Employees want to feel valued at work, and companies that meet this need are more likely to retain the talent they require to be successful. The key is understanding the employee lifecycle (how staff experience your organization throughout their career within it), so you can engage individual team members more effectively at each stage.
Companies that invest in employee experience are four times more profitable than those that don’t. Adding valuable learning opportunities throughout an individual’s career with your organization can help you deliver a positive experience throughout the employee lifecycle.
However, companies often miss the mark in delivering learning experiences, driving down the value for employees. Sometimes these missed opportunities are due to relying too heavily on platforms that don’t truly engage or empower people in their learning. The key is to look closely at where technology drives benefit—and where it doesn’t.
Why is workplace learning such an essential element in preparing for the future? Reskilling research from McKinsey & Company shows that 50% of leaders know they face business problems due to skills gaps. Yet, while the majority believe that upskilling and reskilling are the solution, only 13% feel confident about implementation.
A fresh, people-centered approach to learning instead pairs employees all over the organization with one-to-one learning and coaching.
In this blog post, we’ll explore:
Many learning programs rely heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) and don’t provide a valuable, engaging learning experience for employees. This is a critical error that can drive down employee satisfaction—and your ability to develop your workforce to prepare for the future.
AI can enhance the delivery of curated, integrated learning content. However, companies can sometimes lean too much on AI to handle all aspects of learning, and hope the tech capabilities will outweigh the limitations.
Learning platforms that are too AI-focused can burden your organization to create and manage learning content. Most companies don’t have the time and resources to curate and develop content; and without ongoing upkeep, programs can become stale.
While AI can create increasingly authentic and human-sounding responses, these automated nudges and responses can feel disconnected and cause engagement to dwindle.
Technology can increase your capacity to deliver learning, but alone, it can be too formulaic to engage learners the way it otherwise could—and should. Worse, these platforms can be fraught with assumptions and biases that can drive down equitable access to learning.
You must always consider the human element. A people-first lens is crucial to delivering professional development opportunities that are accessible to everyone in your organization.
Workplaces are changing quickly right now, and there is a growing need to upskill workers to ready them for what’s to come. The pace of change in how we work is a strong argument for keeping human connection at the core of your learning. No matter how quickly AI evolves, human coaches are going to be able to respond faster.
Proactively addressing skills gaps can create a more “dynamic, nimble, and effective way” to meet critical business needs, including closing existing skills gaps, and anticipating and mitigating future ones.
A human-first platform can do a better job of keeping development on track for individuals and your company. As we learned during the pandemic, unexpected change can significantly disrupt work while simultaneously ramping up learning needs. People going through significant upheaval have a better chance of staying connected to learning with the support of a coach.
A more passive setup leaves the learner to delve into a program alone, and typically, engagement falls off. It’s essential to have a connection between the learner and coach to help move people along. As organizations look to measure and improve engagement among their employees, it will be vital for HR leaders to have “an agile, long-term, and personalized L&D strategy,” reports Gartner.
A coach can adapt to what the learner needs in real-time, and help them connect the value of learning to their career and goals. While AI can support the creation of personalized learning paths, there is no replacement for the human connection that can inspire learners to find meaning in their learning.
Engaging people throughout every stage of the employee lifecycle is imperative for higher retention and can be essential to recruiting new talent, according to Gallup.
Technology can support delivery, but should never take the place of having a human nurture connection and motivation. One-on-one coaching does a better job of connecting, collecting authentic feedback, and bringing that feedback into the learning.
A human-first platform is designed to be a guiding experience. Learners are empowered to choose their coaches, move through learning experiences, complete self-assessments, and schedule their sessions. This empowerment helps personalize learning and drive engagement, so your employees get the most out of the platform you’re using.
Using technology to support learning, connection, and goal achievement is key. Leveraged properly, it facilitates a one-to-one connection that results in a deeper level of learning and understanding.
Technology that extends what humans can do will always be more powerful than AI alone. Centering human connection when delivering learning throughout the employee lifecycle helps people feel the support, mentorship, and guidance to take the next step on their path.
Bringing the learning together, centering your employees’ experience, and connecting performance management and inclusion are all key factors to success in employee learning.
A human-first platform helps you achieve all this—and reduce the number of systems you have to manage. The right solution will help you get back to doing what you love—developing the people in your organization.
A people-centered approach also means changing how you measure the success of a learning program. A human-first platform can help HR teams support growth throughout the employee lifecycle, focusing on delivering effective, equitable learning to people throughout organizations. We help bring the focus back to feedback, reflection, values, competencies, and learning what will make employees successful.
Using tech to learn is more ubiquitous in our world than ever. Ready to explore the impact of a human-first approach instead? Find out more about how we center people in our learning environment.
