What does the future of learning look like in a COVID World?
This was the big question we posed on our last Reset Show, to Dr Bonnie Cheuk (Senior Business and Digital Transformation Leader at AstraZeneca) and Ella Richardson (Learning design director at Leo Learning). And as ever the conversation was rich, thought-provoking and raised more questions than it answered…but in a good way!
The future of learning at work has been on my mind for a few weeks, since reading the latest report from Peakon on the state of employee engagement. Their new report indicates that employee engagement is on the rise. Overall, they reported that globally employee engagement increased by an average of 2%, which might not sound like much, but in these times feels pretty significant.
Unsurprisingly, the insight showed that increased autonomy, working conditions, and a greater focus on wellbeing, were key factors in driving this result. All of which are linked to increases in remote working. What is interesting though is that the one area they didn’t see increases in was growth – that is employees having the opportunity to learn, develop and grow professionally at work.
We know that the opportunity to experience growth at work is critical for employee engagement. Over the past decade, People Lab have gained insight into the workings and experiences of many hundreds of employees across diverse, global organisations. We have collated data from hundreds of ‘Best Experience’ workshops to provide insights to develop evidence-based practices to help design great experiences which result in engagement. And unsurprisingly one of the key themes that emerges is growth.
As humans, we have an innate need for personal growth, and this was a key feature of best EX stories; they nearly always involved some element of growth. This may involve a more traditional idea of intentional learning and development at work. Or something less tangible, such as a feeling that we have grown as a person as a result of an experience. Growth is linked to challenge; we often find ourselves experiencing personal growth when we have a challenge to overcome. In addition, growth is also somewhat predicated via our mindset, highlighting the role of employee mindset in EX. So, how do we ensure our people still have the chance to develop and grow, despite working more remotely? And what does this mean for the future of learning?
Of course a huge amount of formal L&D is now happening online. And we’re learning a lot about how to ensure this formal learning is a great experience. It should not just be a simple case of sticking the ‘in-person’ training course online. There are opportunities to get creative and innovative in the way we approach online L&D. For some ideas take a look a recent learning event we designed and ran for EDF Energy.
In the Reset Show, Bonnie was keen to make the point that learning should not be limited to formal education. Enabled by digital tools, learners should be empowered to learn, anytime anywhere in the flow of work/life. Individuals and teams continuously learn, unlearn and relearn on the job, in both certain and uncertain situations. But of course in the current climate, and for those working remotely, there’s less opportunity for this to happen. So we need to address this and intentionally create informal learning opportunities. We need to create space for more conversational, human connection in our daily Zooms, or Teams catch ups, or Slack chats. This might feel a bit like forced fun initially, but that’s because it feels new. Something as simple as a virtual lunch or coffee, with no agenda, or 10 mins at the beginning or end of a zoom, can make a difference. Building time into your day for these types of connections is important, and should be seen as important by organisations. In some cases, individuals may need more formal permission to engage in these types of interactions.
If you’re interested in finding out more about the future of learning, make sure you catch up on the latest Reset Show. And if you haven’t already, you can sign up here to either join the ‘live recording’ of the show, which means you can ask questions, or receive the recording.
