Interview with Keynote Speaker David Wilson

How does Corporate Learning of the future look like? 

It’s only going one way. It’s more digital, it’s more in the flow of work, it’s more aligned to business outcomes and goals. When we look back, typically L&D has been obsessed with blending learning with itself rather than blending learning with work. It’s been too focused on content rather than impact, and too separate to our daily roles. Now though, technology can be a great enabler - and with face-to-face training out of the question for most of us for the foreseeable future, it is no longer a nice to have. It’s mission critical for L&D to harness the power of digital, not just for the sake of the L&D function, but organisations as a whole as they try to survive in a post-pandemic world. 95% of learning leaders we have spoken to in our research into the impact of COVID-19 on L&D said that organisational learning will never be the same again. But despite the situation being challenging, it also represents an opportunity for L&D to play a pivotal role in the reskilling and upskilling of people and organisations as they adapt to the next phase of this crisis – and beyond.

Which competencies are required in the context of new work? 

Our research shows business agility is key for HR functions and therefore the people within them. Being able to respond to the needs of the business as they evolve has been rising exponentially in importance for the last couple of years, and the COVID-19 situation has just accelerated that even further. Organisations are having to cope with new restrictions and regulations and challenges almost daily at present and being agile in the way you tackle them is now business critical. And it sounds obvious, especially coming from someone who looks at HR tech all day long, but being digitally savvy is also a core competency going forwards. Arguably it already was, but with the majority of office workers still working from home, there is now more than ever a need to be a) comfortable with using these tools yourself but b) if you’re in HR, creating an ecosystem of tools and technology that cover all of your bases and feel relatively seamless for your users – whether they are existing staff, customers or external partners or even candidates and job applicants. 

Your 3 tips on the development of these new competencies:

1) Talk to the business. Find out what is happening right now and what HR can do to support that. Chances are that it isn’t the creation of a big strategic programme, but smaller, faster – and therefore more agile - solutions that might include better use of existing technology, or better alignment of activity to short-term organisational goals or targets.

2) Think about the people experience in whatever you’re doing. Whether it’s for internal staff, external partners, your end customers or even job applicants and candidates. From the technology you’re using, to the processes you’re creating or following in HR, the experience factor is vital to HR’s success or failure.

3) I would say this but read the latest industry research from analysts like Fosway Group! We spend our time gathering data and insight from across the HR, talent and learning markets, then analysing that and sharing our views so that all you have to do is read the final outputs like the Fosway 9-Grid reports or the HR Realities research. We do all of that independently so that HR professionals can get the information they need in order to make their decisions quickly and easily.  

Fosway Group is analysing the realities of HR, Talent & Learning. How does this reality currently look like?

Your top 3 insights You’ll have to come along to my keynote to find out more but it’s safe to say that HR has been in the eye of the storm in 2020 and completely consumed in many cases by dealing with their organisational response to the COVID-19 situation as it’s unfolded. This has

1) shifted HR’s priorities

2) accelerated digital transformation like nothing ever has before and

3) created some real innovation in HR tech - from payroll to recruiting, there is almost no specialist part of HR left untouched by the pandemic. And I’m looking forward to sharing our new research into the practical realities of what this means for you if you work in HR today.

Thank you!