As businesses worldwide postpone and cancel in-person training and meetings in response to COVID19, workplace learning is emerging as one of the earliest and hardest-hit casualties of business operations. Based on OVP Management Consulting’s engagement with a cross-section of clients in the months leading up to and during the pandemic, we are seeing for-profits and non-profits alike increasingly pushing the pause button on talent development and capability building.
Organizations, however, cannot afford to put critical workplace learning on hold indefinitely. Whether an entity’s focus is to re-tool business unit skills or engage in organization-wide transformation, businesses need the ability to develop employees while also prioritizing workforce safety. Remote and digital learning platforms, already a channel for employee learning prior to COVID19, are even more vital now.
Three areas, in particular, stand out as strategic opportunities for digitally engaging employees during the rapid pivot towards social-distancing: talent development, virtual-adaptive training and employee learning.
Talent Development :Performance management and talent development can be a powerful way to engage your workforce during the COVID19 crisis, signaling that you are investing in your people during this challenging period while also moving your operations forward. When moving to a virtual platform, however, it is vital that you work by design rather than default. Team and one-on-one coaching over the phone or online, for instance, do not offer the same breadth of body language cues and intimacy that in-person meetings deliver. As such, during OVP’s coaching sessions with clients, we leverage the constraints of physical distancing to listen even more closely to clients and use customized online materials both during and after sessions to increase engagement.
Targeted virtual offerings: To create a comprehensive arrays of virtual learning offerings, build a cross-functional response team comprising members from relevant stakeholder groups. These include business partners, IT and training personnel, and customer and community counterparts. Evaluate existing virtual offerings against critical business operations to prioritize scarce vendor and design resources. For instance, must-have activities like employee onboarding will require a combination of live and on-demand programs to ensure both legacy requirements like performance expectations and new requirements like remote working skills, are communicated consistently.
Employee learning: A substantial increase in the use of digital delivery to enhance employee learning is under way across all segments of the workforce, from frontline employees to senior leaders. While digitally-enabled environments have been implemented by many organizations out of necessity rather than choice, virtual platforms also provide a strengthened collective focus and sense of community for employee, customer and community stakeholders. Organizations that previously had very little interaction, due to functional or regional boundaries for instance, are increasing collaboration through videoconferencing, instant messaging and other forms of digital engagement.
While it is far too soon to determine the ultimate impact that COVID19 will have on employee learning, it is clear that the adoption of digital venues has clearly accelerated, providing with it the opportunity to promote a culture of ongoing engagement both within and outside of organizational walls.
Pam Hill is a a Senior Consultant with OVP Management Consulting Group, Inc. and can be contacted at pam.hill@ovpmanagementconsulting.com.
