Enhancing Workforce Agility Through E-Training to Deal With a Crisis: A Themes-Based Content Analysis †

ABSTRACT

Rapid changes are taking place in organizations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, most of the employees worked from home. To face disruptions, organizations require an agile workforce. An agile workforce is proactive and adaptive, and has a positive attitude towards learning and self-development. During disruptive situations, organizations ought to adopt modern methods for imparting training to develop and manage the agility of their workforce. This study is a themes-based content analysis of workforce agility attained through e-training during Covid-19 in a power plant located in Himachal Pradesh, India. Focus group interview method was used to collect information. The focus group interviewed consisted of 14 employees (9 executives and 5 non-executives) who attended e-training programs. Seven themes, viz., adaptability, flexibility, collaborative, developmental, competent, speed, and informative, were identified from the literature. The questions were framed based on the themes. The content analysis results of the themes showed that through e-training employees perceived improved performance, knowledge, personal well-being, work flexibility, change adaption, motivation, communication, and analytical skills as significant outcomes. The findings of this study showed that e-training during disruptive situations worked effectively in enhancing employees' agility.