The data on workforce development tells a contradictory story. 85% of companies plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce through 2030. At the same time, 63% of employers still identify skills gaps as the single biggest barrier to business transformation.
The explanation for this is that the model most organizations use to develop their people was built for a slower world, and it hasn’t kept up. Learning and development content needs to get scripted, created, reviewed, localized and published.
Even in large, well-resourced organizations, that process can take weeks. By the time most training reaches an employee, the product it was designed to explain has shipped two new updates. The compliance process it covers has been revised. The sales motion it was meant to reinforce has already been changed by the team in the field.
We’ve all had the experience of sitting through mandated corporate training that felt more of a check-box exercise rather than an experience where we actually learn and retain something. To make that learning and development more relevant, companies are changing both the format and the time to delivery.
The Chief Learning Officer’s new mandate
