intelligence
13 HOT TOPIC
13 INNOVATIONS
14 TREND WATCH
15 INFOGRAPH
15 OFF THE WIRE
71%
16 NOW YOU KNOW
17 WORD WIZ
17 FAST FACT
18 TRICKS OF THE TRADE of employers report being directly affected by
19 PRACTICAL POINTERS prescription drug misuse in their workforce.▶
19 COOL TOOL
IMAGE | JODIE COSTON/GETTY IMAGES
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
12 TD | April 2019
H OT TO P I C I N N OVAT I O N S
Across Industries, Federal Cyber
Reskilling Program
Opioid Use Launches
The White House has launched its first
Threatens program to retrain federal employees for
careers in government cybersecurity. Ac-
cording to Federal Chief Information
Officer Suzette Kent, the Federal Cyber-
Drugs undercut employee production security Reskilling Academy will provide
and lead to a failure to fill positions. federal employees with nontechnical back-
grounds the hands-on training needed to
BY PATTY GAUL qualify as cyber defense analysts.
I
The program, run by the U.S. Department
n her New York Times article “Workers Overdose on the Job, and of Education and CIO Council’s Workforce
Employers Struggle to Respond,” Jenny Gold writes, “As the opioid Committee, aims to address the shortage
epidemic continues to rage across the country, with a record 72,000 of trained cyber talent that the federal gov-
drug overdose deaths estimated in 2017, the fallout is increasingly man- ernment is facing. The goal is to aid in the
ifesting itself at construction sites, factories, warehouses, offices and development of a 21st century workforce.
other workplaces.” The impact on these organizations, along with other By making this available to current federal
workers, in addition to overdoses, is absenteeism, positive drug tests, employees, the government can further
injuries, and accidents. support their career growth while also aid-
And that is if employers have workers in the first place. Another fall- ing in retention.
out of the opioid crisis is organizations’ inability to fill jobs because The pilot, for which classes are scheduled
of the number of applicants failing to pass drug tests, as the 2018 ATD to run April 15 through July 14 in Washing-
Skills Gap report, Bridging the Skills Gap: Workforce Development and ton, D.C., is open only to federal workers
the Future of Work, notes. This is true even as the need for talent is who don’t currently work in IT positions.
strong, given the low rate of unemployment. In her backgrounder for However, a second pilot for tech specialists
the Council on Foreign Relations, Claire Felter offers a case in point: is planned to begin in the coming months.
A boiler manufacturer in the midwestern United States estimates that Roughly 25 employees will participate in
its inability to secure a workforce able to pass drug tests means lost the academy’s initial trial run.
order revenues of $800,000 each year. Those who complete the program are
It seems to be a catch-22. If you conduct a test, you can’t get employees; expected to assume positions within the
if you don’t test, you run a gamut of other potential problems. government IT workforce, though it may
Research by Quest led Barry Sample, senior director of science and not be with their original agency.
technology at Quest Diagnostics Employer Solutions, to say, “Our analysis A single pilot—or two, for that matter—
suggests the employers can’t assume that workforce drug use isn’t won’t solve all the workforce challenges
an issue in their industry. In fact, drug test positivity in the majority the government faces but will help gauge
of industry sectors analyzed is growing. The highest rates were in whether such programs can be successful.
consumer-facing industries, including jobs in retail and health care These types of reskilling efforts are
and social assistance.” growing increasingly common. Don’t
In his TalentCulture article, David Chase suggests that employers think for a moment that, if you’re not a
and HR professionals arm themselves with the facts and information government employee, this won’t affect
by becoming aware of, and communicating, signs of opioid abuse and you, because it will hit your industry—
overdose and the availability of counseling programs. and possibly your company—sooner
or later.
Patty Gaul is a senior writer/editor for ATD; [email protected].
BO NU S A P P
CONT E NT
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
April 2019 | TD 13
T R E N D WATC H
No More Doom and Gloom
AI may not leave you unemployed, just reskilled.
BY STEPHEN NEWMAN
T
he rise of artificial intelli- by 30 percent, nearly half of the In short, even if an employee’s
gence is set to cause major disrupted workforce could be role stands in the face of AI over-
changes in the workforce. reskilled by employers with a haul, there is still hope for that
Many of the responsibilities that positive cost-benefit balance. person. If employees and their
employees currently have will Under similar parameters, companies are willing to evolve,
be automated in due time—the with an investment of $19.9 billion, workers will be just fine, and
World Economic Forum (WEF) the U.S. government could reskill they’ll be able to laugh in the face
proposes 2022 as a likely shift. In 77 percent of workers expected to of the piece of technology that
addition, the U.S. Bureau of Labor be displaced by technology into tried to take them down.
Statistics projects that nearly 1.4 growing jobs while generating a
BO NUS
million workers will be displaced positive return in the form of taxes Stephen Newman is a writer/ A PP
from their current roles in the and lower welfare payments. editor for ATD; [email protected]. CO NTENT
next decade, largely resulting
from AI. The issue at hand isn’t
simply that humans aren’t
necessary, though. Rather,
these new developments are
creating skills mismatches.
Passing off basic, noncreative
tasks to AI enables organizations
to enhance their performance in
other areas. The only trouble is
that many workers aren’t profi-
cient in those areas. The question,
therefore, becomes whether it’s
better to fire and hire new, more
skills-aligned workers or retrain
existing employees.
WEF’s report, Towards a Re-
skilling Revolution: Industry-Led
Action for the Future of Work, in-
cludes a cost-benefit analysis.
It calculates that by investing
$4.7 billion, the U.S. private sec-
tor could reskill 25 percent of
all workers in disrupted jobs
with a positive cost-benefit bal-
ance. Without even considering
the emotional impact, reskill-
ing comes back as the better
option. In fact, if industry-led
collaboration, such as pooling of
resources or the combination of
similar reskilling efforts, could
reduce reskilling costs and times
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
14 TD | April 2019 IMAGE | GREMLIN/GETTY IMAGES
I N FO G RA P H OFF THE WIRE
What Can Mobile Do for You? Mindchimp
For frontline, customer-facing employees, let them use mobile. Podcast
Created by learning architect
Expected positive changes in the next 12 months resulting from Danny Seals, the Mindchimp Pod-
customer-facing staff having mobile-based training, reference, and cast separates itself from others
communication materials: with how unique each episode is.
The podcast stretches from L&D,
experience design, and product
and service design right through
to marketing, communications,
and corporate culture. Seals
Increase in speaks with industry experts, in-
sales per cluding Ben Betts, Jamie Good,
restaurant and Lori Niles-Hofmann, to dis-
or store: cuss what has shaped them and
27% their thoughts through the L&D
journey and what they’ve learned
along the way. Most of the 23 ep-
Increase in isodes from the first season were
customer released in early May 2018. In
foot traffic: true Netflix style, you can binge
25% listen to them all or ration them
out. What you get is more than 80
hours of insightful conversation
with some of the sharpest, coolest
minds in L&D today.
The podcast is available locally
Increase in on Podbean.com and the Podbean
customer app. You can also find it on Ap-
satisfaction: ple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
24% Follow the podcast on any of these
platforms to avoid the mystery of
when Seals will release the next
season’s episodes.
Decrease
in total
training and
onboarding
M O R E O N L IN E
time:
22%
https://mindchimp.podbean.com
SOURCE: INKLING SYSTEMS, 2018
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
IMAGE | DMITRY KOSTROV/GETTY IMAGES April 2019 | TD 15
N OW YO U K N OW
Employees and executives are uncertain about
whether they are using data effectively.
Use Data Responsibly
BY ELIZA BLANCHARD
O
rganizations are increasingly collecting data trust can have major business repercussions. Accen-
on their employees—but they aren’t always ture found that $3.1 trillion of future revenue growth
using that data responsibly. A new research for large companies depends on whether employees
report from Accenture surveyed 1,400 C-level exec- trust employers’ workforce data strategies, and com-
utives and 10,000 workers across 13 industries to get panies that gain this trust could see higher growth
their insights on workforce data collection. Decoding than companies that don’t. Companies that take care
Organizational DNA reveals that 62 percent of C-level of employee data will benefit their bottom line. Those
executives are at companies that use new technology that don’t will take a financial hit.
to collect data on their employees. However, only 30 Accenture identified several other advantages to
percent express confidence that they are using these responsible employee data collection. Ninety-two per-
data in a responsible way. cent of employees are open to data collection on them
Employees are similarly skeptical about how their and their work as long as this collection improves
data are being used, with 52 percent reporting that their performance or well-being or provides other
BONU S
APP the use of workforce data risks damaging trust be- benefits. One of these benefits may be greater fairness
C ONT E NT tween employees and employers. This erosion of or diversity, with 82 percent of employees saying▶
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
16 TD | April 2019 IMAGE | ANNECORDON/GETTY IMAGES
WO R D W I Z
Omnichannel
This is a new word in talent development circles, but there really isn’t
anything groundbreaking about it. Borrowed from marketing, an om-
nichannel approach means you are creating a seamless experience for
your customers through every channel or device. The idea is to meet
your customers in as many platforms as possible—in a physical store,
online, on a mobile device, and possibly in an app.
Within e-learning, the process has started with blended learning,
combining traditional classroom experience with online learning, but it
has hit a snag. At its core, the omnichannel approach cuts out the bina-
ries within e-learning—online and offline—and challenges developers to
expand their scope.
For example, learners could sign up for an online course. They could
start the course on their computer and then continue the course on a mo-
bile app during their lunchbreak. From there, maybe they want to start an
online tutoring session, and that may then lead to in-person learning.
These media must all be linked, because users will want to turn to
them at any given point in the process, depending on their needs.
However, they must also optimize the capabilities of each platform.
Don’t have your mobile app look like a website tab; play to what a user
would expect to see from that medium.
Blended learning was a solid starting point, but learners won’t wait
forever for you to optimize their experience.
64%
of workers are concerned their
employee data could be misused.
FAST FACT
Onboarding Is Important but Not Always Enjoyed
that having reliable data will improve fair-
ness in pay, promotions, and appraisal
decisions. Employees are also willing to
have their data used to create more custom-
80% 1/3
ized compensation, rewards, and benefits
(62 percent) or more customized L&D expe-
riences (61 percent).
There are tremendous opportunities of-
fered by workforce data collection—as long
as companies commit to using that data in
a responsible, employee-centric way. of workers say the onboarding would prefer to go on an awkward
process was an “important first date than attend onboarding
Eliza Blanchard, APTD, is a content and moment at work.” or orientation for a new job.
community development specialist for ATD;
[email protected]. SOURCE: SERVICENOW
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
April 2019 | TD 17
T R I C KS O F T H E T RA D E
Alter the Agenda
THE SITUATION
Budgeting time can be difficult, material that you may or earlier than you anticipated,
and facilitating has unique wrin- may not need. give them one.
kles that are difficult to account 2. Be smart about breaks. Peo- 5. If a discussion is particularly
for during the planning process. ple can only sit around and engaging or there’s one last
The timing can also often fluc- listen to an instructor for so point you want to touch on,
tuate based on learner feedback. long. Rather than having one ask the learners if you can
What are some good ways to be 15-minute break, for exam- extend the session. Keep it
an agile instructor and roll with ple, split it into two or three to no more than 30 minutes,
the punches? breaks totaling 15 minutes. but five or 10 extra minutes is
This is particularly important more acceptable.
THE TRICK in the afternoon.
Your session will often not flow 3. Be up front with your learn-
as you planned it. Preparation is ers. Let them know how the
key, but you should also expect the day is going to run—but also
unexpected. Here’s how you can ef- how flexible it will be. Make PRO TIP
fectively appease your learners: sure to mention breaks, too.
Remember that your discussion is ulti-
1. Use your schedule of con- 4. Let the learners have a say in
mately meant to help your learners. You
tent as a resource guide, not every aspect of the session.
can’t guarantee success, but the more
a textbook. Set aside man- If they seem to be steering
dated content that you must a discussion to a certain im- you empower them throughout the ses-
get through to make the ex- portant element, tailor your sion, the more likely they are to own the
perience a success, and think content accordingly. If they content and apply it when they leave.
of the rest as supplementary appear to be needing a break
IMAGE | DOUCEFLEUR/GETTY IMAGES
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
18 TD | April 2019 SOURCE: NELSON SANTIAGO, FACILITATOR, ATD EDUCATION
P RACT I CA L P O I N T E RS
Creating a Culture Where Self-
Directed Learning Can Thrive
L&D pros can help employees select the right learning goal and stay engaged.
W
ith today’s technology opportunities where employees
and disruptive world of can learn from each other, such
Start a New Course
work, employees want— as lunch & learns or social plat-
and are required—to find answers forms that enable employees
to their workplace challenges more to share both challenges and
readily than ever. Self-directed best practices. Given the need
learning is increasing in popularity for rapid innovation, it’s never Related Courses
for those reasons and others. been more important for
In “Self-Directed Learning employees to work across silos
Made Simple,” Amanda Smith and departments.
outlines steps that L&D profes- Sustain employees. Employees
sionals can take to support a not only need to have the or- Contact L&D
self-directed learning program. ganizational intelligence to get
Get employees on board. Em- started with a self-directed learn-
ployees who participate in a ing program; they also need tools
self-directed learning program and motivation to continue. Ac-
need to be curious, motivated, countability checklists—which,
Review Procedures
and adept at technology. But they for example, indicate behavior
also need to understand organi- changes that learners will make
zational goals so as to have their post-training—can help. Further,
learning goals align with the or- employees may benefit from proj-
ganizational needs and vision. ect management resources.
M O R E O N L IN E
The L&D practitioner should be a Keeping communication be- These tips were adapted from the
conduit between the C-suite and tween employees and their April 2019 issue of TD at Work. Learn
employees in this regard. manager going and providing re- more at www.td.org/TDatWork.
Create a culture of collab- flecting checkpoints for learners
oration. Create networking also can help keep them engaged. IMAGE | GARYBALDI/GETTY IMAGES
C O O L TO O L
Instructional Design Guru
This app defines 471 key terms for instructional a definition indicates a practical tip. Having trouble
designers and hyperlinks to related terms. It’s reading it on a phone? Just pinch and zoom to en-
great for new designers, helping them reach com- large the text size.
petence of knowledge, but it’s also a valuable The app also contains alphabetical, categorical, and
conglomeration and performance support for search functionality, in addition to standard scrolling
experienced designers. and the aforementioned hyperlinking.
When you tap on a term, the definition displays. The app is currently only available on Google Play
Terms have hyperlinks to related terms. Tap on the and costs $2.99—but programmers don’t come cheap,
hyperlink to get its definition. A light bulb icon in so consider the tradeoff.
Copyright ©2019 Association for Talent Development
IMAGE | TIYAS/GETTY IMAGES April 2019 | TD 19
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