The pandemic has completely changed the way we work. Even though the hybrid work culture was present in the business world for many years, it was COVID-19 that made it popular. The hybrid work model is the new normal. As a result many organizations were forced to adopt this work model. Some companies that resisted had to face the brunt of “The Great Resignation” - a phenomenon seen after the pandemic where a record number of employees quit their jobs.
However, managing and training in a hybrid work environment comes with its set of opportunities and challenges where you have to rethink your L&D strategies. There could be many aspects of it which you will most likely need to optimize to ensure high productivity. Below we have outlined 5 ways to effectively adapt your L&D team for the hybrid workplace.
1. Focus on virtual training sessions
2. Provide personalized learning
3. Boost productivity with social learning
4. Use gamification learning strategy
5. Balance between self-paced and push-based learning
1. Focus on virtual training sessions
After COVID-19, there has been a dramatic shift in how training sessions are being conducted. While in-person training has its own advantages, virtual training is the more practical option. This is because in the hybrid work environment there are many employees which have different schedules and are located in different locations. Today online training has quickly become the preferred method for delivering training. However, you should build a mentoring system in place to keep up with the interpersonal part, a common issue in virtual training. Moreover, the in-person training should not simply be adapted to become virtual instructor-led training (VILT) as it will not work. Rather it should be specifically designed for the hybrid workplace.
2. Provide personalized learning
With the hybrid model, it is essential that organizations move towards personalized learning pathways. As it allows many opportunities for employees to develop their skills and foster individual interests and abilities. It also helps to address each employee’s learning needs and challenges, fills their performance gaps, and enhances their performance. Many LXP’s today (Learning Experience Platforms) offer the personalized approach with custom recommendations based on a learner’s job role, interest, and previous learning behavior.
3. Boost productivity with social learning
Another effective corporate training strategy is to include social learning. No matter the location, employees work better with others other than working alone. Virtual collaboration in the form of online meetings and virtual classrooms with tools like Zoom, MS Teams, etc makes training user-friendly and improves remote face-to-face interactions. It also helps in knowledge sharing of useful strategies and resources among the employees. Plus, the L&D team can share updates about new products and processes with employees to keep everyone updated. Therefore, in order to keep employees connected and engaged, ensure that they learn together whether they are in the office or working from home.
4. Use gamification learning strategy
Gamification is a growing eLearning trend which makes learning more engaging in the hybrid work environment. Gamification elements like points, levels, badges, and leaderboards make training more effective and promote healthy competition among employees. Learners are motivated to perform better when they know that their hard work will get appreciated with rewards in the forms of badges, points, and certificates for others to see. Rewards and recognition also help employees to track and compare their progress and is a great strategy to increase the course adoption rates in the hybrid workplace.
5. Balance between self-paced and push-based learning
Most organizations use only push-based learning for their employees. However, it’s not enough for continuous upskilling and reskilling in a hybrid workplace. There should also be a focus on self-paced learning as giving learners the options to choose what they want to learn will be much better than forcing them to learn something. Amazon and Netflix are good examples. Maintaining a balance between self-paced and push-based learning will increase the learner adoption rate by giving employees access to training anytime and anywhere at their convenience.
Final word
Organizations must adapt their L&D team to the hybrid workforce model. The tips mentioned above highlight how your L&D team can lead and drive this change to build high performance teams where every individual whether learning in-person or remote is set up for success.
Have you adapted your L&D team for the hybrid workforce? Schedule a demo to learn how Infonative can help you in this transition. Learn more on https://infonative.net/. For any queries, feel free to reach out to us at yg@infonative.net
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