“The way people learn has fundamentally changed…We need to create an environment where you learn, you practice, and you apply it. And it’s bite-sized. It’s not seven hours of courses and then figure out how to do it.”
— Shelly Holt, Former Chief People Officer, PayScale
Training doesn’t work if it is delivered in a way that doesn’t allow employees to retain and apply what they’ve learned. Not only is it a waste of time—which employees don’t have a surplus of—it is also a waste of money. We must develop training programs that meet employees where they are in a way tailored to how adults learn best. Gone are the days of all-day seminars where information is jam-packed into a short amount of time. In today’s digital, distracted world, it’s all about delivering information in the moment when it is most relevant, in small, bite-sized pieces. This week, we look at how employees learn and consider ways to build training programs to cater to their individual learning needs.
Workplace Learning Is Broken. These 5 Steps Tell You How to Fix It.
Learning at work is broken. A Harvard Business Review study shows that 70% of employees claim they don’t have mastery of the skills required to do their jobs; only 25% believe training measurably improves performance. Training today often looks like long, exhaustive, overwhelming seminars in which employees quickly forget the material. Once humans learn something, there is a steep retention drop if they don’t reinforce and apply what they have learned. Information needs to be presented that is relevant, when it’s needed, and in digestible or “snackable” bites. This is where “just-in-time learning” comes into play. Just-in-time learning aims to deliver consumable pieces of information when the employee needs to use it. With that in mind, here are five steps to help make learning at work successful.
Build Learning into Your Employees’ Workflow
Learning and Development (L&D) programs are essential for success, but building training programs that achieve substantial positive outcomes isn’t exactly straightforward. Research suggests that “learning in the flow of work” helps learners retain and apply new skills and concepts in their daily work. To build L&D that works, employers must invest in programs that emphasize ROI and encourage employees to learn not in the abstract but directly in the moment. Learn five tactical, research-backed strategies to help companies build programs that embrace this approach and deliver outstanding results.
Time is the greatest barrier to workplace learning — here’s how to unlock it
Learning and training are important for workers and the businesses that hire them. Yet while 94 percent of workers say they see the benefit of making time for learning, just 49 percent make time to do so. They simply don’t have the time, noting they are willing to spend 1% of their workweek on development. That’s five minutes per day. Employers must rethink their approach to L&D to fit the needs of a new generation of workers. The future of learning depends on creating learning experiences for which people can make time—and this happens when education and training options are bite-sized, flexible, and seamlessly integrated into employees’ workflow. Microlearning designed to meet workers where they are can help employers and employees make time for professional development.
7 Ways to Modernize Your Compliance and Ethics Training Program
People are overloaded with content, stress, and distractions every day. As a result, attention spans are shrinking, and data suggests that the typical attention span of learners dwindles after 15-20 minutes. Content must apply to a learner’s role or immediate situation for it to stick. Context and relevance are critical to keeping employees engaged in training. When it comes to ethics and compliance, it’s important to guide people in their way of ethical thinking so that when confronted with real-life situations, they have a complete toolbox to guide their words and actions. Training must progress beyond real-life scenarios to in-the-moment, immediate training. Learn seven ways to improve compliance training and program effectiveness.
