In a changing world where everything keeps changing, the workplaces and the people need to keep changing as well to keep up. It is very likely that in the future people will be working in occupations that do not even exist yet. Therefore organizations must ensure that their employees' competence is constantly evolving and keeping up with the changing world.
Competence development is a crucial part of strategic development that supports the readiness to change
Employee competence is the most valuable resource of every company. Even a company whose product is the best and the most innovative one in the market at one point, will not remain the best without people that will be there to develop it.
When we are talking about competence development, we are often referring to developing employee competence. For the company and the product to develop, the skills and knowledge of the people need to be up to date and constantly evolving. Developing the people means developing the business.
Talent development can be seen as an investment in the future of the company. Looking ahead to skills and phenomenons that are not necessarily a part of our daily life today, but might be a part of it in the future, helps us prepare to change and to add the ability to innovate and the readiness to change.
Setting strategic objectives for a company doesn't mean anything if the actions needed are not written down with the objectives.
Let's think about a company that has set a goal of expanding its market abroad. To do that, the company needs to think about what kind of actions and competence are needed to reach the goal. And if, for example, the company's employees don't have the language skills to serve customers in another language, they need to develop or acquire that kind of competence before they can expand their market abroad.
It is practically impossible to know for a fact, what kind of skills will be needed in the future. But it is possible to follow trends, statistics, and forecasts and make learning decisions based on them. And learning is always useful: knowledge cumulates and different kinds of skills support each other. In a changing world, individuals and organizations need to learn to tolerate uncertainty. Preparing for changes and adopting an attitude of adjusting to them will make tolerating uncertainties easier.
The direction of development and the framework of the workdays will help find the right methods
For competence development to happen, it is needed to know what kind of competence the organization already has and what kind of competence they want to develop.
Mapping the level of competence and the need for competence helps to identify the current state of the organization's competence. It can be used to predict how the environment will change in the future and to decide how the organization wants to position itself in the changing environment. This information can then be used to create an employee development plan that identifies which skills are going to be developed and how.
We all know that learning occurs in many different kinds of situations. Therefore, there are many different kinds of methods that can be used to develop competence. Each organization can choose to try and use methods that are suitable for their needs and will support the development of the kind of competence they need. The employee and the supervisor should choose the methods in cooperation and pick ones that are both useful for the skill that they want to develop and possible to arrange as part of the learner's everyday life at work.
Building an organizational culture and an environment that encourages development are constant and acknowledged habits of learning organizations.
It is strictly necessary that the chosen methods are implemented in the everyday work life of the employee and that there is a time slot reserved for the new tasks in the employee's calendar. If new tasks and requirements are given without making time for them, they will most likely feel unpleasant, unnecessary, and may even be ignored.
Methods for competence development
What kind of methods can be used for competence development in the workplace?
Some of the most commonly used methods for competence training have been listed in this chart:
The fact that the chart has open borders is supposed to show how this table only presents some of the available methods. There is an endless amount of competence development methods that, like all work-life, develop and change constantly.
A well-functioning learning management system has a key role in staying up to date about the current status and the development of the staff competence development. In addition to being a user-friendly learning platform, Vuolearning is also an excellent tool for learning and competence management. Vuolearning makes it easy to stay updated about the staff's competence levels, needs, and progress.
When it comes to competence development tools, Vuolearning enables for example high-quality and efficient onboarding, providing online courses for different target groups, and a register of performances that can be used as a base for performance appraisals and setting objectives. It is possible to record all kinds of accomplishments on the platform, regardless of where the accomplishment has been made. And usually, it makes things simpler to have all competence development-related data in one place.
Competence development methods and a learning management system are useful practices for enhancing learning. But above all, the organization needs commitment and will to learn on an individual level.
All individuals should adopt the attitude of constant, lifelong learning and development and accept that when it comes to learning, we shall never be done. We can and should always keep learning, every one of us.