Emerging trends of employee training and development due to the COVID-19 pandemic

 



Human resources are considered a valuable resource for the growth of the companies when there is a motivation for them and properly applied (Nadiv et al., 2017). Employee development is widely regarded as the primary engine of an organization's value growth. (Mayo, 2000). The unexpected spread of the covid-19 virus throughout the world, at the beginning of 2019, caused the complete or partial halt of business in the world, and employees are asked to stay at home. However, several businesses have maintained operations based on the idea of working from home (WFH) through the use of internet connectivity (Manickam, 2020). With the implementation of the WFH concept in this pandemic situation, the main problem faced by the employees is the lack of training and development (T&D) (Manickam, 2020). 

Employees are preferred to take on more responsibilities and they are expected to enhance current skills and add new skills to meet the current job demand in order to fulfill organizations’ needs (Mikolajczyk, 2021). The pandemic redefined the area of T&D within the organizations (Kshirsagar et al., 2020). It means, they refined the role of managers, in the Human resource department (HRD). Mikolajczyk, 2021 shows that during pandemics organizations have approached T&D in different ways.

Some companies ceased their training and development, reduced budgets on that, and terminate contracts with trainers while other companies are investing their budget in remote tools to train their employees (Kniffin et al., 2020). New technologies help to find new ways to develop skills and knowledge, and also it is the only available option for T&D during the pandemic (Mulvie, 2021).  The growing pandemic's requirement for social isolation is stigmatizing the education and training market. It has the necessity to move the T&D area from the physical environment to the virtual environment with the global crisis. Organizations used video conferences, webinars, online career fairs, and networking meetings in order to fulfill T&D needs with the COVID-19.



 Figure 01


Virtual training is one trend that emerge with the pandemic for the training of employees who are staying at home. Organizations explore new communication tools and collaborative practices to train employees. Virtual training has redefined the standards for learning goals and approaches of content delivery (Neendoor, 2022). Organization and Human resource managers used new technology to take advantage of a learning management system (LMS) (Neendoor, 2022). Another significant T&D trend that has emerged as a result of the epidemic is the adoption of social learning approaches (Neendoor, 2022). Unlike traditional learning methods, social learning emphasizes real-world interactions between employees for just-in-time learning and skill acquisition (Neendoor, 2022).

Employees must be trained on a regular basis to stay up to today's fast-paced world. This means that learning and development are critical for their employees' future success (Neendoor, 2022). Businesses will need to focus on employing digital technologies to boost staff training in order to keep up (Neendoor, 2022).

With technology at the forefront and corporate processes evolving as a result of automation and artificial intelligence (AI), the emphasis will shift to soft skills such as flexible thinking, creativity, communication, and cooperation. (Neendoor, 2022). Employees will need several digital training experiences over a long period of time to master and practice these abilities properly (Neendoor, 2022).


References

Kniffin, K.M., Narayanan, J., Anseel, F., Antonakis, J., Ashford, S.P., Bakker, A.B., Bamberger, P., Bapuji, H., Bhave, D.P., Choi, V.K. and Creary, S.J., 2021. COVID-19 and the workplace: Implications, issues, and insights for future research and action. American Psychologist, 76(1), p.63.

Manickam, D., 2020. How One Leader Is Reimagining The Workplace In The WFH Era. Retrieved 12 April 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesmarketplace/2020/06/12/how-one-leader-is-reimagining-the-workplace-in-the-wfh-era/

Mayo, A., 2000. The role of employee development in the growth of intellectual capital. Personnel Review.

McBride, K., 2020. Training and Development in a Post-COVID-19 Workplace. Retrieved 28 April 2022, from https://trainingindustry.com/blog/strategy-alignment-and-planning/training-and-development-in-a-post-covid-19-workplace-cptm/ 

Mikołajczyk, K., 2021. Changes in the approach to employee development in organisations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. European Journal of Training and Development.

Mulvie, A., 2021. Learning and Development for a Multigenerational Workforce: Growing Talent Amongst Age Diverse Employees(1st ed.). Routledge.

Nadiv, R., Raz, A. and Kuna, S., 2017. What a difference a role makes: Occupational and organizational characteristics related to the HR strategic role among human resource managers. Employee Relations.

Neendoor, S., 2022. Post-COVID Trends in L&D for Employee Training. Retrieved from https://kitaboo.com/post-covid-trends-in-ld-for-employee-training/ [Accessed 30   April 2022].


Comments

  1. P.Janaka Chaminda PereraMay 1, 2022 at 12:10 AM

    As the strategic orientation of education becomes more urgent, we need to train, shape and develop people for it. Development of society. There are a number of saboteurs appearing in the near future, including the Emergence of technology everywhere like artificial intelligence and robots (Nguyen, 2020).
    Reference
    Nguyen, D.T. and Kieuthi, T.C., 2020. New Trends In Technology Application In Education And Capacities Of Universities Lecturers During The Covid-19 Pandemic. International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering Research and Development (IJMPERD), 10, pp.1709-1714.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Geethal PereraMay 1, 2022 at 3:43 AM

    Training and development is a major part of HR which is very successful through face-to-face sessions. The current method of training was challenged by the pandemic situation. This is badly impacted not only organizations but also schools. People tend to find a way of training and development. The need for social isolation due to the current epidemic is also bringing disrepute to the education and training market. The area of ​​development needs to be taken to the online environment through physical training spaces and face-to-face contacts. Video conferencing, webinars, virtual trade shows, open days and networking meetings are everyday life for professionals in many industries. The situation where a large part of business interactions have shifted to different types of telecommunications will last a long time and there are many reasons to believe that it will become our new, everyday life. ( Mikołajczyk,K.2021)

    ReplyDelete
  3. sampathJMay 3, 2022 at 10:38 PM

    COVID-19 is changing the way employees learn and work across the world. With more and more organizations shifting to remote working, remote training, newer learning tools are being adopted to sustain learning during the pandemic. So much has evolved in the L&D space since the beginning of the outbreak that learning and development professionals have had to abruptly adapt to frequently changing circumstances. This has required measures such as canceling of face-to-face events, digitizing of training, and more. With remote working becoming the new normal in today’s pandemic-hit world, virtual training for remote workers is going to see a sharp upward trend in the future. Embracing this new virtual training approach that focuses on reconstituting the content delivery approach and adjusting the standards for learning goals will only lead to a rise in virtual training investment across the board.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Chathura PereraMay 5, 2022 at 10:56 AM

    As clearly explained in the article, due to COVID 19 pandemic, our organization also started working from home concept and I personally experienced it. Further, during the country lockdown period, our organization has conducted employee training using live learning sessions using MS teams and zoom technology. Apart from that, I have fulfilled my annual CPD requirement using online training instead of attending physical classroom sessions during COVID 19 pandemic time. These all show that the importance of online training became more popular than physical training during and post-pandemic time.

    ReplyDelete

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