Lots of our clients in the eLearning, HR, and L&D industries are pretty nervous at the moment. As organisations cut back on spending, many companies are wondering if they can survive the current Covid-19 pandemic. And if they think they can survive, then they’re certainly wondering what they should do now to plan for whatever’s coming next. So what is coming next? In short, it seems that after the initial panic, our eLearning clients in Europe are now ramping up their marketing activities, after a few weeks of relative inactivity. So when our friends in Mainland Europe started to see an uptake in business last week, we wanted to learn why…
eLearning companies in mainland Europe are getting more attention than ever before These companies have good reason to start marketing again in earnest. The graph below shows search trends for the term “online learning” in Spain over the past 12 months. Today the term generates 400% more search than it did at the start of March.
This graph shows search trends for the term “smart working” in Spain. Over the past 12 months this term has been practically dormant, but watch it skyrocket from March 11th.
Here’s search trends in Italy for the term “online business courses” which, again, surge in March and are anticipated to skyrocket further (the dotted line indicates anticipated trajectory of the trend).
Are these search trends correlating with actual sales? Well, while it’s still early days, we can’t say it is with absolute certainty. But from conversations with our industry friends in Mainland Europe, the answer would at least appear to be yes.
As L&D leaders and training managers move out of the initial shock and awe phase that we, in the UK, the US, and the rest of the world, find ourselves in presently, they start doing what business people naturally do. They pick themselves up and they get on with the job. And as the new work-at-home landscape takes shape, the job looks pretty significant.
HR and L&D experts in these regions tend to do three things depending on the industry they serve:
When they work in industries where working from home is possible (where office workers routinely work at a computer anyway) demand focuses on course materials that will help employers work smarter, like “digital skills” or “holding successful online meetings”.
When they work in industries where home working is not really possible (like hospitality or retail) HR and L&D is taking the opportunity to up-skill these workers by supplying them with sales or service training that reinforces much of the on the job training these workers have acquired in-store or onsite.
The third area that L&D and HR seems to be building is wellbeing. Good companies want to ensure that employees feel valued, so they’re offering extra-curricular content like music or language courses, or online fitness classes: and it’s more productive than having them watch their favourite films for the umpteenth time!
Can we expect this upturn in the UK? We know a lot of people who think so. Lars Hyland, CLO at Totara Learning is one of them. Here’s what he says:
“We’ve tipped. Technology mediated communication is the new norm – which includes learning and development, performance management, and engagement campaigns. We won’t be going back. Our sector should be able to ride this out and emerge stronger.”
All of these cute “just in time, just enough, just for me” #personaldevelopment ideas just became properly critical :).