Blog: Five learning and development predictions for 2019

Learning & Development

Five learning and development predictions for 2019

There couldn’t be a better way to kick-start a new year than getting hold of the top five learning and development predictions, which when applied in totality, generate prosperity. Here's a look.
Five learning and development predictions for 2019

The trick of the game of life is to turn hindsight into foresight to reveal the insight. The foresight is more about strategically minimizing the surprises than trying to intuit the ambiguous future. Change has never stung the socio-economic dynamics so severely, like in the past two decades. Cell phones were a rarity in 1998, driver-less cars were unheard of, and the internet was only just catching up. Survival of the fittest has never been so befitting and it only gets fiercer from here.

The organizations that consciously realize this, introspect, agree to, and invest on sharpening their teams can expect a relevant, consistent, and a reputable standing in the marketplace in the days to come.

There couldn’t be a better way to kick-start a new year than getting hold of the top five learning and development predictions, which when applied in totality, generate prosperity. Though technology has fostered a bunch of advancements in L&D which an organization should certainly be in tune with, nevertheless, even if it fervently submits only to the following five deep-rooted principles, it is all set to attract, engage, and retain the best of the talent to help it accelerate in 2019.

  1. Retaining the assets:

    Stowing and treasuring the performing human capital by all legitimate means is and should always be number one on the cards for all shapes and sizes of organizations.

    Recent studies of workforce behavior and performance in concurrence with the law of average suggest that over 50% of the employees are always on a constant pursuit of newer job opportunities. 
    Statistics reveal that about 75% of the workforce who are at high retention risks pursue to leave because they are in proximity of their career ceiling in their recent organizations. 

    The aspiring millennials do not consider only the remuneration and the KRA, but also look for a unique blend of professional and personal [knowledge and skills] progression while choosing a job. The breed believes that ‘learning is earning’ and is keen to be in the midst of learning, developing, and a nurturing environment.

    By and large, there is no such short-cut and mystical concoction to retain the human capital, but having stable and sustaining strategies aimed to widen and enrich the intellect quotient. There are deliberate, definite, directed, and disciplined actions which prophetic employers can take to ignite a long-term loyalty mindset.

    A thoughtfully engaged employee = A happy employee = A retained employee.

  2. C-suite and HR consistently integrate:

    The biggest blunder that squeezes an organization’s learning and development efforts to reach their fullest potential is the lack of consistent commitment and planning between the C-suite cadres and the HR. The loose bonding does not fetch considerable results and only generates transitory and cosmetic ripples.

    It is only when the HR is one of the patrimonial functions on the executive committee that the organizations can expect a predictable outcome of the board room conclusions, decisions, and actions.

    Businesses have started sensing this cavity and 2019 will see more and firmer blends to continually define and productively inject the processes, practices, and perspectives.

  3. Learning initiatives aimed to ignite mindfulness:

    The countless benefits of mindfulness training in corporate settings are progressively established by empirical research.

    In a recent workforce behavior analysis, an alarming 94% of the workforce was reported stressed out at work with 33% revealing that their level of stress somewhere ranked between ‘high to unsustainably high’ hampering both the personal and professional lives.

    Inserting and exposing the team to high definition training [enlightening them sufficiently and efficiently] subtly pushes them towards mindfulness, which helps them to calm down, dissect from the hiccups, and focus on ‘channelizing internal energies’. The high impact training modules push the employees towards ‘genuine introspection’, ‘acquiring of healing habits’, and ‘being aware of their behavior when no one is seeing them’. 

    All of this leading to an adequately informed and sensibly responsible person wanting to operate, serve, and deliver at its peak.

    By implementing learning initiatives aimed to ignite mindfulness in the workplace, business leaders may more effectively manage stress, retain sharper and lasting focus, strengthen overall health, boost interpersonal relationships and sharpen cognitive performance. Organizations like Google, Nike, Apple, General Mills, Adobe, Intel, and McKinsey have training solutions in place to help their teams get over their mental chaos.

  4. The rise in the gamification of training:

    The sub-conscious fluidly accepts those concepts which generate and release Dopamine and Oxytocin, chemicals which are parents to ‘pleasure’. Games engage and lead to the secretion of these.

    Blending training with thoughtful games also creates an opportunity to serve a progressive reward system, which the team could unanimously aspire for. Points, badges, leaderboards, and exclusive public attention brilliantly satiate emotionally and infuse life into the most jaded ones.

    Gamification = Engagement = Acceptance.

  5. Digitization and effective distribution of content:

    LinkedIn in one of its studies in 2018 concluded that the number one challenge for talent development is to get the employees to make time for learning. It is logically tough and restrictive to consistently prioritize the training over primary deliverables. Occasional efforts lead to wobbly results.  Digitizing your training and delivering it across multiple platforms effectively eliminates the time crunch and leads to flexibility and organic acceptance.

    Decision makers are now increasingly aware to leverage the ‘humongous power of digitization’ in their learning and development efforts and have started diverting their training efforts and investments towards virtual. To be able to keep up with the needs of the today’s learner and stay pertinent to the organizations, learning and development teams need to use technology to deliver just-in-time micro-learning. A broadened understanding that their role could shift from learning-creator to learning-curator while improving analytics to be more strategic and closely align with the business needs.

The playing field is pretty diverse out there in terms of what learning transfer options are available based on one’s organizational philosophy and maturity. The above pointers when acted on with a ‘purpose to perform’ will assist to eagerly introspect one’s current standing while helping to address, tweak, shape, and sharpen the coaching needs in accordance with the changing times.

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Topics: Learning & Development, #Trends

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