondents using virtual roleplays has more than doubled, as had use of virtual classrooms. The use of virtual tutorials has more than tripled:
Lesson two: with change comes challenge
Here’s where things start to get interesting. Respondents also told us that the changes caused by the pandemic had uncovered a few soft spots in organizational and individual communications skills. In fact. the very skills that would serve people best during a crisis – managing difficult conversations, building relationships, virtual leadership, and change leadership – were among those revealed as the biggest gaps:
And there were other unexpected insights: 20% mentioned infrastructure issues; 38% said low digital literacy among users was a challenge; 33% cited low digital literacy among trainers as an additional challenge; and fully 81% mentioned that the lack of adapted programs was a challenge.
Lesson three: training budgets are under fire
This probably shouldn’t have been a surprise but the huge hit on revenue streams in most organizations meant that any spending seen as discretionary was cut. Almost half of respondents said their training budgets had been reduced:
And of those that knew the future of their training budget: 19% said it would decrease; 70% said it would stay the same; and, only 9.5% foresaw an increase.
While the need for budget cuts in the short term is understandable, from our perspective, increasing funding in the next two to three fiscal years is going to be both imperative and smart. We’ll talk more about that in the next sections but first, here are a few verbatim comments about other challenges.
The pandemic has been tough for people working in training: “(There is) pressure on the training team to flip all training to virtual platforms to ensure productivity is not impacted”; “(We’ve faced uncertainty) in terms of dealing with face to face interactions (and) very rapid changes”; and, “Coverage of duties is lacking.”
Reading these comments, we think leaders need to recognize the extent of the challenges faced by people in training and development. Their work is driving organizational change that will have spin-off benefits in coming years as working from home becomes the norm and bricks and mortar office space starts to disappear.
Lesson four: there is a silver lining
Most surprising, as respondents looked beyond today’s challenges, was that there was plenty to feel good about. For example:
“(The pandemic) has provided us with such incredible opportunities to innovate and move some business plans along that would have taken much longer to implement.”
In addition, half of respondents said that learner engagement had increased. Forty percent noted a reduction and 10% saw no change:
Seventy-four percent of respondents were as or more optimistic than last year when asked about their outlook for training over the next 18 months:
And while this optimism was tempered by a lack clarity, about 50% of respondents believe that training will return to normal (though there is no consensus on when that will happen):
Lesson five: with some help, the future looks bright
For most respondents, there is a clear vision for the future: a blend of different virtual learning solutions. Looking ahead, they expect that “We will have increased the number of employees working from home and virtual online will be offered as the new normal.” They plan to “accelerate” their virtual training strategy and foresee that “the value of virtual learning” will be clearer.
“We will have increased the number of employees working from home and virtual online will be offered as the new normal.”
To make this come about, though, they have identified, “…the need for revolutionary change vs. evolutionary.” And they see that, “Required skills and behaviors will be different for many roles and the older generation of (learners) will be required to operate in a very different, and potentially foreign, environment.” We think these comments underscore again the need for support, funding, and as respondents put it, “a fresh needs analysis”.
In summary: organizations have been disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Training has been hard hit. In less than six months, people in training have made incredibly rapid and substantial changes to training in their organizations. And they have done so in an environment of reduced funding while balancing the personal impact of the pandemic.
Despite this, they remain optimistic and have a clear and innovative vision for the future of training – a future that features a suite of virtual solutions: classrooms, roleplay, tutorials, practice and video conferencing.
“Required skills and behaviors will be different for many roles and the older generation (of learners) will be required to operate in a very different, and potentially foreign, environment.”
For many workers there won’t be a return to getting up with the alarm clock, having a morning coffee, getting the kids off to school and commuting to the office. Instead of trying to get back to normal, why not create a better normal? Why not take control of the disruption to training and support it? Why not pave the highway to the virtual training of the future?
Leaders: recognize and fund your training and development professionals. Training and development people: keep innovating and hang in there. You’re doing an incredible job at considerable personal cost. Vendors: talk to your clients and hear what they are saying. Get ready to respond with new virtual offers.
