How to recognise learning moments

🖥️ Technology has changed our expectation

With a phone in our hands and Google at our disposal, we now have the ability to find answers to questions in a few clicks. Our friend [1] Google processes more than a whopping 3.5 billion searches per day worldwide.

Granted, the idea of a search engine is nothing new, we’ve been finding information in this way since the early noughties. But what has changed is the accessibility and ease with which we can find and consume what we need. There are now [2] 4.32bn mobile internet users worldwide and it’s predicted that 5G networks - which could eventually offer download speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second - [3] will have more than 1.7 billion subscribers worldwide by 2025.

Many organisations are acknowledging (thanks, in part, to the pandemic) that their tech has some catching up to do before it reaches anything close to our everyday experiences. There’s a danger that we won’t stay relevant and connected to our employees (especially the younger ones) if we don’t keep up. This is what service designers refer to as our outlier expectations - things that we come to expect based on an experience (usually better!) that we’ve had in another context. Perhaps this explains why digital transformation is hot right now, [4] with 70% of companies either having or working on a strategy for it.

In the context of L&D specifically, our exposure to intuitive tech has confirmed that something is amiss with our learning tech stack. Traditional learning tools - like LMSs - have not been developed with a user-centred mindset and as a result, are focused more on the administrator or manager than the end- user.

Changing our tech changes the way our people work, learn and connect. And for many forward-thinking L&D teams the focus is shifting from simply providing learning, to giving people the right tech to communicate with their colleagues, stay connected to the business and find what they need when they need it.

1 - Internetlivestats, 2019

2 - Statista Research Department, 2021 3 - GSM Association

4 - Forbes, 2019

📱 Apps are altering the way we consume content

Think about the ways you learn through choice. Your everyday ‘learning moments’. Most of the online content I consume comes from articles or blogs I’ve seen on my LinkedIn or Instagram feed or recommendations from people in those networks, or notifications on my news apps.

Most of these apps are using AI and machine learning to personalise content, so the more I use them, the more intelligent the recommendations become.

There’s an awful lot of digital content being consumed all the time, and it’s all happening little and often.

And this is different to the stuff I’m actively seeking out. I didn’t go on the hunt for an article on why senior leaders should keep a journal, but thanks to HBR I was exposed to it on my social media feed, I read it and I found it super insightful.

This reality is changing the way we think about our personal growth.

📂 Organisational learning is becoming less formal

The impacts of technology and social media on our learning habits are finally starting to seep into our workplaces. Organisations are recognising that formal learning experiences aren’t aligned with our modern behaviours. We don’t always need to make time for learning - although that may well form a part of our learning in a broader context, it’s not necessary for learning to occur.

Our learning experiences are not linear, planned events. They are often just everyday microlearning moments that occur within the flow of our work, personal and social habits - like my HBR article consumption.

There’s also evidence to show that our development at work is becoming more about personal growth and social learning experiences than formal courses or qualifications.

Online learning trends are showing a preference for content on practical skills like creativity, collaboration, emotional intelligence and new technologies or methods. This signifies a move away from knowledge-based learning, like awareness of laws and regulations or competency frameworks. A glance over the [1]top ten skills global L&D pros cited as being most important to them this year affirms this.

What this reinforces, is a trend we’ve been detecting amongst our clients for the past 18 months (and again, the pandemic has helped with this). A move towards seeing our employees more holistically, as human beings that want to learn and not just employees that need training.

We want to help our employees to become better, more skilled people, in a way that’s personal to them - not just dish out training from a checklist according to bums in seats. We’re becoming more user-centred in our L&D approach, which explains why we’re making better use of tools like surveys and discovery sessions, with [2]LinkedIn Learning reporting that 43% of L&D pros in the UK use employee survey scores to measure the impact of learning.

🌟 Gen-Z are well established in our workplaces

Our future workforce are different. They really value learning. [3] When the pandemic hit, Gen-Z flocked to learning resources and continued to learn at higher levels throughout the year — more than any other age group.

More specifically:

• 76% of Gen-Z learners believe learning is the key to a successful career.
• They’ll spend time learning if it can help them perform well in their current jobs (69%), build the skills needed to work in a different function (47%), or find new roles internally.

This mirrors and possibly explains the trend within our workplaces towards learning practical, applicable skills instead of a drive to meet abstract career goals or trajectories.

Gen-Z’s desire to be good at their jobs can also help us explain why internal mobility is becoming such a priority for L&D teams. [1] With 51% of L&D professionals saying that internal mobility is more of a priority now than before COVID-19.

This is no surprise, when:

• employees who move into new jobs internally are 3.5x more likely to be engaged employees than those who stay in their current jobs.
• employees at companies with internal mobility stay almost 2x longer.
• there’s an economic case for reskilling or upskilling too, with [4] data showing that it can cost us 20% more to hire new people than invest in our existing teams.

What we also know of Gen-Z in 2021, is that [3] 73% want to learn about a topic they are personally interested in. So there’s a case here for L&D teams to have their finger on the pulse of their people’s habits and what’s important for them right now.

1 - Internetlivestats, 2019

2, 3 - LinkedIn Learning Workplace Learning Report, 2021

4 - McKinsey & Company, 2020

Self-directed