Encouraging Learning and Development in the Workplace

Today, many organisations seek to cultivate a learning culture in the workplace by communicating a clear vision, offering the right incentives to learn, and lots and lots of skills training. This framework is both fallacious and tricky. As the world of work evolves, responding to the vagary of technology and ever-increasing competition, so does the importance of lifelong learning and development.

Organisations must empower their employees with new resources to succeed in their positions while preparing them to accept additional duties that may be required.??

Just as every employee has their own unique personality and point of view, they also have different learning styles. To encourage a culture of continuing education, leaders need to be aware of these different learning styles and be prepared to accommodate them. The most commonly known learning styles are visual, aural, reading and kinetic. Each reacts to various stimuli during the learning and development process:

• Visual: Learn best through the use of charts and diagrams.
• Aural: Learn best by listening in the form of lectures and talks.
• Reading: Learn best by reading prepared written content.
• Kinetic: Learn best by practically completing activities and tasks.?

Accompanying these different learning styles should be part of an internal organisational growth plan. Using visual, audible, written, and physical learning materials will give every employee the greatest chance to improve their knowledge, resulting in a more satisfied and productive workforce, thereby benefitting the organisation.?

In addition to accommodating different learning styles, learning opportunities and interventions must offer the prospect of continual development and allow employees to determine the pace of their enrichment, giving them control over their educational path. There is growing consensus in the learning community for a reconfiguration of learning strategies and design learning approaches that appeal to them. To bring about a higher learner engagement, training approaches must not only be innovative but deployable quickly. Also, the solutions must offer the flexibility of quick updates.

Personalising learning at this scale can be difficult. However, the advancements in learning technology have allowed for automation, driving learners to engage with the proper learning the right way and at precisely the right time. Taking from the world of marketing automation, where marketing communications and activities are automatically triggered based on algorithms that provide deep segmentation of the audiences, learning engagement automation helps make adaptive learning achievable without massive administrative constraints, implementation and content development investments.

The pandemic has created critical challenges for almost every organisation and industry at large. Employees and learners across the world have been forced to adopt a socially distanced learning culture, making in-person learning rare. We have few options left in this unprecedented time to rapidly pivot to the world of distributed work, virtual learning, and remote training solutions. This has resulted in the rapid adoption of many innovative instructional strategies previously adopted at a slow pace. In this challenging pandemic period, micro-learning has proven more advantageous than ever before.?

"Micro-learning" is a top buzzword in the learning and development community. Unlike conventional learning and training methods, microlearning is faster, smarter and bite-sized, providing numerous benefits to the modern workforce. It is niche learning referring to an educational opportunity that focuses on small concepts. An example of this is upskilling an employee on connecting with the mobile generation. This knowledge is critical as an ever-increasing number of Millennials and Gen Z employees work remotely or in a hybrid environment. Since the modern workforce comprises of three or four generations, a one-size-fits-all approach to employee upskilling is antiquated.??

We live in a world of a plethora of distractions, and dwindling attention spans and learning strategies must be updated to offset these challenges. Among the challenges faced by learning and development professionals are:

• Limited attention spans.
• The Forgetting Curve.

Advocates of the 90/20/8 rule have made fascinating observations about human attention spans and how they are changing. According to this rule, people are completely alert and attentive in the first 8 minutes. Once a 20-minute period has elapsed, their attention level starts showing a dip. Once they hit the 60–120-minute range, the alertness level completely drops.

The "Forgetting Curve" hypothesises that humans forget nearly 80% of what they learn in 30 days if there is no reinforcement.

Even more concerning is that if the findings of a study by Microsoft are believed, the human attention span is currently a mere 8 seconds, which is lesser than that of a goldfish.?

Regardless, one thing is clear; the human attention span is rapidly dwindling.?

These challenges are very real and must be addressed for learning to be impactful and sought-after, easy to apply on the job and show a demonstrable gain that organisations want to see.?Today's employee wants the flexibility to learn on the go. That is, pieces of training must run on their smartphones and tablets. Content must be fun, short, practical and packaged for easy application on the job.?

As the name suggests, micro-learning is learning in micro-bites. It is a short learning nugget or chunk that a learner would typically complete in under five minutes to achieve a specific learning outcome. While micro-learning nuggets can be used for formal and informal learning, they are used more often for just-in-time learning purposes and as a performance support tool. They offer compatibility across multiple devices and appeal to employees because of the rich media format that is used.

Micro-learning delivers content to online learners through multiple short training courses or modules. This gives employees the flexibility to complete the online training when they have time and where they feel a particular need. Furthermore, micro-learning in onboarding offers new hires the information they need without overwhelming them. It is the way to be sure they will embrace the organisation's corporate culture and reach their potential sooner rather than later.?

It is crucial for employees to keep up with the pace of societal and technological developments. Since rapid technology advancements impact all industries, employees equipped with diverse skills and competencies offer more innovation and value to employers than those whose learning has stalled. According to Adrian Ridner, CEO and co-founder of Study.com, “with the advent of technology and online learning, it is simpler and relatively inexpensive than ever to foster a culture of learning in the workplace.”

Some of the reasons why micro-learning-based training is gaining momentum are:

• Mobile Learning or mLearning is being increasingly used today.
• Micro-learning nuggets can be quickly developed and updated.?
• It offers the flexibility to be used for both formal and informal training requirements.
• It results in higher completion rates and, therefore, higher impact and transfer of learning.
• It is ideal for employees with low attention spans who are not used to the academic environment.

Most formal training interventions can be supplemented with micro-learning. Reinforcement provided in the form of micro-learning helps learners retain the learning offered to them through formal training. A key feature of micro-learning is that it supports learning and development professionals to neutralise the "Forgetting Curve" impact and nullify the attention span challenge.?

A perfect example of micro-learning is an eLibrary offering audio and eBooks to employees in bite-sized nuggets that appeal to millennials. However, the appeal extends beyond just the millennial generation, and takers of all learning profiles are found as they:

• Save employees time and offer them the advantage of completing the learning quickly.
• Offset the challenge of dwindling attention spans.
• It can be taken on the device of learners' choice.
• Need not be taken through a formal Learner Management System.?

An eLibrary offers the perfect blended learning mix for an organisation, complete with bite-sized eBooks, audio learning, online courses, and learning journeys. Short audio and eBooks are easy to internalise because employees can consume them easily in one go. They are available to learners precisely at the time of their need, and the wide variety of topics are designed to help employees on the job at the moment of their need. With an eLibrary of this nature, employees get a chance to apply their learning as they are doing their work. The transfer of information happens at the desired level and at the employees' own pace.?

The key benefits of micro-learning in the form of an eLibrary from the employee's perspective are that it is employee-centric. Micro-learning nuggets can be embedded in a learning path in a flexible way, letting employees choose what and when they want to learn, including selecting or using a device that is most suitable for them. They also appeal to employees' different learning styles and preferences and bring in an element of personalisation in the learning. It provides the much needed just-in-time learning and is a brilliant performance support tool that helps employees apply the learning precisely at the moment of their need.

It's a win-win as the benefits for the organisation are endless. To name a few:

• Affordable and agile. It has been proven that organisations bring down the learning and development cost by at least 50%, with micro-learning at a development speed of over 300%.
• Shorter development cycle. As micro-learning nuggets are short, building them does not take long. This short development cycle results in less expenditure and quicker organisation turnaround time. There are many off the shelf products and services that are available for purchase.??
• Easy to update. The short turnaround time benefit comes into play when updates have to be made to the nuggets as well. As they are short, it does not take long to fix/ update them, thereby providing organisations with an obvious advantage.
• High impact. As micro-learning nuggets help achieve a specific learning objective, they help create a high impact as employees learn precisely what they need.

Micro-learning, such as an eLibrary that is accessible on a mobile device, also facilitates sharing and collaboration in the workplace. As it is conducted often, learning can become a ''water-cooler conversation'', and something discussed more regularly. This is also further facilitated by its anywhere anytime nature. Furthermore, a study from?ShareThis revealed that users are three times more likely to share content via their iPhone versus their desktop, which encourages peer learning.?

Benefits aside, how can the use of micro-learning impact return on investment? Any learning strategy that can actively impact Recall, Retention and Application will positively impact the return on investment. Micro-learning approaches appeal to employees and lead to high completion rates and package content that can be used and applied precisely at the time of need. It is designed to meet the mandates of knowledge acquisition, application, and behavioural change, so micro-learning-based training will help establish a clear value for the organisation and return on investment.?

Kirkpatrick's model of evaluation has four levels of evaluation:

• Level 1 – Learner reaction. For example, was the course relevant, useful and worth their time??
• Level 2 – Learning. For example, did the course increase skill knowledge and meet the required cognition level?
• Level 3 – Application of learning. For example, was there a performance improvement or change in behaviour based on the learning??
• Level 4 – Business impact. For example, was there a tangible and demonstrable value after the training??

Micro-learning directly impacts Levels 1 and 2 respectively. As a derived gain, it impacts Levels 3 and 4, thereby resulting in a positive return on investment in training. This reason is compelling enough to integrate the technique into any learning strategy.?

Implementing micro-learning also demonstrates the identification of digital trends and an understanding of how digital content is currently being consumed. In deploying micro-learning, an employer is saying, "I recognise bite-size learning is the appropriate solution for today's employee." Consequently, an employee appreciates that their organisation is progressive and looking towards the future. For example, using micro-learning for onboarding, especially on mobile, demonstrates immediately to a new employee that this is a company focused on values such as innovation, progression and relevance.?

Micro-learning starts to build a culture of excellence in an organisation. Organisations that help employees build good continuous learning habits outperform competitors, innovate faster and respond better to changing market conditions. Implementing a micro-learning content strategy effectively boosts knowledge retention and fits learning into workflows. It makes employees feel valued and appreciated, demonstrates that the organisation is innovative, creates a learning culture, builds employee confidence and inclusive cultures.?Research from Deloitte?shows that inclusive work cultures are six times more innovative and creative and are twice as likely to meet strategic objectives and exceed financial targets. This is attributed to the fact that inclusive culture values create a workplace environment for employees to bring their whole selves to work. For example, introducing inclusion-friendly micro-learning content on unconscious bias may help to foster self-awareness, or how training on responding to different generations in the workplace could improve communication between employees and teams. Employee collaboration and peer learning are encouraged by practising new skills, engaging with peers, and testing learning in a practical, real-life environment to measure impact.

The frequency of micro-learning helps employees expand their knowledge and create a habit of lifelong learning. Employees can be incentivised upon completion in the form of mastery, which can go towards a reward and recognition scheme. They can be encouraged to share their results and learning, which fosters a culture of transparency and increases employees' sense of alignment with the organisation and ultimately increases employee engagement.

Micro-learning is ongoing throughout the employment, instead of the traditional training ''task''. Learning and development become a daily or weekly habit. The frequency of this learning style results in a learning culture remaining top of mind. Employees are also more willing and open to learning new skills as they are continually in a learning mindset. Bite-sized chunks of learning at a higher frequency highlight the value of employee development. The addition of leader boards and competitions will help foster a culture of transparency that strengthens employees' sense of alignment with the company and ultimately increase motivation and engagement levels in the workplace.

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Change is inevitable in the present competitive world of business and happens rapidly. If an organisation is not learning and is not working to gain new knowledge and skills, it will always be competitive. If an organisation consistently improves and gains new knowledge, it can quickly adapt to change and remain a forerunner amidst the competition. The primary rationale for such organisations is that in situations of rapid change, only those who are flexible, adaptive, and productive will excel. For this to happen, organisations need to tap into an employees' commitment and capacity to learn at all levels.?