Ushering a Transformative Era in L&D

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has initiated a transformative era across various sectors, fundamentally altering operational and strategic frameworks. In Corporate Learning and Development (L&D), AI’s impact is becoming increasingly evident, signaling a new era of tailored and efficient training methods. This shift from traditional, standardized training to dynamic, AI-driven learning environments is pivotal for L&D professionals and business leaders aiming to remain competitive in the swiftly changing corporate world.

The Evolution of Corporate L&D and AI’s Entry

Traditionally, corporate L&D revolved around uniform training programs with limited flexibility and scope. These methods, although basic, did not address diverse learning styles or the changing needs of businesses. AI’s integration into L&D marked a significant transformation. Initially a supplementary tool, AI soon became central to contemporary, tech-based training strategies. Powered by AI, corporate training programs became scalable and personalized, aligning more closely with individual abilities and corporate objectives. AI has thus not only improved training efficiency but also evolved them into more dynamic and effective learning platforms.

AI-Driven Innovations in Corporate L&D

AI technology has introduced several groundbreaking innovations in the field of corporate L&D, each contributing to a more nuanced and effective training experience.

• Personalized learning experiences stand out as a hallmark of AI application. AI algorithms analyze individual learning patterns and preferences to tailor content, pacing, and complexity, thereby enhancing learner engagement and retention.
• Automated content curation is another significant advancement. AI systems can sift through vast amounts of educational material, selecting and organizing content that aligns with specific learning objectives and skill gaps. This not only ensures relevance but also facilitates adaptive learning paths, allowing courses to evolve in response to learner progress.
• AI-driven analytics have revolutionized the assessment of learning outcomes. By leveraging data analytics and machine learning, AI tools provide deep insights into learning effectiveness, enabling L&D professionals to make data-driven decisions. These analytics can track progress, identify areas for improvement, and even predict future learning needs.

These AI-driven innovations are redefining the boundaries of corporate training, making it more efficient, scalable, and aligned with individual and organizational growth objectives.

Benefits of AI in Corporate L&D

The integration of AI in corporate L&D offers a plethora of benefits that cater to both organizational and individual learning needs.

• Efficiency in training delivery: AI enables rapid development and deployment of training modules, significantly reducing the time and resources traditionally required.
• Scalability: AI-driven systems can easily adapt to varying numbers of learners, making it feasible to implement training programs across large, diverse organizations without compromising on the quality or personalization of the learning experience.
• Learning effectiveness: By providing personalized learning experiences and continuous feedback, AI ensures that the training is not only absorbed but also applied effectively in the workplace. This leads to a more competent and agile workforce, capable of adapting to changing market demands and technological advancements.

An Era of Innovation in L&D

The future of AI in corporate L&D is set for further innovation. The fusion of AI with immersive technologies like virtual and augmented reality is a notable trend, promising engaging training environments for experiential learning.

Advancements in AI for skill gap analysis and predictive learning paths are also anticipated. AI will increasingly identify skill deficiencies, recommending tailored learning programs to address these gaps. Corporations should invest in AI infrastructure and foster a culture of continuous learning to stay ahead.

AI is spearheading a revolutionary change in corporate L&D. Its capabilities in personalization, efficiency enhancement, and future learning prediction are essential in today’s fast-paced business environment. Adopting AI in L&D is crucial for advancing corporate training and developing a workforce ready for future challenges.

Custom eLearning development shouldn’t contribute to the already mounting stress levels of your team. Use this guide to avoid the obstacles and make the most of online training outsourcing.

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Obstacles In Bespoke eLearning Development And How To Overcome Them

Bespoke eLearning aligns with your brand image, improves employee engagement, and boosts your ROI. It can even help you stretch resources and ease the burden on your L&D team. The vendor brings in their expertise so that your in-house developers can focus on other tasks. However, it’s not all smooth sailing. You may encounter some choppy water along the way. The key is planning ahead and knowing what to expect before you hire an outsourcing partner. You must consider the cons in order to capitalize on the pros. Here are some of the most common custom eLearning development hazards and tips to circumvent them.

1. Handing Over The Reigns

You have to give up total control of the project, which is a scary thought for those of us who need to take the wheel. However, you don’t need to step out of the picture completely. In fact, you should choose a custom learning development company that values your input instead of ignoring your ideas and opinions. Discuss your involvement during the intro meeting to verify their stance on the subject. Do they want to meet with you once a week to talk about revisions or provide progress reports? Is your team able to offer feedback during the project? Can you give them a storyboard and style guidelines they must follow?

2. Going Over Budget

Custom content development fees can quickly add up if you aren’t careful. For this reason, it’s essential to get everything in writing and account for hidden costs. As an example, the bespoke eLearning provider charges extra for those weekly recap meetings. Or they need additional software to create your deliverables. You should also leave a little space in your budget for unexpected costs. That way, minor delays or project roadblocks won’t put you over your price cap. Finally, create a realistic budget that includes ongoing fees and in-house tasks. You need to know how much you’re working with and how much you can allocate to outsourcing versus in-house development.

3. Lack Of Content Cohesion

The outsourced content was obviously created by another company. It doesn’t have the same tone or aesthetics as your other resources. Nor does it convey your brand values. Hiring a specialized content development company can help you avoid these issues. They know your niche and how to blend their assets with yours, which allows you to maintain the integrity of your online training strategy instead of offering learners a fragmented experience.

4. Delayed Launch

In this case, one thing after the other forces you to push back your launch date, even though your employees need online training to mitigate compliance risks and bridge gaps today. There are numerous ways to prevent this custom learning development hazard. Firstly, discuss the timeline with your outsourcing partner and leave room for unexpected issues. For example, they need time to learn the new software. Or a member of their team might be out sick for a week. Secondly, set milestones so that you’re able to monitor progress and check in with their team coordinator. This is your chance to adjust your implementation schedule accordingly before you develop all those in-house marketing tools.

5. Communication Challenges

The lines of communication are breaking down. In some cases, there may have been problems from the beginning. Maybe the content provider has different communication guidelines, or they’re used to monthly instead of weekly progress checks. This is why it’s essential to set some ground rules regarding communication between both teams. How often will you meet to talk about revisions or offer your input? Who is your point of contact, and what are their business hours? What is the preferred method of communication? What happens if you don’t approve of the latest version of the content?

6. Collaboration Conflicts

There’s probably going to be some clashes when two companies come together, even if it’s only temporary and they share common goals. This also applies to outsourcing. For instance, a member of their team has a unique personality, or they have a different definition of “collaboration.” Maybe their idea of working together is to only include you in the final revision round. You can prevent this obstacle by clarifying expectations beforehand. Set up collaboration rules that everyone must follow. What happens if personality conflicts do become an issue? Especially if members of your team must work with the content provider to achieve the outcomes.

7. Resource Μisallocation

There are two hurdles to overcome regarding resource misallocation. The first is that you overlook resources you can repurpose, which increases custom development costs. The second is that the bespoke eLearning provider lacks vital skills, such as planning and time management abilities. They’re unable to manage their team effectively or utilize their unique talents, which has a direct impact on your custom development ROI. Once again, it all boils down to organization and clear contracts. Inventory your assets, clarify expectations with the vendor, and itemize tasks/resources in the agreement. What do they need to deliver? How much are you allocating for each task? Which assets would you like them to reuse?

Conclusion

Your in-house admins, designers, and HR managers already have enough to deal with. The bespoke eLearning company must maintain open communication, stick to your budget, and welcome your creative input instead of brushing off your suggestions or creating unnecessary conflict.

Download the eBook Insider Secrets To Select The Best Custom Learning Solutions For The Future of Work for tips to find the ideal external partner for your program.

Studies show that early childhood is the best time to emphasize the importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion to build a better society . Childhood education enables the recognition and practice of diversity for a more extended period than any adult intervention ever can.

People have wrong notions that avoiding conversations around different cultures and people will eliminate negative ideas. However, to do so is to assume that young children can see something they do not identify with as a normal aspect of living. Indeed, we understand now that bullying, education’s most prevailing feature, originates from a lack of conversation and context around diversity.

According to one study, when children are six months of age, they subconsciously start grouping individuals according to their gender and race. Moreover, at the age of five, they pick and mimic their friends’ preferences, often belonging to the same race as theirs.

By not bringing conversations on diversity to the forefront, teachers unintentionally promote stereotypes and prejudice among students. Being a silent teacher is not going to help the early education ecosystem. Instead, teachers should encourage students to share their thoughts about different cultures, ethnicities, genders, and races.

Why is introducing diversity from an early stage of life paramount?

Introducing diversity from an early age teaches children what is acceptable, and more importantly, what is not. To understand and stand up against discrimination, children must first recognize what discrimination is.

A case study highlighted that over 46% of students who (familiar with diversity and inclusion concepts) were bullied or harassed notified the school authorities about it. Eventually, they felt they received the support needed to reach a productive resolution. This positive development is in stark contrast with statistics around bullying even a generation ago.

Indeed, diversity benefits the entire community. While conversations around education and diversity often center around race, sexual orientation, and representation, the fact is that diverse thinking in these areas translates to more inclusion for children who don’t fit the norms of society.

Teachers who follow an approach that fosters inclusion and awareness around many cultures can significantly benefit students and the community at large.

How does introducing diversity and inclusion in the education system influence an entire generation?

Undoubtedly, our early education and the entire education system have a significant impact on our lives because it is in our early years that our personality takes shape. We are most likely to imbibe concepts introduced to us early in life.

An inclusive education system helps impart better education to children irrespective of their background, identity, and perceived limitations and is aimed at changing discriminatory attitudes. Moreover, it influences every child at school by providing them with the context of building their first relationship with the outside world. Let’s see how-

Fosters open-mindedness

Naturally, when students are exposed to diverse thoughts, opinions, and cultural backgrounds, we encourage them to be more open-minded in life. Thus, they are more likely to develop new ideas and significantly comprehend a topic by looking at it from the point of view that differs from their own.

Cultivates empathy

Creating personal connections and promoting awareness about different cultures in the classroom prevents children from forming preconceived opinions about others. It encourages open dialogue and empathy for conditions outside of our own. In an increasingly diverse world, this attribute is always beneficial to cultivate.

Promotes confidence

When students learn about different cultures through their education system, they feel safer and more confident about their differences. A culture of diversity also fosters inclusiveness, which means that the new student at school does not ever feel ‘different’ from their peers. As adults, this allows them to interact with many social groups comfortably and feel more confident in both themselves and others.

Makes children ready for the world

Students with a higher degree of awareness around diversity and inclusion are most likely to result in an empathetic and accepting generation. This empathy will eventually show up in workspaces and fuel D&I-aware employees and leaders in corporations.

How to successfully standardize D&I in the education curriculum

Even when stakeholders understand why diversity is essential to cultivate in the classroom and its many social and academic benefits, they may face friction in implementing it.

To ensure D&I practices are included naturally in the education system, there are a few systemic changes that need to be implemented, such as:

Analyzing the teaching material

Analyze what topics are being taught, particularly in the social science and humanities classes. Teaching materials are often limited to specific segments of people, which may make anyone not confirming these narratives feel left out. So, work with teachers to bring out diverse cultures that offer more nuanced perspectives.

Addressing current inequality

The most important base to promote diversity is by building an environment where students can discuss topics like race and gender-based discrimination without fear of ridicule. We must look at our history, accept that parts of it were not ideal, and begin to change from a space of respect. This may even mean correcting biased narratives that were once part of the curriculum.

Communicating with parents

As part of the school ecosystem, parents play a significant role in how their children perceive changes to diversity components in education. One way to achieve buy-in here is by communicating these goals to parents. Also, ask them if they have concerns or questions about the initiative and take as many perspectives into account as possible.

Bringing diversity in teacher hiring

According to US federal data from just a decade ago, there is a vast difference in hiring teachers– 81.6% are white, only 6.8% are African American. There’s no better place to begin making changes than in this area. A similar case may exist in countries or societies with many cultural and ethnic differences.

Interacting with children

Students are not a homogenous cohort, which becomes evident in high schools and colleges. Not everyone may want to share their background or socio-economic situation. This is where a diversity counselor plays a key role. When systems understand their students well, it is easy to promote diversity and address the challenges and opportunities faced by teachers.

Some challenges and opportunities that educators experience when implementing D&I

When bringing diversity to the education system, one can expect to face challenges and opportunities.

Challenges

● Communication barriers in what is being said versus what is being understood. We must bear in mind the fact that D&I is a sensitive topic.

● Resistance to change. Changing a system causes discomfort, and we may therefore encounter resistance.

● Lack of an implementation structure. Diversity is not a compliance checkbox to be ticked but a systemic change that will take many years to achieve. Those structuring the curriculum around these initiatives must be mindful of this fact.

However, each of these challenges is a unique opportunity to shape the future of an entire generation. With sound planning and stakeholder buy-in, achieving the goal of making our schools and colleges safe spaces would be a rewarding endeavor.

There are very few world events in our collective memory that brought tectonic shifts in how we live, communicate, and conduct our businesses. Today, it is vital to have a broader viewpoint around learning and development challenges that organizations face-taking into account disruptions happening across multiple domains. Every organization has its approach to recruit and manage talent – some predominantly recruit fresh graduates and train or recruit talent with good work experience, a few run successful enterprises with a predominant mix of on-demand talent.

This series’ previous blog post looked at how disruptions in the education value chain are deepening a skill-gap crisis and talent availability. The accelerated demand for digital transformation across industries is also an area of concern as there is a shortage in skill sets in emerging and high-demand fields.

Future of workforce composition and today’s skill mismatch across industries

A shortage of talent in emerging and high-demand fields is both a digital transformation challenge and an impending workforce development challenge.

Need for higher cognitive skills in addition to technical skills

A discussion paper from McKinsey Global Institute published in 2018 discusses massive skills shortage in various work functions due to the widespread adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA). The paper indicates organizations will struggle to find resources with critical thinking, information processing, creativity, decision making, etc.

Interestingly, the discussion paper published in 2018 stated a 15-year timeline between 2016 and 2030 for this to happen. Post-COVID, one can only imagine how much this timeline will have shrunk.

Disruption to education systems worldwide has a direct and long-term impact on talent output; L&D leaders and training managers will have to have a holistic approach to problem-solving while navigating the upcoming L&D maze.

The current scenario has presented us with an opportunity to stress-test existing methodologies and future-proof training frameworks that can withstand a possible future standstill like the one we experienced. Starting now will give organizations a competitive edge in the future.

Social and emotional skills, a must in the workplace of the future

In a 2015 article on “Why Are There Still So Many Jobs? The History and Future of Workplace Automation“, David H. Autor, Ford Professor of Economics at MIT and the associate head of MIT’s Department of Economics, puts forward his perspectives on how industrial automation and technology disruptions have created new types of work. Considering the acceleration in digital transformation that the COVID crisis has triggered, we will see a rapid increase in many new roles in organizations across industries while replacing many existing ones.

The McKinsey Global Institute’s discussion paper cited above mentions a vital shift in the future workforce’s skills requirement- social and emotional skills. Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an education domain that has been advocated for almost four decades now but is gaining attention in the last five years. SEL is the process of developing self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills from early childhood through teenage that can have a lifelong positive impact on all walks of life.

McKinsey’s workforce skill shift model predicts a 24% increase in demand for a workforce with strong SEL skills. However, we should be aware the model would not have accounted for a variable like COVID.

In the emerging new norm of a distributed “workplace”, the need for collaboration, empathy, problem-solving, and communication will become more pronounced. Focusing only on technical skills would only deepen the challenges organizations would face when dealing with a mix of full-time employees, on-demand talents, and a new workforce that may have adopted alternate education streams.

The current situation adds a sense of urgency for L&D and training managers to strategize for the future, considering the disruptive changes the education systems are undergoing today.

An organization’s success is only as good as the people who work towards its common goal. L&D leaders will have to look for creative ideas to help prepare an organization’s existing workforce and the future talent mix in the emerging norm.

What’s next

In a follow-up to this post, we will attempt to curate a list of ideas that various leading voices in the corporate L&D and training domain are suggesting.

[If you landed on this page, here’s your link to the first part in this series: Corporate Training and Development, 2021 and beyond: Challenges and Opportunities – Part 1]

Change is the law of nature; it is important to step forward with the times and adapt to new realities to thrive in this competitive world. Top-performing corporations understand that offering continued professional learning opportunities for their workforce, increases work satisfaction, efficiency, and retention.

The unforeseen escalation of a global standstill in 2020, brought about by the pandemic, had many Learning & Development leaders across industries exploring and experimenting with creative workforce development strategies to meet an unpredictable future. The journey ahead would be a stressful one, yes, and time-consuming as there are no precedents or success stories to guide decision making. Nonetheless, stakeholders in the L&D value chain have a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore unchartered territories, make discoveries, and set benchmarks in the Learning & Development domain.

In this opinion piece, we articulate some difficult but pertinent challenges that lie ahead for L&D leaders to invest their time in coming up with disruptive strategies.

The breakdown of the Higher Education system, globally

One aspect that stands out among all the disruptions is the impact of the colleges and universities’ prolonged shutdown. Traditionally, many industries have relied on the millions of graduates coming out of colleges and universities worldwide. Higher education institutions have remained a steady source of supply irrespective of all the challenges around employability skills. A breakdown in this talent supply chain is a cause of concern that the industry has to take cognizance of, which would affect the quality of resources available for organizations to recruit and train for the long term. While this may look like a recruitment challenge, it is also a problem area for L&D leaders.

Upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education

As we are heading into the second year of the pandemic-forced shutdown of educational institutions worldwide, students who chose upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education systems are disadvantaged. This scenario would create stress in the labor supply pipeline across many industries that depend on this specific resource pool.

Higher education

While information technology-based education streams had better virtual/digital learning alternatives, science and engineering education suffered a considerable setback.

L&D leaders have to watch out for long term disruption in the education systems across the world and assess needed skill levels both at the entry-level and continuous skill augmenting programs.

Growing skill-gaps in emerging and high-demand fields, across industries

Another critical disruption that enterprises worldwide are grappling with is the skill-gap in emerging and high-demand fields. The education value chain’s disruption contributes directly to the massive deficit in qualified and talented workforce available for organizations in the immediate future with long term effects.

For example, the pandemic forced shutdowns have accelerated digital transformation across all areas. Industry 4.0 and Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications across domains are considered essential transformational needs in industries and vital in the business continuity strategy. There is an acute skill shortage the world faces today in these domains at both ends of the demand-supply spectrum.

L&D stakeholders have a situation in hand that needs creative applications and parallel experimentations of many new combinations in workforce development strategies.

Read more

In the second part of this series, Corporate Training and Development, 2021 and beyond: Challenges and Opportunities – Part 2, we delve into a few aspects of the future of workforce composition and the challenges it brings.