The year 2020 was a challenging year for all and the corporate training industry was no exception. But as we are getting used to living in the new normal, the year 2021 provides a plethora of both opportunities and challenges for the corporate training sector.
The recent studyOpens a new window by Gamelearn, which analyzed the answers of more than 1,500 HR professionals and employees in different sectors in different countries, explores the exiting alignment and misalignment between professionals developing corporate training programs and the employees receiving them.
The corporate training industry was opening to digital transformation much before the pandemic. But the crisis time accelerated the shift.
Juan Tinoco, HR director Southern European Cluster, Hero, said, “The vast majority of companies have made an unprecedented drive towards online training due to pandemic restrictions. Similarly, suppliers have clearly updated their strategies and developed their digital offers.â€
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How Does Corporate Training Industry Look In 2021?
72% of HR departments have accelerated transition to online from face-to-face training in 2020. Also, a similar percentage of employees said to have received online training last year.
More than half of the surveyed HR professionals stated that their organizations would increase their online training budget in 2021. This number reaches 80% in the U.S. However, 23% feel it would remain the same.
“Over the past year, the long-distance race many companies were running to digitize their training suddenly became a fast sprint. As we have seen, the shift to online has accelerated and challenges with that transition have come to light at practically the same speed,†noted the Gamelearn study.
HRs And Employees Differ In Opinion About the Industry
However, HR professionals and employees have differing views when it comes to challenges related to the process of digitizing training. Half of them said that technology-related issues are the biggest roadblock, while 31% are worried about their online training programs’ return on investment.
Also, 18% feel finding a suitable online platform is the biggest challenge, and 12% highlight the difficulty of finding the right tools.
When it comes to employees, most of them (33%) find training programs boring. Others feel that the courses lack interactivity (18%), the content is not applicable (13%), and not even of good quality (11%).
Corporate Training Managers Fail To Listen To the Demands
There is also disagreement over how to overcome the obstacles. The Gamelearn study found that 60% of corporate training managers use traditional formats, which are neither interactive nor innovative, in their online training. “These formats significantly differ from how employees describe the training they would like to receive,†the study observed.
What Are HRs Saying About A Solution?
When it comes to HR professionals, they want to use a set of new formats. More than half of them believe that “simulations of real-life situations†in online courses would make the program more acceptable.
What HR Professionals want in their online corporate training program
Source: Gamelearn
LG has used simulators in the form of video games and has seen exceptional results. The level of employee engagement grew by almost 20% and increased productivity by 12%.
Kim Currykosky, M.Ed. director field employee training at Omnicell said, “Simulations of real-life situations included in training video games achieve the same positive effects as AR and VR but at a fraction of the cost. This has been proven by many companies that have introduced this game-based learning methodology into their training strategy through serious video games.â€
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How Can Training Managers, HRs, and Workers Come To Consensus?
There seems to be a gap between what employees want in corporate training and what companies are providing. Though HR professionals are aware of the disparity, they are struggling to end the cycle.
Corporate training managers should pay heed to the demand for game-based learning. It is proven that they help HRs meet their objectives, impact the business, and keep employees content by intellectually and emotionally stimulating them.
Organizations should realize that if employees can retain the information they learn, it will only benefit the business.