Formal training continues to take up too much of organizational resources. Formal, event-based training (courses, workshops, seminars, MOOCs) has a place in corporate learning but only a small place and only for employee learning that can’t be achieved in other, more timely, less costly, and more effective ways. This is because formal training (referred to as "push" learning), regardless of how well it is delivered to employees, is limited in its impact:
- Learning is not retained. Although forgetting varies widely depending on the content, training design, and workplace environment, some research shows that students forget 70% of what they are taught within 24 hours and they forget 90% after a week.
- Learning is not applied. Research shows that only between 10% and 50% of training participants,
depending on non-training factors, apply what they have learned to their work.
- Learning is not experienced by those who need it most. Employees who need performance improvement the most often are not the ones who receive training. Because they are not given the opportunity or not encouraged by their managers or the training is not delivered in a way that makes it accessible, many employees are never exposed to what they need.
- Training does not promote creativity and innovation. This is a way of thinking that is antithetical to formal training which depends on a predetermined set of objectives and curriculum. Creativity and innovation comes from the unanticipated and the unexpected; the willingness to veer from the old way of doing things and experiment with ideas that have never been applied before.
- Training does not have the flexibility needed by a growing contingent workforce. Many companies rely on a constant flow of contract and temporary workers who need to be brought onboard quickly, adapt to a continuously changing environment, and can’t wait for a training program.
- Training does not work for rare events. For example, employees need to be able to respond to workplace, life-threatening accidents that can’t be anticipated and might never occur. When these accidents do occur, employees aren't ready because the relevant training was weeks or months or years earlier.
More than formal training programs, we need learning that is targeted, relevant, and can be applied immediately. We need to create an organizational culture in which learning is on-going and happens in the course of work, where workers "pull" the learning they need when they need it. Most learning happens on-the-job anyway. The challenge is to make sure workers are receiving correct and useful information and if it’s learning through trial-and-error, that employees are receiving feedback that helps them learn. With the technology that is available today, there is no reason why we can’t get just the right information to individual employees when, where, and how they need it.
