Training The New Workforce: Smes And Learning Professionals Unite!
What happens when a bulk of employees are reaching the retirement stage
? The organization need to add new and young workforce to replace the older employees. However, during this change it is extremely critical to capture the knowledge from the subject matter experts (SMEs) and transferring it to learning professionals. This setup of training and learning has its own challenges but it provides numerous learning opportunities. This can be used for future projects and teams to reach the desired goals and objectives of the company.
A three- step process can help in learning and overcome the problems:
1.) Partnership Agreement Worksheet: An SME could be an external resource paid to impart knowledge or an internal resource that will transfer knowledge to the learning professionals as an added responsibility to his daily role.
In case of an internal resource, it is important for SME to answer the question, Why am I doing this? Is it for the passion in the particular field or is it for extra compensation or incentive? In this agreement of training, the learning professional has to be clear about his expectation from the SMEs training session and how is it going to help in context to his/her job description.
2.) EARS communication: It takes into account the famous theory of Malcolm Knowles about the way adults learns.
Adults share and learn through each others vast pool of prior knowledge gained through years of experience.
They actively apply these new-found skills in their daily jobs and change their attitude towards work.
They identify the need to learn when a relevant real-life situation demands newer solutions.
Adults are fast learners when they take the initiative to learn and are self-directed.
The above EARS theory can be applied in communication between the SME and the learning professional to avoid any conflict and speed up the projects.
3.) Acknowledge and Appreciate: As an SME, appreciate the effort of the learner to take your knowledge and put it into context for organizational growth. Although the end product is what matters the most, there are still various phases to reach where efforts should be acknowledged and appreciated by both sides.
By following these simple 3 steps, the organization is able to create a sturdy platform where SMEs and learning professionals can come together and learn. The years of experience of an SME are a great asset for the company that needs to be saved and used for nurturing in future.