3 Trends in Corporate Training for Remote Employees in 2022

Intro

It is customary to make predictions and talk about trends at the beginning of the calendar year. But we decided to do it in the middle of 2022. Many reports, assessments, and forecasts on corporate training trends and HR have been published. So it's easier to focus on what's relevant in corporate training for remote employees in 2022. Nowadays, starting to make money will always win. That's why good training leads to happy employees. And happy employees use word of mouth to help your business grow.

Gamification

In terms of frequency of mention, gamification is definitely in the first place. The topic is very old, but it has entered a new round, which according to some estimates, began in 2018. According to the Metaari report, revenue from gamified learning should grow to $28.8 billion by 2025. The most common gamification features are:

• Competition between participants and a visual scoreboard (leaderboard).
• Different levels (difficulty, questions, participant).
• Quizzes, missions, challenges, and character plots.
• Internal currency, rewards, gifts, badges, achievements, etc.

Gamification of remote training gives:

• Increased retention and the percentage of participants who complete the training to the end.
• Increased participant satisfaction.
• Increased user productivity.
• Optimization of the training process and increased engagement.

There is a feeling that the frequent mention of gamification is due to some superficial understanding of this tool. Following formal rules is not enough. Many pieces of training for remote employees use game mechanics, create an inner character, and present the spirit of competition. But if you ask gamers, they'll tell you that an incredible game isn't just about excellent interaction mechanics, stories, or characters.

An excellent game is one with a fantastic community. This community is more loyal than Apple users and more challenging than any critic. Working with this community is a massive part of any company operating in any market. It makes no difference in dashboards, achievements, levels, and other perks without a fantastic community. As a result of the incredible community, even those to whom the training was not addressed initially became interested.

Before the coronavirus, TalentLMS conducted a study. It showed that gamification of training was perceived positively already at that time. Gamification was considered more motivating, less tedious, and more productive. We already know this, but it wouldn't hurt to confirm it.

Microlearning

Online learning was disadvantaged when work, entertainment, and communication went online. Long Zoom and MOOC calls began to seem cumbersome to some people. So it became time for microformats.

This trend is well-fastened with other small trends that do not even stand out separately, such as mobile learning and the variety and clarity of materials for immediate information consumption. Some even compare pieces of content to nuggets. It is believed that this format is universal. Also, organizations are using Nuovoteam, it is a complete platform for Push-to-Talk, messaging, video calls, Corporate directory, location tracking, and much more.

Over the past 10 years, microlearning has been actively incorporated into the corporate educational processes. There are at least two reasons for this:

• It shows an excellent cost-benefit ratio.
• Modern humans experience enormous information overload. Concentrated information allows people to get results without wasting time and energy.

Microlearning cannot displace the traditional formats of remote employee training. But it will exist on its own.

The vital issue in microlearning is duration. The maximum figure we could find is 15 minutes per day. According to LinkedIn, an employee can allocate 1% of working time for microlearning, i.e., at 40 hours per week, we get 4,8 minutes per day.

Skilling: upskilling or reskilling?

The topic of skilling (gaining new skills) in the COVID-19 times has been taken by LinkedIn, which is actively used all over the world. More often than not, it sounds like an offer for the socially disadvantaged and is accompanied by help in finding a job. But it is clear that each company can create its programs for upskilling (advanced training within the framework of current responsibilities) and reskilling (retraining, more often in the context of preparing for the digital transformation).

The paradigm has changed: now we have to train not sometimes but all the time. Deloitte's Global Human Capital Trends: Special report 2021 has the wording "more than retraining: unlocking the employee's potential." It argues that to survive, companies have to force employees to train as part of top-down tasks, based on the attitude that the organization knows best what employees need. To thrive, you have to give employees the freedom to choose when they do their jobs. Make them understand that training or learning the automation tools will save a lot of time and can ease out the repetitive tasks. For instance, using sales intelligence tools for quick and accurate sales prospecting will allow sales reps to focus on qualified prospects rather than scattered cold outreach.

According to LinkedIn, the top five most in-demand learning directions in upskilling look like this (as of April 2022):

1. Software Engineer
2. JavaScript Developer
3. Salesperson
4. Java Software Engineer
5. Project Manager

As you can see, upskilling in training remote employees is trendy.

Conclusion

We are pleased about such a trend as increasing the importance of instructional design, but this topic has not yet been highlighted anywhere. That is why we have not included it in our list of corporate training for remote employee trends. On the other hand, they are already graduating specialists in New York with knowledge about instructional design. We predict that there will be more information, numbers, and reports on this topic by the next trend review.