Many sectors are growing and businesses are taking on staff. The war for talent is still very much ongoing. Businesses are responding by growing their own in-house pipeline of talent. Employee engagement is central to achieving this – and creative and engaging learning and development opportunities play a vital part. Acknowledging this, increasingly companies are focusing on employee experience (EX) every bit as much as customer experience (CX).

In his HR Predictions for 2021, HR analyst Josh Bersin predicts that employee experience will become part of corporate strategy. He defines EX initiatives as company-wide projects that include HR, IT, legal, facilities, finance, and workplace safety. Employee experience encompasses issues ranging such as work protocols, management support, workplace design, rewards, development, careers, and culture.

Recently, out of necessity, learning and development activities may have focused more on upskilling and reskilling employees to handle different ways of working. In 2021, learning and development professionals are looking to broaden their remit once again to empower employees to take control of their own learning and career aspirations. Learning professionals are reassessing how to deliver the optimum mix of mandatory training, job-related skills, and also soft skills such as leadership and communication skills that will support employee career development.

Corporate training is the glue that binds many elements of employee experience. Workplace culture is very often closely aligned with learning culture. The level and quality of management support determine the success of learning. And employee learning activities contribute to their career and personal development. Armed with new skills, employees will reap rewards that are both financial and personal.

Companies are increasingly taking a more human and creative approach to keeping employees interested in training. Personalized training, matched closely to individual employees is key. Learning content must closely match the employee’s job role and demographic. It must mirror what they see in their working lives and help them with their jobs.

Training must be delivered at the point of need – both at the right time and in the right place. That might mean providing access to training that employees can do during their day-to-day workflow. It might mean designing bite-sized learning for mobile devices. HR and L&D professionals have the opportunity to get creative with corporate training and deliver learning outcomes far beyond previous expectations.