The Impact of Globalization and the End of the Recession on Training & Development

Going into 2011, the field of training and development faces a number of challenges brought on by the recession that we are fortunately exiting: the global nature of the workforce and the new technologies rolled out in support of this increasingly geographically dispersed global workforce. While this might mean a rough start for the new year, it's not all bad news.

Challenges

• Just-in-time learning has become easily accessible to professionals and departments independent of training and development personnel.
• Increasing use of new technologies continues to mask the underlying cultural differences in today's global virtual workforce.
• Lack of cultural intelligence is still prevalent. There are very few corporations with training and development departments that have developed effective curricula to build the cultural competence necessary to lead in a global economy.

The good news

• Coming out of the recession, training budgets are expected to increase.
• There is an incredible opportunity for training departments to take on a new and more strategic role in defining and developing a new generation of leaders, who are, among other things, culturally intelligent, technologically savvy, and comfortable in a virtual environment.
• Training and development personnel have more teaching tools at their disposal than ever before.

What now?

With clear needs for the development of new leaders and skill sets, combined with increasing budgets and many new teaching tools, training and development departments are poised to be part of the global and strategic missions of their respective organizations. To become a strategic partner, learning departments must:

• Be proactive and visionary to help shape development so leadership and staff are developing in accordance with a higher-level corporate strategy, rather than independently.
• Define a very clear global leadership development process to make sure leaders have the critical skills necessary to lead internationally.
• Leverage, yet understand the limitations of, technology. Decide strategically when learning should take place in person or virtually.