5 Startups Every Learning And Development Leader Should Know

The future of the office is up in the air. With millions of workers now getting a taste for working from home, it’s unclear whether many will return. Spending less time commuting, more time with the family, and increasing personal productivity are just a handful of the remote working benefits driving a potential long-term change.

Business leaders, HR and learning and development professionals have a challenging new context to contend with. The shift to remote working represents an opportunity to enhance workforce development and the up-skilling of employees by leveraging the power of digital learning. And the good news is that there’s a wealth of pioneering technology providers that are helping in this space. Here’s a handpicked selection:

InsideOut  

InsideOut is a workplace wellness movement that is leading the change in improving mental health care in the workplace. The platform matches users with curated content and experienced therapists based on individual needs, providing a safe space for employees to talk about their mental health. In turn, employers can gain a detailed understanding of the mental health landscape of their organisations through anonymous surveying, and set up initiatives to keep mental health a high priority. 

How InsideOut Can Help Remote Workforces

Working from home is not rosy for everyone. Work-life balance can be negatively impacted for some, and feelings of isolation and disconnect can intensify. InsideOut ensures workers can speak up and receive the support they need. Having mental health care as a crucial part of your employee assistance plans can improve performance and productivity while also reducing absenteeism.

Uptale  

Uptale is an immersive learning platform designed for businesses to create, share and track training modules in 360° photos or videos and virtual reality. Weaving together technology, theoretical content, and practical exercises can create endless training environments. Workers, in turn, are trained better and faster compared to some traditional methods. Demonstrating its versatility, Uptale has already been used to train over 130,000 people in 140 countries across a range of sectors, from manufacturing and retail to healthcare and education. 

How Uptale Can Help Remote Workforces

Onboarding new staff and running regular training sessions need not be a dismal Zoom-intensive operation in a socially distanced world. Uptale’s impressive technology allows businesses to build efficient and engaging virtual learning environments easily: helping new-starters get quickly operational and familiar with their future work environment, training in basic safety rules, practicing order preparation and much more. Importantly, it frees up the time and resources usually involved in running these programmes.

Guider

Guider is on a mission to help professionals and companies achieve their goals through meaningful and effective mentoring. Guider combines AI-technology and industry-leading expertise to match and grow mentoring relationships inside organisations. Tailored mentoring and coaching programmes also help to improve Diversity & Inclusion, Women in Leadership, High-Potentials and more. 

How Guider Can Help Remote Workforces

As companies come to terms with remote working being the norm, it’s still important to have different parts of an organisations talking, helping and ideating with each other. For junior employees, in particular, mentoring is an essential part of development. And for future company leaders, coaching and mentoring is a crucial way to develop effective management skills. Remote working needn’t eradicate this time-old business practice. 

Chatterbox

Chatterbox is an online language learning platform that gives employees the tools to develop cultural intelligence while positively changing the world. Employees are algorithmically connected to native language coaches – trained refugees with professional expertise spanning engineering, business and academia. AI-assisted multimedia course content supports the development of language skills alongside live practice with coaches.

How Chatterbox Can Help Remote Workforces

The benefits of corporate language learning programs are broad-ranging; from improved employee confidence to increased retention and better collaboration. Online language training is now centre stage. Chatterbox offers a personalised, adaptive learning experience based on learners’ proficiency and goals, while also benefiting one of the most vulnerable groups of people in our global society thanks to our digitally connected world.

Paddle

Paddle is an AI-powered talent mobility and career growth platform built to retain, engage, and inspire talent. Powered by over 440 million peoples’ skills, Paddle’s Talent Marketplace enables users to quickly staff up projects with employees who already have the skills companies need.

How Paddle Can Help Remote Workforces

It’s never been more critical to create a working environment that encourages internal talent and innovation. Remote working is a challenge to this premise, but having a deep understanding of your talent pool provides the necessary insight to direct meaningful talent redeployment, and better support employees’ personal development plans.