The last decade saw the L&D function change beyond recognition as departments developed to keep up with disruptive technology, social and economic change. Manpower and budgets were reallocated, infrastructure updated and priorities adjusted. But through all of this organisations struggled, determined to maintain control of their systems, staff and hardware. This year companies will at last relax and let go. 2015 could be the year that managers start to trust.
In 2015 the barriers to mobile learning will be removed as organisations relax their control over hardware and software. This year learning will become truly mobile as L&D builds on the workforce’s personal use of mobile technology and begins to fully exploit the potential afforded by improved connectivity. According to Ofcom’s Communications Market Report for 2014, 99.5% of the UK now has 3G coverage with 77% access to the 4G network. By April last year, 62% of UK adults were using a smartphone. This is expected to hit 75% in the next year. The increase is driven by 45 to 74 year olds embracing mobile devices.
Attitudes towards learning technology are changing as employees become increasingly comfortable and confident with digital technology for entertainment and interaction away from the workplace. For many the smartphone is an external brain, assistant and entertainer and an essential means of maintaining a connection to personal networks. The challenge for L&D professionals in 2015 is to encourage and support this behaviour and harness its potential for professional development at work.
It used to be that personal devices were discouraged or even banned in the workplace. Organisations that provided employees with phones or laptops would have them imaged for work only and locked down so tightly that employees could never develop any sense of ownership. Now they are positively encouraged for professional use. This removes the barrier between work and play and encourages employees to experiment on their own, developing resilience and autonomy. Ownership of their own technology allows employees to be more productive and more engaged as their work hours spill into their free time. If managers trust their employees with mobile devices, learning can at last take place at any place and at any time.
Security, privacy and data protection were often cited as the reasons to avoid the cloud. Organisations did not trust cloud computing, afraid that their intellectual property would be stolen or their security compromised. They doubted the reliability of software as a service, preferring to keep data within the organisation. Attitudes have changed as managers realise that it is better to trust a company whose core business is storage or software, with all the systems required to backup and maintain a secure and efficient service, than struggle to manage everything in-house. In 2015 more organisations than ever will move to an external Learning Management System to get all the benefits a cloud based solution allows including learner analytics, social streams and flexible assessment. Instead of purchasing individual learning packages they will switch to an on demand subscription model. Trusting the cloud allows for a secure, cost-effective method of managing and delivering online learning.
This year, even more organisations will trust their employees to identify their own learning needs and select the appropriate learning programme. A good LMS facilitates this process with diagnostic tests and custom learning experiences. Some systems will show learners who else is working on that particular skill or learning object to encourage peer support. These systems handle assessment and award badges before offering further training based on the results and profile of the learner.
2015 will see increased collaboration between organisations and within organisations for the development of their staff. Competitors become collaborators, sharing best practice for the benefit of the sector. We will see the co-creation of learning materials for skills and compliance training and benchmarking will become increasingly accessible as organisations become more generous with their knowledge and data. Mutual trust will reap dividends in 2015.
Organisations have come a long way with learning to trust their employees and technology. Letting go has not been easy but 2015 and beyond will bring changes to the L&D sector that we can hardly imagine. The ‘Internet of Things’, where everyday objects are connected to the internet to send and receive data, is still in its infancy. Managers are not yet sure how disruptive its influence could be. 2015 could see early adopters using this technology in L&D. Imagine equipment that understands that it has a new operator or is not being used efficiently and automatically informs the L&D department or updates the Learning Management System. Are L&D departments ready to manage the relationship between smart, connected equipment and their human operators? Let’s hope so.
