Today, learning and development teams in organizations need to develop innovative and modern training delivery methods for training new-age employees. Allotting a fixed training schedule for the workforce and attending traditional training sessions has become a bygone era. However, this strategy may work for a while, but it may not help when training the new-age learners.
The millennial generation is far too contrasting from the older workforce as they focus more on continuous learning and prefer learning things comfortably and at their flexibility.
The fundamentals for innovative training methods rest in the following –
- New age work pattern involves digital learners that easily adapt to the advancing technological changes. Today they have access to all the valuable resources. As a result, they aren’t dependent on traditional training. e-Learning is an innovative training solution that provides an interactive and flexible approach to learning. It enables them to enhance their skills and grab the concepts quickly while ensuring better engagement. For these reasons, most companies today adopt advanced training delivery options so that they can connect and train a large number of employees in a go.
- LinkedIn’s 2022 Workplace Learning Report states that 62% L&D leaders agree that L&D is focused on rebuilding or reshaping their organization in 2022 and 81% of executives are changing their workplace policies to offer greater flexibility to their workforce.1
It is important to introduce advanced training methods in the new working system for the following
reasons –
1. Enables companies to meet customer demands in the best possible manner
Counted among the major advantages of innovative training is that it allows the team members and colleagues to serve customers’ needs better. It’s a disruptive strategy where participants must explore and examine customer behavior to determine why they opt for a certain set of products or services over others.
It could be safe to say that innovative training can help your company identify the potential opportunities to attract customers by meeting and exceeding their expectations with improved products and services. They can learn the art of interviewing the customers to improve the organization’s offerings.
2. It Equips participants with techniques and skills needed to build disruptive strategies
Clayton Christensen introduced the concept of disruptive strategies. It allows the participants to learn techniques and skills needed for developing and building executive-level strategies while channelizing their mindset for innovation. Plus, they also learn to focus better on the customer’s needs. It allows the organization to leverage disruption for its benefit instead of submitting itself to it.
An Accenture report states that more than 60 percent of organizations belonging to over 20 industries experience disruption. Over 40 percent are susceptible to its disruption in the future.2
Using techniques and lessons learned from innovation training, organizations can create strategies where different needs of customer needs are taken into consideration. The participants ensure that strategies help them meet various challenges of potential threats and new opportunities as they arise during the process.
For example – L’Oréal came up with the first of its kind – onboarding application for employees. The app is built to educate and onboard new employees for better understanding, decoding, and mastering the company’s culture. Available in more than 11 languages, it allows new hires to complete various “missions”. The idea is to help them acquire relevant skills through the app and use their learning for fulfilling the business’s needs. Through the application, they bring their knowledge into practice.
3. Innovative training boosts a company’s performance and growth
Innovation training helps create effective strategies and impacts the growth and performance of an organization at all levels. Organizations that focus on building innovative cultures and fostering new ideas are more likely to achieve double-digit growth comparatively. Hence, companies must adopt innovative training methods.
Besides, innovative advanced training delivery methods also help ensure easy financial payoff. Mobilization, discovering new work methods, and aspirations are the major innovation essentials that contribute to higher financial returns.
4. Enhances employee retention and engagement
Innovation training leads to higher employee commitment and engagement. According to the stats released by Personio’s HR Study, approximately 45% of HRs believe that the staff will look for a new job once the market is back on track and 26% of them say that it’s high time to focus and prioritize talent in the coming months.3
Companies need to look for innovative and new ways of retaining their employees and give them a platform where they grow their talents. Innovative training methods enable the organizations to transform the work culture while encouraging employees to enhance their capabilities and talents. These methods encourage them to be more productive at work and employ innovative efforts for the company’s growth.
Organizations can also consider creating a network of coaches and ambassadors who can volunteer to conduct workshops and training. Inspire and connect employees to engage deeply in fulfilling the company’s aim and vision.
Participation can be encouraged through online/offline training events and webinars. It will promote active engagement and increase the retention rate of employees as they’ll look forward to the company’s administration for learning new things from time to time. Innovation training fosters a commitment and dedication to innovation among the employees and enables the organization to align and mobilize its resources.
Final Word
Organizations must adopt modern delivery methods for training their employees that suit their employees’ learning interests and needs. The percentage of millennials and Gen Z working in a company is an important deciding factor in choosing employee training methods.
Over the years, the training delivery methods have advanced greatly – all thanks to the innovation of new technological tools. Today the market has exploded with countless options for training delivery modalities. However, the rule of thumb is to opt for the method aligning with their needs instead of focusing on the latest training options.