Can eLearning Benefit The Government?
To outdo the private companies, government organizations need to train their employees. In the U.S., numerous people are employed in this sector (20.2 million) and are working for either the federal, state, or local governments. The government has to ensure that eLearning is made an imperative for organizations that distribute funds. This is because the employees of these agencies have to monitor the disbursement of funds. For these employees, learning about data mining and Artificial Intelligence is crucial so that they can find any abnormal patterns in fund distribution.
Why The Government Sector Does Not Focus On L&D
Lack of stability
Public sector Learning and Development (L&D) changes are less likely to happen because when elections occur, there is a change in the ruling party due to which the current government does not view this as a priority. The skill changes in the public sector happen with the frontline employees, who continue at their jobs even when the government has changed.
Paucity of money
Although the public sector does not have much of a budget for Learning and Development activities, it does not mean that they can’t find acceptable solutions. The private sector, on the contrary, has higher budgets for such solutions. L&D professionals and the use of external L&D agencies have increased in number in such private organizations.
However, despite not having large budgets, public sector organizations could still implement excellent L&D solutions for their employees. The best way these organizations could promote knowledge enhancement is to make sure that employees exchange their skills with others. It's not always beneficial to introduce off-site courses for employees where they have to abstain from work for a week. The current financial climate caused by the pandemic also necessitates that L&D investments should be made cautiously because there is no scope for wastage of money. Also, such investments should be absolutely focused to improve the performance of an organization.
Mobile Technologies Are A Solution
The public sector should focus on the use of mobile technologies to spark the necessary learning, apart from social media. Not all employees stay at their desks all the time, for example, those working with the state department. Hence, when they can access eLearning content on their mobile phones, they can learn easily. They have better engagement with the content because laptops are not very portable, and these employees can’t spend all their time at their seats glued to their screens. Security issues might also be a concern when the content is accessible through mobiles because these devices can get lost. But there are eLearning companies in the U.S. that are digitally equipped to develop mobile apps inaccessible without credentials and from certain IP addresses also.
Benefits Of L&D For Such Organizations
In the future, L&D will play an important role in government organizations when employees know that they will get a promotion in return for it. Learning and Development will make sure that the government agencies can attract modern-day employees and have no issues with succession planning. They can become highly effective because they can track the performance of employees exactly, including how it can be improved, through an LMS. If an employee has not attended a course, then they can be reprimanded for that. Also, when employees are taught the use of avant-garde software, they will be able to manage operations in terms of budgets, man-hours, etc. Hence, they can attain maximum efficiency and make sure that the organizations are not clueless about their work. They can implement steps to resolve any lackluster performance.
Such solutions can ensure that government workers can analyze the efficacy of future projects through the use of modern technology. Hence, the government needs to use modern software for better data analytics rather than relying on its legacy systems.