With 2019 now underway, we can reflect on our past year’s workplace performance and plan ahead for our future needs. “To any business, human capital is its greatest asset and the biggest key to achieving business goals. How can you better prepare your teams to perform in a highly competitive environment? Through training.

Learning and technology walk hand in hand. As high-tech innovations accelerate, so does the opportunity to create better corporate training programs and delivery methods.” Everyone from Managers to field employees need training to support professional development, individual skill growth and to ultimately meet overall business objectives.

According to Forbes, “[m]ore than ever, training is effectively providing skills that match the way we learn in a high-tech world.” Here are their top learning and development trends to pay attention to in 2019.

Seven Learning And Development Trends To Adopt In 2019

“1. C-suite and HR work together better to align goals.

The biggest mistake I see that keeps an organization’s learning and development efforts from reaching their full potential is a lack of planning and commitment from the C-suite. Leaders who don’t plan exactly what they want their training to accomplish are wasting resources. In a learning culture, management and HR work together to define the values, processes and practices that employees, departments and the organization can use to increase their performance and competencies. The knowledge and skills acquired and applied by employees is shared freely in a learning culture, creating a sustainable and adaptable organization.

2. Develop competencies for future organizational goals.

To maintain the continued health of your company, management must target employees who can take over future leadership roles. For current employees, immediately begin training on leadership development, communication and problem-solving skills. If they aren’t already, HR can target job candidates with leadership potential in all their talent acquisition efforts. Management can help develop future leaders and managers as soon as new employees enter the door by providing mentors and helping them build professional networks. Improving your leadership development program helps you build teams that are agile and capable of evolving with the times.

3. Emphasize communication skills.

As organizations become more diverse and broaden their reach, company leaders see the value in developing their employees’ soft skills, such as emotional intelligence, collaboration and negotiation. In fact, more than 90% of respondents to a 2016 Deloitte survey rated soft skills a “critical priority.” They also indicated that soft skills can foster employee retention, improve leadership and build a meaningful culture.

However, there is widespread concern among recruiters that the soft skills gap is widening with the technologically savvy but soft-skill-poor Gen Z employees entering the workforce. Learning and development personnel can overcome this challenge by offering soft skills training to employees and encouraging them to refine their social skills. An introduction to soft skills training may include holding brainstorm sessions where employees list the possible uses for various soft skills or helping them role play to discover different situational outcomes.

4. Increase the gamification of training.

There is a misunderstanding about gamification and training programs in the real world. Unwitting business owners will scoff at the notion of gamification because they believe it means turning their training programs into video games. Understandably, they feel that their critical and potentially life-saving OSHA-compliance training should not be equivalent to Donkey Kong. What they don’t realize is that gamification is simply a process of building a progressive reward system into training that imitates modern video games.

Badges, points, leaderboards and community involvement incentivize the online training experience for even the most jaded learner. Learners who lack the passion and drive to participate can use these tools as a springboard until their core motivation kicks in.

5. View training as an employee benefit and bait for talent acquisition.

Training can be a key differentiator between companies competing for talent. Employees want to work for organizations that provide personal and professional development, and they consider it a deciding factor when looking for new employment or determining if they should stay with their current employer. Learning and development plays a critical role in engaging — and retaining — employees. Leverage your training as an employee incentive, and add it to your existing benefits package alongside retirement and health and wellness options.

6. Weigh learner-centric against content-oriented training.

Training in the past that focused solely on content was “one size fits all,” which made it difficult to engage with the learner. Today, we must zero in on the learner, including his or her experience, work environment, performance and technological fluency, to create a training program. Any effective training program is one developed for the individual and offers social activities to share their experiences.

As you train, think of your employees as consumers. They are used to getting 500,000 results per search on Google, YouTube automatically playing related videos based on what they’ve just watched, and Netflix suggesting content matches based on viewing pattern algorithms. For the learning consumer, training clips on your YouTube channel, a classroom training session, a MOOC (massive online open course) or a post shared on Facebook Workplace are elements that can be turned into learning content.

7. Digital and mobile content and delivery are more critical than ever.

According to a 2018 study by LinkedIn, the biggest challenge for talent development is getting employees to make time for learning. Employees would agree that they don’t have the time to take away from their primary jobs to get the training. Delivering your training on multiple platforms, such as classroom, mobile and on-demand, can help eliminate the time crunch for busy employees.

These seven learning and development trends provide a good indication of where the training industry is heading. It is about personalization, ongoing support and making the most of today’s cutting-edge technologies. It also gives your employees the incentives and social interactions they need to actively engage.”

Is training a priority for you in 2019? Your company may depend on it. Remember, our cloud-based training offers environmental and safety courses at your convenience, available 24/7 wherever you go – even on your mobile devices. Keep track of your completed courses, performance and earn points and badges for your successful accomplishments. Voice over narration, instructional videos and knowledge checks are all available to ensure you are understanding the material provided. Maintaining your compliance has never been easier. View our training catalog now to get started.

To view the full Forbes article, click here.  

Major case sentencing is in for Explo Systems executives. Interesting read about the dangers of noncompliance and what it can do to you, your business and the environment:

EPA and Law Enforcement Partners Announce Sentencing in Louisiana Explosive Waste Disposal Case

“DALLAS – (Nov. 30, 2018) Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) joined law enforcement partners from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana, the Department of Defense, the U. S. Army, the Department of Transportation, the FBI, and the Louisiana State Police in announcing the sentencing of five defendants for their role in a case involving Explo Systems, Inc., a private company involved in the demilitarization of military munitions. Explo Systems’ mismanagement of military munitions resulted in a large detonation at a storage facility in Camp Minden, Louisiana, on October 15, 2012. The explosion damaged buildings in a four-mile radius, derailed 11 rail cars, and was felt up to thirty-five miles away. In addition, an investigation revealed that Explo Systems had illegally disposed of hazardous waste resulting in over $38 million dollars of cleanup costs to tax payers. 

“Through their reckless mismanagement of waste explosives, the defendants put the safety of an entire town at risk,” said EPA Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Assistant Administrator Susan Bodine. “Today’s sentencing should send a clear message that EPA and our law enforcement partners will hold corporate officials responsible for violating laws designed to protect our communities and the environment.”

Explo Systems, Inc. is an explosives demilitarization and recycling company, which operated several facilities at Camp Minden, Louisiana, leased from the Louisiana Military Department (LMD). The U.S. Army awarded Explo Systems a contract on March 24, 2010 to dispose of 450,000 155mm artillery propelling charges designated as M119A2 for $2,902,500. The Army and Explo Systems officials later amended the contract on March 6, 2012 to dispose of 1,350,000 M6 propellant charges for $8,617,500. The contract required Explo Systems to properly store and dispose of the demilitarized propellant, which is a solid, granular, explosive material. The contract also required Explo Systems to document the sale of the demilitarized propellant by completing an End User Certificate (EUC). On the EUC, the purchaser of the demilitarized propellant certified the purchase and compliance with applicable federal laws, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. 

The defendants, all employed by Explo Systems, conspired from January 2010 to November 2012 to defraud the United States by submitting false EUCs to the U.S. Army Joint Munitions Center (JMC). Instead of selling the explosive material as indicated by the false EUCs, the hazardous waste was disposed of in unpermitted facilities, including public landfills, and improperly stored, which resulted in a large explosion and the evacuation of the Town of Doyline. Explo Systems illegally disposed of approximately forty-seven truckloads of reactive hazardous waste containing explosives to public landfills across Louisiana and Arkansas. Not only did officials at Explo Systems defraud the government about the disposal of the explosive material but they also moved and improperly stored propellant to hide the improper storage from government officials. Lower-level employees were instructed to hide and conceal improperly stored demilitarized propellant and reactive hazardous waste from government officials during inspections. The total costs paid by the taxpayers to ensure the proper destruction and remediation of the propellant and hazardous waste which EXPLO illegally stored on site exceeded $38 million.

For their role in a criminal conspiracy that led to the October 2012 explosion at Camp Minden, United States District Judge Elizabeth E. Foote presided over hearings and sentenced these five Explo Systems defendants: Co-owner David Alan Smith of Winchester, Kentucky; Vice President of Operations William Terry Wright of Bossier City, Louisiana; Director of Support Technology Charles Ferris Callihan, of Shreveport, Louisiana; Demilitarization Program Manager Kenneth Wayne Lampkin of Haughton, Louisiana; and Traffic and Inventory Control Manager Lionel Wayne Koons of Haughton, Louisiana. 

Through the diligent work of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and their state and federal law enforcement partners, including the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS), the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command – Major Procurement Fraud Unit (USACID-MPFU), the U.S. Department of Transportation – Office of Inspector General, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality – Criminal Investigations Section, and Troopers from the Louisiana State Police Emergency Services Unit, the defendants were held accountable for their actions which endangered communities, defrauded tax payers, and resulted in multi-million dollar hazardous waste cleanup sites across Louisiana and Arkansas.

For more information on today’s sentencing please see the press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdla/pr/explo-officials-sentenced-roles-conspiracy-led-illegal-dumping-munitions-and-explosion”