The Learning Model of the Future

I was at a conference with a group of educators and policy makers who were lamenting at the state of funding from the Federal Government for additional classrooms to an already crowded high school system. In addition to the space limitations, they were concerned on how these students are not being responsive to basic foundational concepts involving the 3 R's - Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. A leading Canadian author and senior lecturer on technology and emerging trends at the University of Toronto, Don Tapscott feels quite differently on this issue. He feels that educators must embrace technology and change the way they teach in the classroom to elicit passion and engagement from students because the current system does not serve the digital generation well. According to him, the old model was based on lectures and memory which is a model that is flawed and inappropriate for a newer generation. It is a one-way, one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter approach where students are isolated in the overall learning process. This condition as I prefer to call it, is similar to situations that most contact centers are encountering today.
 

At VPI, the new generation of front-line workers, trainers, senior executive have provided breakthrough insights, comments and responses in how learning should be delivered today. As a result, VPI designed and developed innovative and intuitive electronic learning tools to enable contact centers engage agents in a completely different manner. The e-Learning modules are simple and easy to review with timely and meaningful information, two elements that are critical for contact centers juggling volumes, KPI's, SLA's and meeting compliance requirements. The benefits of this has created an agent-focused collaborative model of learning where anyone at any given time across multiple sites and time zones can review and complete assigned modules in a reasonable amount of time avoiding hours of classroom training. This also means that e-Learning can be used in conjunction with new hire orientation, certification and compliance training or simply an alternate way to classroom training for remote sites. As the war for talent continues within contact centers, these methods can act as a catalyst for retention and rewarding high performance within the organization. Old assumptions about what agents value in the workplace may not apply for these tech-savvy and socially-networked group of knowledge workers. Indeed our industry has been shaped significantly by technology over the last decade, but these real changes and great ideas from the new generation in our workplace can also make a difference in the lives of our employees and our customers. 
 

Ovum Research recently authored and published a great new white paper titled '5 Secrets to Contact Center E-Learning and Coaching Success.' You can download your complimentary copy of the white paper to: