How Learner Fatigue Is Shifting L&D Strategies

With layoffs looming across industries, upskilling has emerged as a potential shield for job security; while balancing technical expertise with essential ‘soft skills’ has become a delicate art form. Karin Levitt, Director of Learning & Development (L&D) at Hitachi Digital, shares her insights on how L&D is reshaping the tech industry's future, tackling remote learning fatigue and ensuring employees are not just surviving—but thriving—in a hybrid world. 

How has the shift towards hybrid and remote work impacted L&D strategies? 

The global pandemic led to a massive shift towards hybrid and remote workplaces. Without the ability to gather a group of learners in a classroom or lab, training methodologies had to adapt. 

Two primary alternatives emerged, but advances in technology are leading to significant improvement in both.
  
On-demand training, aka eLearning, allows the learner to complete training at their own pace and on their own schedule. This learning strategy offers a very consistent learning experience for all employees and supports a global and dispersed workforce that crosses many time zones. Advances in video and graphic production make this training more engaging and improves learning and retention. The use of adaptive learning technologies can enable learners to skip content they have mastered and move more quickly to learning new material. Online labs and testing provide an important way to check for understanding and ensure the participant has learned and retained concepts.

Virtual instructor led training, or VILT, essentially recreates the classroom environment through technology, with participants attending from any location, including home offices. The high demand for this type of technology during the pandemic led to advances in virtual classrooms. The ability for participants to be seen on video creates a greater sense of community and personal accountability for participants. Breakout rooms, shared whiteboards, and the ability to stream video segments during a class makes a virtual session much more engaging and effective.  

How do we solve the problem of learning fatigue?

As for learner fatigue, this is something we worried less about when training occurred in traditional in-person classrooms. Those events did a great job of eliminating distractions and created engagement through personal connections with other employees. And you can’t ignore the benefit of breaking bread with colleagues! A lot of networking is done over coffee breaks and lunch breaks on a training day. The risk of learner fatigue is greater with on-demand training. The sheer volume of what is available on learning platforms can overwhelm learners. Learning teams can mitigate that risk by curating content and providing structured guidance what courses to take so training is highly relevant, in what sequence, and over what period of time. Additionally, blending the use of on-demand training with live leader led discussions and online forums allows the learner to explore the topic with others and understand how to successfully apply it in their organisation and their projects. 

Virtual Instructor Led Training also faces the risk of creating learner fatigue. While classroom instruction can get people up on their feet, moving around the room to engage in a variety of tactile and interpersonal activities, virtual participants are often stuck at their desk. Creative instructional designers and facilitators can build in a variety of activities, and even engage learners in physical stretch breaks. Short sessions of 60-120 minutes may be another approach, but a well-designed VILT with a high variety of activities and multiple breaks can be successfully deployed as a half day, or even a full day event. Micro-sessions of 15-20 minutes can be used to provide follow-up and reinforcement.

Do you think L&D is the new job security in times of layoffs?

In today’s highly competitive and fast-changing business landscape, skilled employees are an essential commodity. Those employees who continually expand their skills and capabilities will maintain or increase their value to the organisation. If a company needs to reduce the size of their workforce, several factors may be considered but employees who hold current and ‘hot’ skills are most likely to be retained, since they are best able to contribute to the company’s success after the layoff. With the rapid pace of change, particularly in technology, employees whose skill sets fall behind are more vulnerable to potential layoffs.  

How do you balance the need for technical upskilling with soft skills development?

Employees in technical roles are likely to recognise the need to continually upskill as the technology they support advances. But when a company is evolving their use of technologies, the employees may need to embrace new and different technologies and tools, and potentially step away from what has been their primary area of expertise. In that case they will benefit from understanding the big picture – the business case for change. Leaders can help make that case by clearly showing the company’s roadmap.

What is traditionally called ‘soft skills’ may actually be harder to learn, and it can be more difficult to engage employees in developing those skills when the technology skills seem to be the ones that matter most. It is incumbent on the learning team to demonstrate sponsorship from business leaders for the value and importance of the soft skills that are most important to the company’s success.  Having a clear set of core behavioural competencies provides a framework that can be part of the recruiting process and the performance process, reinforcing the value of developing those skills for all employees and creating a culture that reinforces their value. 

In a global organisation with a diverse workforce, how do you tailor L&D initiatives to meet regional needs while maintaining consistency?

Our L&D team is made up of team members in multiple countries around the world, and we make a great effort to collaborate on training design and delivery approaches.  This enables us to understand local cultural norms and adapt our training courses and delivery to accommodate differences. We aim for global consistency with local implementation.

What are some of the emerging trends in employee reskilling and upskilling that you believe will define the future of the tech industry?

When companies value not only technical skills but also employees who have familiarity with company culture and processes, they are more likely to invest in their current workforce that they are to turn to recruiting to bring in the skills they need.  This means dedicating funds for a variety of technology training opportunities that meet different learning styles. They also provide employees with time to participate in training, followed by opportunities to put those new skills into practice.  Providing team-based projects and pairing those with deep skill with those developing a skill enables employees to learn from peers and mentors on the job, while mitigating potential mistakes that could impact products, clients, and the business.