New data shows that more Singaporean businesses are using online training courses than ever before. Here’s three reasons why

New data from the Singapore Ministry of Manpower (MOM) shows that businesses are embracing the potential of online learning to train their employees.

According to the Online Training in Singapore report, 51.5% of people who undertook work-related training in 2020 did so through an online course.

This is a hugely different approach even from a couple of years ago, where face-to-face training with several classmates was the norm.

Clearly, businesses across Singapore and Asia are choosing online training to contribute value and enhance their employees’ experience of work-related training. Here’s three reasons that explain the shift towards online learning.

Ongoing COVID concerns required businesses to get flexible with training

As COVID shut down workplaces and locked down cities, it also prevented businesses from holding face-to-face training sessions. COVID restrictions meant that businesses turned to online training to ensure their employees kept up with compliance requirements.

Crucially, there’s reason to believe that online training is here to stay. Even as some states are emerging from the worst days of the pandemic, it’s harder to get all employees together in the office at one time, let alone for a training session.

66.1% of respondents to the MOM report said that the main advantage of online learning courses was that they offer greater control due to a more flexible learning schedule, allowing employees to learn the material wherever they are. 23.4% said that online learning offers greater control over their physical learning environment.

More employees than ever, whether due to health concerns, caring duties or family commitments, prefer to have flexible working arrangements which involve working from home. This trend is likely to continue in the years to come.

We’re starting to recognise that employees can do effective work from anywhere – and so their training should also adapt.

Online learning is more effective in less time

Increasingly, employees in most industries face a heavy compliance and training burden. Of course, work-related training should never be rushed. But with so many complex laws, regulations and processes to understand, it’s important that training is efficient and inexpensive.

One of the biggest benefits of online training is that it simply saves a lot more time. Instead of taking hours out of their day for a training session, employees can fit training into their schedule when it’s convenient for them.

For businesses, it can also reduce training costs and increase productivity, allowing employees to get back to important work more quickly. Online learning presents an especially effective solution for larger businesses, where holding several individual training sessions can quickly rack up costs.

Several studies also indicate that online training is more effective for employees. Compared to face-to-face sessions, where the focus is on imparting content to several people at once, online learning puts the learner in control. And learners enjoy this feeling: according to the MOM report, 73.4% of Singaporeans want the optin of online training to be permanently available in the future.

Importantly, employees can learn at their own pace and review the content even after they complete the course. Drawing on powerful instructional design principles, such as interactive visuals and targeted, adaptive assessments, online training can also improve onboarding for new starters, and empower your business to promote a consistent, compliance-focused culture which increases retention rates.

Online learning is key to engaging younger generations in years to come

In LinkedIn’s 2021 Workplace Learning Report, Gen Z watched the most hours of content of any generation on LinkedIn’s learning platform, and accounted for the highest increase in learners of any generation.

Young people are used to living, studying and learning online. As businesses compete for talented young people entering the workforce, investing in effective online learning will be the key to engaging them and building new skills.

When it comes to work-related training, the data is clear: online training is essential to boost your employees’ skills and strengthen your business position in the years to come.

Back to top

‍

CONSUMPTION-BASED EMISSIONS – WHY THEY MATTER AND HOW THEY ARE MEASURED

The IPCCs most recent Climate Change report provided a stark assessment and called for urgent action. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres forcefully declared, “Some government and business leaders are saying one thing – but doing another. Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.”

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) called for “rapid and deep and in most cases immediate Greenhouse Gas (GhG) emission reductions in all sectors.” To that end, the report spoke not only of production-based emissions – the traditional domains of GhG emission reporting – but also consumption-based emissions

In this article, Andrew Starr from FairSupply investigates.

What are consumption-based emissions? Why do they matter? How can your entity measure them?

The IPCC states, “Consumption-based emissions are emissions released to the atmosphere in order to generate the goods and services consumed by a certain entity (e.g., region).” Consumption-based emissions are also referred to as Scope 3 emissions. When the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission released their “Proposed Rule” in March, Scope 3 emission reporting was a key component.

Because Scope 3 data lies in the supply chain rather than in the operations of an entity, measuring it becomes more difficult. Scope 3 data are very hard to assess, because both upstream and downstream emissions occur in millions – if not billions – of supply chains.

As a result, reported Scope 3 emissions often rely on certain assumptions and subjective biases – but unlike Scopes 1 and 2, entities have not to date been required to follow rigorous, unified reporting standards. This is changing, as a host of other regulatory evolutions, such as the SEC’s Proposed Rule, indicate.

Traditional manual assessments struggle when data beyond Tier 1 are required. Fit for purpose technology is required. An Australian ESG data provider, FairSupply has developed a risk assessment tool providing Scope 3 emissions data to Tier 10 of the value chain. FairSupply’s employs input-output technology to map global trade flow data to analyse the supply chain (up to tier 10) to identify GhG emissions within the supply chain of an entity’s products, services and investors.

The IPCC states, “Net-zero CO2 emissions from the industrial sector are challenging but possible. Reducing industry emissions will entail coordinated action throughout value chains to promote all mitigation options, including demand management, energy and materials efficiency, circular material flows, as well as abatement technologies and transformational changes in production processes.”

Accurate, comparable and objective GhG emissions data that include consumption-based emissions, such as that offered by FairSupply, will be critical in effecting the “rapid and deep” reductions called for by the IPCC. Given the speed at which regulation is evolving, such assessment capability may be increasingly important to the survival of your company as well.

 Back to top

LEVEL UP YOUR COMPLIANCE TRAINING WITH THE LATEST VERSION OF SALT COMPLIANCE LMS

Our award-winning training platform just got even better – here’s what we’ve added.

GRC Solutions have recently announced the latest version of our Salt® Compliance Learning Management System. This feature-packed update brings an array of improvements to the general user interface, an interactive guided tour feature and most importantly, an all-new reporting system for administrators.

Users with Organisation or Unit Administrator permissions can generate reports based on:

• Current Admin
• Course Status
• Progress
• Sent Email
• Summary

The introduction of ‘Course Status’ and ‘Progress’ reports means a more intensive Salt LMS than ever before, as administrators can monitor individual performance and tailor their learning accordingly.

The ‘Summary Report’ feature allows users to select multiple courses at once. Results can now be summarised as sub-totals at a unit level, or grand totals for all selected courses. Finally, administrators can efficiently review employee performance – who doesn’t want more free time?

Users can also enjoy general performance boosts and a more responsive user interface, revamped with new icons, menus and seamless customisation features. Reports can now be exported as XLSX files for greater compatibility.

We hope you are enjoying our latest update, and appreciate your feedback. Please visit our website to browse our award-winning courses, and to learn more about our consulting services.

Back to top

‍

‍

‍

‍

The GRC Report is brought to you each month by GRC Solutions, drawing on our team of subject matters experts, in-house compliance lawyers, and guest writers.

Contact us for more information.