E-learning strategies at workplace that support speed to proficiency in complex skills

The complexity of business and complexity of skills slow down the speed with which employees comes up to desired proficiency in the skills required to do their job. However, the pace of the business and the cut-throat competition does not allow organizations enough time waiting employees to acquire proficiency in required job skills Time-toproficiency is now becoming a crucial survival metrics for the business to accelerate customer satisfaction and profits. This business challenge requires organizations to rethink the training and learning strategies to bring employees up to speed. It appears that traditional training and learning interventions do not address the need for speed to proficiency. Extensive literature review indicates a lack of systematic research in this business-critical topic, especially on availability of any proven framework or model to design and deliver training interventions to accelerate speed to proficiency. To address this gap, as part of the doctorate research, the author has explored the training and learning strategies that have been implemented successfully by leading organizations to shorten the time-to-proficiency and accelerate speed to proficiency at the workplace. Author conducted a qualitative research across 42 industries through in-depth interviews with over 86 leading experts from renowned organizations who are known to have reduced the time-to-proficiency of employees. Using thematic analysis, a conceptual model is developed for various training and learning strategies to accelerate speed to proficiency. Preliminary data analysis revealed several workplace training, classroom training and e-learning strategies to reduce time-to-proficiency. However, the intent of this paper is to present a sub-set of the overall preliminary findings of this large research study. The focus of this paper is to report only the e-learning strategies found in the main study that hold strong potential to reduce time-to-proficiency.