L&D Looks Beyond the Coronavirus

By David Wentworth, Principal Learning Analyst, Brandon Hall Group

Now that organizations have had enough time to come to grips with their own immediate Covid-19 realities, many have begun to look beyond the next few months and what they will mean for their workforce. In Brandon Hall Group’s most recent survey on the impact of coronavirus, after adjusting business operations, the biggest challenge is employee engagement and productivity. Companies want to know how to keep people engaged and functioning at a high level when things return to whatever normal may eventually be.

Learning has always played a huge role in engagement and that is even more true now in the current environment. With people working from home, the race is on to keep everyone connected with each other — and the organization. The suspension, delay or elimination of in-person training means learning technologies must step up to sustain those connections. Also, learning events — by design — have an eye on some future state. This means they can give employees something to look forward to in an environment focused on the here and now.