COVID-19 | What impact will the pandemic have on workplace learning?

Surviving the coronavirus pandemic is a concern for every business. Many firms have laid off staff to free up cash, while others have furloughed workers due to business shutdowns or a lack of work.

However, employers can’t just press pause on critical employee L&D. According to the recent McKinsey report Adapting Workplace Learning in the Time of Coronavirus, businesses can’t afford to put ‘capability building on hold’, whether the effort is to reskill the workforce or roll out company-wide training that contributes to a company transformation. Employers should still invest in L&D even if, for the time being, this must be completed virtually. With Gallup research finding that 59% of American workers now expect remote working to be a permanent fixture of their weekly schedule – and employers increasingly feeling convinced that full-time home working is a viable business option going forwards – it is likely that the future of workplace learning will be different due to the pandemic.

This notion was corroborated by Siri Wikander, a speaker and expert in digital collaboration and learning – and the former People Director at Scandic Hotels – who told HR Grapevine that the coronavirus pandemic has forced employers to “use digital meeting, collaboration and learning tools for many weeks and there are big chances that the behavioural change will remain after [COVID-19]”. As a result, Wikander believes that the crisis will increase “the digital transformation speed exponentially”. And it seems that the pace and delivery of L&D content has changed over the years in a pre-pandemic environment too.

The evolution of L&D