Although 70% of Americans don’t think that robots will necessarily overtake their jobs in coming years, an overwhelming number of Americans are worried that other automated technologies and innovations will, according to a Pew Research survey.
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And with the growing trends of microlearning, mobile learning, virtual learning, e-learning, platforms driven by artificial intelligence, etc., in the L&D industry, it seems technological innovations might be a potential foe for L&D professionals especially … or maybe not.
If considered carefully, it’s easy to see that technology is indeed a friend to L&D professionals and not a foe. Technology allows L&D professionals to provide their current and prospective employees, as well as their entire organizations, with what they need at much lower costs.
Here are some of the things that the right technology can offer L&D professionals.
Sophisticated Recruiting Methods and Tools
Automated recruiting tools offer a sincere advantage to L&D professionals. Whether they’re trying to recruit internal or external talent, L&D professionals no longer have to scan through irrelevant résumés and online profiles manually to find ideal candidates who they want to recruit for their programs.
Instead, the automated tools will scan profiles and send solicitations on their behalf based on the L&D professionals’ predetermined requirements and their program needs. This allows them to focus on creating great learning content and programs.
More Seamless Integrations
Nowadays, you can integrate your learning management system (LMS) with your employee management and HR platforms, as well as other platforms. And this proves very beneficial to L&D professionals because they’re now easily able to identify those individuals who will sincerely benefit from certain L&D programs they’re developing or managing and will be able to document everything in one place.
Such capabilities are great for organizations, too, because it ensures all L&D programs are always filled with the appropriate candidates. So, overall return on investment for L&D programs will be much higher with technologies with more seamless integrations.
Engaging and Personalized Learning Experiences
Technology also allows L&D professionals to provide more engaging and personalized learning experiences. Automated settings can predict what a certain learner will be interested in learning and what type of content will be the most engaging to him or her. And this will ensure that learners don’t abandon certain programs or fail to retain the material they are supposed to learn from each piece of learning content.
This also ensures that L&D professionals are focusing on creating the content that sticks with their learners, as well as developing L&D programs that continue to yield a high return on investment and have a high learning impact.
Data and Information
Above all else, technology platforms provide L&D professionals with large amounts of data and information about their learners and their programs. It’s so much easier for them to identify programs that aren’t working or learning content that isn’t yielding real results so that they can make the necessary adjustments.
Although adopting and implementing new technologies in the L&D space may prove challenging at times, the benefits of doing so far outweigh the challenges for L&D professionals.