Reinventing training for the hybrid workplace: Help your employees – and your business – thrive

[Drew_Westra]

The new digital workplace calls for a new kind of learning. Join us for an expert webinar on April 28, 9 am PT, to learn how companies are reinventing training and education with solutions from HPE Education Services.

One of the many ways that COVID-19 has reshaped our work lives is by prompting companies to find new methods of training to empower employees, enable them to perform at their best, and help them keep their skills up to date in the evolving digital workplace. An upcoming HPE World Watch webinar, on April 28 at 9 am PT, will explore some of the ways businesses are doing that. We’ll explain how HPE can help you build a continuous learning culture with anytime, anywhere learning-as-a-service and virtual instructor-led training. You can register today: Reinvent the Way You Learn: The Future of Workplace Education

To give a quick preview of the webinar, I talked with John Cummings, editor of the Cloud Experience Everywhere blog. Here’s an extract of our conversation:

John Cummings: Did the pandemic slam the brakes on training programs? Or did it highlight their value?

Drew Westra: It was not so much a deceleration, more of a rapid adjustment while keeping the value of these programs in mind, and extending that value when possible. It’s true that when the epidemic first hit, there was something of a panic mindset; cost-savings measures were on everyone’s mind, and training and education came under scrutiny. But companies quickly decided that what they needed was not less training, but a different kind of training. By far the majority of the technical training companies were doing pre-pandemic was face-to-face, and they needed a different way to do that.

John: So what did they move towards?

Drew: Many businesses realized that building an anywhere work environment also meant building an anywhere learning environment. So we saw a big swing toward on-demand offerings such as HPE Digital Learner, our subscription-based online program. Other companies opted into virtual instructor-led training to give learners the full experience of live interaction and collaboration with instructors and classmates.

Employees responded well to the shift – millennials and Gen Xers, in particular, look for technologically progressive companies. They want self-directed, independent, on-demand learning to help to boost their careers, drive their compensation and build both hard and soft skills.

John: What are the hot areas you’re seeing right now for training and education services?

Drew: It’s really the new technologies like blockchain and AI. Also cloud technologies. Companies are really looking for those particular skill sets because they know that’s what's going to make them successful going forward.

Cybersecurity has always been a hot topic; it’s a challenge for businesses that spans from enterprises to SMBs. And it expanded in the pandemic, with the increased number of phishing attacks. Companies are leaning into training their employees to spot these things and not fall prey to them. The attacks are always evolving, and businesses, especially smaller organizations, just can't afford to get hacked or infiltrated. The results are just too damaging.

I hope you can join us for the webinar to hear more from myself and our other presenters – here’s the link again: Reinvent the Way You Learn: The Future of Workplace Education

Learn more about the hybrid workplace and how HPE can help you maximize productivity and organizational resilience across sites, facilities, home offices – and everywhere in-between.

Learn more about HPE Education Services, and check out our 7-day free trial offer for HPE Digital Learner.

Related articles:

• How learning is changing—and why it matters via HPE's Enterprise.nxt
• Preparing your people for a successful cloud transformation via HPE's Enterprise.nxt

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Drew Westra
Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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[Jason Moore]

Great insights! Training programs will play a great role in reshaping the appraisal processes at workplace. In the lopsided business environment, appraisals have become a challenging aspect. Technologies like cloud and AI will be the key to addressing these HR processes.