By Rachel Leisten

Recent advancements in Technology have provided a boost in the Training and development process. As a junior management student at Loyola Marymount University, I have seen first hand how technology has made lectures and workforce training more exciting. New technological tools are allowing for more interactive employee workshops, which improves the process of training for employers and employees.

In the article “Plug-In: 4 Ways Technology Is Changing On-the-Job Training,” written by Josh Tolan, CEO of Spark Hire, the new ways of creating workshops which integrate the new technological advances are mentioned.

Tolan discusses four types of training approaches, the first being the Blended Approach. The blending approach blends in-person training, with technology-based training. Through this blended style, trainers can show a video about customer service and then conduct a discussion after the video. For example, in my training and development class, we are responsible for conducting a client-training workshop. My group has decided to use this blended approach to train ambassadors how to complete a frozen pizza demo in stores. This approach cuts the cost and time of classroom-style learning by making part of the training independent but also adding a short interactive instruction.

On-demand knowledge, the second approach, has become a new and improved way of giving employees direct access to training information whenever they choose. Through the introduction of mobile devices and apps, employees have the opportunity to access educational material for their company at anytime. This has opened the door for a companies new employees to begin their training before they even start their first day of work. This on-demand knowledge allows their employees to learn new skills or improve old ones, which is what every company should strive for. For example, one of my first summer jobs had a website full of training videos and tutorials that I had to watch at least once for part of the training process, which I could complete at any time, but I always had access to them in case I needed a refresher on my training.

The third approach is micro learning, which has allowed employers to move away from one long onboarding training course to short online courses that are easily accessible. From first-hand experience, it is difficult to pay attention and retain all the information learned in one long training workshop in which a company tries to fit all onboarding information into a week or even a few days. Companies have began to upload videos to their company portals in which employees can learn at their own pace and access the information whenever they need it. This again can relate to my first summer job as a waitress because the videos were each about 10-30min long, which was a good length of time because I was able to pay close attention.

Lastly, Tolan discusses the new approach of social learning, which uses technology to shift from individual learning to collaborative working environments. Technology advancements have introduced discussion boards, social media platforms, and other social tech tools to help employees collaborate and share experiences. I have had personal experience with social learning in my cross-cultural leadership class, we often use discussion boards to share cultural findings about different countries.

I see these approaches as more sophisticated and easier ways of training employees. After reading through this article and learning how the advancements in technology have completely reshaped training and development workshops, it is interesting to think about what training workshops will shape into in just a few more years. What new advancements do you think there will be?

Article: https://www.business.com/articles/4-ways-technology-is-changing-on-the-job-training/

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