Investing in digital learning in the “new normal”

Learning new skills and maintaining those that have lost their edge due to lack of use, can be very tricky for anyone being either sidelined by COVID-19 or changing their work to something that better fits the current realities.

This fact is not lost on Learning & Development professionals the world over, with some companies more prone than others to shift their traditional learning environments into the digital age as we find ourselves adapting learning to the “new normal”. Capgemini was among the quickest to shift, already in talks with various digital content providers well before COVID-19 kicked the discussion into high gear around the world, the most major of which being our recently announced global partnership with Coursera and it’s integration into a fully digital learning platform.

Why is now the right time to partner with learning content providers?

In one of our past joint research reports with LinkedIn, we found that the fear of skill redundancy was one of the leading causes of attrition among employees seeing their skill sets threatened to be no longer relevant two or three years down the line. This was present in hard skills, but even more noticeable in highly sought-after soft skills.

Under current circumstances, these fears will no doubt become even more prevalent due to the volatility of the economy and the rapidly changing skills landscape as companies evolve to a more digital lifestyle. Creating an environment that allows employees to continuously and efficiently upskill on their own terms does more than make them client ready; it provides them with much-needed reassurance of being relevant in the new normal, and ability to adapt to whatever shape the global economy takes in the near future.

In Capgemini’s case, this was proven before our partnership with Coursera had even fully launched, with more than 25 thousand employees jumping at the opportunity to take part in a pre-launch trial period that proved successful enough to lead to a full partnership opening access to all employees across the company.

Working and learning from home makes freedom to learn a priority

Each learner is unique, meaning that any effective digital learning solution needs to prioritize the flexibility to learn anything, anywhere, at any time. While working/learning from home might make this less important, being able to create your own development plan that fits around children, home improvement projects or your spouse having a late conference call in the other room, is a new critical factor for today’s learners.

Our work with Coursera – integrating it into our digital learning platform – provides our employees with a much-needed degree of control and autonomy over their learning environment, allowing them to craft their own learning pathways on any topic they choose be it a programing language, interpersonal soft skills, the latest certification or anything in between.

Ultimately, the transition from physical face-to-face learning to custom digital content is one that will continue for quite some time yet as we see major changes in the learning ecosystem across the globe. The investment we make will bring exponential dividends down the line as our people upskill more accurately, efficiently and in an environment leading to greater job satisfaction and perspectives enhancement.

Visit our Learning & Development page to see more about what we’re doing at Capgemini and how we’re turning an employee experience investment into a source of strength for both our clients and our people.