For many technical organizations, training is simply a means of satisfying regulatory compliance standards. While maintaining OSHA and NERC certification is certainly important, there are many compelling reasons why companies should prioritize employee development, too.

Ongoing skills training provides employees with the opportunity for career advancement, which is essential in attracting and retaining talent. Creating a training program that aligns with company goals will also help facilitate the reskilling and upskilling initiatives necessary to stay ahead of industry changes and disruptions.

Employee development is an investment, and—like all investments—it can seem daunting at first. Fortunately, there are a few simple principles that can help streamline the process. These six tips will focus your efforts and help ensure the best possible return on investment from your continuous technical training program.

1. Take Full Advantage of Your Existing Resources

Investing in employee development doesn’t always require an expensive bespoke training program. Oftentimes, organizations with their own L&D departments already have dozens, if not hundreds, of hours of learning content that is never used. If your organization has its own L&D department, take a full inventory of all available learning content. This will help identify the training resources you already have and help you map out any content gaps that will need to be addressed. If your eLearning content lacks the metadata necessary to organize it properly, there are AI programs that can replace missing or corrupted data to optimize and map your content for easy access.

Your organization may not have its own L&D department, in which case, outsourcing is a viable option. A talent transformation company can provide you with access to hundreds of off-the-shelf training courses for a nominal investment. If your organization already receives compliance safety training courses from an external vendor, you may already have access to additional courses or learning plans that you’re not taking advantage of. Many training providers include hours of additional learning content in their compliance course packages.

2. Consider Your Training Delivery Methods

When creating a technical training program, it’s critical to consider how and where employees will be trained. Many unforeseen barriers can derail a training program. Talking with employees can provide valuable insights into overcoming these obstacles. A machine operator will have a very different perspective than an engineer or manager and can help identify potential obstacles that may not be obvious to individuals in other roles. Obtaining input from employees across the entire organization can help deliver content in a way that aligns with everyone’s needs.   

During a recent consulting assignment, a GP technical trainer encountered a situation in which a machine operator, who we’ll call Frank, took three hours to complete 60 minutes of training modules. When asked why it took so long, Frank gave the trainer a list of obstacles he had to overcome before taking the course. First, Frank had to shut down the equipment at his workstation, which took several minutes. This was followed by a long walk to the other side of the site, which added several minutes more. The training content was hosted on a computer that was kept in a locked lab, resulting in even more wasted time requesting the key from the busy staff of a control room located on a separate floor of the building.

Despite how absurd it seems, this example is not uncommon and reveals why it is absolutely critical to identify who your audience is and how your training will be delivered to them. Imagine the same scenario with a different delivery method. What if the training was made available digitally via Frank’s phone? Or what if the computer manager had been on hand to unlock the computer room? Maybe a laptop computer could be delivered to his workstation for the day. Any one of these delivery methods would have made the learning more efficient, eliminating a lot of downtime.

3. Sequence Your Training to Ensure the Most Impact

Determining when an employee will learn something can be just as important as where and how the learning will take place. Just-in-time learning is a concept that involves providing employees with training at the moment they need it most. This can be challenging in industrial settings. In many instances, it’s more practical to assign technical training during the onboarding phase before an individual’s job duties have kicked in. Additionally, regulatory agencies often have tight deadlines for the timing of compliance training.

Even with these realities, however, it’s possible to incorporate just-in-time learning practices through refresher courses. Providing regular opportunities for review can be incredibly valuable, particularly when key concepts are shared weeks or even months before employees can apply them. It may seem hard to set aside valuable time to revisit training that’s already been completed, but think of the potential risks. A single mistake or accident could derail operations for hours and end up costing far more than a quarterly review session.

How your training is delivered plays another significant role. Shorter, bite-sized content (or microlearning) will be much easier for employees to revisit than a single three-hour learning module. Additionally, content that is always available can be referenced where and when it’s most convenient for workers, which won’t be possible in the locked computer room scenario discussed earlier.

4. If Something Isn’t Working, Change Your Training

A famous quote says, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.” That seems obvious, yet it’s remarkable how many organizations repeat the same training even when it’s obviously not working. This is where an ongoing training program can be a huge asset. Organizations with an agile learning culture have the structure and procedures in place to swap out unsuccessful training, while companies that take a repetitive approach to training do not.

Once again, communication is essential here. There are always reasons why your training is failing. The key to uncovering those causes is often as simple as asking the right people the right questions. Employees will tell you when something isn’t working if you provide them with the opportunity to do so. Building opportunities for managers to check in with their employees will not only make training more effective but can also help identify underlying issues that would otherwise remain undetected.

5. Use Training as a Preventative Tool, Not a Disciplinary Measure

It’s important to remember that training can’t solve every problem. Mistakes don’t happen in a vacuum—a worker must contend not only with their training but also with factors like team culture and the pressure to perform. When an incident occurs, management will often attempt to solve the issue by assigning additional training. Sometimes, employees genuinely do not know the correct action to take, and other times, employees simply ignore the proper operating procedures. Other issues can also be at play, such as poor communication or inadequate tools.

When procedures aren’t being followed, you have a human performance issue on your hands, not a training issue. Additional coursework will not solve this problem, which is why you need a strong corrective action program in place. If there is a failure in communication or equipment, the problem may stem from an issue with the process or procedure itself—which is not strictly a training shortfall—and is often an indicator that you should evaluate your technical documentation.

Assigning ad-hoc training as a reactionary or punitive measure sends the wrong message about the role that learning plays in the organization and can undercut the effectiveness of your entire program. To truly succeed, your continuous training program needs active buy-in from the workforce, which is unlikely to happen if they see it as a form of punishment.

6. Create a Measurement Plan to Gauge Your Training’s Effectiveness

Measurement is an essential component of any ongoing training program. While the particular metrics will vary from company to company, it’s important to develop a measurement plan that demonstrates the impact of your training efforts on your organization’s business objectives. Furthermore, simply measuring training hours is not an accurate gauge of training effectiveness.

Start by identifying your training priorities. Once a set of clear goals has been established, determining which metrics matter will be much easier. If you are trying to drive efficiency, you will want to keep an eye on productivity stats. If the organization prioritizes employee retention, the company’s turnover rates will be crucial. Ideally, you want to understand the leading indicators associated with your objectives, and then track and analyze those to provide a meaningful view of your training efforts.

Metrics don’t tell the whole story; be sure to prioritize employee feedback as well. Remember that a technical training program is an investment in your people. The quickest and best way to determine if that investment is paying off is by going to your employees directly. Self-assessments, work observations, and employee surveys can provide focus on what is and isn’t working, but be sure to include opportunities for personal one-on-one interactions as well. Allowing employees to discuss their personal development provides invaluable opportunities to monitor their progress, identify areas of interest, and set future career goals.

Investing in Your Employees is an Investment in Organizational Success

Developing employees and supporting the organization are not mutually exclusive concepts. When developing a continuous technical skills training program, the solution you create should prioritize the needs of both. Engaging in clear, open communication will allow individuals to align with the strategic priorities of the organization and help you chart a plan that provides the best possible ROI for everyone.

About the Authors

Billy Ballard

Billy Ballard is a Senior Learner Experience Designer with over 40 years of experience in operations, facility support, and training. He has been with GP Strategies since 2008, working with clients to solve complex safety, environment, and operations issues related to training and human performance. Billy has developed training programs for organizations in a wide range of industries including nuclear, coal, natural gas, hydro, wind, and waste-to-energy power. He has also worked with our clients in aerospace manufacturing, data center operations, and maintenance. Prior to joining GP, Billy's roles in the electric power industry included safety and environmental compliance, chemistry, and facility operations.

When you hear the words organization design, what typically comes to mind? If you think about organization charts, moving boxes, and mapping talent to roles, you’re not alone. When faced with the need to reevaluate their design, this is the first thing many leaders think of.

In reality, organization design is about much more than names in boxes. When done correctly, it is a complete system of performance that includes structure, processes, people, and metrics—all aligned to the organizational strategy and capabilities.

While the process of organization design can be daunting, with many moving parts that must be aligned, there are five key principles that you should keep in mind.

5 Key Principals of Organization Design

1.      Organization design should always be driven by strategy first.

The first thing to do when an organization redesign is deemed necessary is to look at the business strategy. Has the current plan changed or shifted? Strategy is addressed first because it influences all organization design decisions. It sets the direction by clarifying goals and objectives, including clarity on markets, target customers, value provided, products, and services, as well as the organization’s vision, mission, goals, objectives, and values. The strategy dictates which activities are necessary to meet objectives and how those objectives will be achieved, providing the criteria by which decision-making occurs. If the strategy is not clear, it is impossible to align the remaining elements to the same point.

2.      Organization design requires a holistic system of thinking to be successful.

When making decisions, it’s critical to consider how changes in one division of the business will impact the organization as a whole before taking action. This can be especially difficult for division leaders who naturally want to solve any issues as quickly as possible. Jumping into a situation too quickly, however, will often create a situation in which you end up treating the symptom without addressing its root cause. Performing a more thorough, organization-wide review of a division’s pain points will likely point to more specific solutions that will not be obvious from a more limited perspective.  

For example, let’s envision a scenario in which poor communication is causing incidents of rework in one division of an organization. This can be traced to how and when information is shared with the appropriate teams. To address this issue, a tactical approach can help improve the communication process. If necessary, a more comprehensive approach may be taken to examine the surrounding processes and to identify a better way to align the teams and surrounding systems to operate more effectively. Finally, the challenges associated with the communication breakdown may reveal additional issues concerning how teams and workflows are organized through the product life cycle. This type of effort may result in the need for a complete overhaul.

Maintaining balance does not always require such significant changes. Sometimes, it’s just a simple matter of checking in and pressure testing any changes against the structure of the teams completing the new process, and the skills of the talent performing the activities. If either cannot support the new process, then it must be addressed during the design process.

3.      Organization design should aim for the future, not the present, and certainly not the past.

The first critical point is that organization design should always be driven by strategy first, and the strategy should always be developed with the future in mind. As leaders often consider the strategy and talent first, it’s easy to get stuck in the pattern of working with what you have, starting with the current model, and heavily weighting the current realities. This model will never provide the foresight needed to stay focused while moving in the direction of the larger vision.

When the vision tends to be 10+ years into the future, and tactics are typically 18-24-month actions, strategy is generally designed 3-5 years in the future, a steppingstone to that bigger vision. Identifying key performance indicators or metrics to assess regularly will help keep the design future-focused. Strategy metrics, such as market growth, will not immediately reflect the strategic changes, but they are a good measure of the strategy’s alignment with the vision. These metrics will typically be evaluated quarterly. Shorter-term metrics, such as operational metrics, reflect the day-to-day tactical actions that we anticipate will impact the effectiveness of the strategy. If your strategy metrics are things that can be measured daily or weekly, they are likely not future-focused enough.

4.      Good organization design is the foundation for strong business performance—do not shortcut it.

Organization design is the foundation of all business operations. Achieving results begins with the proper alignment of resources and processes. Misalignment of components can cost valuable resources such as time, money, and talent due to the resulting challenges and frustration. Redesigning a structure without considering the impact to individual processes may result in a duplication of efforts. Adjusting process flow without aligning metrics and rewards could result in competition or misalignment of values. Making any adjustment without evaluating alignment with strategy may result in disruptive tension or conflicting priorities. While one priority, such as restructuring to align with geographic priorities, may appear more urgent and pressing than others, taking the time to conduct an organization redesign properly by aligning each component with strategy and organizational capabilities will pay dividends in efficiency, productivity, and employee engagement.

5.       Organization design must be supported by a quality adoption process—regardless of the size of the effort.

Regardless of the size of the effort, a structured change plan to support adoption is imperative. Organizations often view the change process as beginning at implementation. Change management efforts are more effective the earlier they begin. Identifying stakeholders, organizational readiness, and potential resistance early allows the change plan to begin addressing those factors early and potentially even provide valuable information that may impact the design.

Organization Design: Your Competitive Advantage

Organization design can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. By taking one step at a time, addressing each element in the system, maintaining focus on the future vision with constant alignment to the strategy, and providing the resources necessary to get it done effectively, organization design can provide a strong competitive advantage.

About the Authors

Cheryl Jackson, PhD

Organization Design & Change Practice Lead

For over 15 years, Dr. Cheryl Jackson has been supporting transformational efforts in Fortune 500 organizations across a variety of industries including retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and food and beverage. With a doctorate in Industrial-organizational psychology, she combines her experience with scientific methodology and research techniques to create practical solutions that drive meaningful change in the workplace. Cheryl is driven to create effective solutions that help the organization as well as its employees thrive. Her focus is organizational effectiveness strategies supported by organization design, change management, assessment and development, employee engagement, leader development, and performance management. Cheryl is driving the development of the OD and Change Management practice within and across GP Strategies through the development of offerings and solutions, internal and external education, and supporting client initiatives. She remains actively engaged in the practice by contributing to whitepapers, blogs, articles, conferences, and podcasts on organizational design and change management and serving as a lecturer in the Master of I/O program at Texas A&M University.

Chris Davis

Sr Director Business Consulting, has over 20 years delivering solutions to Fortune 500 companies deploying complex business initiatives. His work focuses on helping clients connect strategy and execution to unleash the full potential of their organization. Prior to joining GP, Chris was a Naval Officer leading teams in the complex operation of a nuclear submarine. Chris is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, with a B.S. in Political Science, and minors in Russian and German Language.

Despite first appearing a short time ago, Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already transforming the way we work. AI tools are now regularly deployed across a wide range of industries to perform a variety of crucial tasks such as: managing inventory, monitoring cybersecurity, streamlining customer service, facilitating IT operations, and generating marketing content. While the use of Generative AI is becoming increasingly common in business, the path to a successful digital adoption remains far more elusive. In fact, only 54% of AI projects make it from pilot to completion. When an AI initiative fails, there is a measurable loss of time, money, and effort. Planning makes the difference between a successful adoption and the many failed projects mentioned above. By aligning your purpose, strategy, and stakeholders, creating a plan to drive engagement, and assessing your organization’s risks, you can help ensure  AI adoption success.

Align Your Team on Purpose, Strategy, Governance, and Roles & Responsibilities

When launching an enterprise-level AI initiative, your first step is to build a consensus on what you hope to accomplish. Begin by assembling the project’s key stakeholders, including the members of your AI advocacy team. The actual members will vary between organizations, but should include members of the project team, your chief data officer, data leaders, and, if you have them, any chief AI officers. You will also want to include members of the IT and risk management teams, as well as any relevant business stakeholders.

Once you have assembled your team, it’s time to focus on the project itself. Create a document outlining the project’s purpose, objectives, and goals. The idea here is to ensure that everyone agrees on what your project is trying to accomplish. Identify the specific parameters and key performance indicators (KPIs) for your program. Doing this will provide a unified vision of the project’s expected outcomes and benefits.

Once the purpose, goals, and KPIs have been defined, it’s time to create a governance structure. This framework will lay out key rules and procedures necessary to keep the project on track and achieve the goals that you’ve identified. Be very clear on the key stakeholders’ roles and responsibilities, so that every member of the team understands what is required of them. This structure should include direct leaders, sponsorship roles, risk management team members, and IT professionals who will manage the technical details related to digital adoption platforms.

Audience Focus: Plan for Engagement, Learning and Performance Support

This stage prioritizes people. To successfully reach their audience, stakeholders must determine the answers to three key questions:

• How will we ensure users are motivated to use the AI solution?
• What do users need to know to use the new technology both effectively and correctly?
• What resources are needed to support users and drive AI adoption?

The first question will help you determine how to motivate users, which will form the basis of your  user engagement strategy.

The answers to the second question will be used to identify an employee training strategy. For AI solutions, the best approach will likely be establishing a set of rules or principles that must be followed, rather than a traditional program that emphasizes steps users need to follow or particular actions  they need to repeat.

The final question will help define the scope of your performance support. This is the content users will reference when using the AI solution on the job. Since AI changes so quickly, it’s crucial to have performance resources that can be easily updated to keep pace as AI technology evolves.

Building Effective Employee Engagement

All change initiatives face resistance, but AI requires a complete change of mindset. Keep in mind that workers will have remarkably different comfort levels when it comes to AI. To properly engage your audience, your team must address this full range of perceptions. That means soliciting their feedback early on. Clear, open communication is critical here. Before your project is piloted, let employees know what is happening and what they can expect. Talk to employees in a variety of roles across the entire organization to gauge their reactions and take note of any pain points they might have. Adoption engagement rates increase significantly when employees see the clear benefit of a change. Determine how AI can make employees’ lives easier and motivate them with messaging that answers, “What’s in it for me?”

Leveraging use cases is another effective way to offset fear and break down employee resistance. Lay out exactly how your organization will be using AI and, just as importantly, how you will not be using it. Clarifying AI’s role in your plan will help remove the unknown and allow employees to react to facts instead of unfounded fears.

Enlist your AI advocates to help drive engagement. Advocates function as the cheerleaders for technology adoption, creating excitement about the benefits AI provides. When creating messaging, brainstorm additional formats that go beyond emails and webinars. Providing work or discussion groups can generate enormous buy-in for your project by enabling employees to work through resistance together and build a team consensus around the use of artificial intelligence.

Provide Employees with the Right Level of Learning and Support

Motivating employees to engage with AI is critical, but if you fail to provide them with the skills and performance support needed to use it properly, your efforts will be wasted. The conversations you have with employees early on will yield valuable insights into the type of training individuals require. Provide mechanisms for support and communicate them to all employees early on. By the time your AI initiative rolls out, users should have a clear understanding of where to direct questions, provide feedback, and request help. Remember, change is far less frightening when employees feel adequately supported throughout the implementation process.

Assessing Project Risk and Readiness: Early Identification is Key

Any platform adoption initiative faces risk, but the work you do early on will determine how effectively the organization can mitigate these obstacles. The risk management, project management, and change management teams all play a critical role in overcoming resistance. Before moving forward with the program, task your team with running a readiness assessment. This will help gauge employee reaction, identify potential obstacles, and prepare your organization for digital adoption. Culture plays an enormous role in how employees react to change. An assessment may point to problems in the corporate culture that must be addressed before a change initiative can take place.

Your project management and change management teams can also help uncover potential risks and offer unique solutions to overcome them. With technology projects, the project management team typically focuses on getting the technology ready for the organization, while the change management team’s goal is getting your organization ready for the system. The result is two teams looking at the same project from two vastly different perspectives. Because of this, members of the change and project management teams can often uncover obstacles that are not apparent to other members of the organization. Ensure that both teams are a part of the initiative from the beginning and put clear, regular communication channels into place between them that last for the project’s entire lifecycle.

Identify Deliverables That Mitigate Risks

Once a readiness assessment has been completed and the risks have been identified, it’s time to develop your solutions. Analyze the risks and brainstorm deliverables that will help mitigate those obstacles. During this phase, it’s important to provide high-level and detailed reporting on both the risks and deliverables and share this with everyone involved in the AI initiative. Providing visibility on the risks and deliverables can help create organizational alignment and ensure that all key stakeholders are clear on the role they play in overcoming obstacles.

Preparing Your Organization for Generative AI

Generative AI offers exciting possibilities for streamlining work and boosting organizational efficiency.

While AI tools do a fantastic job of simplifying day-to-day tasks, the process of integrating AI into your workforce can be remarkably complex. Unlike traditional technology initiatives, AI requires a significant change in mindset to overcome workers’ fears of becoming obsolete. To help ensure a successful adoption, be sure to align your purpose, strategy, and stakeholders, create a plan to drive engagement, and assess your organization’s risks early on. A well-built plan will help create the buy-in you need to introduce AI successfully and unlock your organization’s full potential.

If you’re looking to adopt new technologies into your organization, contact us today to find out how we can help. 

About the Authors

Linda Lamppert

Linda Lamppert has worked for over twenty-five years in the field of human performance technology helping clients improve the overall performance of their organizations and employees. In addition to a strong background in instructional systems design, she has over twenty years of experience designing and delivering solutions for companies implementing traditional ERP and cloud-based systems. Linda’s solutions typically include blended learning approaches, training and systems documentation, online performance support, documentation of policies and procedures, business process reengineering, and change management. Most recently, she has been focusing on the people-related challenges associated with global process and system transformations as well as integration of mobile and micro learning strategies to streamline platform adoption.

Julyan Lee

Julyan is the Organizational Change Management Practice Lead at GP Strategies within Platform Adoption. His focus is on executing the OCM disciplines of Prosci, ADKAR, SAP Activate, Infor IDM Methodologies in both waterfall and Agile project environments. He is responsible for building GP standard OCM processes and methodologies, and ensuring uniformity in their application across OCM resources and their projects. He also supports business development teams in their sales pursuits, in formulating OCM solutions and proposal responses, and presenting to clients.

The early moments of artificial intelligence (AI) were colored with a sense of wonder and excitement about its potential, leading to inflated expectations. However, organizations are now more readily embracing the integration of AI in L&D and into workflows, and we have gained a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses. 

AI is having a transformative impact on talent development and is reshaping our approach to acquiring knowledge and enhancing skills. AI’s capabilities reach beyond minor efficiency gains and are beginning to address complex challenges with depth and sophistication through content rationalization, content personalization, and workflow integration.

AI Applications for Learning and Efficiency

#1: Content Rationalization

Organizing and maintaining hastily created content, which often lacks comprehensive metadata such as titles, descriptions, and learning objectives, is a longstanding challenge for all learning organizations. Having a lot of content means resources can quickly become lost within an organization’s learning ecosystem.  

 AI’s capacity for content analysis and usage pattern identification can provide invaluable insights into their content inventory’s efficacy and relevance. This enables informed decisions regarding the need for additional content, potential modifications, or enhancements to existing materials, like streamlining the learning experience and maximizing resource utilization. 

Moreover, AI’s role in content rationalization extends to adaptability in dynamic environments. Imagine a scenario in which an operational workflow is changing across an entire enterprise. This necessitates updates in all related learning materials. AI-powered tools can swiftly identify all instances in which the outdated workflow is referenced within a content library, facilitating updates for all content, and ensuring alignment with the new practice.

#2: Content Personalization

Learning and development (L&D) is shifting toward providing as many personalized learning experiences as possible. This personalized approach marks a departure from traditional one-size-fits-all methods, empowering learners to engage with content that is relevant and resonant with their learning journey. While personalizing learning journeys has been notoriously difficult in the past, AI is now making it easier than ever. AI can be leveraged to deliver tailored learning content to individuals, catering to their unique needs and preferences.  

One of the earliest ways that L&D personalized content was through adaptive learning platforms. Learners would answer questions, and based on each learner’s performance, the learning platform would direct the learners to learning content that best matched their needs. These platforms can now utilize AI algorithms to analyze individual performance and mastery levels and to use comparative data from peers with similar profiles. This AI application specifically enables these platforms to curate a highly personalized learning path for each learner, optimizing their learning experience and facilitating continuous improvement. Moreover, the synergy between human expertise and AI capabilities allows organizations to capitalize on each person’s strengths, ultimately enhancing the overall efficacy and impact of other L&D initiatives.

#3: Workflow Integration

Unlike past attempts in which AI was merely layered over existing workflows, the current focus lies in a seamless integration that transforms how humans collaborate with AI to achieve business objectives. This shift is a result of lessons learned from earlier attempts in which AI’s true potential was not fully realized. 

One of the critical aspects driving this change is the concept of bounded versus boundaryless learning. Traditional approaches confined learning resources within fixed courses and modalities, limiting their adaptability to changing needs. However, with AI-enabled workflow integration, organizations can create content and resources in an atomic structure, allowing dynamic reconfigurations to meet diverse learning needs and business requirements. This approach optimizes efficiency and fosters a culture of continuous innovation and adaptability, paving the way for enhanced productivity and meaningful outcomes.

Enterprise Software

Moreover, the vision of AI for workflow integration extends beyond isolated platforms or tools. Major players such as Microsoft with its Viva suite, Google Workspace, and Salesforce are spearheading efforts to create seamless AI-driven environments in which users can access AI resources within their existing workflows. This integration enhances productivity by leveraging AI’s ability to track data and anticipate user needs, ultimately empowering individuals to work smarter and achieve more significant results without constantly switching between tools or systems.

Productivity Bots

The initial excitement surrounding AI productivity bots, such as meeting bots, has given way to a more nuanced understanding of their utility. The consensus seems to lean toward leveraging meeting bots in the context of structured conversations rather than indiscriminately deploying them in all meetings. The value of bots in meetings is their ability to take notes and create action items, so structured conversations can provide more valuable outputs when users want more than a simple transcription or meeting recording.  

The evolution of how we use this AI functionality indicates a maturation in how we integrate AI into our daily workflows. As AI becomes an inherent part of our productivity apps and systems, the focus shifts from its novelty to its practical capabilities and impact on enhancing human performance.

Rising Comfort, Rising Responsibility

As AI has evolved and course-corrected over the last year or so, we see a noticeable rise in general comfort toward AI, which directly corresponds with an increase in user responsibility. Skepticism is giving way to more comfort (but not necessarily more trust) as AI-driven tools such as Bing and Google have demonstrated their ability to generatively summarize information accurately and efficiently. Still, users must remain mindful of AI’s limitations. 

One of the key aspects driving this rising comfort is the transparency and accountability in AI interactions. The ability to fact-check and validate AI-generated content ensures that humans remain in control of the information they consume and act upon. This sentiment aligns with GP Strategies’ Human+AI perspective, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between human expertise and creativity and AI capabilities. It’s not about replacing humans but leveraging AI to elevate human problem-solving and creativity.  

Also, organizations are responsible for preparing and structuring data effectively for safe and accurate AI utilization. The adage “garbage in, garbage out” holds true, highlighting the importance of clean, structured data to derive meaningful insights and outputs from AI systems. Defining what constitutes “good” learning content and embedding this knowledge into AI systems is crucial to avoid generic or subpar content generation.

Unlocking the Potential of AI in L&D

The AI and L&D journey forward involves restructuring data, rethinking workflows, and reskilling employees to leverage AI effectively. While these efforts may initially result in a productivity gap as teams adapt to new ways of working, it sets the stage for a paradigm shift akin to moving from propeller planes to jet engines. Building a solid infrastructure paves the way for significant advancements and unlocks the true potential of scaling AI into everyday workflows. 

For more on the topic of AI applications and their impact on learning and development, check out the “Transformative AI in L&D” conversation between Matt Donovan, GP Strategies Chief Learning and Innovation Officer, and Jeff Fissell, LTG Vice President of Solutions, on the award-winning Performance Matters Podcast. 

About the Authors

Matt Donovan

Chief Learning & Innovation Officer

Early in life, I found that I had a natural curiosity that not only led to a passion for learning and sharing with others, but it also got me into trouble. Although not a bad kid, I often found overly structured classrooms a challenge. I could be a bit disruptive as I would explore the content and activities in a manner that made sense to me. I found that classes and teachers that nurtured a personalized approach really resonated with me, while those that did not were demotivating and affected my relationship with the content. Too often, the conversation would come to a head where the teacher would ask, “Why can’t you learn it this way?” I would push back with, “Why can’t you teach it in a variety of ways?” The only path for success was when I would deconstruct and reconstruct the lessons in a meaningful way for myself. I would say that this early experience has shaped my career. I have been blessed with a range of opportunities to work with innovative organizations that advocate for the learner, endeavor to deliver relevance, and look to bend technology to further these goals. For example, while working at Unext.com, I had the opportunity to experience over 3,000 hours of “learnability” testing on my blended learning designs. I could see for my own eyes how learners would react to my designs and how they made meaning of it. Learners asked two common questions: Is it relevant to me? Is it authentic? Through observations of and conversations with learners, I began to sharpen my skills and designed for inclusion and relevance rather than control. This lesson has served me well. In our industry, we have become overly focused on the volume and arrangement of content, instead of its value. Not surprising—content is static and easier to define. Value (relevance), on the other hand, is fluid and much harder to describe. The real insight is that you can’t really design relevance; you can only design the environment or systems that promote it. Relevance ultimately is in the eye of the learner—not the designer. So, this is why, when asked for an elevator pitch, I share my passion of being an advocate for the learner and a warrior for relevance.

Jeff Fissel

Jeff Fissel is Vice President Solutions at GP Strategies. With over 18 years of experience in learning technologies, his journey began as a cofounder of what is now Gomo Learning and evolved into senior leadership roles in learning technologies companies. He works with organizations to innovate and bring new technologies to improve L&D, from delivering better learning experiences to optimizing learning organizations.

According to Wharton Professor Andrew Carton, fear is the biggest enemy of psychological safety. “When fear becomes an entrenched marker of an organization’s culture, it can have toxic effects over the long run. In addition to stifling creativity, it can inhibit collaboration and lead to burnout.”

I can already hear the skeptics moaning, “Well, a little bit of fear is good. It’s motivating!” An experience of mine at a former employer proves otherwise and illustrates that, in the long term, fear truly is not productive. There are much better ways to generate incremental energy and motivation at work.

The Impact of Fear in the Workplace

Several years ago, I worked for a high-profile start-up building solutions targeting Hispanic consumers. The target audience was specifically recent immigrants, so we had to get creative about distribution channels to ensure we were meeting them in the right space. We partnered with two organizations that already had robust distribution to our target segment for their own products and looked to us for incremental revenue. My role was to manage the partnerships.

Several months into my role, I realized that the partners we were working with could not effectively deliver our solutions because of the constraints put on them by their core businesses. It was clear to me that the challenges we were having with them were inherent to their business model and highly unlikely to change for a very incremental revenue stream. So, I went to my boss, the COO, to share my concerns.

We had a positive relationship, and I expected to discuss my analysis of the situation. Instead, as soon as I mentioned that I didn’t think our challenges were fixable with the current partners, he said, “Have you gone native? Whose team are you on?” He implied that, somehow, I had become overly sympathetic to our partners, and instead of pushing them to make the changes we needed, I was giving up.

Immediately, I recoiled. I tried to defend myself once and then gave up on what I saw as a losing battle. For the next few months, I kept my concerns to myself until one day, three months later, the COO himself declared what I had tried to tell him three months ago. These were the wrong partners.

In case you hadn’t guessed, my boss’s reaction to my concerns was exactly the opposite of what you should do to create an environment of psychological safety. Even if I had not been right, managing our conversation positively may have revealed an opportunity to optimize or reframe the situation. At the very least, it could have made me feel that my opinion was valued and heard. Instead, we wasted three precious months of operating income to conclude exactly what I had already shared, and I lost trust in my boss’s desire to hear my opinions. I was afraid.

So, what can you do to achieve opposite outcomes, enhance creativity, and increase collaboration?

3 Strategies to Increase Psychological Safety on Your Team

1. Practice Active Listening

If you have a team member who would like to talk to you about a problem, put away your phone and close your computer screen. Show them that you are listening intently. When you feel you have fully understood, summarize what you understand and ask your team member to confirm that you understand what they were trying to say. Mirror their words back to them by saying something like, “So what I am hearing you say is…”

If you know what the next steps should be, share them. If not, tell your team member that you will consider the conversation very seriously as you think about the issue. When you have decided on your next steps, go back to that person, share what role their analysis played in your thought process, and thank them for sharing.

If you are in the middle of something and cannot give your team member your full attention, ask for them to schedule something later or send an email that you can discuss with them afterward. But don’t conduct important conversations over email. It’s a missed opportunity to build engagement with your team member.  We call this “Contributor Safety” and it is fundamental to creating a psychologically safe environment.  If the individual is challenging someone else’s opinion or the status quo, we call it “Challenger Safety.”  These two types of psychological safety are fuel for ensuring that the ideas you move forward with have been considered from many angles.

2. Don’t Play the Blame Game

If the individual who shared the idea or opinion with you is proven wrong or if they move forward with an idea or opinion that proves to be the wrong approach, do not blame them. Your goal is to create an environment where your team feels comfortable learning and taking risks because they know that if the risk does not work out the way they intended, the team will investigate and learn what can be done differently to prevent the mistake in the future.

If a mistake happens, engage the team in a conversation about what can be done differently the next time to ensure a better outcome. Ask questions like:

• What source of information were we using?
• Was our analysis incomplete?
• Were we feeling pressure to move forward too quickly?

Very importantly, use the pronoun “we” instead of “you.” You are on the same team, and you are responsible for your team’s missteps.

Next, thank your team for giving their attention to the challenge at hand and ask them to what degree they feel comfortable with both the process and the result. Notice that I did not say to ask them IF they feel comfortable with the process and the result—avoid yes or no questions because you get very little information. Using the phrase, “To what degree do you…” opens the conversation.

Finally, express your satisfaction with the team’s ability to respond to a mistake positively. We call this “Learner Safety”. In an environment of learner safety, team members feel comfortable taking risks, asking questions, and expressing curiosity.

You create a growth culture, not a blame culture.

3. Disrupt Stereotypes in Yourself and Others

Sometimes, stereotypes about different groups of people can get in the way of our ability to listen to them in a neutral and attentive way. I happen to be an empathetic person who builds strong relationships, a characteristic attributed to many women. I believe that my boss, in the example I shared at the beginning of the article, assumed that I had created such strong relationships with our partners that I could no longer see or represent our company’s needs effectively. This was not true.

This is a particularly common stereotype of women, but stereotypes can affect people of all kinds, especially people of color. I recently heard a story about a black colleague who was a consultant in a former life. During one of her engagements, she uncovered that the qualitative performance feedback given to black and white employees at the client organization was very similar. However, black employees were consistently rated lower on the numerical scale. Her concerns were dismissed as biased because she herself was black. The company ignored her rigorous analysis and was later sued for several hundred million dollars in damages that they had to pay to current and former black employees.

Most situations don’t carry the very significant consequences of the example I just shared, but the aggregate impact of being ignored, underestimated, or even actively challenged unreasonably is just as harmful. It means that while you may have hired a culturally diverse workforce, you are not yet in a place as a manager or an organization to support and benefit from that diversity.

What should you do? Actively push yourself to learn about the backgrounds and cultures of your team members, but not just directly from them. If you constantly ask them to share what it’s like to be them in the organization, you are saddling them with a burden their non-marginalized colleagues do not have to bear. Instead, read books and articles, listen to podcasts, watch videos, and take it upon yourself to leverage that information to interrupt bias in yourself and others. We call this “Inclusion safety”.  Inclusion safety occurs when team members feel a sense of belonging and are confident that they are valued and respected.

Psychological Safety Leads to a Culture of Learning

There is certainly much more to psychological safety than just the three tips above. However, as someone in leadership, focusing on these three elements will go a long way to creating a sense of psychological safety that will benefit your team and organization.

Please do not expect to get it perfect every time. You will make mistakes by dismissing someone too hastily or making assumptions about people’s intentions. But you can use these incidents to demonstrate humility and vulnerability, which contributes to building the learning culture that will help you reach your goals.

About the Authors

Nancy Joyce

Nancy Joyce, Global Account Director for GP Strategies DEI Division, is a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion in the workplace and has worked directly in the space for over 7 years. Prior to focusing on diversity and inclusion directly, Nancy ran sales and marketing teams where she was an active supporter of the diversity and inclusion agenda. Nancy graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S in Languages (Russian) and the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University with an MBA. On her good days, Nancy speaks seven languages.

As the saying goes, the only thing constant in life is change. This is certainly true in business. Organizations are experiencing a rapid change in the skills they need to succeed and facing the challenge of keeping their workforce equipped with those skills. 

What Does Reskilling the Workforce Mean?  

Reskilling and upskilling are often mentioned in the same context, but they have very different meanings. Upskilling refers to improving an employee’s existing skills, while reskilling involves teaching an employee an entirely new set of skills. Typically, these new skills are related to the employee’s current position, although organizations will sometimes train employees in new areas that are not directly related to their specific function.  

Reskilling is usually performed when an employee’s role has changed significantly, or when they are being transitioned into another role. The employee will learn how to work with new technology or equipment, adapt to changes in a process, and/or develop entirely new abilities that enable them to perform additional job duties. Reskilling initiatives can also prioritize soft skills—such as communication, teamwork, and leadership—which are designed to increase productivity across the organization. 

Steps to Reskill Your Workforce 

It is up to learning professionals to help close critical skills gaps in their workforce. Hiring new talent is one common tactic. But many organizations see reskilling as essential strategies to help close these gaps. According to a McKinsey Global Institute report, 82% of executives see reskilling the workforce for the future as critical to business success. 

Clearly, business leadership is aware of the need for reskilling, but it can be difficult putting a plan into place. These seven crucial steps will help guide your organization’s reskilling initiatives, whether you’re a manager, a director, or a head of learning and development (L&D). 

Step 1: Assess Current Skills and Identify Gaps 

The first thing you need to do is identify the existing skills in your workforce. Before embarking on any reskilling program, start by assessing your workforce and conducting a skills inventory. It will help you to better understand which skills to focus on. 

Reskilling to transform your workforce takes time and effort. You will need to engage leaders, managers, and employees in the process, and use data-driven insights for a targeted approach. A capability map visually represents an organization’s capabilities and can provide an ideal model for your organization’s specific functions and roles. 

Be proactive to stay ahead of industry changes. Try to anticipate future skills requirements based on emerging trends, challenges, and opportunities in your industry. 

Step 2: Align Reskilling with Business Goals 

When reskilling your workforce, be sure to align your skills development efforts with your organization’s business goals. Integrate your organization’s vision and mission into your reskilling strategy. Consider short-term and long-term goals and tailor your reskilling initiatives to support these objectives. The key lies in defining clear, measurable goals for skill development. Doing so provides a roadmap for future progress. 

Amazon, for example, has committed to a $1.2 billion investment in reskilling and upskilling its employees by 2025. This initiative will develop their technical skills, enabling them to take on new positions in IT support and software engineering. 

Transformation does not happen overnight. Be sure to design programs that can evolve with your organization’s demands. This ensures flexibility and adaptability, aligning with the dynamic nature of the business landscape. 

Step 3: Develop a Reskilling Strategy 

Once you have your roadmap of outcomes and skills requirements, you can start to design meaningful and effective learner journeys. For learning to be successful, your content must be 100% relevant and useful to the learner. A learner-centric approach tailors reskilling programs to each learner’s needs. Personalized learning content and adaptive learning pathways offer more effective learning. This leads to significantly better outcomes for today’s high-expectation workforce. 

Use each learner’s role, job scope, current level of expertise, and experience to define their unique learning needs. By placing a spotlight on personalized learning paths, you acknowledge each person’s unique requirements. This learner-centric approach fosters a more engaging and effective learning experience. 

Tailored learning paths help to address specific skills gaps, ensuring relevance to individual roles. This approach enhances the practical application of acquired skills and promotes a sense of ownership and motivation among learners. 

Step 4: Leverage Technology and AI for Training 

New learning technologies are transforming the corporate learning environment, providing L&D professionals with innovative new tools. In today’s ever-evolving digital landscape, artificial intelligence (AI) is a transformative force. It is reshaping industries and redefining how we live, work, and interact. According to a study by IBM, 40% of the global workforce will have to learn new skills over the next three years due to AI implementation. 

Technology plays a pivotal role in reskilling by enhancing both efficiency and relevance. Cutting-edge platforms not only streamline the content creation process, they can also track progress, identify learning gaps, and personalize learning experiences that captivate and motivate learners. This engagement is crucial for effective skill retention and application in real-world scenarios. 

There are many new and innovative methods of reskilling with eLearning. Leveraging games and gamification, as well as immersive and extended reality (XR) technologies, can add a whole new dimension to the way you connect with your learners. This can enhance the overall efficacy of reskilling programs. 

Step 5: Implement Continuous Learning Programs 

Reskilling is not a one-time event. Organizations that create a culture of continuous learning are likelier than others to have success with reskilling. This begins by fostering a leadership culture that values ongoing development. Leaders play a crucial role in championing these initiatives. Your leadership team should not only endorse but actively participate in reskilling programs, setting an example for the entire organization. When leaders champion continuous learning, it sends a powerful message. 

Managers, too, play a critical role by actively supporting and participating in reskilling programs. Their engagement ensures that the learning culture permeates all levels of the organization. 

Step 6: Foster a Culture of Learning and Adaptability  

Promoting collaboration across functions is pivotal in creating a dynamic and innovative work environment. Fostering a collaborative culture encourages the sharing of ideas, expertise, and knowledge among team members, leading to enhanced problem-solving and creativity. Breaking down silos promotes cross-functional collaboration, which is essential in today’s interconnected workplaces. Google is known for its open dialogue and for giving its people lots of autonomy. Their open office spaces, communal areas, and regular cross-functional meetings facilitate collaboration. 

Mentorship programs, coaching, job shadowing, and cross-training all play a significant role in developing skills in a collaborative framework. Pairing experienced people with those seeking to develop specific skills not only accelerates learning, but it also provides learners with valuable insights and guidance. This helps foster a culture of continuous learning too, where knowledge is shared organically, contributing to the overall growth of individuals and the organization. 

Step 7: Measure and Adjust the Reskilling Efforts 

Measuring the business impact of reskilling programs is critical to ongoing success. Regular progress checks will reveal the impact of your reskilling efforts. This enables you to adapt your strategies in real time, to better align with your business objectives. By emphasizing ongoing feedback mechanisms, you can refine and improve current initiatives, and gather valuable insights to enhance future reskilling programs. 

Establish clear metrics for reskilling success. A tangible evaluation framework will enable your organization to connect the dots between investment, business results, and strategic goals. These metrics not only quantify the impact on individual and organizational performance, they also guide continuous improvement efforts.  

The value of ongoing feedback extends beyond program refinement. Feedback can also enhance the overall learning experience by enabling you to customize content and approaches to meet the evolving needs of learners. 

Challenges and Considerations in Reskilling 

While these steps will help you avoid many of the most common reskilling challenges, there are still a few potential hurdles that you need to keep in mind. 

Challenge #1 Resistance to Change 

Change takes us out of our comfort zones and challenges us to be better. While this can be greatly beneficial in the long run, not all of your employees may see it that way. Some may not see the value in what you are offering and perceive new training as just “one more thing to do.” For others, these changes may trigger fears of being laid off or replaced.  

The key to overcoming this resistance is clear communication through every phase of the initiative. Start by informing employees about your reskilling plans before your initiative launches. This will give people time to absorb and process these changes. Be clear in what will be expected of employees. Tell them what they will be doing, when they will be doing it, and how long it will take.  

Clearly communicate the benefits of what you’re doing. Employees will be much more open to change when they understand the reasons why. Once the reskilling has begun, be sure to share success stories with your workforce. This will help clearly illustrate the benefits to your employees.  

Provide opportunities for feedback. Employees want to be heard, so give them the opportunity to share their opinions. This will not only help break down resistance, but you may uncover useful insights into how to improve your reskilling efforts. 

It’s important to recognize that reskilling is not a one-time activity; it requires a culture of continuous learning where employees see the value of ongoing development. If you can create a culture of continuous learning there is going to be less resistance to change. 

Challenge #2 Time Constraints  

Employees often struggle to fulfill the basic duties of their job and may struggle to fit additional training into their already hectic schedules. If possible, consider ways to temporarily lighten employee workloads by postponing lower priority work. You should also design your learning in a way that accommodates your employees’ busy schedules. Microlearning lessons can be completed in a matter of minutes, making it ideal for any employee, no matter how time poor. You should also make learning as accessible as possible through phones, tablets, laptops. This enables employees to learn wherever and whenever they want. 

Future Trends in Workforce Reskilling 

Many organizations are already seeing long-term benefits from investing in reskilling programs, both in terms of business impact and the effect on employee satisfaction and customer experience. 

Reskilling is a forward-thinking strategy. It can propel your organization toward sustained growth and competitive advantage. By taking these seven essential steps, you will empower your workforce to thrive today and lay the groundwork needed to navigate future disruptions. 

Need help building an effective skilling strategy? Read how our learning experts can help you leverage AI to improve your reskilling efforts. 

References: 

1. Beyond hiring: How companies are reskilling to address talent gaps 

2. Retraining and reskilling workers in the age of automation 

3. Augmented work for an automated, AI-driven world 

About the Authors

Patrick Billingsley

Patrick is a Principal Learning Consultant for the Learning Experience team and has worked in the digital learning industry for over 25 years. Patrick loves learning about new technologies and the fact that, as designers of learning in today’s world, we now have so many opportunities available to us. He works with large organizations offering a new approach to learning driven by digital transformation. 

As a leader, you face challenges in fostering a positive and supportive environment for your remote teams. This can be especially tough for new managers transitioning into leadership roles. One of the key leadership hurdles is imposter syndrome, a phenomenon in which employees doubt their accomplishments and fear exposure as frauds despite evidence of their competence. A virtual work environment’s communication barriers and isolation can often exacerbate these feelings within your team. The key to overcoming this is to implement strategies that empower employees by creating a culture of confidence and collaboration.

Understanding Imposter Syndrome in the Virtual Realm

Imposter syndrome is not new, but its impact has grown alongside remote work. In a traditional office setting, casual conversations, shared physical spaces, and impromptu interactions can provide reassurance and affirmation. The remote office often lacks these elements, allowing self-doubt to fester.

As a leader, you must first recognize that imposter syndrome is not a sign of incompetence. Many high-achieving people face this psychological challenge. By acknowledging its existence, you can create a more empathetic and understanding workplace by taking proactive measures to address the issue.

Building a Foundation of Trust

Trust is the cornerstone of any successful team, and, in a virtual setting, it becomes even more pivotal. Try to cultivate an environment where people feel safe expressing their concerns and sharing their achievements. Offer regular check-ins, both one-on-one and in groups that allow team members to voice their thoughts and receive feedback.

Encouraging open communication also involves fostering transparency. Be candid about your own experiences, acknowledge challenges you may have faced, and emphasize the importance of learning and growth. By showing vulnerability, you can help break down perceived barriers between leaders and team members, making it easier for individuals to open up about their own struggles with imposter syndrome.

Providing Constructive Feedback

Effective feedback is a powerful tool to combat imposter syndrome. Focus on providing specific, constructive feedback that highlights accomplishments and growth areas. This targeted feedback not only reinforces people’s strengths but also offers a roadmap for improvement.

If face-to-face interactions are limited within your team, use technology to facilitate feedback sessions. Try video conferences, collaborative platforms, and project management tools. Make your feedback timely and detailed, and supplement performance evaluations with ongoing communication to give team members the guidance they need to thrive.

Setting Realistic Expectations

Remote work often blurs the boundaries between professional and personal life. Helping your team members establish realistic expectations and boundaries is an effective way to combat imposter syndrome. Setting clear short- and long-term goals can help people measure their progress objectively and provide a roadmap for success.

Moreover, encourage a healthy work-life balance, emphasizing the importance of self-care and downtime, because burnout and imposter syndrome often go hand in hand. An environment that values well-being can contribute significantly to overcoming these challenges.

Cultivating a Culture of Recognition

You can also combat imposter syndrome by recognizing and celebrating people’s achievements. In a virtual setting, where the lack of physical presence can make accomplishments feel less tangible, you need to be proactive in acknowledging the hard work and successes of your team members.

Create a positive feedback loop by publicly recognizing achievements in virtual team meetings and on collaboration platforms. Public recognition not only boosts employee confidence but inspires others to share their successes, fostering a culture of mutual support and celebration.

Facilitating Mentorship and Peer Support

Mentorship plays a vital role in professional development, and, in a virtual environment, it becomes even more essential. Pair team members with mentors who have navigated similar challenges. This strategy can provide invaluable guidance and support. You can formalize a mentorship program through structured pairings or encourage informal mentorships through team collaboration.

Peer support networks also allow team members to share their experiences and strategies for overcoming imposter syndrome. Virtual forums, discussion groups, or even casual online coffee breaks allow team members to connect and support each other.

Investing in Professional Development

Empower your team members by investing in their continuous professional development. This not only enhances skills and competencies, but also serves as a tangible demonstration of your organization’s commitment to employee growth.

Virtual workshops, webinars, and online courses are effective tools for skill-building and knowledge enhancement. Work closely with your team members to identify relevant learning opportunities and align them with individual career goals. This investment not only boosts confidence, but also reinforces the message that each team member is a valued contributor to the organization.

Celebrating Failure as a Learning Opportunity

Imposter syndrome often intensifies in the face of failure. Leaders can help shift the narrative around failure by reframing it as a natural part of the learning process. Encourage your team to adopt a growth mindset, which fosters resilience and a willingness to take calculated risks.

Share stories of your own failures and subsequent successes. These stories can help normalize the idea that setbacks do not indicate incompetence but are stepping stones toward improvement. Virtual team meetings serve as valuable platforms for promoting a culture that values the journey as much as the destination.

Monitoring and Adjusting Strategies

Addressing imposter syndrome is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and adjustment. Be sure to regularly assess how you address it by seeking feedback from team members on their experiences and challenges.

Anonymous surveys, virtual suggestion boxes, and dedicated feedback sessions provide valuable insights into your team’s well-being. By staying attuned to the evolving needs of a virtual workforce, leaders can adapt their approach and introduce new initiatives as necessary.

Conclusion: Nurturing Confidence in a Virtual World

Strong leadership is essential to combatting imposter syndrome and building a virtual workplace where every team member feels values, supported, and empowered to reach their full potential.

Organizations must take an active role in providing their leaders with the training necessary to build crucial leadership skills. Learn more about our Digital Leadership Suite, which offers leadership curriculums for managers at all levels of your organization.

About the Authors

Rajdeep Dutta

With 25 years of diverse professional experience, Rajdeep is a seasoned manager and operations expert who is deeply passionate about people, learning and development, and leadership growth. His career has spanned across renowned organizations like GE, HSBC, as well as smaller enterprises. His roles have ranged from operations and capacity management to analytics and learning & development. Rajdeep is passionate about his work and views his team and the individuals within it as his greatest assets, prioritizing their growth and well-being above all else. His personal and professional development are intricately linked to their progression, making their success his ultimate goal. Beyond his professional life, he proudly plays the role of "Mr. Bean" to his 21-year-old daughter and a four-legged feline friend. He’s a certified herpetologist, driven by a passion for reptiles, particularly snakes. This passion has taken him to some extraordinary places, creating indelible memories and even a few bites along the way. In addition, he is an amateur photographer who captures the beauty of the natural world.

Great eLearning works by connecting with its audience. That may sound simple, but there are a number of challenges you must address to forge that connection. Michael Thiel, the host of our Performance Matters podcast, sat down with two of our eLearning experts, Andrew Joly and Geoff Bloom, to discuss the biggest challenges that arise when delivering successful eLearning in business. In this blog, we summarize their seven strategies to overcome these challenges and deliver eLearning programs that connect with learners and drive lasting change.

#1: Drive Engagement

It is important to remember that in a business setting, eLearning is delivered to individuals who are incredibly busy. Learning content takes up valuable time which creates a natural opposition. To overcome this resistance, your eLearning must be as engaging as possible. Moving beyond eLearning to incorporate a variety of different media types and activities can keep your learners engaged, interacting with, and connected to the experience. This blended approach to learning can involve everything from videos and podcasts to virtual workshops and learning games.

#2: Make Content Relevant

One of the key challenges of eLearning design is delivering a consistent experience that does not fall into a one-size-fits-all approach. When content isn’t relevant, learners feel that their time is being wasted and will tune out. Make sure that your content is updated and, if possible, personalize it. One way to do this is by creating tailored versions of your program for different roles, departments, or locations. The actual content may only differ by a factor of 10-15%, but your program will feel more relevant to its intended audience.

#3: Ensure Learning is Usable and Accessible

To fully reach your audience, eLearning must be made as accessible as possible. Usability and accessibility are about removing every possible obstacle between the learner and your program. This means ensuring that your content is compatible with a variety of devices, including desktops, laptops, phones, and tablets. Your program also needs to function for learners with good or bad bandwidth.

There is also a human side to usability. It is critical that you consider the needs of your entire audience. Do your employees live in different regions or speak different languages? Are there visually or hearing-impaired individuals on your staff? Are there additional cultural barriers that need to be considered? If so, your curriculum must provide options such as translations, subtitles, or audio descriptions of visual elements.

#4: Keep Learning On-Brand

Brand goes hand in hand with relevance. If learning does not seem intended for your organization or for a particular role, it can be unengaging. Learners can spot generic, off-the-shelf learning and may treat it as an obligation rather than an opportunity. Learning that is not on-brand is a massive, missed opportunity to connect your learning with your organization’s mission, brand values, and culture. Be sure to incorporate your company’s voice and style into your eLearning efforts.

Staying on-brand does not require you to invest in expensive custom eLearning solutions. You can create an on-brand experience with an off-the-shelf eLearning package by changing it in subtle ways that connect it with your organization.

#5: Add a Social Component to Learning

Many individuals learn best when they are taught by, and engaging with, other people. In its early days, eLearning was a solitary experience. While things have changed significantly over the past few decades, it is important to remember that the social aspect of learning does not happen on its own; you must intentionally build those experiences into your program. Including interactive activities, such as virtual instructor-led training (VILT) sessions or user message boards, will help drive engagement by connecting individuals with other learners.

If those features aren’t possible, there are still ways to make eLearning feel more social even if the learner is not directly connected with others. Learner surveys are an effective way of showing employees that their training is connected to that of other learners. Scenario-based question and answer programs allow learners to see other responses, connecting them to part of a bigger experience.

#6: Measure the Impact of Your Learning

Measurement is key to great eLearning design. Identifying what success looks like should be part of the design process. Make sure that all stakeholders agree on the focus of your program and what you hope to accomplish. Are you attempting to change behaviors, increase sales, or decrease the amount of employee turnover? When everyone understands and agrees on your learning goals, you have a much better chance of achieving them.

Once you have defined your learning priorities, it is important to put a measurement plan in place. Work with stakeholders to identify metrics that will gauge the curriculum’s effectiveness. If you construct your measurement program the right way, you will be able to demonstrate a causal chain of evidence that reveals where your learning has made an impact.

#7: Prioritize Deployment

Deployment is critical to success. Think hard about how you are going to reach your learners. There are two key aspects of deployment: technical skills to deliver your eLearning and internal marketing to encourage your employees to engage with it. Deploying content to a diverse audience on a variety of devices can present a significant challenge which may require technical investment. This is particularly true for global organizations that employ individuals in several different countries. If deploying content on that broad a scale is beyond an organization’s abilities, the company may need to bring in an expert with a proven solution.

Internal marketing is another crucial aspect of deployment. Once you have constructed your curriculum and determined how to deliver it to audiences, there’s still work to be done. How you sell this learning to your employees will play a significant role in how successfully they connect with your curriculum. Creating an internal marketing campaign for your eLearning is a great way to drive learner engagement. As employees interact with the program, share their testimonials with the rest of the organization. These peer assessments will go a long way in convincing employees that a piece of learning content is worth their time.

Using AI to Overcome eLearning Challenges

AI is a game changer when overcoming eLearning challenges.

Here are some ways we think AI will enhance the success of eLearning:

• Usability: AI can help make existing learning content more usable. AI programs have proven invaluable in helping content to reach a wider audience by providing subtitles and language translations quickly and easily. Organizations can also use AI to help make their learning and development content more searchable.
• Organization: Many companies have L&D libraries full of content this is outdated, unorganized, and difficult to access. AI tools can help with content rationalization. This makes it much easier to access content and deploy it to its intended audience.
• Personalization: Tailoring aspects of eLearning to its audience helps keep content engaging and relevant. In the future, AI could be used to create learning packages that drive this personalization even further by adapting content to each learner’s real time needs.

When dealing with AI, it is useful to keep a few guiding principles in mind. Be sure to respect intellectual property rights and properly credit the work of others. Although AI is a great accelerator for creating eLearning, human creativity and curiosity are still vital components of the process.

Creating Effective Digital Learning Solutions

Great eLearning content is designed while keeping the target audience in mind at every stage. It should be engaging, relevant, accessible, social, and should represent the brand image. By implementing these digital learning strategies, you can enhance your training programs and overcome the challenge of effectively engaging your learners.

For more information about creating great eLearning content, check out our podcast, Navigating the 7 Challenges of eLearning in Business.

About the Authors

GP Strategies Corporation

GP Strategies is a global performance improvement solutions provider of sales and technical training, e-Learning solutions, management consulting and engineering services. GP Strategies' solutions improve the effectiveness of organizations by delivering innovative and superior training, consulting and business improvement services, customized to meet the specific needs of its clients. Clients include Fortune 500 companies, manufacturing, process and energy industries, and other commercial and government customers.

Managers exert enormous influence in technical companies. Their decisions directly impact the employee experience, which, in turn, affects productivity and business growth. Unfortunately, employees often transition into management roles without any kind of leadership training.

Management roles require a distinct set of skills that may differ greatly from those used in an employee’s previous role. New managers may also have to navigate new challenges, such as resistance from their former peers or the need to build high-performing teams. Without a program in place to bridge these potential skills gaps, you are essentially setting your managers up to fail. Is your organization providing managers with the training they need? If not, it might be time to create a program that helps transition frontline managers into their new roles.

Implement Leadership Training for Technical Roles

#1: Identify Problem Areas

High employee turnover rates or an increase in onsite accidents are obvious signs that something within your organization is wrong. Often though, internal issues might not be so obvious, and you might have to do some digging to discover potential problems. The easiest way to identify your managers’ pain points is to ask them. Employee engagement surveys can uncover problems you may not know exist and help you identify the skills your managers lack.

#2: Focus on Learning Goals

Once you have identified your problems, it is time to focus on the solutions. Ask yourself, what is important to the organization? When answering that question, be sure to focus on clear, measurable goals. Is safety an issue? If it is, then lowering the number of onsite accidents should be one of your goals. If productivity has been low, your goal should be to raise productivity by a specific amount. Once you have these goals in place, you can begin looking at what type of learning is necessary to achieve them.

#3: Adopt a Blended Approach to Learning

It is important to keep in mind that no two employees learn exactly alike. Adopting a blended approach to learning helps maximize results by implementing a variety of different teaching methods. Ideally, your management training should include a mixture of online modules, instructor-led courses, and hands-on learning scenarios. For the online portion, using a variety of different formats, such as videos, articles with graphics, and even podcasts, will help keep your learners engaged.

In addition, be sure to provide your managers with opportunities for future self-directed learning. Creating a point of need catalog is a great way to do this. In the course of their duties, new managers often uncover the need for additional learning that is unique to their individual role. Granting them access to additional content allows managers to explore these specific areas in the flow of work and shape learning to fit their specific needs.

#4: Make the Learning Accessible

When creating management training, it is important to build something that your employees will actually use. If your managers only have short windows of time to devote to training, you need to ensure that the method of learning matches those time constraints.

Microlearning is a teaching method that breaks courses into short, easily digestible units. This approach enables you to offer your training without extensive downtime, since team members can learn in short bursts. Microlearning is also better for information retention and easier to adapt at scale.

To make learning accessible, you also need to consider how content will be delivered to your employees. Since many frontline workers do not sit at a desk with a dedicated computer, you may need to use alternative delivery methods such as team huddles, mobile apps, or even wearable devices. The important thing is to deliver your learning content in a way that best fits your workforce.

#5: Allow Time for Practice

Practice allows learners to apply the lessons you have taught them and transform those theories into real-world skills. Remember, people learn by making mistakes. Creating a practice environment in which learners can fail safely allows them to internalize knowledge through trial and error. There are several different ways to do this. Instructor-led groups provide a perfect opportunity for role-playing. Additionally, scenario-based eLearning modules use examples of real-life situations to immerse learners in a story where they can rehearse critical skills.

Building an environment of psychological safety is particularly useful for individuals who have recently transitioned into their management roles. Psychological safety empowers workers by creating a space where they can discuss the actions they have taken and mistakes they have made with their supervisors and peers. This helps break down the stigma of failure and replace it with a Win or Learn attitude in which failure is seen as just another part of the learning process. Also, be sure to provide new managers with regular, constructive feedback. In-the-moment coaching will help managers adjust their skills by identifying what is and is not working.

#6: Measure Your Learning

Data-driven results are important. Remember those goals we mentioned earlier? Without the proper data, you will not be able to measure whether you have achieved them or not. Analytics are also crucial for benchmarking your key performance indicators against your industry best practices to assess how your organization stacks up against competitors within your field.

Upskilling is essential when transitioning employees into leadership roles. By setting clear goals and adopting a blended approach, you can help ensure that your managers have the tools they need to coach and lead their teams more effectively.

About the Authors

Roger Boisse

Roger is senior director of the online technical training platform GPiLEARN+. After graduating from Maine Maritime Academy, he started his career as a naval officer before moving into the private industrial sector. He then spent 30 years in the power generation industry working his way from frontline technician to corporate executive, with responsibility for several power plants. He’s been with GP Strategies since 2021, supporting our clients in the technical industries.

In the technical industries, collaborating with a consultant who specializes in technical documentation is an effective way to improve the performance of your organization’s workforce. Consultants can help organizations and their workers adapt to new processes or equipment, streamline their instrumentation training, or maximize their production workflow.

A good consultant will work to understand and assess your unique situation, then help you to identify efficiency gaps and propose specific and meaningful solutions. Before meeting with a consultant, and during the technical documentation process, there are several steps your organization can take to make the most of your time with them. By identifying key problem areas, providing them with ample interview time, putting a change management strategy in place, and running a return-on-investment study, you’ll contribute to the measurable success of your initiative.

Identify Specific Problem Areas

The consultant is there to help solve your problems, but without a clear idea of what those are, you can waste a lot of time identifying them. Before meeting with the consultant, take the time to identify your organization’s pain points. Where are you seeing the greatest number of nonconformances? Are there gaps in your existing training? Are you struggling to retain employees? While it is not necessary to identify every problem area, you should begin the process with a few specific areas you want your consultant to focus on.

Be sure to enlist individuals from every level of your organization and ask them where they perceive issues. Perspective can be crucial when identifying deficiencies in your technical training. A senior manager has a vastly different viewpoint from a machine operator. Speaking to both can help you identify issues that are not immediately obvious to people who work in other areas of your organization.

Don’t Shortcut the Interview Process

When bringing in a technical documentation consultant, be sure to budget enough time for the information-gathering phase. The consultant may want to tour your entire facility, interact with your equipment operators, and conduct interviews with individuals across your organization. Define who the key stakeholders are but allow enough time for the consultant to interview others as well. As noted above, people in different roles have vastly different perspectives. The more people your consultant can speak to, the easier it will be for them to uncover what isn’t working and help you devise a solution.

It is also important to prepare your employees for the consultant’s visit. Ambushing your staff with an unexpected interview will not lead to a positive outcome. Let staff members know early on when the consultant will visit and what they can expect. This will make the interview phase much more fruitful by allowing employees to organize their thoughts and plan time away from their roles.

Create a Change Management Program

Consultants are harbingers of change. When bringing in someone from outside the organization, employees often fear the worst. Establishing a strong change management strategy early on will help you design a solid implementation plan, mitigate employee resistance, and ensure that your project runs smoothly. Start building your change strategy long before the documentation consultant shows up and communicate your objectives to your employees in a clear, transparent way. Share your goals with employees and emphasize how this will benefit them professionally.

Effective change management comes from the top, so be certain to get buy-in and active support from leaders across your entire organization. New technical documentation will require input from a wide array of employees. Coordinating those efforts will require clear communication between leaders in different departments. If your managers are not properly informed about or invested in the process, you will not receive the participation you need to be successful.

Run a Return-on-Investment Study

Measurement is all about identifying, tracking, and analyzing the desired benefits of improved documentation, which is crucial in demonstrating your program’s ROI. Many organizations are not aware that this is an option, or they may think that gathering the necessary data is too challenging. Without assessing your initiative though—before, during, and after implementation—you have no way of knowing whether it was effective or how to optimize your efforts in the future.

Any qualified consultant will be perfectly happy to help you design a measurement plan, provided you build this into the process early on. Be sure to discuss metrics with the consultant at the beginning of your project. Consultants can identify data that ties proper documentation to your real-world business results. After identifying these metrics, they can work with you to develop a method of gathering and analyzing this data over time.

Partnering with Your Consultant to Improve Technical Documentation

When working with a consultant, it’s crucial to provide them with the proper support. By supplying them with the right information, and putting change management and assessment strategies into play, you will ensure that your partnership is successful and get the best possible return on your investment.

GP Strategies offers a wide variety of technical workforce solutions. Contact us today to learn more about optimizing your technical skills training documentation or for help running an ROI study.

About the Authors

Stephen Harnden

Steve Harnden has worked as a maintenance training instructor and technical writer for GP Strategies since 1998. Before joining us, he served as an avionics technician on F-111 aircraft for the US Air Force. Aside from his aviation expertise, Steve has supported clients across multiple industries including space, transportation, power generation, and steel. In addition to his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronic engineering from California State University, Sacramento, Steve is a registered professional electrical engineer in the state of Florida. He also earned a bachelor’s degree in zoology (it’s a long story) from the University of California, Davis. Steve and his wife have three children.