“Success has nothing to do with money, titles, and possessions; success is only about committing—everyday—to becoming the absolute best you can be,” says John Mattone, former coach to Steve Jobs and currently ranking world’s #2 executive coach.

Despite these words of wisdom, many businesses argue that the time spent on continued training is time lost to productivity. No doubt, the process of learning and development is complex, particularly in the corporate environment. Budget issues and productivity are important considerations, which is why there are several questions that managers often struggle with.

Do employees really value training or do they see it as a distraction from their work? How to create employee engagement while imparting skills and honing insights? Can programs be created that are best suited for specific people? Will these programs lead to any competitive advantages for the business? Let’s dig a little deeper to address these questions.

How employees feel about training

Human capital development and upskilling, or rather the lack of it, is among the prime reasons for high employee attrition. These programs are often overlooked, leaving a trail of disengaged employees who lack productivity and insights to drive business growth. An astonishing $500+ billion is lost every year on account of employee disengagement.

Millennials constitute a major portion of the global workforce, and 87% of them want professional and career growth. They value opportunities to learn on-the-job and appreciate employers who offer them such opportunities. This is where the latest technological advancements in eLearning come to the rescue.

To engage Millennials and make learning relevant to them, the standard learning management system (LMS) is no longer sufficient. What the corporate world needs is a Learning Experience Platform (LXP) that can ensure the delivery of engaging, interactive, intuitive and experienced-base collaborative learning. Add to this the robust in-built analytics tools, and companies will not only be able to monitor training progress, they will also be able to identify skills gaps and deliver targeted training to build dream teams.

From LMS to LXP—Tackling the engagement crisis

Training and development teams face challenges when it comes to delivering content that closes skill gaps. The task of developing and distributing content that is relevant, engaging and accessible tends to be a huge task. This is especially true when the training has to be deployed only on specific individuals; spanning roles, locations, and ages.

Most medium to large organizations have used a traditional learning management system (LMS) to manage training initiatives, but 58% of these organizations have been dissatisfied with it. Why? Simply because a standard LMS is not flexible or engaging for either the training provider or the learner. So, the sessions end up being attended by tired employees, sleeping with their eyes wide open!

This engagement crisis can be tackled through customized learning modules, which can be delivered through micro-learning content. Employees can choose their content formats, they can add links to external resources, access course modules from various devices, all facilitating a more self-directed learning approach. Moreover, the depth and breadth of the content is aligned to the interest of the user. How is this done?

AI tools give training programs an edge

AI tools create an interactive and engaging learning environment. It is even able to curate and recommend relevant content, based on the skills and competencies, learning behavior, and past search history of individual learners. They can even give gentle nudges to the learner to complete a training module on time.

In addition, with an LXP being a white-label solution, a high degree of customization is possible, such that employees can complete brand experience with their learning content. This can give a further boost to employee engagement with the organization.

There can also be coaching programs aimed at small groups of people to turn them into high-performance teams. Learning Experience Platforms will specifically help HR teams discover which programs are best suited for which people.

Creating the next generation workforce

With the use of learning analytics, companies can identify potential leaders and deploy specific skill enhancement training modules for them. New forms of content, which equips an employee to face future work challenges, can be introduced. For example, the launch of a new project might require a completely different skill set. An AI-powered LXP can help the L&D team quickly create and deploy training on an urgent basis.

Research confirms that companies that invest in training and development tend to achieve better profit levels than those that don’t. But, in this age of rapid digitization, the preferences and channels for content consumption and delivery also need to be considered, keeping in mind that employees are already using their devices to access information online. Therefore, accessing learning from the same device only makes sense.