The Future of Training and Development Extended

Описание: Sustainability refers to a company’s ability to make a profit without sacrificing the resources of its employees, the community, or the environment. A growing number of companies have made sustainability an important part of their business strategy. Training and development can contribute to companies’ sustainability initiatives by providing learning opportunities for employees in organizations in developing countries that lack the resources, providing development experiences for employees in poor and emerging countries that benefit the local community, and teaching employers to protect the environment.

The use of social media, smartphones, and other new technologies will likely increase in the future for several reasons. First, the cost of these technologies will decrease. Second, companies can use technology to better prepare employees to serve customers and generate new business. Third, use of these new technologies can substantially reduce the training costs related to bringing geographically dispersed employees to one central training location (e.g., travel, food, and housing).

Fourth, these technologies allow trainers to build into training many of the desirable features of a learning environment (e.g., practice, feedback, reinforcement). Fifth, as companies employ more contingent employees (e.g., part-timers and consultants) and offer more alternative work arrangements (e.g., flexible work schedules and working from home), technology will allow training to be delivered to any place and at any time. Sixth, new technologies will make it easier for training and performance support to be accessible to learners anytime and anyplace.

The use of games and mobile learning is likely to increase as companies seek to make training fun, maximize the learning experience, and appeal to millennials’ and other learners’ expectations that learning is quick, includes short interactive lessons, is available at their fingertips, and allows them to ask their peers questions, share experiences, and seek advice. This is leading to a better understanding of how we learn which can be used to design more effective training and development programs.