What Are The 5 New Year Resolutions For Learning And Development Professionals
It’s that time of the year again! Most of us have made our New Year resolutions—that path we wish to embark upon in the year (and hope to stick to!)—in terms of working out, getting healthier, being more organized, leading a calmer life, learning new things (personally and professionally), so on and so forth.
Some of us are quite lofty in our resolution-making (hitting the gym every single day after work), while some are modest (choosing healthier food options mostly). But there is a common thread to all these – they are all about personal development. So, fortunately, it’s the best time for L&D professionals too to set some resolutions for self and their learners because employees are more open to learning now than ever, providing great opportunities to draw out and implement learning strategies.
The question, however, is: how will you leverage this opportunity? How will you set learning goals and resolutions for yourself and your organization for 2018? We thought we could help a bit. So, here, we are listing out 5 goals and giving a lowdown too on how to accomplish them in this year.
1. Become Digital-Savvy
As digitization makes a seminal impact on almost every area in the workplace, your prime goal in 2018 should be to stay in tandem with the changing times and adopt a tech-enabled learning/training approach that goes beyond mere 'automation' into the realms of 'productivity' (more on this in point # 5). One way of doing this is by ensuring that you give a thorough overhaul of the company’s digital mindset and strategies. However, it may not be enough to simply digitize the existing learning platforms. What you can do is go beyond that to create and implement technology to meet the specific learning needs of employees. The idea is to ‘be digital’, rather than just ‘do digital’. You can opt for cloud-hosted LMSs that empower learners and fulfill their knowledge and skill needs. A strong digital learning ecosystem will be the end result if LMSs that are equipped with features and functionalities needed today and tomorrow (from future-proofing perspective too), APIs, and integration capabilities are used. In 2018, L&D verticals can actually help lead the digital revolution by engaging employees in strong learning programs that create a conducive learning environment.
2. Future-Proof Your Employees
Technology has become ubiquitous with every single function at the workplace. It is dictating all domains from hiring people to engaging them to even replacing them. Bottomline: Technology is taking away jobs big time. But as a Learning and Development professional, how can you ensure that your employees stay relevant in an age when technical innovations are automating many jobs out of existence? The answer is you help develop their potential, up-skill them, and ensure that they contribute to the more ‘human’ functions in the organization. This way, in 2018, you can shield your employees and future-proof them so that their jobs don't become obsolete. Together you need to embrace the waves of digital disruption and to do that, you need people who are able to adapt to and lead change.
3. Increase Knowledge Retention And Tie It to Learning
The main aim of all L&D programs is to keep employees engaged and to ensure their maximum development. This has become more important than ever now when people are more concerned about advancing their careers, especially Millennials who by 2025 will comprise 3/4 of the global workforce. Learning can play a big role in retaining and keeping employees motivated and focussed. How can you achieve this? You can create engaging learning programs using new L&D models like the 70:20:10, etc. that employees 'feel like' taking up. You can also see that they have good leaders in the form of competent managers (who can be your 'learning champions') and you have compelling metrics to see whether your programs are working or not.
4. Grow Leaders Internally
Strong leadership always helps define the success of an organization. But it’s no good to hunt for leaders when there is a pressing need. Instead, it helps to create and maintain a steady pipeline of leaders at any point. The simple way to approach this is to start right at the beginning and hire smart leaders. But that is easier said than done. That is why it helps to imbibe the idea of nurturing leaders within the organization and make it an integral part of the way people are evaluated. Investing in the right ways and means to create a strong pipeline of leaders as a proper ecosystem is a good way to bring out leadership talent in its own unique way. In 2018, some great investments on this front would be learning platforms that double up as Performance Support and Talent Management Systems with new-age learning tools like mobile learning, social and informal learning etc.
5. Move From Automation To Productivity
Automation is now the norm and almost a ‘default’ in companies. The need is to move beyond simply automating processes and focussing on productivity. In 2018, it’s a good idea to pay attention to creating and developing experiential platforms with the help of digitized, modernized Learning Management systems, and new AI-based systems to support and deliver learning and Performance Support. You can look at exploring new tech-enabled performance management models, learning strategies, and techniques to recruit, coach, and engage people. It is time to leverage technology to improve people’s productivity and experience at work.
So, this is the right time to motivate yourself into believing that it is up to you to devise effective learning strategies and programs to help yourself and your learners better their lives. Here’s to a happy, learning-filled learning!
