When employees have an optimal learning experience, organizations benefit, as well as individual learners. With mass numbers of companies switching to a remote training model for employees, it’s more important than ever that companies ensure learners are getting the most from corporate training. This helps companies get a good ROI for their investment in training. By improving how your workforce learns, this is an attainable goal.
3 Steps to Improving How Your Workforce Learns
Today, many workforces are dispersed. This has made it difficult for organizational leaders to manage corporate training. Here are a few ways of improving how your workforce learns and promoting better business outcomes:
1) Embrace virtual learning
The single best way of improving how your workforce learns is by embracing virtual learning. Forbes1 reported that “25% of all professional jobs in North America will be remote by the end of 2022, and remote opportunities will continue to increase through 2023.”
Because remote work isn’t going anywhere, it is essential that employers make corporate training remotely accessible to learners. A learning model (i.e., blended or in-person) that makes employees feel unsafe or infringes on their personal schedule is not conducive to effective learning. What’s more, it may encourage turnover. Entrepreneur stated,
“Employees who can perform their jobs remotely will look for employers that allow them to, even if partially, in hybrid-workplace settings. Those employees still need to be onboarded and develop new skills, so digital tools that enable online, asynchronous (at the learner’s convenience) learning are critical to capturing and transferring knowledge. On-demand training can also be combined with synchronous learning methods (e.g., in-person or live, online), such as when introducing new competencies and then performing live role-playing that puts skills into action.”
To embrace virtual learning, your company needs a digital learning strategy. An article by the Center for Creative Leadership3 suggested a few tips for creating a digital learning strategy that gets results:
- Use a “less is more” approach to corporate online learning
- Enlist the help of the C-suite when communicating the digital learning plan
- Put company leaders into teacher roles
- Design digital learning programs with users’ needs in mind
- Assign peer accountability partners to lessen feelings of isolation
The article also suggested measuring the impact of digital learning. “Measuring impact provides data that can be used to refine and strengthen your ongoing efforts and overall digital learning strategy,” it stated. “Metrics, including participation and outcomes, should be built in during the design of the learning initiative. You’ll want to be able to look back at how you adjusted your approach and what you did to keep the learning fire alive.”
LMS system features such as reporting and analytics make it easy to track the impact of online learning and ultimately improve how your workforce learns.
An LMS is the core aspect of an online, remote learning strategy. TOPYX LMS system is a full-featured LMS that enables companies to quickly deliver effective training to a dispersed workforce in a matter of days, not weeks. Learn more by requesting a free LMS demo of TOPYX Quick Start.
2) Gather and implement learner feedback
The value of corporate training has been proven over and over. Companies that offer onboarding programs and continued learning programs often experience better revenue, lower turnover, higher levels of employee and customer satisfaction, and better worker productivity. An article by Lorman4 boasted some impressive corporate training statistics. According to Lorman:
- Retention rates rise by 30% to 50% for companies with strong learning cultures
- 86% of millennials wouldn’t leave their current employer if training were offered
- The average annual cost for companies that experience issues around non-compliance is nearly $15 million, proving the immense value of compliance training
While corporate training is vital, it must be relevant and accessible to be truly valuable. Lorman pointed out that “91% (of employees) want their training to be personalized and relevant, 33% of U.S. workers say their current company-provided training doesn’t meet their expectations, and 1 in 3 employees say their organization’s training is out-of-date.” This indicates that much of the corporate training companies offer is not relevant.
The key to creating relevant employee training content is asking learners what they most want and need from a training program. Edgepoint Learning5 said,
“Many employers make the mistake of implementing company-wide training without considering the people that make up the company. Ask employees what they need to do their job better and what might make their work life easier and more satisfying. You may be surprised to hear what they have to say.”
Some organizational leaders fail to ask what it is learners need because they don’t have an efficient way to gather and use the data, particularly if they have hundreds or thousands of employees. An article by Sapling HR6 suggested a few tools for collecting employee feedback:
- New employee surveys
- Employee engagement surveys
- Pulse surveys
- Stay interviews
- Review sites
- Employee suggestion boxes
- Exit interviews
Sapling also recommended that organizational leaders get employee feedback directly from managers. The article stated,
“Managers are on the frontlines, privy to both formal and informal employee feedback,” a Sa article explained. “They’re hearing it during one-on-ones, in team meetings, and in water cooler conversations. They may also have gut feelings about what is driving satisfaction, retention, engagement, and productivity on their teams—and what is hindering it.”
By getting feedback from learners about what they need from their corporate training experience and making necessary changes to employee training programs, you will improve how your workforce learns.
3) Make corporate learning accessible
Making learning accessible to your workers is essential to improving how your workforce learns. No one is going to want to participate in corporate training that isn’t easy to access. Ideally, learners should be able to access training anywhere, anytime, from any device. LMS system features like mobile learning make this possible.
With the TOPYX LMS system mobile learning features, learners can access content on demand, regardless of location or time zone. All a user needs for a superior learning experience is an internet connection and a mobile device.
Just a few of the benefits of mobile learning include:
- Greater accessibility for all users - With mobile learning, corporate learners have the flexibility to train at their own pace and on their own schedule. This improves learner engagement.
- Reasonable costs - Mobile learning can lower the overall cost of training. This is because there are no added hardware or connectivity charges associated with mobile learning as most employees already own smartphones or tablets.
- Increased productivity - Mobile learning provides flexibility and freedom outside of office hours. This gives employees the ability to increase productivity in other areas of their work.
TOPYX LMS users can seamlessly access training materials from either desktop or mobile device and collaborate with fellow teammates as they learn together or on their own. TOPYX LMS delivers a user experience with a responsive mobile design, supported on every mobile device.
TOPYX is compatible with all smartphones and tablets, including iPhone, iPad, and Android. It provides data and information protection through secure servers. Its swift, responsive user interactions with reliable uptime and significant server bandwidth make learning simple. Also, TOPYX LMS mobile learning will never incur added costs for your organization.
Accessibility to corporate training doesn't just boost learner engagement. It also widens the talent pool, according to the Association for Talent Development.7 An article by ATD8 stated,
“Giving workers opportunities for learning and development improves work performance, increases loyalty and engagement, and increases profits. It is in everyone’s best interest if those programs are usable by as many people as possible. The more accessible the learning content, the greater the talent pool will be.”
If you need help improving how your workforce learns, improve the accessibility of your corporate training program.
TOPYX LMS System Improves How Your Workforce Learns
By embracing digital learning, getting and using feedback from learners, and making corporate training accessible, organizational leaders can improve how their workforce learns. TOPYX LMS system makes it easy for administrators to create and implement a digital learning strategy, and make it accessible to a dispersed workforce. Request a free LMS demo of TOPYX to learn more.
References
2) Entrepreneur. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/398813.
3) Center for Creative Leadership. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/6-strategies-to-make-digital-learning-work/.
4) Lorman. https://www.lorman.com/blog/post/39-statistics-that-prove-the-value-of-employee-training.
5) Edgepoint Learning. https://www.edgepointlearning.com/blog/get-employees-excited-about-training/.
6) Sapling HR. https://www.saplinghr.com/blog/8-ways-to-collect-employee-feedback.
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