The world of L&D is ever-changing, with more businesses placing emphasis on their learning & development strategy as we move through 2022. It’s fast becoming a priority, with the LinkedIn Workplace Learning Report 2021 finding that 63% of professionals in L&D feeling it has a seat at the executive table.
It’s moving from an aspect that was ‘nice to have’ to a ‘must have’. As the importance continues to grow, businesses are looking to industry experts for the latest L&D trends to implement.
Our Digital Managing Consultant, Kris, has over 10 years’ worth of experience working with a variety of businesses across the L&D industry. In this blog, he gives his predictions for the rest of 2022 and beyond…
Did the first half of 2022 match up with your expectations?
“In many respects, yes it did. People coming back into the office happened, however, more so in a hybrid manner meaning training needed to be wrapped up in a better way to cater for those on the go and remote working.
Unexpectedly though, I have seen the move back to the office has moved slower. There was not a quick return back to the office by many since the pandemic. Instead, I have seen a big evolution in the way we work.
Things have changed, people want things faster! For example, people used to be engaged in the first 15 to 20 seconds with content. This has now changed, with the introduction of mobile phones Meta found people spend an average 1.7 seconds on content they view on Facebook. This is likely the same across most social media.
That’s not just with social media either, it’s with training too. People will instantly switch off if they don’t like what they see within the first few minutes. So, as a business we’ve had to adapt, find ways to hook the learner in and alter our designs for that.
The biggest thing that we can take from this is to be reactive to how people learn, and how they navigate using their devices.”
What key developments are you expecting in the L&D industry for the rest of 2022?
“It’s all about how you can virtualise your learning? Even in the classroom there are developments being made, such as using QR codes to make things more immersive.
In particular, the use of Augmented Reality (AR). You only have to take a quick scroll on LinkedIn to see its growing popularity.
I think the surge in these types of technology like, AR, VR, and Gamification have all come from the desire to virtualise. I can only see this demand growing.
We are already starting to see this now in our training, trying to find simple ways to virtualise posters, resources and activities for our delegates. We are drawn into a digital world because our audiences are moving into a digital world.
I expect to see more interest in virtualising training. This is in order to find more fun ways of displaying and providing content which previously would have been text-on-screen or a piece of paper.”
Do you see any other ways of what is currently provided being developed further?
“People are wanting things in smaller chunks now. Before, if you told a client a course was going to run over 30-minutes they wouldn’t have minded, but now it’s more important and the deliveyr time will be questioned by the Learning Experience Manager.
Although, breaking learning down into modules was already pre-existing, we’ve now moved into the microlearning age, breaking those modules down even further.
Even shorter spells of information presented in a variety of formats. I can imagine this need for information retention will only drive businesses to want us to develop new formats over time. Even shorter or using a different medium.
Microlearning has shown statistics of improving long-term retention by over 60%.
People’s way of learning has and will naturally change. Just think, training used to be taking someone out of their working day and teaching them in a classroom. Now, they will cut off and come back to things at a later date. It’s that “learning in the flow of work” methodology we are seeing more of. Being able to pick up learning as and when it is needed, sometimes referred to as progressive learning techniques.
You’ll notice even now, we used to cover five objectives over an hour. We can now cover this in 25 to 30 min courses, cutting the time away from the working day by half, I can only see this being reduced in the future with bitesize modules.”
Have you noticed any business differences regarding the demand for L&D?
“Clients are definitely doing more research before coming to us. The importance of L&D is growing, and businesses are now understanding and putting more energy into this.
They are building a better understanding and needs of their audience. They’re creating personas to ensure they are not training too broad (to a wide audience), or too focused (to a niche audience). To do this we have seen interviews with colleagues being held to gain this knowledge ahead of selecting a training solution.
I’m also finding more businesses are employing heads of L&D and learning experience managers that look at how people interact in their business. This wasn’t the case a few years ago, but now the market is requiring them.
L&D is being recognised by businesses more! I think roles will continue to build within businesses over the coming years.
Businesses now know in order to retain employees they need to allow and encourage employees to develop, which is where learning content companies such as, Olano come in. Especially in developing digitalised learning which is better suited to their employees.”
As the rise of video content has become paramount recently, will this affect how Olano moves forward through 2022?
“Yes, in fact we’ve recognised this and recently employed a Senior Motion Graphic Designer to help with improving animations further and bring as much movement as possible into our work.
Movement is key to carrying the viewer along a journey within a video or other modalities of learning. It is one of the most effective ways of providing information retention.
Businesses are already increasing file limits to allow for more video in eLearning courses we provide for them. With a lot of clients, we are now seeing capacity for video and animation increased vastly. Gone are the days where courses were limited to 100mb per course. That means we will expect the demand for video to increase. With the innovativeness behind our creation to be expected more often.”
Reskilling and upskilling were the number one trend for L&D at the start of 2022, are you expecting this to remain the same?
“Reskilling is definitely on most people’s agenda.
Refresher training to allow for employees to be reminded of information they learnt previously is becoming a more frequent request. Businesses are understanding that providing one-off training isn’t enough anymore.
With upskilling, the need has definitely grown this year. There’s great benefit in upskilling your employees within the business. It advances their skills, encourages them to stay within a company and advances what services the business can provide.
Businesses are learning that encouraging employees to advance skills and gain new knowledge makes employees feel valued. In turn, this provides various business benefits. This will increase as employee retention has been a major challenge this year. So, businesses are exploring ways to reduce this, and L&D is one of those ways.”
Finally, which problems are you expecting to become more common for businesses as we move through 2022?
“We’re potentially running into a long recession in the UK which will potentially change things. Also, worldwide finances are under pressure in some way or another which impacts businesses’ ways of working.
This challenge has led to reduced budgets. Companies want to ensure any money driven into projects is being used in the best way possible to gain a good return on investment.
These are the expectations we are and will be presented with as a business working within the L&D industry. Clients require the best training possible because the money they are provided to spend needs to be shown to be used well. However, we thrive at these challenges. Being creative and thinking innovatively to ensure the content we create suits its audience in the best possible way.
Problem solving is strong within our team with their various expertise. It means we can view things from different angles and in circumstances like this continue to produce high-quality learning.”
Are you looking to get ahead with your learning for the rest of this year and beyond? Our Services page provides a variety of options we can work with you on to produce the best content for your audience.
