FACT CHECKED
Successful digital transformation depends on many things: choice of technology, change management, and training … to name a few.
There is no single ingredient that can propel your project to success.
A good outcome requires a balanced combination of factors.
However, in today’s evolving digital economy, employee training is becoming one of the most important factors for success.
Welcome to the Digital Skills Crisis
Today’s businesses face a shortage when it comes to digital skills.
This crisis is being fueled precisely by the digital transformation trend that we are discussing.
Here’s how digital disruption and transformation are impacting the business landscape:
- Technology and automation are squeezing out low-skilled jobs, replacing them with higher-skilled positions
- According to research by Udemy, 43% of workers are bored at their jobs and 80% feel that learning new skills would increase their engagement
- Training, reskilling, and upskilling are widely regarded as the best solution to this problem – Britain, for instance, has founded a coding institute dedicated to filling the upcoming job shortage
These statistics point towards the increasing need for training.
However, businesses certainly can’t wait on outside support – such as coding institutes or online schools – to educate their workers.
In-house training has become one of the top solutions to this problem.
And it is also one of the top drivers to successful digital transformation, as we’ll see below.
Training Fuels Successful Digital Transformation
Job skills are directly linked to many critical business metrics:
- Employee performance, productivity, and output
- Employee confidence, satisfaction, and frustration
- Software ROI and, ultimately, bottom-line profits
In today’s digital environment, digital skills are taking center stage.
This is especially true when it comes to digital transformation.
Obtaining ROI from cutting-edge digital tools requires up-to-date skill sets.
Below, we’ll look at some of the most important ways to keep workers trained, skilled, and digitally literate.
The Most Effective Approaches for Digital Skills Training
There are many ways to implement training within your organization.
Traditional classroom teaching is only one such method … and it is perhaps the least effective approach.
In today’s fast-paced, on-demand world, new approaches are needed.
Here are some of the best methods that can be tested during your next digital transformation project.
Digital Adoption Platforms
Digital adoption platforms, or DAPs, are software platforms that offer in-app tutorials, guidance, and teaching.
They outperform many other training approaches because:
- Learning is contextualized and immediate. Users gain only the skills they need, exactly when they need it.
- AI can analyze user behavior to determine where people get stuck and where to offer guidance.
- Learning times are decreased, while performance and output are increased.
- Users retain knowledge longer because they are able to apply it immediately.
WalkMe, the pioneer in the digital space, performs all of these functions, and then some.
Given the complexity of the modern employee’s workflow, such platforms are becoming more and more necessary.
Learning Management Systems and In-House Training
A learning management system is similar to a content management system.
However, they are designed specifically for teaching and training online.
Features include:
- Course and content management, allowing users to categorize, tag, and organize content into catalogs.
- Monitoring and administration for trainers and teachers – such as tracking student performance and attendance.
- Online collaboration and communication, allowing students and teachers both to communicate.
Learning management systems are implemented both by educational institutions as well as enterprises.
Because they allow students to study anytime, anywhere, they have significant advantages over traditional classroom training.
Third-Party Education Platforms
Another relatively recent trend is the rise of online education platforms.
Outsourcing certain learning activities can be a great way for businesses to keep their employees engaged, skilled, and productive.
A few of such platforms include:
- Udemy for Business
- Coursera
- Udacity
- Lynda
Each platform tends to have a different target audience and a different focus.
Udacity, for instance, offers coding courses and technology courses. Successful completion of programs earns students “nano-degrees” in areas such as web development or data science.
Lynda hires experts to create courses on a wide variety of business subjects, from design to coding.
These platforms allow enterprises to offer more generalized skills training, without large upfront investments.
Conclusion: Which Training Approach Should You Choose?
Each training approach has its place.
For instance:
- A digital adoption platform is ideal for training specific workflows or cutting-edge software. For instance, a sales professional may use a dozen different tools during his daily workflow. A digital adoption platform such as WalkMe is ideal for such situations, because it can be customized to fit the specific worker’s daily tasks.
- Learning management systems are good for offering generalized, blanketed training content. Evergreen content that needs to be taught to groups of people – such as orientation material or corporate procedures – are well-suited for learning management systems.
- Third-party education is suitable for niche skills development. From change management certification to coding skills, an online education platform can be a great way to develop core job skills.
Each approach has its merits.
Every organization should choose a training mix that suits its digital transformation needs and fills its skill gaps.
