Transformative Digital Technology for Effective Workplace Learning

Ria O'Donnell

• Publisher: Auerbach Publications
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000514131
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Bildungstechnologie

In a world bursting with new information, ideas, opportunities, and technological advancements, it is time to rethink how continuous learning shapes our future. Amidst the ongoing digital revolution, widespread educational reform, and the most significant global pandemic of our lifetimes, we are at a pivotal time in history.

Transformative Digital Technology for Effective Workplace Learning explores the technological developments that are rapidly unfolding in the workplace and those that support workplace training. What emerges is that the rate of change and the possibilities for improvement are more extensive than many of us might have suspected. From artificial intelligence to virtual reality, from data analytics, to adaptive learning, there is the capacity for significant innovation and opportunity if harnessed in the right ways.

The book offers an overview of several critical issues that face the future of the workplace and examines them through the lens of lifelong learning. The book begins by conveying the current impacts on the workplace and how the internal function of learning and development has evolved. It then considers the eight learning imperatives that drive workplace learning and then looks at the future workplace. Exploring technological frameworks for digitally enhanced workplace learning, the book takes a deep dive into the capabilities of immersive technologies, as well as into the insights enabled through learning analytics.

The goal of this book is not to merely describe technological advancements in the workplace but instead, to challenge the status quo and think critically about the future that lies ahead. One aim is to have business leaders understand the necessity for ongoing workplace learning. Another is that individuals appreciate that lifelong learning is the new social norm. Ongoing education allows people to become more open to change and less anxious about new experiences. Developing a growth mindset and adopting a company culture that says everyone can learn new things and continue to improve their performance will become the standard. Most importantly, as the business world is reconfigured before our very eyes, ongoing learning must become an economic imperative.

Chapter 1 Technology and the New Normal

DOI: 10.1201/9781003149132-2

Several external influences have impacted workplace learning over recent years. While some of these impacts have been unfolding over time, we are now at a tipping point where the convergence of multiple, significant influences has forced the nature of work to change. In turn, this obliges us to reevaluate how people learn.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many leaders worldwide believed that the digital revolution was the most intense impact the workplace had ever seen, and while this is in many ways true, the global pandemic has further accelerated the digital influence. As a result, workplace learning has transformed from being occasional, formal, and static to being an ongoing expectation for all workers as learning becomes recognized as a crucial part of working life. In this chapter, we examine the external influences on workplace learning, such as the impacts of technology, globalization, the COVID-19 pandemic, the gig economy, and the rise of robotics. We then look at the internal influences, including remote work practices and the underpinning learning culture within an organization. Finally, we consider the necessity for lifelong learning so that everyone has the opportunity to adapt and excel throughout times of change.

External Influences

External influences, circumstances, and situations are outside of a company’s control. There are many external factors influencing business today, some of them are the most significant of our lifetimes. While companies cannot control these external impacts, they need to effectively manage them so they can achieve their strategic objectives. All of these external impacts significantly affect learning within an organization.

The Impact of Technology

Digital technologies within the workplace have undeniably changed the way we operate and interact. The advancement of digital tools has increased flexibility, improved access to training on an ongoing basis, and delivered enhanced solutions in almost every workplace area. From the early 2000s, the trends driving the digital workplace began changing our lives significantly and have been evolving ever since. From the widespread adoption of internet connectivity and email, which then extended to smartphones, SaaS, and the cloud, and more recently to virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and big data, processes have evolved and improved exponentially (Shivakumar, 2020) (Figure 1.1).

Figure 1.1 Trends driving the digital workplace.

New skills are required to operate these evolving technologies, and this requires training on an ongoing basis. The nature of most technologies is that they are continuously enhanced and updated (Shivakumar, 2020), and the associated new knowledge needs to be transferred as updates occur. Learning how to work with new technologies is an ongoing process as we progress into using more and more advanced tools. Though this does not mean that the digital tools become more challenging to use, it just means that the acquisition of the skills and knowledge required to use them is incremental and often builds upon previously mastered skillsets.

Technological advancements inside and outside of the workplace also impact workers in terms of automation and other enhancements that can replicate the tasks that the worker performs. From this view, eliminating some jobs (or parts of some jobs) is a reality that cannot be ignored. While, in many cases, automation certainly has its benefits and is worthy of adoption and further development, at the same time, many people are justifiably concerned about their employment prospects as a result (Harari, 2019; Nguyen, 2020). Regardless of whether there are mass job losses or not, we can safely assume that there will be significant needs for further education. As new technologies such as artificial intelligence are rolled out across businesses, they will not be implemented in a single event, after which workplaces would settle into a new equilibrium (Harari, 2019). Instead, incremental changes will occur over time, with varying impact and complexity, and with each step, there will be various requirements for training and adaptation.

However, while technology may be one of the reasons that continuous training is required, it can also serve as the enabler of the training (Figure 1.2).

Figure 1.2 Technology-driven training.

Learning technologies have progressed significantly over recent years and continue to provide innovative solutions that allow workplace learning to become mobile, personalized, flexible, and accessible. Technology brings advantages to workplace learning with the ability to save time, money, and travel, and it also helps to overcome the difficulties associated with scheduling (Short & Greener, 2014). More importantly, it brings opportunities for engagement and immersion through targeted content and rich analytics that provide essential insights to drive learning design.

Digital technologies have also begun to break down the barriers of distance, time, and accessibility for many workers by enabling instant access to their virtual workspaces. With laptops, cloud applications, smartphones, and social platforms, workers can tap into their colleagues, programs, and files without attending a physical office. The virtual office had been steadily paving its way through the 21st century with the popularization of offshore contracting and outsourcing (Nath, Sridhar, Adya, & Malik, 2010; Ramalingam & Mahalingam, 2011) and was then thrust into widespread adoption across the world as a result of the recent global pandemic. Since being forced out of our old ways of working and experiencing a new locked-down and travel-banned reality, the future of workplace technology and workplace learning is only just becoming realized.

Overall, technology is a vast, overarching factor that determines much of how we work and learn. It opens new possibilities and leads to an ongoing requirement for education while at the same time offering enhanced tools that enable the respective learning.

Globalization

Globalization is defined by Merriam-Webster (2021) as “the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping of cheaper foreign labor markets.” It is significantly impacting how we work and interact, and most importantly, how we acquire new knowledge. An expanded depiction of globalization, relevant to this topic, comes from Arnold (2020), who describes a multifaceted phenomenon that is progressive, democratic, and modernizing, while at the same time complex, volatile, economically efficient, and technologically sophisticated (Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3 The impact of globalization on workplace learning.

There are impacts to the ways of working as a result of greater competition, increased outsourcing, increased technology, policy updates, cultural diversity, and the complex and volatile nature of the workplace as a result. All of these things require the workforce to acquire new knowledge. Consequently, Arnold (2020) says that there are inevitable negative drawbacks, including job losses, standardization of goods and services, protectionism, over-consumption, and business relocations.

On all accounts, the world seems to be getting smaller as interconnectivity unites people, companies, and cultures across space and time; however, globalization brings opportunities and constraints to workplace learning. Opportunities may come in the form of innovation, increased access to people and resources, a more extensive knowledge bank, a more diverse range of digital solutions, and often the reduced price of content and associated technologies. In comparison, constraints may include lack of stability and direction due to the myriad of perspectives, the overwhelming array of information and content to choose from, and in some cases, cybersecurity weaknesses and difficulty in validating authentic programs. This means that knowledge is regularly evaluated, revised, and updated, and as a result, it is expected that learning should be continuous in nature to reflect this.

In addition to these opportunities and constraints, there are other considerations to be made, such as the impact of cultural diversity. Globalization increases cultural diversity both within the workplace and outside of the workplace when interacting with external contractors, business partners, and clients. Cultural differences can present in many ways within the workplace, ranging from values and assumptions to tacit knowledge that cannot be easily transferred (Ramalingam & Mahalingam, 2011). Because cultural values govern an individual’s behavior, they can extensively influence how learning takes place, as well as the context of the knowledge that is absorbed (Rensink, 2016). Learning and development professionals should consider the ongoing education required around how people can work effectively with others who may have different customs, etiquette, and world views. Moreover, when designing training programs, they should also consider that different people may have very different styles of learning and contextualizing information (Joy & Kolb, 2009). Thus training opportunities should be meaningful, considerate, accessible, and relevant to its target audience.

Consequently, globalization has a substantial impact on how work is evolving and the ideas and knowledge that should be transferred among various groups of people. Interconnectivity is intensifying, information is increasing, and innovation is driving continuous updates to skills and knowledge. Therefore, lifelong learning is imperative as we each navigate our unique pathways of professional and personal development.

COVID-19 Pandemic

One of the most significant global impacts of our lifetime was the COVID-19 pandemic. Periods of lockdown, social distancing, and the pivoting of business operations extensively changed how we work and learn forever. Many standard practices suddenly became obsolete, and the global fallout served as the ultimate disruptor, forcing innovation and new ways of thinking to the forefront (Bennett & McWhorter, 2021).

There was also a significant impact on individual workers. Many people were pushed out of employment or into under-employment or unstable jobs. This called for them to rethink their learning paths and pave a new way for work in the future. For many, this is a more difficult task than it may seem, as, particularly for older generations, the attitude and ability for lifelong learning had not previously been understood (Donorfio & Chapman, 2020). During the pandemic, the need for upskilling, reskilling, learning, and unlearning was immediate, and many people were not equipped to manage this successfully. It would be optimistic to think that lifelong learning will be globally addressed as we move into the future, so should crisis strike again, it would enable the workforce at large to be better prepared.

Nevertheless, as a result of the general disruption, the shifts in technology were rapid and, in many cases, experimental. As outlined in the McKinsey Global Survey (2020), many organizations undertook several years’ worth of technological development within a few short months, making workplace learning a higher priority than ever before. Workers needed to learn how to use new technologies and master new skills as they transitioned through changes (Bennett & McWhorter, 2021). The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly accelerated the shift toward virtual learning, and most workplaces now realize that, at least as a contingency plan, their training programs need the ability to be delivered online.

The COVID-19 pandemic also brought about the requirement of a new series of training programs to be introduced into various organizations. Many learning and development specialists redeveloped training programs to incorporate the following:

1. COVID-safe procedures for the workplace to ensure the safety of customers and workers.
2. Digital literacy training to enable workers to continue activities from their ‘virtual workspace.’
3. Upskilling staff on how to perform functions that have been altered or updated.
4. Reskilling staff to enable them to perform new roles if the company’s products or service offerings have changed.
5. Soft-skill training to enable workers to effectively communicate and collaborate using new ‘virtual’ methods and protocols.
6. Training on new legal or compliance implications that have been imposed on the business due to the pandemic.
7. Ongoing lear...