Learning and development (L&D) departments are currently anticipated to be among the most innovative departments inside most organizations over the next decade and beyond—and for very good reasons.
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L&D departments are beginning to truly embody an organization’s culture, will hold the keys to upskilling and retaining employees, and will utilize and implement newer and more sophisticated types of technology for training and recruiting practices.
As 2018 ends, here are some of the most prominent L&D, training, and HR trends you’ll want to keep in mind for 2019.
1. More Strategic Partnerships
Long gone are the days when L&D professionals worked in silos within their organizations. In 2019 and beyond, they will need to work strategically with a variety of entities internal and external to their organizations if they want their efforts to be successful.
Here are the most important entities with which they will need to build strategic partnerships:
- C-suite executives
- IT and technology
- Budget and finance
- Operations managers
- Sales managers
- Customer service managers
- External stakeholders
For more details, read “Building Bridges and Strategies: Must-Have Strategic Partnerships in L&D.”
2. More Robust LMS
In 2019, you’ll want to make sure your learning management system (LMS) is equipped with artificial intelligence (AI) technology so that it can offer better personalized learning experiences to your learners in a timely fashion.
You’ll want to make sure it has integrations that offer high-quality curated learning content on a routine basis. And you’ll want to make sure it can integrate with your HR systems and that it is easy to access on mobile devices and so much more. Overall, do your research, and make sure that you have the best and most advanced LMS possible.
3. Virtual Reality Will Become More Commonplace
More and more organizations are beginning to use virtual reality technology to train their employees. In 2019, you will more than likely implement virtual reality training or augmented reality training.
So, you’ll want to know essential metrics to track for your virtual reality training programs, as well as how to develop them, even if you currently have minimal skills in this arena.
Read “Essential Metrics to Track for Your Virtual Training Programs” and “Creating Virtual Training Courses for Trainers with Minimal Technical Skills” for more information.
4. Data Analytics Becomes Critical
Moving into 2019, you will not have successful recruiting, training, or L&D initiatives if you’re not using data to drive your decisions. You will want to have the best data analytics systems in place to help you track which candidates are the best, what skills your organization needs, how you can best upskill your current employees, etc. Employee and people analytics will dominate in 2019.
Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post, which will highlight five more of the most prominent L&D, training, and HR trends you’ll want to keep in mind for 2019.