Imagine a company where annual performance reviews andforced rankings don’t exist. Where labor is obsolete. Where training isn’t anevent, but integrated seamlessly into everyday life. Where work is a vagueconcept of the past.
Yet, in this mystical company, employees function at peakperformance, productivity is off the charts, innovation and corporate profitsare at an all-time high, and employees are happy.
That mystical company is no myth. It exists today. In fact, aboutsix percent of Fortune 500 companies have reimagined and redefined work and, inthe process, have enjoyed increased profits and higher employee morale. How didthey do it? By embracing and implementing disruptive technologies in employeeperformance and training.
Here are the five disruptive technologies that are the“secret sauce” for these companies’ successes.
1. Apps
Think of these as fitness trackers for your professionallife. Immediate feedback is crucial for performance improvement, and companieslike GE, SAP, Netflix, Adobe, and Accenture have ditched the annual performancereview for apps that eschew annual ratings in favor of ongoing feedback andobservation. Let’s face it: In ourfast-paced world, anything that is evaluatedannually isn’t effective.
The key to aperformance improvement app that works is that it must fit seamlessly into employees’daily routines; it can’t just be one more thing for people to do. Thatmeans an app must be structured in a way that works for the user even when itis not the focus of his or her attention. How? Real-time project updates, pushnotifications on upcoming key initiatives, updates from colleagues, andgamified components that keep employees motivated daily. Learning and development is moving from“event-based” to “product-based” in the form of robust apps. Look for learningapps to eventually replace “destination sites” such as the LMS.
2. Augmented reality
Pokémon Go! can be credited with bringing augmented reality(AR) into the mainstream. AR apps—where technologysuperimposes a computer-generated image onto a user’s view of the real world—are being used as a replacement forsafety, onboarding, and maintenance training. These real-life, real-time,on-the-job experiences are powerful development tools that don’t take time awayfrom work. Many employees learn best by doing rather than observing, andAR puts real-time step-by-step actions into the user’s hands at the time ofneed. Imagine a transport company employee packing a truck, using an AR appthat visually shows how to place objects into the truck based on size, weight,delivery point, and fragility. It’s like a Tetrisgame where the best arrangement is shown to you! Another application: a repairtechnician who, through AR glasses, is walked step-by-step through the repairprocess by having the instructions superimposed onto the object he or she isfixing.
3. User-generated content
Pinterest, blogs, wikis, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, webinars,Skype, podcasts, and other tools are making their way from something we do inour time off to a critical component of our training and development in the workplace.Dedicated personal learning sites where colleagues can upload and shareknowledge have sprung up in many Fortune 500 companies over the past few years—increasing not only engagement in the learning process, but alsoretention of content. The emotional “pull” of learning from colleagues is seemingly irresistible.
4. Curation and aggregation
The dilemma for most learning and development organizations isthat they have so much content, but employees can’t findit. Even with a robust search feature, an LMS is limited in the returns it canprovide. Add to that an employee desire for externalcontent, and you can see why this trend is taking off. Curation engines thatallow users to create a personalized learning path and automatically pullcontent from myriad sources that fit with that path are gaining ground. Thinkof it as a personal development Facebook-like stream, where you have links toblogs, YouTube videos, articles, experts, and notifications about upcomingconferences related to your learning path all displayed on your mobile device.Companies like GE, Salesforce, Dell, and HP are already using these curation andaggregation platforms.
5. Personalization
We can choose, control, and mold online experiences in oureveryday lives, and learners expect those same abilities at work. It startswith personalized learning paths tailored to individual strengths andinterests, rather than job- or function-related learning paths. Every learnerhas a different learning style, communication style, preferred delivery device,and unique design preferences, and L&D departments are finally starting toaccommodate those differences. Many companies are expanding the personalizationconcept beyond training to personalized work-life balance—instead of having blanket time-off policiesfor all individuals.
You may be wondering why gamification isn’t on this list. Rest assured, gamification is as strong as ever inlearning and development; it’s notlisted here because it has somewhat matured and is no longer considered “disruptive.”
Thesefive disruptive trends are redefining work, performance, and personaldevelopment. The future of work is now, and L&D departments are at theforefront of the innovation.
Editor’sNote
Vicki Kunkelwill present a pre-conference certificate workshop, “Game Development Road Map for Non-Programmers”, at FocusOn Learning in SanDiego, California, on Sunday, June 19, 2017.
