Contributed by regular guest blogger Gareth Murran, ThirdForce Innovation Team
Regardless of your approach to training there is a need to truly understand the dynamics that distinguish different learners. Why? Because a strategy that treats everyone alike can never be as successful as one that is personal and recognises that people aren’t alike and won’t respond in the same way to a given learning intervention.
Classifications such as the one shown below are fine and provide insight but they only really give us information on how technologies are being adopted by a group of people. A challenge in creating a performance driven culture is the changing values of the workforce. As we have spoken about before today’s younger workers have vastly different career aspirations and work motivations than that of their predecessors. These newest entrants, the “Millennial Generation” or “Generation Y,” are even more socially conscious and technology savvy. These workers are always in touch with each other using mobile phones, Internet chat and email. They do not necessarily see a career as an upward path rather; they see it as a way of finding self-actualisation and personal growth.
|
Demographic |
Year Born |
Characteristics |
Learning Styles |
| Traditionalists | 1928-1945 (63+ years old) | Hierarchical, loyal to institutions, motivated by financial rewards and security | Traditional, instructor-led, reading, homework |
| Baby Boomers | 1946-1964 (44-62 years old) | Idealistic, competitive, thriving to achieve | Traditional, group effort, expert driven, self-driven |
| Generation X | 1965-1980 (28-43 years old) | Self-reliant, willing to change rules, tribal and community-oriented | Team-driven, collaborative, “wisdom of crowds,” peer-to-peer “ |
| Generation Y
(“Millenials”) |
1981-2000 (8-27 years old) | Confident, impatient, socially conscious, family centric, technology-savvy, want to “build their own” | Give context and meaning, make it fun, search and explore, entertain me |
What does this mean in the context of creating a performance driven culture? It means devising new ways to motivate these employees to high achievement. The younger generations will not be incentivised by individual monetary rewards alone. They must see values and purpose besides financial gain. This is part of the challenge for management in the coming years as we need to provide knowledge management platforms to:
• Harness collective intelligence
• Leverage corporate memory
• Leverage informal learning
• Spot and manage talent
Without doubt the answer is rich employee profiles. But how many online profiles do you think you have right now? I have, too many to even count! Such is the case with anyone that uses Web 2.0 sites these days. But whether you have boat loads of profiles or just a few, you need a way to manage your profile information.
What’s required is a searchable profile that includes HR, training history, employee interests, and career progression along with other key pieces of information. This profile will act as an aggregator so that all of your information is centralised and available for use in any system be it an LMS dashboard or talent management suite. This will continue to evolve as new technologies enter the scene and informal learning environments in the workplace-where people collaborate, share information, and create content-become more common.
