Vice President of HR at SPH Media

Shenton Sng

Online Learning (OL) became popular and necessary when the Covid-19 pandemic struck many markets worldwide. Putting groups of learners in physical training rooms was disallowed due to safe-distancing measures. Many meetings and training, which would otherwise have been done in physical settings, went online. Complying with the pandemic protocols, OL platforms came to the fore. Whether an employee is at home, or at work, or commuting to and from work, learning was enabled with the delivery of ‘anytime, anywhere’ OL.  

The Gen Z employee population has come to expect OL as a natural staff benefit when they evaluate a potential employer’s job offer. This has made the provision of OL platforms a critical part of an employer’s Employee Value Proposition (EVP). But how do we shift the mindsets of non-Gen-Z learners to embrace OL?

As with any corporate-wide software application, utilization by every employee is necessary to justify the spending and provision of OL software. In contrast, traditional learning adds training venue bookings, trainers’ fees, and travel cost of each course participant. At the corporate level, savings can certainly be realized because an OL license for the individual, which ranges from US$100 to US$300 per person per year is affordable than organising a multiple-day training workshop in a physical classroom.

But how do we ensure utilization of the purchased OL platforms by every employee? There needs to be support for the initiative at the highest level of leadership. For businesses, setting a minimum number of hours per learner on the OL platform is helpful, but learning managers must not chase after these hours for the sake of meeting a numeric goal. The ultimatum should still be about training effectiveness and how OL had closed the knowledge and skills gaps of each learner and of the organisation.  

Whilst we can appreciate the autonomy given to each employee to pursue self-directed learning, there needs to be a top-down corporate thrust to give guidance on where this self-directedness should be focused. For example, if generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is a learning need of an organisation, then efforts should be made from the top to drive learning on this topic. Learning managers can also help by curating OL in GenAI that is relevant to basic learners, intermediate learners or advanced learners. Knowledge transfer can also be assessed via interactive quizzes in these platforms. This will ensure that everyone in the organisation has something to learn.

Even so, this is not the time to abandon training and learning in physical set-ups. There are some learning interventions that require physical interactions. Some leadership courses and courses that work better with roles plays and physical interactions are examples of where OL may be helpful as pre-course learning prior to getting everyone into a physical training venue.

Another useful feature about OL is that learners can replay certain parts of a learning module, anytime, anywhere, supporting just-in-time learning. A learner may not be able to absorb all the materials taught in one sitting, and it may also be unnecessary to learn everything all at once too. OL enables the learner to ‘playback’ any useful parts of any learning module.

Whilst it has come to the fore, learning in physical settings is still necessary, albeit at less frequency. Learners must be supported with a set of curated learning modules or pathways to ensure utilization and a return on investment.