One of the biggest changes that the COVID-19 aftermath has led to is the acceleration of rapid technological advancements across industries. For IT professionals especially, this has compelled them to use technology to reimagine their operations and leverage new tech innovations for facilitating better development and efficient business models.
Further, it is also predicted that there will be various new trends, developments, and technological advancements in 2022 and beyond to create disruption and provide an impactful business model with excellent growth prospects.
This blog aims to outline some of these developments along with understanding the role of learning & development programs amidst such tech advances, various components of learning & development, and how/where various L&D stakeholders need to intervene.
Key Developments of the IT Sector in Recent Times
Some of the most noteworthy developments to talk about in the IT sector after the onset of pandemic include
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Increase in skill-based resources
There has been a significant rise in digital usage since the outbreak of the virus. An increasing number of businesses are seeing a substantial surge in both digital deals and cloud spending in general. This has led to companies searching for digital technologies such as big data analytics, AI, ML, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, among others, to meet the expanding industry demands.
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Reliable AI and ML models
More and more organizations now are leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies to assist them in the automation of models for analyzing complicated data sets to offer quick and accurate results. It is important to note that AI has had a significant impact on various businesses, laying the groundwork for future success. This has resulted in AI and ML being regarded as the most effective technologies because of their potential to make better business decisions.
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e-Working
With remote work becoming a norm today, IT organizations are implementing various tech options that allow for seamless operations anywhere, at any time, irrespective of location. Such operating models include multiple facilities that enable employees to work from anywhere and support the deployment of business services across distributed infrastructure, thus allowing them to work with easily accessible devices such as smartphones and tablets.
The Role of Learning & Development
While COVID-19 has significantly altered lives on personal and professional fronts, one positive change that has emerged from the pandemic among employees is the ongoing demand for learning new skills. As an increasing number of organizations worldwide embrace the pandemic-driven way of working together, the importance of the learning and development (L&D) function to create a vibrant workforce across IT firms has become more significant than ever.
To get the most out of investments in various learning programs and curriculum development, the need for L&D leaders is to embrace a broader role within their organization and develop a sustainable yet ambitious vision for the function. One of the essential components of this effort is a comprehensive, coordinated strategy that fully engages the organization and encourages collaboration.
Put simply, to stay competitive in the tech industry, two key aspects of L&D must be considered:
- Building a strong learning culture among IT professionals
- Offering training that supports rapid change
Besides, technology companies should also focus on training and development as a means of improving employee retention and realize the opportunity to reduce attrition by providing robust training for their employees. Today, the need for tech companies is to understand the inherent value in training their employees in-house to acquire essential skills that cannot be obtained in a physical classroom setting.
So, how can L&D teams deliver training in the IT industry that considers the needs of the organization, attracts top talent, and retains employees at the same time?
Key Components of Designing L&D Training for Employees in the IT Industry
As the IT industry continues to grow and become one of the preferred choices for younger individuals, training becomes a vital aspect to focus on. Here are some of the strategies that can help L&D professionals in the IT industry produce results that can directly impact the bottom line.
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Online learning
The cost of sending IT employees to complete in-person training is one of the key hurdles to continuing education in the workplace. In such a scenario, online learning or MOOCs (massive open online courses) can lower entry barriers.
Online learning programs or MOOCs can address three of the biggest obstacles to IT learning in the enterprise - accessibility, cost, and inevitable technology obsolescence. Besides, these frequently updated MOOCs are better equipped to offer training on coming-age technology topics compared to traditional training approaches.
Another advantage here is that MOOCs are online and on-demand; they allow both coursework and study time to be squeezed in almost anywhere for learners to finish training at their own pace. This saves the hassle for busy or understaffed IT departments that often can't spare the time to send staff to training or employees who can't fit a strictly-scheduled course into their busy after-work time.
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Improving training completion rates using AI and ML
The number of IT employees ready to complete their learning programs today is abysmally low due to several reasons. However, with artificial intelligence providing training content in the tech learner's preferred learning format, followed by reinforcing stimulating methods, the chances of completion rates can improve substantially.
This is primarily because AI systems can process huge chunks of unstructured information and customize how training programs are delivered to learners based on their unique learning styles.
Some of the strategies L&D managers in the IT sector can leverage to improve completion rates using AI include:
a. Making the courses short and engaging.
b. Developing a learning program based on each employee's individual/personal preferences.
c. Turning to professional L&D managers for core tech teams to create a dedicated learning platform where all the processes will be automated.
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Crowdsourcing IT training needs from employees
The L&D department in IT organizations often is not equipped to cater to the learning needs of different employees or teams within the company. L&D leaders, therefore, need to have a hold on the market to determine what types of courses are in demand and most useful for the business.
The best way L&D teams can ease the prioritization of training demands is through an efficient training request intake process. Various stakeholders, including L&D managers and subject matter experts within the organization, can request new training for their teams, and the training department can easily prioritize/manage the flow of requests.
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Decentralized training for decentralized workforces
With an increasing number of employees working remotely or in geographically dispersed teams in the IT sector, they rely on smart devices and communications to complete their work. Mobile learning can offer massive advantages here, as it can be delivered anytime, anywhere, and is available to employees wherever their workplace may be.
The need for responsive e-learning/LMSs and learning apps that support easy multi-device access has become essential in such a scenario. Another aspect to take care of is a seamless learning experience on all kinds of devices (desktops, laptops, and tablets).
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Tracking and encouraging informal training
The remote, 24/7 nature of an increasing number of roles in the tech industry requires L&D leads to accepting the fact that some training will be informal, and a large number of employees will be learning in the workflow. For instance, the acquisition of new skills by IT employees in coding or systems can occur anytime and anywhere. These might include informal on-the-job conversations or training that employees undergo outside of their purview of work.
Since IT employees have less and less time to dedicate to formal training in today's competitive and fast-paced tech world, embracing and tracking informal learning is a much more accurate reflection of how training happens in tech-oriented organizations.
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Mentoring programs
Mentoring programs are another essential component of creating an L&D program for IT professionals. The advantage of setting up such a mentoring program is that it isn't very complicated or expensive, thus appealing to organizations of varied budgets and sizes.
While mentoring can help identify and maximize high-potential employees and streamline the leadership pipeline, the focus of a successful mentoring program should be largely on improving the entire IT community as a whole.
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Instilling a learning culture to keep pace with the rapidly growing industry
Being a rapidly growing industry, the IT sector needs to always keep its employees up to speed by ensuring that learning is reflected in every aspect of the business to help them stay one step ahead of competitors. Some of the ways IT companies and their L&D managers can instil a robust learning culture include:
a. Crowdsourcing and leveraging subject matter experts
To ensure that learning is ingrained into the company culture, it has to be embraced by one and all. One of the excellent ways to keep learners engaged is to crowdsource training requests as well as training materials from employees themselves. IT employees, in most cases, like to learn from top performers amongst their peers, and identifying/ leveraging such candidates to offer training can build a powerful learning culture among employees.
b. Offering recognition
When it comes to making tech employees learn effectively, it is important for L&D initiatives to be vocal and encouraging enough. Therefore, employee engagement with training must be adequately recognized and rewarded.
c. Holding L&D leaders accountable
To be able to build an effective learning culture among IT professionals, consistent and ongoing support of top management down to middle management and supervisors is required.
An increasing number of leading tech companies are including accountability for employee learning as an important part of performance evaluation for management. This not only encourages engagement but also holds L&D leaders responsible for the learning performance in their organization.
d. Asking for and providing feedback
One of the other important aspects of learning culture is consistent feedback both to and from L&D. The importance of offering IT professionals/learners constructive feedback at several training touchpoints is therefore immense.
The need is for L&D teams to consider employee feedback on the overall quality of the training programs provided so that the learning strategy can be improved continuously.
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Technical certifications
Technical certifications are another IT training component, with an increasing number of organizations offering such certification programs. These certification programs are mostly job-specific or are intended for specific technology platforms on which an IT organization depends.
In most cases, the costs of these programs - which are offered outside the company - are reimbursable by the employer. Whether from a technology vendor or through an independent organization, such industry certifications demonstrate that trained IT staff can easily apply classroom knowledge in a real-world, on-the-job scenario.
To Conclude
Rather than simply focusing on IT or technical knowledge, the need for an increasing number of L&D programs today is to oversee the holistic development of their workforce. The learning experience should be adapted according to the learner's unique needs, preferences, motivation, and challenges.
This kind of hyper-personalization of L&D programs can help technology companies ensure effective learning and long-term retention. Besides the required technical skills, crucial soft skills are also becoming important to employers to help them build resilience and agility in the new business dynamics. Apart from including these essential components of L&D in learning programs, there is an equal need to measure the systematic outcomes from implementing these approaches.
In the end, it is important to remember that a powerful learning and development strategy allows organizations to create effective learning programs to upskill and reskill their employees that perfectly align with their respective corporate goals/needs. Developing a strong L&D program can empower your employees to gain the knowledge and skills necessary to be proficient and productive in their role, as well as allow your organization to develop successful leaders from within.
