In many ways, the coronavirus pandemic has turned our lives upside down. Although it has been challenging for many, there are also positive effects of this transformative situation on learning and development at work!
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 onto these platforms, reflecting the everyday life of most people. We navigate smoothly between different digital meetings.
If organisations 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 organisations. Instead, we learned to use the systems as we worked 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 realised the flexibility it provides in the balance between work and private life.
A similar work-related revolution is taking place in workplace learning. 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 organisations 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.
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 organisations 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 they are working and need to solve a task. Ideally, the help should be available directly in the program or process you are working on. If we are interrupted and have to leave the flow to gather information elsewhere, it will take longer to return 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 providing employees with direct support in the workflow, it also creates opportunities to carry out their work more efficiently.
Getting started with Performance Support and Workflow learning does not have to be difficult, and you will see results immediately!