Work is continuously changing. For personnel developers in companies, more and more trends are becoming evident: In addition to strategies for digitalization and New Work, soft skill training is gaining importance. Learn in this article how personnel developers 4.0 will become learning companions in the future.
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This is what personnel development 4.0 means
As a personnel developer, you work in a highly future-oriented field: On one hand, you continuously identify the need for new competencies in your company. On the other hand, you develop future strategies to meet these needs. But even personnel development itself is changing!
New terms like Education 4.0, Trainer 4.0, or Further Education 4.0 show that personnel developers will also have to adapt to new fields of work in the future. The “4.0” describes the anticipated changes in the learning and working world in the coming years.
What does this “4.0” mean? Drawing on Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution through digitalization, experts use the term 4.0 when speaking of future-oriented competencies. It typically involves processes related to digital intelligence and automation. You can find a detailed explanation of 4.0 in this article.
My colleague Hans Peter wrote about the requirements for personnel development 4.0 over two years ago. The trends listed back then are more relevant today than ever. It's worth taking a fresh look!
Trends in personnel development: Education 4.0
Currently, there are three major trends in personnel development that also extend to many other areas:
Soft skills are becoming increasingly important.
Digitalization fundamentally changes ongoing processes.
Work itself needs new forms – keyword New Work.
These significant changes also alter the role of personnel developers: They find themselves in the tension between humans and machines as well as between increased self-responsibility and new teamwork. Even today or at the latest in 5-10 years, personnel developers will increasingly function as learning companions.
But how can you as a personnel developer respond to these trends? And what does it mean to be a learning companion?
Teaching soft skills as a learning companion
Soft skills are becoming increasingly important, partly because hard skills are easier to learn: Google answers almost all my questions, Youtube explains steps for numerous skills. However, how I handle this information falls into the realm of soft skills. This is precisely what still distinguishes us humans from machines: Abilities such as communicative persuasion, leadership strategies, or teamwork.
See also: Revolutionizing the education industry with soft skill trainings
Soft skills are increasingly important in the digital age: abilities like leadership or communication are best taught person to person.
How the demand for soft skills changes the role of personnel developers
The difficulty with soft skills lies in the long-term change in behavior: It is simply not enough to know which strategies to lead employees well. I need to apply these strategies in my daily work – and that is only possible through practice.
As a personnel developer 4.0, you will therefore offer training that ideally functions “on the job.” A one-day crash course is useful for hard skills like Excel, but is simply not sufficient in leadership training or communicative strategies.
Instead, employees must be accompanied in soft skill training much more frequently than in the past: Weekly practice and tips on very concrete current cases are invaluable here – and lead to genuine behavioral change.
Using digitalization as a learning companion
Digitalization is the trigger for many new processes – including the aforementioned increased demand for soft skills. For many, the term “digitalization” is at once very vague and associated with a certain aversion: It signifies a fundamental change in many areas of life.
It is helpful to perceive both the opportunities and positive aspects of digitalization: For example, employees from different branches can exchange ideas much more easily and participate in joint training without having to travel across the country.
Digitalization is diverse: Our entire work and life environment is changing through the possibilities of digitalization.
How digitalization changes the role of personnel developers
Personnel developers and other learning & development professionals increasingly see themselves as learning companions or learn coaches, as Joachim Niemeier from the Corporate Learning Community writes. He refers to a study by scil in which 225 personnel developers were surveyed.
Key results of the study:
Companies were insufficiently digitalized in 2018.
Companies and specifically HR departments know too little about digitalization and relevant methods.
At the same time, personnel developers rate their own change management competencies very highly.
Personnel developers predominantly view digitalization positively.
That means: As a personnel developer 4.0, you see digitalization primarily as an opportunity to enhance human abilities (keyword augmentation). In your further education efforts, you focus on the tasks that humans can handle better than machines: the aforementioned soft skills.
Living New Work as a learning companion
The third major trend is New Work, which summarizes how work in companies should look in the future. This impacts personnel developers 4.0 in two ways:
As an “enabler” of new work processes: In your role as a personnel developer, you contribute to redesigning work in your company.
As an employee: In addition to your specific role, you are simultaneously an ordinary employee. New Work affects how you design meetings, from where you work, etc.
Examples of New Work: Flexible workplaces, collegial leadership, meetings with active participation, home office, increased self-responsibility of employees.
New Work also means a restructuring of responsibility: Each employee must learn how to structure their workday meaningfully.
How New Work changes the role of personnel developers
In the context of New Work, employees are increasingly becoming active contributors in the company: Instead of merely following instructions, they are increasingly involved in decision-making processes. This new attitude towards work will likely also change the perception of further education.
Therefore, as a personnel developer 4.0, you will seek training concepts where participants learn with an increased degree of self-responsibility. This also aligns with the previously mentioned trends of soft skills and digitalization: Employees must learn how to properly handle the greater freedoms of New Work.
(Further) Education 4.0 in companies means, in summary:
Due to digitalization, the part of work that only humans can perform moves into focus in further education.
Employees increasingly work with New Work in a more agile and self-directed manner.
In this process, employees need guidance on how to live New Work: Soft skill trainings.
Personnel developers will likely function in the future as learning companions or learn coaches. For this, further education concepts tailored to the requirements of soft skills, digitalization, and New Work are needed.
Making Education 4.0 possible now: Supporting training online
The three trends mentioned are already changing further education today. At the latest in 10 years, digitalization and New Work will have progressed to a point where sustainable soft skill trainings will constitute an indispensable part of company training. Therefore, Education 4.0 requires a concept that makes the conditions outlined above possible.
This concept has been in existence for many years and is gradually gaining more attention from personnel developers: Blended Learning refers to the learning strategy of educating employees in a mix of traditional in-person training and online-guided self-learning phases.
The in-person time (seminars, workshops, webinars) is primarily recommended as a joint kickoff and conclusion: Here, trainers provide their participants with the necessary information and motivation. The human closeness fosters the necessary bond between trainer and participant.
The online phase fully embraces the idea of New Work: On an online platform, participants receive short learning impulses over weeks that they can work on independently – whenever and wherever it fits into their workday.
Learn more about the concept of Blended Learning and take a look at the three common models Springer, Reiher, and Sandwich. We have provided a graphic overview for you to download.
