Digital skills and the digital skills gap are two concept that are very present in the job market today. Digital skills have become indispensable, both in business and in society. Jan Pintelon is Managing Partner at Learnia, and a specialist in learning digital skills. He elaborates on the theme.

Learnia specialises in training and mentoring employees, and does so in two broad areas. On the one hand, there is software, which are the digital skills. On the other hand, you also have the personal skills, the soft skills. Software can be seen as purely 'button training'. How should you do something, what should you click on. But in addition, employees also need more and more personal skills, such as time management.

Digital skills

Within digital skills, there are three different types of skills that employees need today. First, you have the basic skills like Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint. Ask yourself if everyone in your organisation has these. The second kind, are the modern tools like Sharepoint and Office 365 or Microsoft Teams. This is about modern document management or the new way of online collaboration. You automate some processes, but your employees decide when and how they want to use the tools. Finally, there are the digital tools that every company has internally. Think of an ERP, CRM or project management tool. Often training is provided for these because these tools are in the DNA of the company. Because the internal focus is often placed on this part first, the first two skills sometimes risk being forgotten.

If you notice that your employees could use help in learning certain skills, then you can provide training. Before you start, it's best to think about your training strategy. You could link it to your business goals. Where do you want to go with your company? What is the best roadmap to achieve this? Also be sure to set some goals for the future, so you can measure your progress later.

Learnings

The next step is to go through the different learning moments, and see which ones best fit your company and your employees. There are five learning moments in total:

1. Your company is introducing a new tool to the workplace. That tool is new to everyone, and so all employees will need training.
2. A second learning opportunity relates to an already existing tool in your organisation. Certain employees may want to learn more about how the tool works, or they may need to learn about it because of their job duties. So this learning moment is more specific and detailed than the first.
3. Then you have people who once had training on a particular tool, but due to circumstances have barely used that tool and have forgotten how everything works. They just need some kind of refreshment of their knowledge. This learning opportunity will only focus on specific questions.
4. You can also have a tool that changes over time through updates like, for example, Office 365. The look and feel of the application has changed so that some functionalities suddenly work differently, or look different. But your employees already know the big picture of the application. Here you need a brief introduction to the new features, but the basics remain the same.
5. Finally, something can also go wrong while using your application. Employees then soon wonder whether they have done something wrong, or whether there is something wrong with the application itself. For this last learning moment you might want to call on a digital coach or someone from your IT team.

Knowledge platform and digital coaches

After capturing the various learning moments, it's time to look at the needs within your company and how you're going to address them. How do you want to collaborate online, what tools do you need, and what agreements do you want to make around this? Next, you look at how digitally mature your employees are.

Digitally mature employees often need only a webinar or lunch session to learn new tools. Digital natives can be reached via a knowledge platform with clear step-by-step plans and instructional videos. Digital illiterates have more need for physical training in combination with a more extensive knowledge platform. You can also adapt your platform to the internal governance of your company. It becomes, as it were, a digital workplace where your employees can find out all the information about your organisation.

More complex questions cannot be thrown into a roadmap. We then recommend installing a digital coach. This can be one person, but also a team of internal ambassadors or key users who want to help their colleagues. You can also use the knowledge platform as a kind of booking program to schedule appointments with the digital coach.

LEAP-method

At Learnia, we help companies using the LEAP method: Learn, Envision, Apply and Persist. As a company, learn to reflect on your goals and translate them into your training plan. Make your plan concrete through a communication or training plan during the Envision phase. In the next step, you will implement an appointment framework. Make sure your knowledge platform and digital coaches are available, and be wary of resistance. In the Persist phase, you will continue to sustain and support the agreements you made earlier. Again, your knowledge platform comes in handy. If your company has set certain goals, this is the point to review them regularly to ensure your company stays on track.