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    19 May

    To defend budgets in a downturn, L&D must focus on the future

    By admin In Career, Covid, HR, Leadership, Networking, Talent Development /   No Comments

    Budget cuts and downsizing present an unfortunate reality, but that isn’t the full story for L&D, sources told HR Dive.

    It’s an unfortunate reality during the COVID-19 pandemic, as with economic downturns past: talent development and training departments are likely to be subject to budget cuts and downsizing.

    “History tells us that training is a line item that gets sought,” Dale Rose, president and co-founder of California-based consulting firm 3D Group, told HR Dive in an interview. “It’s a familiar path.”

    But the trend is not necessarily a universal one, and Rose and others who spoke to HR Dive have worked with employers that take a different view. The difference between the current economic moment and that of the late 2000s recession, so goes the thinking, is that the underlying structure of the economy isn’t being impacted by COVID-19. “The one thing we do know is that this isn’t permanent,” Rose said.

    Layoffs, furloughs and other cuts are taking up a lot of energy for organizations, Bob Ryan, executive advisor at Shields Meneley Partners in Chicago, said in an interview, but employers need to prepare for when the script flips. That means a certain percentage of staff should dedicate themselves to outlining the organization’s future, and “a part of [that percentage] needs to be L&D people,” he said.

    As L&D professionals go into meetings with executives — in some cases to literally advocate for their department’s continued existence — their pitch cannot be to simply return to business as usual, Ryan said; “This is the time to be creative and show the CEO, CFO and CHRO that L&D is important, but it’s going to change.” Top companies, he continued, are opting to increase, not decrease, investment in talent after the pandemic.

    “I believe the conversation with business leaders needs to start and end with how learning supports business strategy and outcomes,” Chris Holmes, director of global learning and development at Booz Allen Hamilton, told HR Dive in an emailed statement. “If learning is integrated as a part of a shared outcome, then the need to ‘advocate’ for training investment can be a very different conversation.”

    L&D departments can also appeal to their role in shaping the organization’s future competitiveness. “The competitive advantage that companies have coming out of this is going to depend on their talent,” Cat Ward, managing director of JFFLabs, a division of workforce and education nonprofit Jobs for the Future, told HR Dive in an interview. “We’re moving into a pretty fluid environment here.”

    Distance learning provides a way forward

    It’s simple enough to say that talent development will be important, but how L&D professionals keep it top of mind during and after the pandemic will differ. Ryan described practitioners at one manufacturing industry client who took matters into their own hands by making reopening-oriented training videos with their phone cameras. L&D teams elsewhere have held Zoom calls to step back and brainstorm solutions for assisting workforces that may have moved to remote status during the pandemic.

    Some teams will struggle with a learning environment that is more digital. “There’s the chance for disinvestment in workplace learning, and a lot of that is due to the fact that a lot of learning at work hasn’t been digital-first in nature,” Ward said. “If you want your business to be competitive, you need to be preparing your workforce for these changes.”

    But digital transition can be an advantage for L&D teams, particularly those at employers that had not embraced digital transformation before the pandemic, according to Rose. “Maybe there are benefits to someone sitting at their home office; maybe they have more time,” he said. “The opportunity of the moment is to embrace distance learning.”

    At Booz Allen Hamilton, employees are actually consuming more learning content, and they are particularly focusing on content covering how to work and lead effectively in a virtual environment, Holmes said.

    One understated impact of the movement to online learning post-pandemic is that it could level the playing field for talent development. In his own experience doing online presentations with clients, Ryan said he’s seeing high levels of participation and engagement from learners. “I can look at 20 to 30 people as I’m leading the meeting, and it’s just easier to manage.”

    Employers will still need to deal with some hurdles when it comes to online learning, Ward said, particularly ensuring all workers have access to a reliable internet connection and other necessary technology. Front-line and middle-skill employees will also need to be included: “It’s a business advantage that your entire workforce is able to keep their skill sets fresh and stay competitive,” Ward added.

    It will also be difficult for talent professionals to advocate for internship programs, many of which have been cancelled or otherwise rolled back during the pandemic. But online delivery can help here, too, Ward said. Companies like Microsoft have opted to turn their internships into digital experiences, and the tech giant has said that this move will influence its approach to internships well into the future.

    Virtual reality and augmented reality, previously used by globally spread, remote-based organizations to disseminate training programs, could also help navigate a situation in which on-site operations are suspended. Ward said she’s aware of companies that have considered sending sanitized VR headsets to employees so that they can train at home.

    Reopening as a blueprint

    COVID-19 may not be the disruption L&D teams anticipated, but it is nonetheless a reminder that the field’s future may lie in preparing organizations to adapt to massive change.

    “The way we work has completely changed,” Rose said. As organizations look to reopen in an environment of social distancing and disease prevention, L&D could emerge in a highly visible role that supports all employees. “Caring for my people has always been important, but that’s more important now. If they’re going to be effective in their work, I need to be tending to them more than I might normally.”

    This care can take many forms, from facilitating how employees should reorganize their schedules to literally helping them move from point A to point B within a facility.

    Soft skills training is a particular area of emphasis for companies that moved remote. “I think that has just gotten really ratcheted up here,” Ward said. Workers and managers will need assistance adapting to phone-based and web-based communication, especially if they are used to an environment that is dependent on face-to-face communication. Even the subtler act of reading the body language of team members will require adjustment, Ward noted.

    In some ways, moving to a remote basis can create a new standard for work itself. “It’s a different way of setting goals,” Ward said. “There’s much more of a premium on execution … and that is going to require even more communication.”

    The pandemic is not just a chance for L&D departments to prove that their programs have a return on investment; workers are watching, too, and evaluating the responses that employers put forward.

    “Remember that employees will remember and value the choices that companies make,” Rose said.

    Link(s) to Article:
    https://www.hrdive.com/news/to-defend-budgets-in-a-downturn-ld-must-focus-on-the-future/578182/

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    27 Feb

    How can employers avoid the ‘hidden tax’ of obsolete skills?

    By admin In Career, Future of work, HR, Leadership, Talent Development /   No Comments

    How can employers avoid the ‘hidden tax’ of obsolete skills?

    Observers agree on one key point: training must appeal to workers’ desire to learn.
    Feb. 4, 2020

    Credit: Creative Commons

    Employers, tasked with preparing for accelerated industry changes, may be overlooking critical flaws in one key area of operations: talent development.

    That was the conclusion of a Jan. 15 Boston Consulting Group (BCG) report, which said employers in several countries face two obstacles:

    • First, there is a universe of individuals who have qualifications, like a college degree, that could land them high-skill roles, but who lack opportunities to do so.
    • Second, current employees whose qualifications and training are insufficient for their roles under perform. Such employees may require additional training that is never fulfilled, BCG noted.

    Both trends produce a “hidden tax” for employers and employees, BCG said. Employers spend more on training and retraining, and those costs may be increased if an employer doesn’t assign retrained employees to positions that allow them to work to their full potential. At the same time, a mismatch between an employee’s skill set and role can lead to missed income, employment prospects and career development for the worker.

    Credit: Ryan Golden/HR Dive, data from Burning Glass Technologies

    Learning and development programs may aim to reduce costs, but a focus on metrics like time-to-completion can only take employers so far. When it comes to solving for future skills mismatches, employers need to rethink their approach and bring learning into the organization’s broader goals, according to sources who spoke to HR Dive.

    Remember the basics

    Employers have probably heard talk of skill mismatches before, Dale Rose, president of consulting firm 3D Group, told HR Dive in an interview. “We’ve been hearing it for a while,” he said, “but one thing we’re wondering is, when?”

    Focusing on the timing of business transformations can be a helpful frame for employers and ultimately, employers need to remember the basics. “Training is a narrow set of specifications around specific skills,” Rose said. “Companies need to map out: what are the skills, jobs and attitudes needed to shift?”

    Talent development should be synced with business strategy, Bob Ryan, executive advisor at Shields Meneley Partners, told HR Dive in an interview. “I believe that companies see training and development as something separate from the business strategy, and that’s the real issue,” he said.

    It’s easier to accomplish this if HR already has a stake in forming business strategy, Ryan noted. He gave the example of a retailer that can see its business increasingly moving to e-commerce. If the organization can recognize that e-commerce will be a major trend during the next five years, HR can strategize with other departments to prepare front-line workers for the accompanying changes to their jobs.

    Taking a broader view can also help L&D teams get a better idea of how relationships between different roles will change. That’s another critical piece, Rose said, because those relationships will define how each position looks in the future.

    One critical, ‘overlooked’ element

    Building a career roadmap of needed skills is important, Rose said, because it can appeal to high-potential employees who don’t have the tolerance for a “low-learning environment.” Rose doesn’t believe organizations are still developing training plans to keep workers around forever, but he said road maps are good models for employers as they determine which gradual changes need to be made to existing job descriptions.

    Learner motivation is “really overlooked” in the training discussion, Rose said, and it may be the most difficult piece for employers to solve. “The most gamified app on the planet won’t make somebody want to learn,” he said. “That’s the piece that employers are going to struggle with.”

    One key strategy to approach this issue is to think about the needs of the individual. That can mean providing different modalities, or formats, through which to deliver training, Rose said, but he believes employers will determine which training paths appeal to individuals.

    BCG, in its report, suggests a similar “human-centric approach,” adding that employers “should select employees on the basis of their skills and values and should provide opportunities for personal self-realization in the workplace.”

    Large companies have increasingly sought to give employees choice in determining which training path to take. Amazon, in unveiling its Upskilling 2025 program last year, said it would offer the opportunity for workers across several job types to train in both high-tech and non-tech career fields. Walmart, which offers a $1 per day degree program, previously said it plans to expand degree-earning options into a number of disciplines.

    Even those who operate on a smaller scale can take a direct approach in asking employees which development opportunities they’re most interested in, Ryan said. Sometimes, that’s as simple as posing the question to employees in focus groups.

    Last but not least is leadership. “Leadership and leadership development can help create the environment that will allow that sort of growth and development to occur,” said Rose, who noted that motivation is one of organizational leaders’ many levers.

     

    Link(s) to Article:

    https://www.hrdive.com/news/how-can-employers-avoid-the-hidden-tax-of-obsolete-skills/571618/

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