Development in the Digital Age and How Coaching Can Help
The Wall Street Journal is reporting that “American Factories Demand White-Collar Education for Blue-Collar Work.” It’s a surprise to no one in the HR field or in the job market that the demand for higher skilled workers is becoming the norm. Luckily, the digital resources for talent development have allowed for on-the-go professional development. Whether for your own personal development or as part of a organization-wide design, the modern offerings of online content and courses is constantly growing. Today’s media savvy employees are learning skills from watching YouTube tutorials, podcasts, and other digital downloads.
MIT’s Sloan Review Magazine claims this month that “Learning at work is work, and we must make space for it.” With the demands on our time, making space for development can feel impossible. But… “Leaders in every sector seem to agree: Learning is an imperative, not a cliché. Without it, careers derail and companies fail. Talented people flock to employers that promise to invest in their development whether they will stay at the company or not.”
Bror Saxberg, Vice President of Learning Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, says, “We’ve known for millennia that one-to-one coaching by a master is an incontrovertibly great way to build a wide range of complex cognitive skills. What we don’t know is how to do it in an affordable way. How can we make it available for everyone and efficiently disseminate it at scale? This is where technology begins to have a really important role to play.”
As a Certified Professional Coach with over 20 years’ experience in human resources, I see that the digitization of one-to-one coaching is certainly more affordable and necessary than ever. My career coaching clients meet with me digitally giving them the flexibility to continue their development on their schedule. But as an HR professional, I understand these resources are not yet feasibly available for an entire workforce.
I was honored to participate in the digital development download revolution recently as discussion facilitator in ASAE’s Facebook Live Session Association HRPulse “Holidays, For the Birds.”