Canadian HR Reporter

March 2020 CAN

Canadian HR Reporter is the national journal of human resource management. It features the latest workplace news, HR best practices, employment law commentary and tools and tips for employers to get the most out of their workforce.

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18 www.hrreporter.com F E A T U R E S TODAY'S workplace is more fluid than ever. Career paths are no longer linear or predictable, and workers may find themselves moving into job titles that didn't exist when they started out. It's the job of HR professionals to respond to this trend by doing more to help employees navigate winding career paths and gain the skills that will keep them moving forward. Prioritizing training and development throughout an organization is not simply a "nice" thing to do — supporting employee learning and development is actually a proven business driver and critical to position workforces for success. With learning and development (L&D) at the centre of business success, CEOs are increasingly looking to HR and L&D to reskill their workforce. However, the old L&D function of the last decade cannot effectively bring organizations into the future. Now is the time to reinvent learning for 2020 and beyond. And there are ways L&D and HR teams can help a company's workforce prepare for the changes to come, according to the 2020 Workplace Learning Trends Report: The Skill of the Future, based on a survey of 200 L&D leaders by Udemy for Business. Shift to networked teams and a talent marketplace The concepts of "roles" and "career paths" as we know them are fading away. Companies are increasingly assigning employees to projects based on skillset versus title. In other words, Ramp up skills mapping Understanding current capabilities and anticipating future skills is essential to identifying the gaps and, subsequently, hiring or implementing retraining in time to meet business needs. Companies nowadays need this function on steroids. Skills mapping, or competency mapping, is critical for companies as they manage flexible networked teams and work to keep up with the rapid evolution of technology. Forecasting future skills for an organization is not an easy task and a common obstacle when implementing reskilling programs. In part, the challenge is that new roles aren't always a perfect match for reskilling, but for many of these future jobs, since there are no existing candidates externally with these emerging skills, internal reskilling is the best option. JPMorgan is a great example of a company pioneering new approaches to skills mapping. It's working with MIT's Initiative on the Digital Economy to forecast what emerging skills will be needed in the future and implement training that develops these skills. It is also piloting a "skills passport" platform to help IT employees assess their current skills, browse new roles and understand what training they may need to advance. Make training continuous On-the-job training has been uneven for years, in terms of quantity and quality. When training is provided, it's typically ad hoc or a one-and-done part of employee onboarding. However, as the pace of business continues to accelerate, continuous on-the-job training will be crucial to sustain TOP SOFT SKILLS PRIORITIES FOR TRAINING companies are bringing employees on to projects, similarly to how sports teams would recruit and trade certain players — because of their specialized skills — instead of maintaining static teams. This shift creates a potential win-win: Employers get the best team for the job, and workers have more opportunities to work on a range of interesting projects with a variety of colleagues. HR technology industry analyst Josh Bersin posed an interesting question during his keynote at the HRTech 2019 Conference last year: Why is it easier for an employee to find a new job at another company than to be hired into a new role at their existing company? On the whole, companies don't always prioritize retaining talent; instead, they spend time and money recruiting externally. Creating an internal "talent marketplace" to post opportunities and recruit talent from a company's existing talent pool makes more sense on so many levels. Training and continuous learning come into play in a big way in this new environment, and it's important for L&D teams to provide resources to help employees position themselves for new and exciting opportunities within their company. With today's workplace more fluid than ever, now is the time to reinvent learning and development for 2020 and beyond, says Shelley Osborne of Udemy for Business, through networked teams, skills mapping, continuous training and social learning F O C U S O N : T R A I N I N G / P R O F E S S I O N A L D E V E L O P M E N T TRAINING TODAY FOR TOMORROW It's important to incorporate AI, automation and personalization to create learning paths tailored to individuals versus one-size-fits-all courses. Innovation (45%) Change management (42%) Communications and storytelling (40%) Emotional intelligence (38%) Growth mindset (38%) Time management (29%) Source: Udemy

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