In an era that demands lightning-speed responsiveness to challenges presented by customers, employees, partners, and the business itself, 80% of companies are still using traditional learning techniques. The resources that are in place — outdated eLearning, lengthy classroom training, simulations, etc. — take a lot of time and effort. Even worse, though, they don’t provide easily digestible, targeted content that employees can apply efficiently at the times that they need such insights.
Figure: Traditional Learning Methods Are Still Popular
Traditional learning techniques may still be popular, but they don’t work that well for the modern learner. Whether employees are constantly on their feet, such as in hospitals or retail, or they’re operating phones in customer service and support roles, or they’re on the go selling medical devices, they all share a common need for quick, digestible information. It’s next to impossible for employees with so much on their plates to sit down for a lengthy period of time to learn something new or to reinforce something already learned. In fact, it’s estimated that less than 1% of an average employee’s work week is available to learn something new. Moreover, it’s time-consuming and challenging to search through an eLearning portal to find the necessary resources to solve current problems. Companies are growing increasingly fed up with this, and are 17% more likely (54% vs. 46%) to consider self-paced eLearning ineffective for employee learning, compared to effective.
In truth, humans, let alone the most committed employees, aren’t able to retain a large amount of information at once. Whether it’s our short attention spans, the countless items on our to-do lists, or all of the other non-work related things racing through our minds, it’s extremely difficult to ascertain the finite, most relevant details from any lengthy presentation, video, or course.
With 79% of organizations indicating that learning and development is critical to their organization’s ability to execute on strategy (supporting their customers, remaining safe and compliant, etc.), the most popular learning methods aren’t helping enough. The fact is, employees need information at their fingertips in order to effectively resolve customers’ needs.
Contemporary Learning Modalities Are Here to the Rescue
Thankfully, there are significantly more effective resources available today that can better assist with employee knowledge and development. In order to diagnose their employees’ individual needs, Best-in -Class companies are taking decisive actions to ensure that their employee knowledge initiatives are well planned. For instance, such organizations are 2.3 times more likely (91% vs. 39%) than All Others to assess the current skill, knowledge, competency levels of their workforce to determine gaps in comprehension. With such insight, organizations can figure out what specifically each employee struggles with and develop a learning plan that fits each individual’s profile. In an era where the workforce is made up of five different generations, it’s important to have different learning methods to fit different learning types. Hence why Best-in-Class companies are 76% more likely (37% vs. 21%) than All Others to deliver learning in different ways.
There’s an abundance of methods available to solve the knowledge problem, including: microlearning, mobile learning, user-generated content, social learning, gamification, and more. Each one has its own value, requirements, and implications for the workforce. These resources tend to be easier to use and more accessible than their traditional counterparts. These modalities are robust, well-integrated, easily accessed, and user-friendly. In essence, they’re very much attuned to real-world resources like Google, Facebook, and YouTube. But ultimately, such methods are oriented toward employees and are structured to make their roles and responsibilities easier to handle. That way, the workforce can more easily access information that will allow them to better assist their customers.
To learn more about contemporary learning modalities to effectively aid your employees development, take a look at Aberdeen’s Best Practices for Providing Employees with Knowledge They Can Apply Today.
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