Portrait of the Modern Learner

It’s time to ditch all those stereotypes about employees ofa certain generation and focus on educating modern learners—of any age orgenerational affiliation.

The Internet is overrun with articles decrying thetech-phobia of Baby Boomers or the challenges of managing Millennials. Thetruth is more nuanced and surprisingly mundane.

Younger workers today are much like younger workers of 10, 25,and even 50 years ago, only they are much more adept at Snapchatting. They wantto make a positive impact, help solve social and environmental challenges, andwork with diverse colleagues, according to IBM research (see References). So domiddle-aged workers.

In similar numbers, employees across generational boundarieswant managers who are ethical and fair, who are transparent, and who shareinformation.

Middle-aged workers today, much like the middle-aged workersof the past, are less likely to change jobs than younger workers, and theymight be a bit more focused on retirement savings than their 20- and 30-somethingcolleagues.

But the bottom line is that there isn’t that much of adifference across generations in what they want out of work.

Having discarded the generational stereotypes, it’simportant to note two important differences between today’s workforce and theemployees of the past:

• Five generations are staffing today’s workplace.According to the Harvard Business Review,IBM Institute for Business Value, and others (see References), this isunprecedented. What’s more, it’s becoming increasingly common for youngeremployees to be in positions of leadership—often supervising and managing olderemployees.
• Modern learners of all ages have vastlydifferent expectations of their training and digital content than workers had 10—oreven five—years ago.

Managers and instructional designers have to keep the needsof this varied, multigenerational workforce in mind when designing eLearningprograms; they also have to tailor training to meet modern learners’expectations. What might that all look like?

Five generations in the office

Various reports on the multigenerational workforce slice anddice the generations differently, but generally reach similar conclusions aboutwho’s in the workforce and what that means.

• “Traditionalists” (the generation before the Baby Boomers) and BabyBoomers are staying in the workforce longer. Whether they are doing so becauseof increased longevity and good health or for financial reasons, the bottomline is that people are routinely continuing to work well into their 70s.
• The generation between the Baby Boomers and the“Millennials” is often called Generation X, and it tends to get short shrift.It’s usually seen as a small generation, largely because it only covers about10 years—those born 1965 – 1976 or so—and it never comprised a majority ofworkers.
• The so-called Millennial generation, people whoentered adulthood around the turn of the century, comprises workers now intheir 20s, 30s, and early 40s. They have become the majority in the workforceand are moving into leadership positions.
• People born around the turn of the 21^stcentury are now entering the workforce.

Regardless of how one labels the generations, the fact thatpeople are working longer while younger adults continue to enter the workforcemeans that a broad age range in the workplace is the new normal.

While members of different generations might generally wantmany of the same things at work, in some ways their needs are different.They might prefer different methods of communication, for example. And they arelikely to be in different stages of their lives, with younger employees not yetjuggling children and mortgages and older employees seeking a differentwork-life balance than ambitious workers at the beginning of their careers.

Older employees grew up at a time when many people assumedthat they’d have one or maybe two “careers” during their lifetime, and thatskills learned in college or in early jobs would carry them through toretirement. Due to the rapid pace of change in what work looks like, whattechnologies employees need to master, and what skills they need, everyone hasbecome a lifelong learner.

Expectations of modern learners

Changes in how people across the generations interact, shop,and learn are being felt in workplaces, particularly in terms of what peopleexpect from eLearning.

Kieran King, a Skillsoft global customer insight vicepresident, said in a webinar that “the ubiquity of technology, accelerated paceof work, and our consumer experiences are driving new work practices”—not age.

According to webinar co-presenter Heide Abelli, a Skillsoftleadership and business skills vice president, several factors affectemployees’ openness to eLearning and expectations of what that eLearning shouldlook like in the modern workplace. These are:

• People are being asked to “do more with less,” Abellisaid. The pace of work has accelerated, and many employees feel overwhelmed.
• The amount of time employees have to devote toeLearning activities is small; there’s only a “tiny sliver of time” available forlearning.
• The modern learner is easily distracted,partially a result of being overwhelmed and pressed for time.

Therefore, the job that eLearning content has to accomplishis different than it has been in the past, as is the framework—length,format—that eLearning has to fit into. According to Abelli, content has to be:

• Available in the moment of need
• Highly relevant to the daily problems andchallenges of employees
• Delivered on mobile devices for easy, quick, 24/7access
• Structured to enable collaborative learningexperiences

Learning occurs everywhere. “The modern classroom is notdefined as a place. Rather, it’s an experience. And it’s not just oneexperience, but an infinite number of them,” Jennifer Hofman writes in a report,Engaging Modern Learners. Thequestion for managers and eLearning designers and developers is how to trackand guide learning experiences that increasingly happen outside of formaleLearning courses.

Driven by what Skillsoft calls the “consumerization of theworkforce,” modern learners expect eLearning to be concise and highly targeted.Modern eLearning should:

• Offer avariety of approaches and formats. While modern learners do like shortvideos and other short content, they also like—and sometimes prefer—books. Theshare of Americans who read regularly has held steady, according to PewResearch Center (see References); young adults are even more likely than olderadults to be book readers, whether in print or digital formats.
• Teach newskills or reinforce skills. Modern learners want to learn new skills thatare directly relevant to their work, and expect “ready access” to the contentthat is most relevant to them.
• Consistof rigorous, relevant content. eLearning content must be credible; itshould be “filtered and pre-approved as accurate, up-to-date, and from atrusted, qualified source,” according to Sue Rodeman in a Skillsoft white paper(see References).
• Be highlypersonalized and convenient. eLearning should be available when and where modernlearners need it; they should be able to find the content they need easily andpick up where they left off.
• Offer transparency.Modern learners want to know how long an eLearning element will take, and theywant to see their progress.

Meeting the needs of the modern learner

According to a Bersin by Deloitte report, the typicalemployee devotes only about 1 percent of his time to training and development(see References). If this is true, then many corporations are doing a poor jobof meeting learners’ needs. In the same report, only 38 percent of workers saidthey’d had opportunities for learning and growth at work—and well over half hadpaid for training themselves!

An obvious first step is prioritizing learning. Technologydrives rapid changes in many industries, and employees’ job-related skillsbecome obsolete quickly; the best way for managers to keep employees performingat their peak is to encourage them to keep their skills current. Offering avariety of relevant eLearning opportunities, encouraging employees toparticipate, and ensuring that they have time to do so are all vital tonurturing employees and supporting their professional development.

A next step is making eLearning easy to find and use. Thetropes of mobile and micro-sized content are well known in eLearning circles.But there’s more to accessible eLearning than chopping a course intofour-minute videos and delivering them to smartphones and tablets. MucheLearning is hard to search. When an employee has a question or problem thatrequires an urgent answer, that employee is increasingly likely to turn to asearch engine—often on her phone—to look for an answer. Adding comprehensivesearch capabilities to in-house eLearning, and devoting resources to developingand maintaining thoroughly indexed curated-content sites, are ways thatcorporate eLearning designers can—and should—enhance offerings. Learners shouldbe able to access these resources at any time, whether they are in the officeor using a mobile device.

Modern learners are socially connected. When learners aren’tturning to Google for information, they’re likely turning to their personal andprofessional learning networks. And learning is increasingly collaborative; about80 percent of workforce learning “happens via on-the-job interactions withpeers, teammates, and managers,” according to Bersin. People want to learn;they also want to share what they’ve learned. What better way to show that acorporate culture values learning and supports employee development than bymaking space for collaborative learning among those employees?

To smooth learning, managers should worry less aboutage-related stereotypes and focus instead on supporting all learners in findingand accessing the most relevant content; designers’ role comes in making theeLearning usable to all learners, whatever their age or comfort level withtechnology.

Fromthe Editor: Want more?

At TheeLearning Guild’s FocusOn Learning 2017 Conference in San Diego (June 20 – 22), you may want tocheck out this session:

Session 207: Immersive Learning and the Future of Workplace Learners (AndrewHughes)

Register by May 5 to save $100, in addition to all other discounts for which you may be eligible.

References

Bersin by Deloitte. Meet the Modern Learner. Deloitte Development, 2014.

Hofman, Jennifer. EngagingModern Learners: When to Push and When to Pull. InSync Training, 2016.

IBM Institute for Business Value. Myths, exaggerations and uncomfortable truths: The real story behind Millennials in the workplace. 2015.

King, Kieran, Heide Abelli, and Regis P. Chasse. “Focus on More than Just Millennials: Create an L&D Strategy to Serve the Modern Learner.” ATD/Skillsoft webinar. 17 January 2017.

King, Kieran. MillennialLearning Myths and Misconceptions: Prescriptions for a Modern LearningStrategy. Skillsoft.

Knight, Rebecca. “Managing People from 5 Generations.” Harvard Business Review. 25 September2014.

Meister, Jeanne C., and Karie Willyerd. “Are You Ready to Manage Five Generations of Workers?” Harvard Business Review. 16 October2009.

Pew Research Center. “Book Reading 2016.” 1 September 2016.

Pfau, Bruce N. “What Do Millennials Really Want at Work? The Same Things the Rest of Us Do.” HarvardBusiness Review. 7 April 2016.

Rodeman, Sue. Keeping Millennials Interested, Invested andProductive through Continuous Learning. Skillsoft.