The seven principles to stimulate the development of the skills of a work team

This article is adapted and reproduced with permission from the Business Intelligence Bulletin team Vectors - Economy and Innovation from the Quebec Ministry of the Economy and Innovation. The original version is available on the Vectors website.

Workplaces are disrupted by the transition to new digital business models, automation, artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics, to which must be added the challenge of managing short-term crises like COVID-19.

These are some of the megatrends leading organizations to place an unprecedented priority on learning and developing their workforce. The world of education is no exception to this trend.

MITSloan reveals that, in this effervescent context, the few organizations that set up training and development programs before the pandemic are now providing examples of good practices that are interesting for those who now want to follow suit.

Specifically, there would be seven principles that companies can implement to improve their efforts in training and professional development of their staff.

1. Define a central objective that should guide organizational decisions regarding employee skills and development.
   
2. Establish a skills benchmark. Develop a snapshot of the current skills and capabilities of an organization's staff in order to identify gaps more quickly and take action to address gaps.
   
3. Align training and development efforts with the strategic priorities of the organization (eg the school's educational project). More advanced organizations look to the future and assess their strategic goals, the skills needed to achieve them, and the impact they will have on their people in the future.
   
4. Ensure that the team responsible for learning and development programs is competent and well-equipped. MITSloan finds that new needs, such as digital learning, virtual facilitation, and curation of online content, demand new skills from trainers. In addition, learning and development professionals are expected to have a better understanding of the organization's vision for the future.
   
5. Adapt learning according to changing conditions. Focus on learning that takes place naturally throughout one or more days. This is called “learning in the workflow”, which is based on integrating new practices directly into day-to-day activities.
   
6. Create individualized learning paths (yes, yes, it even works for adults!). The aim is to reflect the wider range of priorities and responsibilities of staff as their roles evolve, especially at this time, in response to the health crisis.
   
7. Remain nimble and flexible over time. Rather than offering overly refined learning and development programs, it would be more beneficial to offer staff to test tools and practices, learn from their experience, and make changes and frequent upgrades to the system. over time.

If you try these principles in your community, please share the results with us. Write to us at info@ecolebranchee.com.

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