CHAPTER 11: THE FUTURE OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

This chapter looks into what the future of training and development might look like. Technological
advances represent one trend that is likely to influence the future of training and development and
our future as a trainer.

 Automation of work
 Use of new technologies for training delivery at instruction
 Breakthroughs in neuroscience about learning
 Greater emphasis on speed in design, focus on content
 Increased emphasis on capturing and sharing intellectual capital and social learning
 Increased use of Just-in-time learning and performance support
 Increased emphasis on performance analysis, Big Data and learning for business
enhancement
 Increased use of stakeholder-focused learning, training partnerships and outsourcing
training

1. AUTOMATIZATION OF WORK

Most companies today do not use automation to complete work; rather they use it to support
employees in their work by helping them to avoid mistakes and errors in performing tasks that can
be automated, freeing employees’ time for more important and high value of work.

Many HR functions have started to change their activities to prepare for the increases in automation
by identifying new skill requirements and matching talent to them. AI has helped the development
of autonomous vehicles and robots. Depending on how robots are used, they don’t necessary
eliminate jobs for humans, just change them.

Example: Automated hiring tools can read through applications at amazing speeds, searching for
specific keywords to quickly identify the best candidates from thousands of applications. A vacuum
cleaner might clean a room itself without much need of direction.

Some jobs robots may be useful replacement,

 For human counterparts who are hard to find.

 Robots can also be used to perform some tasks done by employees where robots can
perform with equal, if not more precision and consistency than humans (surgeries),
 Tasks that are potentially harmful for humans (painting, welding)
 Tasks that is simple and repetitive which enables humans to focus their energy on higher
value task. Humans still need to monitor the robots to ensure they are performing as
expected, provide necessary maintenance and refine their skills through reprogramming.
 Robots can also perform entire jobs involving physical activities in predictable environments
such as operating machines are likely to be automated.
 Work activities that involve collecting and processing data that occur in banking, finance,
accounting and more can be done more efficiently through automation.
Several activities that automation cannot replace human performance

 Jobs that are unpredictable

 Jobs that involve managing other people
 Exercising creativity
 Engaging in social interaction (plumbers, artists)

From a training and development perspective, employers need to:

 Help employees learn new skills and change careers if necessary

 Training and education to address Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) skills
 Companies need to be more involves in partnerships to provide certificate programs,
apprenticeships for skill development

2. INCREASED USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR TRAINING DELIVERY AND INSTRUCTION

Reasons the use of social media, smartphones and other new technologies will likely increase in the
future

 The cost of these technologies will decrease

 Companies can use technology to better prepare employees to serve customers and
generate new business.
 Use of these new technologies can substantially reduce the training costs (travel, food, and
housing) related to bringing geographically dispersed employees to one central training
location.
 Allow trainers to build into training many features of a learning environment (practice,
feedback, reinforcement)
 Companies engage in more non-traditional employment relationships (part-timers,
consultants) and offer more alternative work arrangement (flexible work schedules, work
from home) – training can be delivered to any place at any time
 New technologies make it easier for training and performance support to be accessible to
learners anytime and anyplace.
 NEW TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES THAT INFLUENCE TRAINING
Wearables (Smartwatches, smart Uses of Wearable Intelligence
bands and smart glasses)
Artificial intelligence (Ai)
 Provides smart eyewear technology and camera
technology that gives employees hands-free, voice
activated access to procedures and checklists.
 Live access to experts using tablet computers that allow
data and live video sharing
 The opportunity to review best practice videos before or
during the performance of complex procedures
 Real time notifications and alerts
 Provide useful needs assessment data by tracking what
tasks employees perform the most
Example: Employees in training often make mistakes
which you sometimes can't correct until well after the
fact. Feedback features on wearable tech allows you to
deliver a small vibration to their wrist to alert them
immediately when they are doing something incorrectly,
Will become more humanlike and accessible at a lower cost.
Example: Self-driving and parking cars use deep learning, a
subset of AI, to recognize the space around a vehicle. (Tesla,
Toyota) Example: AI can also determine whether employees are
watching the video lessons in one sitting or stopping part way
through. If the data indicates employees are being interrupted
on the job while training, adjustments can be made to make
videos shorter, or a feature can be added that allows them to
reopen the lesson and resume at the point where they left off.
Ways Ai can influence learning in the future,
 Through providing every employee with a learning bot
(helps employees by identifying and recommending the
most important knowledge to get work done)
 Creating a Siri-like application that associates will be
able to ask a job-related question and get an answer
without having to attend an online training course
 Coaching and mentoring
Risks with the use of Ai
 Feedback is based on what it has been taught (burden is
on Ai developers to teach it what right behaviour or
what right voice tone)
 Ai do not have the same cognitive capacity as humans
do for making judgements
 Determining who is liable if the wrong decision is made
– the employee using Ai or the developer of Ai?
 Protecting the privacy of employee data used to make Ai
more intelligent
Internet of Things (IoT) Refers to ‘smart devices’, that use physical objects embedded
with sensors and Internet connections to transfer data over a
network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-
computer interaction.

It helps make learning a continuous ongoing personalized

experience that employees can engage in when it is needed. No
need to wait for a formally scheduled class to learn.

Example: Smart buildings can, for instance, reduce energy costs

using sensors that detect how many occupants are in a room.
The temperature can adjust automatically -- for example,
turning the air conditioner on if sensors detect a conference
room is full

Gamification The use of games and mobile learning:

 To make training fun
 Maximize the learning experience
 Appeal to millennials
 Short interactive lessons
 Allows trainees to ask their friends and share
experiences

Immersive Learning Experience A digital representation of a real world object or system that
(digital twins) learners can explore in a 3D environment.

Tin Can API (or Experience API) An open data specification for connecting experience data with
learning tools.

Tin Can gives teams the flexibility to track learning that happens
both online and offline.

Tin Can API allows collection of data using variety of tools and
methods (incl simulations, serious games)

When an employee engages in learning, the Tin Can API sends

statements (such as “I did this”) in the form of a learner to
Learning Records Store.

An activity could look like this:

Suzette completed the “Overcoming Objections” eLearning.
Learning Records Store (LRS)
Functions of LRS
 Collects and stores all of the learning experiences in the
form of statements that can be organized and presented
in a meaningful way.
 LRSs can communicate with each other, allowing data to
be shared across organizations.
 Can be accessed by learning mgt systems and reporting
tools – employees can have their ‘personal locker’ in
which their personal learning history is stored.
 Can be used to show relationship between learning
experiences and business outcomes such as sales,
revenue, customer satisfaction and more.
 Can provide data on which training resources are being
used and how often, identify active learners, identify the
times learners access training resources.

3. BREAKTHROUGHS IN NEUROSCIENCE ABOUT LEARNING

Advances in neuroscience are increasing researcher’s ability to study the brain and its functioning. It
leads to a better understanding of how we learn, which can be used to design more effective
training and development programs. For example, researchers have shown that whether an idea can
be easily recalled is linked to the strength of activating the hippocampus during a learning task. The
stronger the stimulation, the greater the recall of the idea.

Conditions that is necessary for learning to occur

 Attention - Learners have to eliminate distractions

 Generation - Learners need to make their own connections to new ideas
 Emotion - They need some but not an overwhelming amount of emotional stimulation
 Spacing - Long term recall is better when they learn information over several different time
periods rather than all at once

Ongoing research can potentially influence training and development program design.

Research helps understand the conditions that are necessary for learners to make creative insights
between learning content and its application to work issues.