In many ways, the Corona Pandemic has turned our lives upside down. Although it has been challenging for many, there are also positive effects from this transformative situation when we look at learning and development at work!
Digital revolution
Our way of working underwent several revolutions when many workplaces shifted to teleworking and home offices. Digital meetings on Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, and more are perhaps the most obvious. Even the least computer-savvy employees were thrown into a digital world where they were forced into these platforms, which is the everyday life that applies to most people. We navigate smoothly between different digital meetings.
If organizations had not been forced into this digital transformation, they would probably have spent years of evaluation and technical challenges to reach the acceptance and knowledge that exists within organizations. Instead, we learned to use the systems while actually working on them. Working remotely and with digital meetings is not a temporary situation but will last to a greater or lesser degree. Many employees have also realized the flexibility it provides in the balance between work and private life.
A similar work-related revolution is taking place when it comes to learning in the workplace. When we went over to telework, it was no longer as easy to ask the colleague at the desk next door for help or go to the colleague we knew could always show us how to fill in the expense report. Many organizations have discovered how vulnerable it can be if employees do not have all the knowledge they need to do their job and when that knowledge is dependent on and only available to specific employees.
Workflow learning
It has also not been as easy to attend courses and training. Some have tried to switch to digital webinars instead of physical courses, and if you were lucky, maybe there was an e-learning course available as well. But the challenge with compressed and information-intensive learning efforts is the same regardless of whether the course is physical or digital. If you do not apply what you have learned immediately, you will quickly forget what you have learned.
Bob Mosher, a well-known guru in the field of learning in working life, said he had waited 25 years for this revolution to take off. Now, more and more organizations have understood what has been obvious for a long time to those of us who work with Performance Support or Workflow learning that learning works best and is most effective when it is shaped to be used directly in the workflow when it consists of smaller efforts based on the knowledge needed for the unique situation.
Employees may still need courses in many contexts, but the most information-intensive parts should be available when working and needing to solve a task. Ideally, the help should be available directly in the program you are working on or in the process you are working in. If we are interrupted and have to leave the flow for information elsewhere, it will take longer to get back to the efficient workflow.
In this way, the pandemic has meant that more and more people understand that if we want to offer our employees the best possible support at work, it is not about producing and offering large quantities of long courses. Still, making knowledge available in a smaller format in the work situation where they are located. In addition to giving the employees support directly in the workflow, it also generates the opportunity to carry out their work more efficiently.
Getting started working with Performance Support and Workflow learning does not have to be difficult, and you will be able to see the results immediately!
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