Corporate learning: New Normal? Or back to pre-COVID?
Between euphoria and disillusion: What has become of the digitisation push in corporate learning? The LinguaTV team has compiled the latest study results and some practical examples.
ChatGPT, Amazon and now even Zoom. Some companies are currently in the news because they are bringing their employees from a remote working environment back to the office. Is the clock being turned back to the pre-coronavirus era? A recent publication by the ifo Institute proves the opposite, citing several scientific studies. According to the report, around 25% of all German employees are currently working from home at least part time. A figure that has remained almost constant since the coronavirus home office requirement was lifted in April 2022. The proportion of job vacancies with the option to work from home has even increased further since then. This is probably also related to the wishes of employees. Three quarters of all those who have experienced the benefits of working from home would not want to miss it in the future. Instead of "either or", hybrid and significantly more flexible working models compared to pre-corona will now prevail in most companies, the study concludes.
This trend is also reflected in corporate learning. With 91.8%, almost all of the 448 companies surveyed in the benchmarking study stated that they already use e-learning programmes in their company training and further education. 16% of companies only introduced them during the pandemic. Although the proportion of digital learning compared to face-to-face events has fallen again significantly compared to the coronavirus year 2021, at 36.3% it is still well above the pre-coronavirus level. The pandemic-related switch to working from home and the introduction of video conferencing was a real door opener for digital training solutions, particularly in companies and departments that had previously relied exclusively on face-to-face training. Philip Gienandt, Managing Director of LinguaTV, can confirm this. Before corona, he often had to convince customers of the benefits of digital learning. This has now changed significantly. "With half of the staff working from home and most meetings taking place online, it's now completely normal for language training to take place online too."
Most companies want a solution that can be integrated as easily and flexibly as possible into everyday working life. Allianz is a good example of this. Face-to-face language courses were cost-intensive and relatively inflexible, so they were only used by very few employees. To change this, the insurance group introduced a purely digital language training programme with a blended learning concept for the first time during the pandemic. After extensive onboarding, including needs analyses and placement tests, participants are given access to LinguaTV’s online English courses. In addition to the multimedia self-study courses with videos and interactive tasks, they also use the lessons led by language trainers in the virtual classroom. The training units can be booked as required and can therefore be flexibly integrated into everyday life despite busy schedules.
Deutsche Post DHL also introduced a purely digital training solution during the pandemic to support new employees with little knowledge of German. As these are mainly parcel delivery staff, the company opted for a mobile solution using microlearning. Thanks to the short learning units and access via smartphone, employees can now effectively improve their German skills while on the move. Supplemented by company-specific learning content and a sophisticated onboarding concept, this training solution has been very well received by employees. The successful project has already won several awards.
Conclusion:
Even if some recent headlines may give a different impression, the coronavirus pandemic has had a lasting effect on the digitalisation of corporate learning. Flexible or hybrid working models with working from home and video conferencing are now the new normal in most companies - and the trend is rising. Corporate learning must also fulfil these requirements. Flexible digital training solutions, such as the language training at Allianz or Deutsche Post DHL, are ideally suited to meet these new challenges.
Further reading: Allianz SE uses LinguaTV’s digital language courses for corporate learning. Instead of traditional classroom training, which was extremely difficult to integrate into employees’ daily routines, they can now book online training units flexibly and according to their own needs. The successful training project has now been awarded the eLearning Award 2023.
The detailed project description can be downloaded here free of charge as a white paper.
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