Organisations cannot afford for their workforces to stop learning. Constant technological advances, market changes and increasing regulatory compliance obligations, drive a need to constantly develop any business’s human capital. But learning and development leaders report that they face some knotty challenges in building positive learning cultures, in which employees see extending their knowledge and skills as an integral part of their work and are keen to keep learning individually and collectively.
The design of learning has a big part to play in its attractiveness to employees. As a minimum, online courses should be intuitive to navigate, easy to stop and resume and with tightly-focused content. But those are just hygiene factors. To encourage people to incorporate learning into their work regimes they must positively want to do it.
By some calculations 2020 was the year that the cohorts born after 1982, known as Millennials and Gen Z, made up a majority of the global workforce for the first time. These generations grew up with sophisticated digital interfaces and interactive programming. For them, training that relies on screen after screen of stock photos and plodding text punctuated by the occasional multiple-choice question, can appear as old-fashioned and unengaging as a dull “chalk and talk” presentation. Employees who grew up in the age of online gaming and user-generated content expect more involvement and stimulation from a learning platform. And gaming may provide part of the answer.
Applying game mechanics and techniques to courses enlivens the learning experience. Awarding points and tokens for success, challenges to pass from one level to another even introducing competition between learners, helps draw them into the experience. Even for those who are not native gamers, the challenge and reward that gamified learning offers is more likely to immerse them in the material, aid retention of the information and to incentivise them to integrate regular learning into their routines. For the learning and development specialist, gamification makes analysing patterns of engagement with course elements easy, as well as boosting completion rates.
Though course design is one important way to make learning more attractive to employees, another is to actively sell the benefits of continual learning – pre-empting the “What’s in it for me?” question. Explaining the boost that taking advantage of continuous development and upskilling opportunities gives to an individual’s employability and chances for promotion within the business provides an obvious incentive to learn.
Another challenge cited by learning leaders is proving to the business that their strategies are adding value and supporting organisational goals. How ever learning strategies are delivered it is not good enough to just hope that they are generating positive results. Post-course evaluation is essential, gaining feedback from learners and, where relevant, their supervisors, on the impact of courses and whether or not it drives improved performance and job satisfaction.
In a time of post-pandemic flux, organisations are experimenting with new flexibility over where employees work. A strong online learning platform can support hybrid working, since employees should be able to access courses equally well from their laptops or mobile phones at home as in the office. But the potential risks of mixing home and office work – such as weakening team identity and an individual sense of detachment from the organisation – mean there may be a new incentive to blend face-to-face team-based sessions with solo online learning in the new hybrid workplace.
Whatever their work patterns, time spent building employees’ engagement with organisational learning is time well invested.
If you enjoyed this article, then join NEBOSH on their latest webinar with 3B Training on ‘How do you create engaging health and safety training that delivers real impact?’ Thursday 25th August @1pm UK time, BST. Register for your free place now by simply clicking here
Alternatively, catch up with NEBOSH at Learning Live, visit them on stand 36
About the author: Ian Cooke:
Ian is Head of Corporate & Consumer Services at NEBOSH and has a background in business management, health and safety and education. Ian is an experienced and qualified 9001 and 45001 lead auditor, experienced trainer across numerous awarding bodies, universities and has delivered within the UK and Internationally.
He is an experienced consultant specialising in management systems, incident investigations and chemical safety. Ian has managed large projects and led consultancy and learning design teams to deliver a range of occupational health and safety programs for large global organisations. Ian is particularly passionate about his work in developing effective in-company training and using technology to enhance the human elements that remain key to successful learning. Ian joined NEBOSH as their Head of Corporate & Consumer Services in 2021.
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