Learning and Development Trends for 2018 You Don’t Want to Miss

Given that the half-life of a learned skill is a mere five years, change is happening faster than ever before. Companies are evolving their business models and development strategies to align their workforce with new customer demands. Learning and development trends reflect the rapidly changing skills required for current and future jobs.

After talking with many learning and development leaders and combing the blogs for emerging trends, I’ve assembled my list for the coming year. Following are the key learning and development trends for 2018. Love the list or don’t, I welcome your comments.

Make finding and keeping talent a strategic business priority

According to an article in Training Magazine, 1/3 of companies are increasing their budget for learning and development over the next 12 months.

Offer leadership training and development to millennials

A recent article on Forbes.com provided 13 reasons why this is a smart initiative for organizations. The key takeaway? Adapt or die. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s true.

Companies who invest the right mix of resources in developing the largest generation in our history will reap vast rewards. They will attract and retain more millennial employees, they will be among the companies who gain access to millennial record-breaking innovation. And they will cultivate strong leadership for the future.

Short single topic videos

Think YouTube. Brief, one topic video tutorials have become the norm and this pattern is driving learning and development trends in the same direction. Dubbed, “microlearning’, single topic videos sync with increased demand for value people have for media that vies for their attention.

Increasingly managers and employees will create their own quick training videos. As a matter of fact, I create brief screen share videos to train my employees on new tasks and I know I’m not the first.

Mobile learning

Training and development trends for mobile learning will take front and center stage. With people spending more time on their phones, it makes sense that mobile optimized eLearning will be essential. For example, in a webinar replay available for viewing on Talent & Development.org, the mobile focus came through loud and clear.

Not just for consuming learning and development content, but for creating, sharing and interacting. “The value of connecting content curation and big data to improve learning materials by measuring content effectiveness” is immense.

Make learning and development trends fun.

VR and AR aren’t new, but with the costs are coming down and technology improving, indicate a bright future in learning and development. Many people have kinesthetic eLearning styles and VR allows them to learn by doing.

The trend towards increased motivation and engagement with millennials workers is driving more development of gamified learning. In fact, millennials and generation Z employees enjoy playing games and engage more easily when the learning activity is fun. Gamification will continue to trend with learning and development for 2018 and beyond.

Social learning and sharing

An old saying in advertising applies here, “Go where the eyeballs are.” And the eyeballs of employees are on social media. Social sharing had become an integral part of 21st century life, so learning and development trends will too.

Organizations are moving towards omni-channel learning solutions. So, integrating all the different ways employees communicate with each other and their customers is the future. It’s not one solution, it’s a combination of several.

To get 6 specific tips for how to bridge the communication gap between generations, download my Ebook, “Teach Millennials Soft Skills”.

Teach millennials soft skills with these 6 steps