Dive Brief:

• Advisory firm Forrester is launching a new organizational learning offering, CX Essentials, that it said will help employers educate workers to embrace customer experience as a "strategic business imperative." CX Essentials is built off CX Certification, another Forrester product.
• CX Essentials will provide something Forrester said is scarce in the current market: training for actionable skills in customer service. The training is delivered in one or two courses, includes customization for clients and will outline how customer experience impacts an organization and inspires employees to contribute to organizational growth.
• To date, over 600 participants have earned a certification through CX Certification since its 2018 launch, Forrester said.

Dive Insight:

HR is increasingly learning to treat employees like customers, according to a recent Ceridian report, so it's not entirely surprising to see Forrester enter the workforce training market with a customer service-centric solution. In a 2018 podcast, business author Tom Peters called employee training "investment number one" for organizations as well as something that can help to differentiate a business' customer experience from its competitors.

Customer service is increasingly a focus for especially people-centric industries like retail and hospitality. The National Retail Federation launched a partnership with for-profit college Penn Foster in 2018 to develop self-paced learning on mobile devices for workers in the industry. The training helps workers build job security while also credentialing them in areas like customer care, merchandising and workplace safety. One senior living facility in North Carolina opted to train workers on soft skills like communication, professionalism and courtesy.

Employers have a great degree of choice in deciding how to deliver training thanks to mobile devices and deskless technology. But the real challenge to training may be in assuring employees have both the time and incentive to complete and retain their trainings. Having regular check-ins with a manager can help, but HR might also need to push workers to develop a mindset that's open to lifelong learning and continuous skill development.