Talking about trends and developments in a year like this sounds precarious. It is safe to say in a situation like this that we are heading in any possible direction that suits us. Although, the one thing that we can be sure of is that 2020 taught us to be speedy in our decisions. Urgency is one of the biggest trends of 2020 so far and continues to top the charts even in 2021.

Now, how can we incorporate this urgency and speed into our learning and development trends for 2021? Let us look into key insights and takeaways from 2020 that can be incorporated in 2021.

Improving communication with employees is the need of the hour. This has to be done in every possible field that is required to run a business. Knowledge exchange, soft skills, experiences, and social capital. The organization that has managed to successfully transform their on the job requirements as per the current demands is set to thrive in and after 2021 as well.

Reflecting upon our experiences in the past and the client testimonials that we’ve received, the sharpening of empathy skills is what is preferred by employees and employers. Some of the ways by which you can do it are:

1- The ‘Day-In-The-Life-of’ Project:  One of the best ways to understand an employee’s role and create a plan for it is to spend a day in the life of their roles. This helps you gather important insight and the necessary information required for drafting the maps for the workforce role you support. This further helps in providing you with the needs and gaps that exist in the current scenario. This will further help you to upskill and reskill your employees whenever the situation demands it.

2- Agile Performance Guide: One of the best ways of skill-building and sharing knowledge is through performance support. It further helps in increasing productivity and achievements. Before creating a customized plan for performance support, you must ensure that you have varied performance solutions that work both online and offline.

This would help ensure speeding up employee performance and increase accuracy with minimum interventions. Performance building support can help assure productivity when an employee, new or existing, is not able to achieve up to the mark.

3- Online Skill Share: As the workplace has now upgraded to virtual offices, it might give your employees a sense of disconnection. In order to create that presence, you must brush up on your online teaching skills to deliver and develop online learning.

Research shows that the social presence of both the facilitator and the learners on a similar platform can lead to an increase in participation thus leading to great performance.

4-Pay Heed to Interpersonal Skill Development: Along with your soft skills, it is important to work on your interpersonal skills as well. As distances have shaken the very foundations of offices and it is hard to stay connected as a team. Polishing your social rules and relations with the help of interpersonal skills can help you connect outside work creating a sense of belongingness even from miles apart.

There are a lot of companies that work on their teams to build communication skills and are able to solve actual problems through it. It can be done through bolstering empathetic conversations, storytelling, resource sharing, experience exchange, overcoming bias, and much more.

After the learnings that we got from 2020, it is time to imply them in 2021 in a much better and more proactive way. In order to succeed as a business in these trying times, it is important for you to keep an eye on your learners’ stories and the skills they require so as to equip them with the necessary and help them be in the workforce to play long in the future.