Since the pandemic gripped the world and essentially ended in-person classroom training, organizations struggled to replace ILT with formats and modalities that are just as effective. Many different tools have been tried; some quite effective, others not so much. The one thing we at Brandon Hall Group hear consistently, though, is that companies are trying to establish and sustain the feeling of connectedness from when everyone was in the same building.
Now, more than two years out from the pandemic’s start, organizations have seen many, if not most, of their workforce return to the office. However, the remaining remote workers now represent a solid constituency of the workforce and are not the outliers they may have once were.
In an environment where the idea of where people work – not to mention when – is now fluid, technology has had to do a lot of the heavy lifting for keeping everyone engaged and connected. When L&D teams begin to develop programs, they now have to consider whether their audience is on-site, working from home or alternates between the two. It can have a big influence on the tools and modalities a designer may want to use.
At the same time, every other part of the business is also thinking about staying connected to this new hybrid workforce. That means employees are bombarded with applications, communication tools, collaboration platforms, virtual meetings and more. Learning must figure out how to fit in while not becoming a distraction.
Brandon Hall Group teamed up with Smartchoice Preferred Provider Class Technologies to present a webinar that looks at ways to keep the human connection in what has become a somewhat isolated and remote work world. In situations where people can’t gather together in person for learning, it is critical to think about how technology can be used to approximate that connectivity. The webinar will explore what worked and what hasn’t during the pandemic and its impact on the learning culture.
–David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
@davidmwentworth
