Most organizations recognize that skills are the key to their future success. What many do not recognize, however, is that their approach to building skills may be the very thing that gets in their way. Companies get so bogged down in building concrete lists of skills and competencies that they lose track of just how they are going to build those skills. They get stuck focusing on a moment in time or, even worse, looking backward. Brandon Hall Group’s Upskilling and Reskilling Study finds that only about half of companies believe their approach to learning positions them well for the future of work. The truth is that the ability to ability to quickly build new skills as they become critical is far more important than having the skills the business needs right now.
This is the only way to build and foster the talent mobility the business will require. Rapid, adaptable upskilling and reskilling will make people better able to adapt and be successful in new and changing roles. Brandon Hall Group’s Talent Management Maturity study found that 90% of companies believe a lack of talent mobility is a significant risk to the business.
Traditional learning models and approaches have shown their inability to keep pace with the speed at which the business changes. The rapid shifts brought on by the pandemic removed all doubt that an event-driven, course-and-class strategy could work. Learning strategies must change, and so too must the technologies that will make those strategies successful.
Nearly half of companies point to technology as a challenge in building skills – both in assessing and tracking workforce development as well as providing the necessary learning environments. Most traditional technology stacks have no hope of adjusting to rapidly changing philosophies and strategies within L&D. Organizations need more flexible solutions that can not only meet current needs but also emerging needs that have yet to be defined.
Brandon Hall Group Smartchoice Preferred Provider Totara Learning has developed an adaptive learning platform that is designed precisely for this new, transformative environment. Totara has assembled a set of solutions aimed directly at building skills and enabling talent mobility. Totara Learn is a next-generation LMS that does all the heavy lifting expected of an LMS, but with modern flexibility. Totara Engage is their take on the LXP which provides more opportunities for collaboration and learner experience of an LXP. They then round it out with Totara perform, a performance management system that helps tie together skills, learning and performance.
In the past, learning strategies were defined by the limitations of available software. Now, technology has advanced to where an organization can focus on creating the right strategy, knowing they can put together an ecosystem to execute their vision.
– David Wentworth, Principal Analyst, Brandon Hall Group
