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Identify a range of approaches to learning for individuals in organizations and analyse what might impact on the effectiveness of these approaches: Introduction Learning and Development is a strategy which purpose is usually improving individual and organisational performance. ‘’Business and commercial awareness and the ability to work collaboratively are key to success in L&D.’’ (CIPD: Learning and Development Survey, 2015). The main way to improve the results is not to increase the budget towards L&D field in the organization but to maximize the quality of the methods. There are several practices we can use within this field. We are going to analyse two of the most used strategies. E- Learning E-Learning (Electronic Learning) is an education method via Internet or network. It’s an alternative to the traditional classroom approach that has proven to be an effective way for businesses to boost productivity in the workplace. The term was coined in 1998. Since then, it has been growing fast in the last two decades due to the increase in the use of technology and the increasing interest in training sector within the companies. But its growth hasn’t finished yet. As specified in E-Learning Market Trends and Forecast 2017-2021: ‘’The size of the eLearning market is likely to grow by 5% between 2016 and 2023, exceeding USD 240 Billion’’ (Docebo, 2016). Not only it’s growing in the workplace but also in college: “By 2019, 50% of all college students will be engaged in eLearning’’ (Certifyme.net, 2013). The next challenge is to maximize the potential of e-Learning by analysing its strengths and weaknesses. One of the best and intuitive benefits is flexibility. E-Learners are not only free to choose when do they want to access to the content but also where. They are also able to choose how to access to the content: via computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc. However, this freedom requires a certain level of responsibility in the user. The learner has to be continuous and distribute properly the information between the sessions. Distributed practice (a little each day over time) allows for better retention, especially when factual learning is involved (Dempster, 1991) Knowing this, we can potentiate learning via the programs we use. For example, we could address this by adding a minimum of time when the user has to engage with every day. This way we can not only maximize retention but also help the individual to create a habit. They also have to be aware of the place they choose to revise, because enviroment will influence their level of engagement. Another essential point to make, is the assessment and feedback of the learners. Feedback is an essential part of every education program. If we don’t provide it, they may lose the interest. A benefit of e-Learning is that feedback is usually instantaneous, so the learner can immediately analyse their performance, which will lead them to improve it in the future. Assessment is also provided at the end and can easily identify strengths or areas to improve. Other issues for consideration are motivation and interest
within e-Learning. “The motivation in e-Learning presents a basic educational problem’’ (Eger, 2013). This occurs because as an independent way of education, is the individual who chooses how deep they will engage with the materials as they are not required to attend face to face lessons. Consequently, motivation is something not to forget when creating e-Learning materials. But, is it e-Learning effective to everyone? Well, we are all different in the way we learn things. Consequently, e-Learning can theoretically fit with everyone if it addresses different techniques according to different types of learners and also consider possible disabilities. What e-Learning does require is a minimum skill in technologies because is the way through you have to access the information. But this shouldn’t be a big problem considering that most of learners use to be young adults and they are deeply involved with technologies in their daily life. One last thing to consider is the reduced cost of e-Learning not only for the companies but also for the individuals, in comparison to other learning methods. In conclusion, e-Learning have plenty of benefits and it’s expecting to keep growing in the next future. However, it has to be adequate and different between occupations and it may not be suitable when we want to influence personal development in the workplace. Coaching in the workplace Workplace or executive coaching is a one-to-one learning and development intervention that uses a collaborative, reflective, goal-focused relationship to achieve professional outcomes that are valued by the coachee (Smither, 2011). Coaching in the workplace is conducted at all levels of an organization (Hodgkinson & Ford, 2010). In contrast to e- Learning, it has to be carried out in the workplace and in a specific schedule. Coaching is usually presented along with mentoring. These two terms use to be interchanged and there is no consensus in their definitions or differences. According to CIPD viewpoint ‘’One key distinction is that mentoring relationships tend to be longer term than coaching arrangements’’ (CIPD: Coaching and mentoring Factsheet, 2018). We can understand this, as we define coaching above, as a goal-focused relationship. Hence whenever this goal is achieved, we can conclude the intervention. CIPD continues: ‘’Coaching aims to produce optimal performance and improvement at work. It focuses on specific skills and goals, although it may also have an impact on an individual’s personal attributes such as social interaction or confidence.’’ Effectiveness of coaching is usually discussed because there is no wide research on it. However, a meta-analysis published on 2016, concludes that workplace coaching has positive effects as an approach to employee learning and development in organizations. They also argue that ‘’coaching was more effective when conducted by internal coaches and when multisource feedback was excluded’’ (Jones, Woods, and Guillaume, 2016). CIPD agrees: ‘’Coaching by external practitioners are considerably less likely to feature among organisations’’ (CIPD: Learning and Development Annual Survey Report,
Identify key future developments in Learning and Development. Evaluate the effect these developments could have on the skills L&D professionals and employees will need to continue to be effective in the future. Type of contract Technology occupies a key place in today’s society. Technological advances are constant, and they modify several aspects of our culture. However, they not only affect culture but also economy. One of the affected sections is employment and work. The growing use of smartphones, among other factors, has revolutionized the marketplace, that must adapt adequately to these changes. This has led to what has been named ‘’gig- economy’’. ‘’A ‘gig’ refers to a job with no long ‐term connection to a particular business. Workers are employed on a particular task or for a defined time.’’ (Abraham, Haltiwanger, Sandusky & Spletzer, 2016). The increasing demand of this type of job is reflected in companies like Uber, Airbnb, Deliveroo, TaskRabbit…. Which have undergone considerable growth 10 years from now, becoming the highest valued private start-up companies in the world. ‘’There are now an estimated 1.1 million people in Britain’s gig economy, which is nearly as many workers as in the National Health Service (NHS) England.’’ (Balaram, Warden and Wallace-Stephens, 2017). According to this report most workers who choose these kinds of jobs are supplementing some other form of income (62%). Therefore, people choose this activity mainly because it gives them more flexibility: they can choose when and how much time they work. Continuing with the RSA report, most people involved in ‘gig’ work are also young people - 86% between 16-55 years - and highly skilled -44% have a degree –. But there is a price to this freedom. ‘Gig’ workers have no access to sick benefit, minimum wage, or holiday pay. Still, they are considered self-employed. Furthermore, they have no right to a workplace pension, so they can’t save enough money for retirement. It’s probably the little work experience they’ve had, which still makes them consider gig work as a good alternative to taxable pay work. The freedom and control they feel on themselves, pushes them to keep involved in this type of work. In the meantime, companies involved try to avoid these payments by insisting in their flexibility and offering conditions that benefits economically the most. HR departments are also influenced by this new employment structure. They must be prepared to face the changes. The WEF ‘’The future or Jobs’’ reports: ‘’Most of the HR professionals in our survey don’t believe they’re prepared for meeting the needs of a workforce that demands more freedom, autonomy and flexibility. Only around 20% report that they’re ready to embrace the role of technology and automation in replacing knowledge workers, even though most recognize this is something they should consider.’’ (World Economic Forum, 2016). There is a need in HR department to take a more active role in this new economy and embrace gig workers adequately. This challenge has to be supported by the government performance as well. Government has to intervene in the market policies and ensure that every company has a proper HR department as well as workers’ rights. In Frank Field’s report ‘’A new contract for the ‘gig’ economy’’ he demands ‘emergency government intervention’ and claims the
Government ‘to forge a new settlement between companies and workers involved in gig economy’ (Field and Forsey, 2017). Government should also force the companies to establish an HR department that covers employees needs adequately. This intervention from the government to regulate the relation between the employee and the employer is necessary in view of the possible pension crisis that will workers face when they want to retire and find out that they haven’t saved enough money. It’s also necessary to secure employees safety and welfare. ‘Gig’ economy is not transitory but continuously expanding. In consequence, a new type of contract may be needed to embrace these workers in the Marketplace appropriately, and ensure that they have a minimum wage, sick benefit, holiday pay and pension right. This contract needs to benefit both employers and employees, but especially improve the employees work conditions. Skills development In accordance with ‘gig economy’ impact, another need arises for employers and employees. This is related to skills. Skills are also a changing phenomenon which companies and workers have to adapt to. Technology is replacing human jobs very quickly, so in order to remain being a useful individual in the marketplace is necessary to stay relevant by potentiate future skills. While it may seem far in the future, is closer than we think. The WEF ‘’The future or Jobs’’ estimates that ‘’On average, by 2020, more than a third of the desired core skill sets of most occupations will be comprised of skills that are not yet considered crucial to the job today’’ (World Economic Forum, 2016). Therefore, we need to identify the skills that will lead the future and adapt the workforce to them. There is an existing discussion between many sectors about which are those skills. The WEF (World Economic Forum) also found that the biggest growth of demanded skills in 2020 will be cognitive abilities such as creativity, logical reasoning, problem sensitivity and cognitive flexibility. Technical skills, in the other hand, will be the ones with the most stable demand across all jobs requiring their skills today or in the future. The 21st Century Skills Early Learning Framework (P21 ELF) stablish in their report the skills that should be integrated in learning at any level to be better prepared for the future, which include critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, creativity and innovation, flexibility and adaptability, technology literacy and social-emotional development (Lee A. Scott, 2017). The Institute for the Future (IFTF) also identified future work skills that will be critical for success in the near future which are: sense-making, social intelligence, novel and adaptive thinking, cross-cultural competency, computational thinking, new-media literacy, transdisciplinarity, design mindset, cognitive load management and virtual collaboration (Davies, Fidler and Gorbis, 2011). Robin Landsman, President at Beacon Global Group leading the Human Capital Consulting practice, supports in her TEDx Talk ‘‘What Are the Skills For the Future Workforce?’’ these same skills for the future (2016).
