L&D has been evolving rapidly for many years now. However, in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed that acceleration into overdrive, forcing digital transformation to the forefront of most L&D agendas while making it hard to remember what the office even looks like. For a year that started with everyone working in the office, the idea of holding a meeting in a meeting room instead of over Zoom seems foreign. Like it or loathe it, this is the new normal for L&D.
We thought it would be a good time to examine how to align these changes with the day-to-day realities of L&D professionals under the new normal, looking at how L&D teams can pivot from just working from home to learning from home.
The Next Step: Moving From Working From Home to Learning From Home
Mindset is at the heart of everything for L&D, and working from home has become the new normal for many of them in 2020. Equally, lifelong learning and learning in the flow of work have become increasingly important to L&D in recent years (49 percent of employees want to learn in the flow, while 74 percent want to learn during their spare time at work). As such, L&D teams will have to grapple with what “learning in the flow of work” means when many employees are working from home.According to Emerald Works’ 2019 Transformation Journey report, 82 percent of L&D leaders want to “extend learning to other locations/remote workers.” However, only 36 percent are achieving that outcome.
Teams will need to get up to speed quickly, as 82 percent of employees say they want to work at least one day a week remotely, while nearly one-third say they would like to continue to work exclusively from home post-pandemic, according to findings from HR Daily Advisor. In fact, according to the Harvard Business Review, employees are willing to accept 8 percent less pay to work from home. This looms a major challenge that L&D will need to address as more and more workers go remote in the coming decade.
So, how exactly can L&D teams make the mindset switch from working from home to learning from home? While the exact implementation will vary depending on your team’s unique needs, most experts agree on similar themes. HR Daily Advisor stresses the need for flexibility, collaboration, and increased emphasis on digital learning technologies, adding that “an organization’s human capabilities will determine how well the organization makes decisions and prospers.”
Similarly, Human Resources Director magazine focuses on the importance of identifying skills gaps, investing in soft skills development, and offering microlearning opportunities, saying, “HR leaders should strive to provide training initiatives that do encourage employees to engage through rich content on their device of choice . . . [content] that is available online and offline all the time, so workplace training does need to be adaptable especially while we have remote workforces.”
Finally, McKinsey’s recent Workplace Learning During Coronavirus report highlights the importance of enhancing digital learning and balancing business outcomes with a long-term view. They also underscore the need for continued learning, saying, “whether the effort is reskilling at the business-unit level or a company-wide aspirational transformation, companies can’t simply push the pause button on critical workplace learning.”
Many of these tips won’t come as a shock. Digital collaboration, developing soft skills, identifying skills gaps, and re-evaluating L&D’s relationship with technology are ongoing priorities for future-ready L&D teams. However, for L&D to take the next step forward, leaders must emphasize the importance of not just working from home, but learning from home, to fully embed the value of lifelong learning.
For more expert tips on embracing lifelong learning, check out Go1’s recent webinars on Learning in the Flow of Work with Josh Bersin and The Future of Skills and Lifelong Learning with PwC, or for a more in-depth look at the evolution of L&D, read the rest of this article here.
