YouTube and Twitter as the New Training Manuals for Millennials

Trends for employee training are changing at a remarkable pace. In fact over the next five years, I predict a significantly large number of employers will place content on mediums such as YouTube for employees to access on an as needed basis for training. Imagine the benefits of this train-on-demand approach being not much different from what most of us already do most weekends or with projects around the home. We have already been conditioned to use YouTube when working on a motorcycle, refinishing a cabinet, or making many other small repairs. In the workplace, employees will access this training content as they need it on the job.

Resistance to change is significant. Most companies are currently fighting personal mobile devices in the workplace and on the factory floor as employees BYOD (bring their own device). Baby Boomers (and even some Generation Xers) see the phone or tablet as a disruption of productivity and even a safety hazard. Some are so blinded by the paradigms of the past that they cannot see the tremendous benefit these devices can provide. This lack of vision will not be shared by the Millennials as theytake over supervision and management responsibilities in the very near future. They will determine that mobile devices, production, and safety can all co-exist in the workplace.

Another paradigm to overcome is our territorial attitude toward information. Today’s proprietary superstitions (of which many are exaggerated by our legal entities) are somewhat myopic and arrogant. So much of what we protect as proprietary information is in reality common knowledge. This attitude is most likely based on our own ignorance...

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