Report on our round table on Just in time learning:
On 19 March 2021, we had the pleasure of discussing a round table on the immediacy of training with Caroline Rousié-Villemin and Corinne Galichère from Vinci, Elian Chrebor from E-TIPI Learning, and Clément Lemainque from Lab RH.
«Just in time learning, how to fit training into a busier daily life», a look back at the main ideas discussed during this round table by our speakers!
The main ideas discussed during this round table:
1 year after the beginning of the crisis and its upheavals, HR functions are still very much in demand.
Working methods, processes and tools have had to be adapted. To do this, it was necessary to find time for training: how to adapt training and find the right equation between digitalization and relevance in the workflow?
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The acceleration of the digitalization of training
Users need to have easy access to the demand and supply of training in a digital way. It was not necessary to train more but to train differently, by accelerating the digitalization of training programmes, without saturating the teams who were already working all day on digital tools.
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Changing requirements
HR departments are not experts in user experience and digital path design.
However, users are using the tools more and more regularly, and they are more intuitive than before. Employees now have access to a wide range of knowledge on the Internet, so they are more demanding, and they expect to find this in the company.
They want to understand the software instantly, they want everything to be integrated so that they don’t have to multiply the platforms, but they also want the experience to be fluid, fast and adapted to them: to receive content adapted to their needs.
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Not all types of populations within companies have been equal during this crisis
The laptop has become the unique link between different populations (telecommuting, field, white collar, hybrid). But this computer is composed of digital applications that are increasingly numerous (10 to 15). It is necessary to be able to train oneself in all this, hence the subject of just-in-time learning: having instant help at the right moment in the application.
First of all, not all users are digital natives with a digital maturity/identity. They had to be accompanied in this new digital modality by increasing their digital skills, while others were already at the level to better master the tools.
Finally, we must not lose sight of the fact that some businesses have switched to 100% digital, while others have remained in the field without access to digital training offers.
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Just-in-time learning, in 5 questions:
– Who are we talking about?
The individualisation of learning thanks to profiles and context on the tools.
– To learn what?
What do I need to learn to solve my problem?
– When?
Immediacy: I want to learn at the moment I need this information, it’s “learning in the flow of work”.
– How do I access and consume the training?
The digital training answer is not unique but multiple. Thanks to Artificial Intelligence, for example, we can detect and create content and then push it to meet expectations. Because the value of immediate training lies in the relevance of the content proposed to meet real needs.
You have to think about the theme of the content, the profile that is going to watch it, the time they are prepared to spend on it, the time when they do it, the format that is best suited to the situation, etc. You have to individualise the methods.
It’s the context: push content to the right place (in the tool), at the right time (right away).
But also leave it available in the right place for those who will go and find the content they need themselves. Because there is now a challenge of decentralising responsibility for training: it is no longer the sole responsibility of the training department to propose content, but also that of peers such as managers, so that they have a global vision of the state of their teams’ skills and can react in real time to achieve their objectives.
– Where?
There is a problem of accessibility: how to bring digitalization to more remote locations such as construction sites?
Despite changes in demand and requirements, we had to recreate this link through digital tools. For example, thanks to smartphones (which, admittedly, do not always belong to the company) and their mobile applications, digitalization can be included in all profiles, but employees must be made to want to go there: “Yes, you may use a personal entry point to do professional work, but we are also trying to offer you training that will help you, as an individual, through the professional channel”.
It is necessary to “propose” and remind people that different training choices are offered to them, the will being a vector of motivation, and not to “impose” a choice. This is a daily task for change management, during which we need to integrate these training and digitalization issues into the annual interview schedules for better follow-up, and not go 100% digital so as not to lose the part of the population that is not ready for this.
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Will just-in-time learning become the “Netflix of training”?
Or how to have a huge training catalogue and relevant content pushed at the right time?
This is neither a myth nor a reality.
Today, thanks to systems, we have a lot of metadata that allows us to group together typical populations or profiles, to trace the behaviour of users in their environments, to look at content trends by observing the key words they search for, and thus to create and recommend relevant content.
For example, thanks to geographical information, it is possible to avoid pushing a training course 400 km away from the employee, or to propose specific content for onboarding by detecting the life phases of employees, and thus guarantee a certain level of quality for employees: this is where the data recovered and analysed by the algorithms comes into its own.
But as this metadata is limited, it cannot compete with the content available on the web or with giants such as GAFAM. To individualise training, the algorithms need to know us extremely well, but there is not a large enough volume of data that can be used everywhere to do this. And even in companies with large and varied populations, this represents a lot of work. Moreover, it is not the company’s objective to offer a completely individualised course. And it is even reassuring in a professional context not to trace users to create such complete virtual profiles.
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So what information should be used to push relevant content to the right people without becoming a Big Brother?
Today, demand has increased very quickly. However, the qualification and harmonisation of the data has increased a little less.
To avoid the disappointment of pushing information that has nothing to do with it (what is worse than not pushing personalised training is to have poor personalisation), it is necessary to harmonise the skills or criteria of the individual, his level, his sector of activity, and to do training by trade wave or by recommendation while improving the qualification of his data. It is dangerous to use too much too quickly.
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Legislation point: can these short training modules meet the training obligations linked to professional interviews?
In order to be identified as falling within the scope of training plans, it depends on the way in which the training is set up. We need to think about the definition of content upstream, tag training courses that may or may not lead to certification, and track/monitor the information.