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safety check,' 'Here's how to do this test.'
Right there in the moment, you've got
that tool there to help you learn right
when you need it."
"Instead of saying, 'We're going to
send you to a training program and
you're going to be gone for two weeks,
and then come back and you're going
to be all upskilled,' [it's about] 'How do
we actually give you tools and training
in the moment on the job when you're
working?'" she says.
As an example, two years ago, the
Workplace Safety and Insurance Board
in Ontario decided that it needed need to
upskill its workforce, so 200 employees
went through continuing education to
study disability management at Pacific
Coast University for Workplace Health
Sciences (PCU-WHS) in Victoria, says
Wolfgang Zimmermann, president of
the school.
Similarly, the Insurance Corporation
of British Columbia (ICBC) had to
"What are those skills that are going to
endure? And how do I unearth them in
people? How do I reinforce them? And
how do I select for them?" she says.
" Things like curiosity — always
wanting to experiment and try new
things — and being willing to fail and
pick up and learn from it. There's a
resilience factor, there's a collaboration
factor, so really looking at those skills is
an important place to start as well."
And integrating real-time learning
into the daily flow of work upends
the traditional model of sending a
worker to school for a full-time course,
says Woods.
"For example, we're seeing a lot
of mining companies, oil and gas
companies, manufacturing companies,
where they've got people going out to
a site and looking at equipment and
needing to fix or needing to test it,
having iPads. And in the moment, the
iPad can show you 'Here's how to do the
contend with new legislation, passed in
August 2020, that shifted it from a tort
system to no-fault, which completely
transformed the business of the provin-
cially mandated property and casualty
insurer. So, 200 workers took courses
to prepare, and the corporation was
"able to respond to the changes that
are required in order for their staff
to cope with changing legislation,"
says Zimmermann.
Anyone who resists this new model of
learning is clinging to a mostly reactive
mindset, he says.
"If they don' t have a proactive
mindset — especially larger and state
organizations — a mindset of innova-
tion and thought leadership and a best-
practice agenda, and align their views
and their corporate policies and prac-
tices along that, then they won't react
until it's too late — and BlackBerry is a
perfect example."
The formerly market-leading company
"Upskilling is really
the evidence of
the agility of our
employees, and
then how they help
drive our business."
Paul Trudel, EllisDon
"missed the corner in the road and went
off the cliff after Apple introduced the
iPhone, and it never recovered from
that," he says. "Whether it's a health issue
or whether it's a technology issue, or
whether it's some other type of change,
to continuously stay on the cutting edge
of knowledge is absolutely critical."
CHRR
