RedGage

There are five trends for the future of training and development TrainingMag.com says will be important in the coming years. If your organization is on the look-out to improve the training experience for employees and new-hires, pay close attention to these trends.

DevelopIntelligence.com holds that social learning, mobile technology, adaptive learning, alignment with organization goals, and measuring effectiveness are pivotal in companies’ efforts to create effective training. If your organization doesn’t change how it trains its employees, it might miss out on growth or upswings in productivity.

You want to keep your employees because your company spends lots of money recruiting, hiring, and training them. But it’s hard to change, so some organizations don’t want to reach workers on an individual level. This could be because they feel threatened by employees. A new generation of employees is bringing new values, like working independently, and it’s vital that your company offers training opportunities that meet this preference while matching up with the organization’s overall goals.

In 2014, the Brandon Hall Group’s Learning and Development Study discovered that learning hasn’t changed much recently, but about 33 percent of companies are padding the budget for learning and development. They are upgrading their learning and development plans, and technology will probably be an important part of the ultimate result.

First, mobile learning is on the rise. Only 10 percent of organizations use Web-based learning tools, and only 8 are using mobile learning apps, according to the report. Additionally, only five percent use “mobile performance Web-based sites,” and 4 percent take advantage of mobile performance apps. Mobile learning can improve how well employees learn, but they don’t yet have a solid way to implement a mobile learning strategy.

Next, learning strategies that incorporate social media and collaboration engage employees and build a culture of learning. The problem is that many organizations don’t know how to incorporate these tools into their training plans. Of the 59 percent of respondents that use social tools for learning, only 24 said they work well. Sharing documents, discussion forums, blogs, and other similar, static learning tools aren’t as engaging as microblogs or video.

Another trend is adaptive learning. This system puts learners in the driver’s seat. They are in charge of the pace at which they learn, and they can choose the type of learning approach that works best for them. Younger workers who like engaging content and who value flexibility in their learning respond well to adaptive learning.

Additionally, businesses should align their training goals with the program or technology they are considering for training. Leaders in the business should determine first that it will decrease turnover and increase employee productivity and engagement. Nearly half of the companies aligned learning and business goals, and of that almost-50 percent, 70 percent of them noted higher business revenues.

Finally, organizations need to measure how effective a particular learning strategy is and how it aligns with business priorities. They need to decide which outcomes they want to measure and incorporate learning and business metrics. Team encouragement, employee satisfaction, and employee engagement are better metrics than ones that are business-oriented, such as turnover and retention rates.