Virtual Intelligence Providers, LLC (www.vip-global.com) conducted a survey of 6 Fortune 500 Corporations and 6 small supply chain vendors of the same corporations. We discussed key elements of success in learning to include: The use of mobile technologies, incorporation of social learning experiences, integration and collaboration of social media, succession planning, data analytics, performance metrics and implementation of adaptive learning principles.
OUR FINDINGS:
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The following paragraph highlights the common trends affecting the future of enterprise learning discussed in the sample corporations of these study.
- 92 percent of decision makers want to see value, integration and new technologies applied to learning and development
- By Mid-January 2017, one-third of companies will be increasing their learning and development budget by a minimal percentage.
- 45 percent of companies described their culture as “Controlling.” – (Push Economy) and some CFO’s don’t see the value of training budgets.
- Only 15 percent of companies will consider the implementation of mobile learning solutions in 2017
- 60 percent of companies will consider leveraging social learning activities (Pull Economies) from other corporations.
- From the sample of corporations surveyed we recognized serious security concerns, on the part large fortune 500 corporations.
- 40 of percent mergers and acquisitions will be leaving behind much capital in undocumented knowledge, processes and valuable data equivalent to valuable operational power. Biggest mistake will be the lack of documentation and succession planning programs.
- 60 percent of the sample corporations surveyed consider translation and localization as unnecessary for training.
Recommendations:
During this changing moment of the economy any corporation runs the risk of losing its most valuable assets (people), due to operational downturn or just to panic. Hence, the need to develop a strategic succession plan with appropriate business process documentation and succession strategy. A common trend observed during this market evaluation is that most companies are unable to build lasting or loyal relationships with their employees during these challenging times.
Another interesting fact documented in this survey is that few companies today truly empower their employees with the tools they need to succeed. While Baby-Boomers still control the C-level lines and rule under a senior cultural model of powerful silos, they feel threatened by the technical trends and skills being incorporated by the new workforce and remain fearful of change. Demonstrating this fact is the 45 percent of employees who defined their companies’ culture as “controlling,” or a highly burrocratic and with little collaboration or interest in diversification.
Organizations large and small need to work as a team with the emerging generations and the flexible business offerings provided by smaller creative-companies. Pushing vendors under one umbrella or a single broker model will no longer work, since those brokers only represent more cost, in mark-ups, for the corporations. Large and small enterprises are now lowering cost, by breaking the broker model and by reaching out to smaller businesses for cost effective solutions and economies of “pull.” Besides, Training and Development is not a “body-shopping” operation, it is a specialty. So, it is not a staffing agency who solves these issues. Corporate savings are now represented by the most technological, affordable, flexible, specialized, “pulling” organizations available in today’s market.
Much consideration should be given to the new generations coming into power, innovative mechanisms, methodologies, and technologies for learning and education. Corporations must consider economies of “pull,” because there lays the secret to best practices, affordable resources, tools, methodologies and optimization programs and applications.
