The Covid-19 crisis has disoriented the entire world economy and most of the businesses resort to workforce retrenchment and pay-cuts to cope up with the present challenges. These unprecedented changes in people management brought drastic changes in employee’s behaviour, engagement, and productivity. Eventually, a majority of such organisations couldn’t achieve workforce optimisation and their bottom line hasn’t improve as per their expectations. Whereas, organisations which have invested in employees’ learning and upskilling performed remarkably better than the previous group.

Motivation cannot die as long as learning is alive. As per McKinsey’s latest report, titled, “COVID-19: Implications for business”, many organisations are finding new leaders during this ongoing pandemic. Their young managers at mid-level are defying the challenges and problems of this testing time to achieve better than others. These organisations are intelligently working upon the employees’ motivation programmes and management practices. To many of such sustainable businesses to use human capital empowerment as a shield to ward off present as well as future threats.

Layoffs, furloughs, salary deductions, and changed working policies have demotivated even the most vivacious and positive personnel. On the other hand, to subside their insecurity, many employers compensated their existing people with effective learning and development programmes. Smart HR managers know that to improve employees’ productivity, there is a great need to enhance their engagement – which is directly linked to their level of motivation. That’s why they always promote a culture of learning and development, and this time, they fostered online learning.

It is always difficult for an organisation to lose its valuable and essential people because their presence is imperative to achieve long-term goals and objectives. But, to keep them engaged and motivated, the employer must ensure their personal and professional growth. Every progressive employee does their best to upskill themselves, and when this is encouraged by the organisation, they feel motivated. Though organising workshops and seminars in the physical world is neither viable nor safe, the onset of virtual learning platforms has made learning rather interactive as well as cost-effective.

For millennial entrepreneurs, digitalisation is a holistic and inclusive strategy for optimum utilisation of an organisation’s resources, including human resources. Therefore, the pandemic has led many futuristic organisations to receptively embrace digital learning solutions for the training and upskilling of their employees. Now, accessing to industry leaders and thought leaders, is no more a luxury for small businesses. Alike corporates, they too can empower their employees with the experience and insights of eminent personalities and consultants.

With better digital infrastructure and high penetration of communication devices, businesses across the world are benefitting their employees with bespoke learning programmes and training modules. And, unlike exorbitant conventions and seminars involving hefty consultation fee of industry experts, venue expenses, and a large amount on logistics, e-learning is quite frugal and doesn’t require breaking the bank expenses.

Localisation or language preference is another useful feature of these business-oriented learning programmes. The availability of curated content in multiple languages is a great support to learners who are not well-versed in the English language. Besides, e-learning training programmes are useful in developing both hard and soft skills among employees. Detailed and interactive videos by the seasoned trainers can be played any time by an individual to gain maximum from a particular course. Also, an employee has the option to access the content of many subject matter experts for better understanding. The content can be further customized to topics of business relevance depending on an organisation’s requirements.

Conclusion

A positive attitude helps people deal with any adverse situation or circumstance. And, to keep the employees’ mindset positive, they should have a high level of motivation. Though things are bit uncertain amidst the covid-19 crisis, businesses with the desire to grow and sustain are growing continuously. They believe in their vision, approach, people, and the power of learning.

(The author is the Founder & CEO of SpeakIn)