Training Millennials and Modern Workplace Learning

The impact of millennials on consumer behavior, marketing, customer support and even employee perks has been well documented as companies scramble to attract top talent and sell into the millennial markets. However, despite the fact that 60% of millennials want training to develop their leadership skills and $130 billion each year is spent on employee development, only 28% of companies have a formal leadership development program.

As millennials continue to become a larger and more influential part of the workforce, it will be critical that companies adjust their training programs to attract and retain employees. Read the Inc. article to see how microlearning, experiential learning, collaboration and mobile training solutions will be critical for the training programs of the future. 

"According to Bersin by Deloitte, a leading research and advisory services firm, talent development is the second biggest challenge facing HR executives at organizations today. Bersin estimates companies spend more than $130 billion per year on employee development, with leadership development taking up the single largest area of spending.

According to the article, "The Secrets of Successful, Fast-Growing Businesses Today--and Plans for Tomorrow", in the September 2016 issue of Inc. Magazine,..."

 

‍Simply put, most workforce training is seriously lagging behind. While the world of business has transformed drastically, Learning & Development within organizations has just not kept up. According to the article, an effort to modernize learning should be much more holistic than simply converting paper-based materials to online systems or replacing classroom learning with e-learning. 

Learning habits have changed. 91% of employees want to learn at their own pace and value learning while doing or observing colleagues. The ever expanding amount of information accessible online, multigenerational workforces, the emerging Gig Economy, and digitization are all influencing the way organizations should approach employee development. The key to modernizing employee learning is to focus on new skill development, personalized training, and employee empowerment. Essentially, organizations should be creating a learning culture that supports employees on a path of self improvement that is in-line with company needs - while building in as much flexibility as possible. Check out our latest eBook: Increase Productivity and Reduce Employee Churn with Data-Driven Learning for some additional trends.

“If you were an employee on Henry Ford’s assembly line in Detroit in the 1920s, you received a high degree of training and preparation before you ever set foot in the factory. You learned what your role was, and were given all the tools you needed to accomplish your job from Day One. From then on, your role never changed—you did your part to move a product forward along the assembly line, from the day you began until the day you retired, 40 or 50 years later. Since those days, the business wo..."

 

The hyper-connected consumer is the new normal - and retailers need to focus on putting technology in place to live in the world that consumers are creating. The retail revolution is still very much underway as evidenced by all of the new tech on display at NRF's Big Show last month. Of particular focus were cloud and cognitive technologies that are becoming an even more important piece of the puzzle for retailers trying to meet shopper expectations. 

Surprisingly, however, 84% of retail brands still offer no in-store mobile services to consumers - something critical for a seamless experiences for the hyper-connected consumer. 2017 will likely be another year of retail investing heavily in technology, with cognitive tech that allows retailers to harness data to do things like make order predictions at the forefront. 

"Though the retail industry is rapidly changing, one fact remains constant: the customer is king.

Some 35,000 attendees made their way to the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” (NRF) at New York’s Javits Center last month for a first-hand look into the future of retail. Talk of digital transformation created buzz on and off the show floor.

Just south of the show at the IBM Bluemix Garage in Soho, some of the industry’s revolutionary leaders gathered for a roundtable discussion on how cl..."