There is an old Chinese proverb which roughly translates to: “Learning is like rowing upstream: Making no advance means you are dropping back.” In this modern world where today’s latest technology becomes obsolete in less than an year, continuous learning is paramount. Especially for professionals who have to apply more knowledge than physical efforts to get work done.
Businesses need customized learning solutions that can help their workforce constantly upskill and reskill themselves to stay relevant.
But it is easier said than done. There are several challenges that businesses need to overcome in order to get a competitive advantage.
Some of the challenges include:
1. Access to Talent
Talent shortage is a serious threat that businesses across the globe are facing. According to ManpowerGroup’s 2018 Talent Shortage Survey, 45% of employers say that they can’t find the skills they need. There are many graduates, but only a fraction of them possess the right mix of hard and soft skills necessary for employment. Most often, candidates lack the up-to-date technical knowledge required to work in a real-world scenario.
2. Disengaged Employees
Once the right talent for a role is found, the next challenge is keeping them engaged at work. According to Gallup’s 2017 State of the American Workplace Report, at least 70% of the American workforce is disengaged.
A disengaged employee is someone who is withdrawn from his/her approach towards work, exhibits poor communication, breaks from the team routine and has an apathetic approach towards work. Lack of proper skills to execute the tasks could be one possible reason why employees disengage from active work.
3. Employee Attrition
If finding talent is one challenge that businesses are facing, retaining existing ones is an even bigger challenge. There are several reasons why employees leave their current employers.
The most common reasons attributed include:
- A better opportunity coupled with a pay raise
- Engaging work with higher prospects of learning & personal growth
- Opportunity to work with an employer who is well-recognized in respective domain
4. Obsolete Skills
The downside of employee attrition is that it leads to discontinued work. Does that mean long-serving employees are always productive? Not necessarily. Employees with a fixed mindset can do more harm than fleeting employees who stay for the short-term.
A fixed mindset is one which is not open to new learning, innovation, or reinventing the existing rules. They remain stagnant and hence slow down the business from marching forward. It also stagnates the innovation that a business must have for a steadfast growth.
How can businesses overcome these challenges and achieve a competitive advantage? A customized learning solution poses as the perfect remedy.
Customized Learning Solution- A Remedy for Critical Business Problems
A customized learning solution, as the name suggests, is one that can be made bespoke to the requirements of its end users. For businesses, it opens up a trove of options to create specialized learning curriculum for each job role/function. For instance, a tailor-made learning solution for financial reporting for accountants, or a system vulnerability assessment course for IT admins.
Unlike generic learning solutions, a custom learning solution brings to the table several benefits.
1. Smoothens On-boarding Process
According to a study, 90% of new hires decide whether to stay in the company within the first 6 months of starting the job. What makes new hires abandon ship? An unstructured on-boarding process, unclear expectations, and lack of proper training post on-boarding make new hires to leave their employers.
A custom learning solution helps put in place a structured on-boarding process. The learning solution can be designed to walk-through employees through the various responsibilities of their job, the resources that are at their disposal, and also the know-how to use them.
In other words, it can help set clear expectations for the new employee to get started on the right foot. In due course, it will restrict attrition rates, as employees are well-equipped to do what is expected of them.
2. On-demand access to learning materials
Work and learning hardly go together. It is always work that takes precedence owing to its priority and volume. In the past, it is due to this reason that most employees were unable to upskill or reskill themselves. As a result, growth stagnated, innovation suffered, and enterprises found themselves in a tight spot. A customized learning solution can make a difference here.
Unlike traditional learning systems that are bound by rigid classroom hours, physical presence and a fixed lesson path, a customized learning solution is a lot more flexible. In fact, modern solutions can be accessed on-demand via mobile and web apps.
This gives two major benefits. First, users can continue their learning process even when they are commuting between work and home. Businesses do not have to lose out on working hours to training and upskilling their workforce. Here’s How to Create and Deliver Bite-sized Learning for Enterprise Training
3. Customizable for each Role
The biggest and most obvious benefit of a customizable learning solution is that it can be tailor-made for specific roles and functions. When it comes to training professionals from diverse backgrounds, a cookie-cut approach is not going to work.
A bespoke learning solution is necessary. It can help businesses train specialists for each role from inside their company and put a stop order on external hiring.
But, why make it customized rather than a generic one? When the learning solution is customized for each role, it helps each employee better grasp the intricacies of performing their duties. Also, the course can be further personalized for accelerated learning based on the individual’s past credentials and experience. Here are the Benefits of Investing in Custom eLearning Courses for your Enterprise
In a nutshell about customized learning solutions:
Every business faces a long list of challenges that must be overcome to succeed in its endeavors. When the challenge stems from a crucial component like the workforce, things can take a nasty turn. Luckily, customized learning solutions can help overcome most of the challenges related to workforce.
They help solve the problem by training employees in a personalized fashion for each of their roles and responsibilities. Since the learning is self-paced, it also helps strike a balance with responsibilities at work. When learning happens, there is growth.
Such growth kicks off a domino effect resulting in reduced attrition, heightened employee engagement and higher productivity; all benefits which no business can turn a blind eye to.