8 Learning & Development (L&D) Trends

L&D specialists are more highly valued than ever before across enterprise firms as a result of successfully adjusting to the new “Zoom” era of work. More specifically, the C-suite leadership is interested in continuing this digital transformation in 2023, driven by L&D leaders, as a result of the success of many of these new, creative L&D trends & strategies that HR departments have deployed.

Here are eight learning and development trends to watch for in 2023 as more businesses invest in their L&D departments and initiatives:

1. Reskilling and upgrading for the digital workplace

Your current personnel needs to be retrained to use new digital tools and procedures as a result of the digital transformation. Additionally, it implies that many traditional jobs kinds that can be mechanized will be automated, rendering certain jobs obsolete. It also creates chances because new jobs will appear as new needs become more apparent.

A new emphasis on ongoing upskilling has been added to organization-wide reskilling. Upskilling can include leadership development, as many businesses want to promote from within. Because of the introduction of online eLearning courses from fresh professional learning platforms, upskilling has gotten simpler for the corporate sector. By providing time off, cash rewards, or other rewards for finishing these upskilling and reskilling courses, L&D teams can also encourage internal workforces to acquire new skills.

Some sorts of upskilling that may be accomplished through online learning courses outside of basic reskilling for gaining new skills prompted by the digital transformation of antiquated procedures include:

• Corporate Culture Education
• Training in Leadership & Management
• Training on Diversity & Inclusion
• Industry- or role-specific training
• Compliance Education

2. Repurposing Content

Corporate L&D teams now need to regularly generate, monitor, and update their learning content due to the growth of eLearning. Repurposing current training materials into multimodal learning materials, or reformatting the same L&D course materials across video, audio, reading, and visual content, is a trend to watch in 2023.

Modern learning management systems (LMS) and employee training software platforms make it much simpler for L&D professionals to automatically create different types of new training and development content from a single core training piece, saving them time from having to manually repurpose it into different content formats.

3. In-App Events

With in-app experiences, the core theme of the L&D trends we’ve examined is still digital transformation. L&D teams can produce learning, onboarding, training, and general support content that is embedded right inside the digital products that their workforce uses thanks to in-app experiences.

This kind of learning and development (L&D) and support information enables workers to learn while doing their task, at the precise time they need it, without abandoning their digital tools. This kind of training reduces overall training and onboarding time, increases worker productivity by providing the appropriate support material at the appropriate moment, and is more participatory and engaging.

L&D in-app experiences examples include:

• Contextual workflows are used to lead employees through complex or underused capabilities of enterprise software, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, or other programs, to help them become more proficient users of the technologies.

• interactive tutorials that lead new employees through the onboarding process.

• Teams can find solutions to troubleshooting queries using knowledge bases with searchable FAQs.

• Beacons and tooltips that draw attention to recent updates, critical alerts, or incorrect field inputs.

• embedded anonymous feedback forms that let staff members comment on the current L&D and support content

4. Learning When It’s Needed

Learning in a time of need is becoming more popular, much like in-app experiences. Because it gives workers access to support material while they are working, this form of the learning experience is far more successful than traditional training. Because they are learning through practical experiences while carrying out their everyday jobs, rather than spending specific time on “what-if” training and development, workforces can become more productive.

Because it is more important, engaging, and enables students to make connections between the solution and the current problem since they have already encountered it, this sort of learning has been demonstrated to help students remember more information than traditional learning methods.

5. Microlearning

The practice of cutting up L&D course material into brief, digestible learning units—usually no longer than five minutes—is known as microlearning. According to research, microlearning can increase student engagement by 50% while increasing knowledge retention by as much as 80%.

Microlearning is a means for L&D teams to get creative with their learning materials. It can take the shape of daily assignments, brief films, in-app tooltips or walkthroughs, and more. Additionally, L&D teams can encourage the completion of microlearning content by gamifying employee education and training assignments. This form of content is also simpler to repurpose and refresh.

6. Ecosystem of Knowledge Sharing

The idea of knowledge management is to create, curate, organize, and share crucial organizational knowledge so that employees can access and find crucial information. In other words, it directs staff members to the appropriate sources for any internal inquiries they might have.

A company’s process documentation, or comprehensive step-by-step instructions on how to carry out various internal processes, is the first stage in a successful knowledge management (KM) strategy. The next stage in this process is to arrange this information into an internal wiki or another searchable knowledge base. Without these systems for storing material, internal knowledge is dispersed over internal Google Drives and PPTs or is passed among staff orally.

A KM strategy is more necessary than ever with a scattered workforce. To lead a KM program, many firms are now bringing in dedicated knowledge managers from their L&D or HR teams. The advantages include a more effective workforce, improved employee training and onboarding, and simpler knowledge transfer in the case of an individual leaving for another organization or the retirement of senior leadership.

7. Behavioral Information

Since almost all training and work processes are now conducted digitally, L&D teams should start gathering data for the various components of their employee training and development strategy. The various data kinds that can be gathered enable L&D teams to:

• Track the development of L&D materials used in employee onboarding and training.

• Analyze the impact of various courses, teams, and employee training programs on learning outcomes.

• Build employee learning cohorts that divide different learner types into distinct learning groups to create individualized learning flows. This will enable team members to benefit from the employee training approaches that are most appropriate for their learning style or personality.

• constantly enhance the overall L&D tactics and content.

• To demonstrate the importance of employee learning, describe to the C-suite how their L&D methods have impacted the growth and overall success of a firm.

8. Current worker feedback

The improvement of the feedback loop between the L&D team and individual employees is another trend for L&D teams. Employees that are actively engaged in learning have the most pertinent insight into how learning tracks at a business may be improved. Traditional team member feedback, though, has been challenging to obtain.

L&D teams can use real-time employee feedback to ask participants in employee training courses for their opinions in short NPS surveys or longer, more in-depth long-form answer surveys after or during the session. Learning through in-app experiences, knowledge bases, or in-need learning all give special chances for L&D teams to incorporate brief, basic questions that draw crucial information on the effect and value of their assistance and training materials. In 2023, expect L&D teams to keep closing the gap between their staff and themselves.

In 2023, L&D will keep adjusting to the new normal.

L&D teams will be at the forefront of adjusting to change in 2023 and beyond. These teams will be responsible for reskilling, developing, and upskilling workers so they can adapt to the corporate world’s shifting norms.

Learn More