How Does Google Approach Learning?: Three Lessons for the Frontline Industry
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We're swinging into December with another edition of Training the Frontline, your new favorite source for all things frontline training.
As brands head into the busiest/most wonderful time of the year, we're bringing you the latest industry updates, taking a deep dive into how Google does learning and development, and offering you another exclusive webinar invite (lucky you!)
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Deep dive ??: Three lessons from Google's learning and development strategy
Maybe you knew that Google was the?second most valuable brand in the world. But did you know that they ranked first place on Fortune’s annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” 8 times in 11 years, and held onto the title consecutively for 6 of those years???
The two - their success and their employees’ brand evangelism - are not mutually exclusive. When your workforce is engaged and motivated, they begin to feel part of a community and culture. These emotional ties are responsible for heightened productivity and loyalty - companies with engaged workforces?outperform others by 202%. They also produce output that’s of a higher quality, have increased sales productivity, lower absenteeism and increased profitability, among other things.
While Google’s success cannot be attributed to a single practice or initiative, it is, in part, owed to their attitude towards learning. Google approaches employee learning?as a right?regardless of role, tenure or level.
"Organizations that embrace a culture of learning create an environment that encourages curiosity and knowledge sharing,?which in turn leads to better business outcomes." - Karen May, VP at Google
They know that in order to attain the success of the whole, the success of each individual must first be secured. And this is achieved by empowering them with the knowledge they need to perform at their very best, in an ongoing, sustained way.
Though the majority of Google's workforce is desk-based, their approach is one that the frontline industry can (and must) learn from if they are to overcome key challenges such as retention.
So, here are three key lessons for frontline businesses to take away from Google's learning philosophy.
1. Learning is a process, not an event
"Learning involves motivation, rework, practice, practice, practice, and feedback."
Google advocates that learning is ongoing, or at least, must be if you desire to succeed organizationally. It’s never a finite destination - but a continuous journey. It cannot be relegated to one-time events, like workshops and seminars. These are costly and ineffective in terms of knowledge retention - it’s known that learning is only committed to long-term memory if it is repeated at spaced intervals (known as?the spacing effect).
Continuous learning should be embraced not only because it’s what millennials (who in 5 years will make up?75% of the workforce) value in an employer - research by Gallup found opportunities to grow and learn to be millennials’ most valued attribute in prospective places of work - but because it is an essential step in future-proofing your company.
2. Learning happens in real life
"The goal at Google is to provide the right learning to the right people, at the right time."
Just-in-time or on-demand learning is integral to Google's learning culture - they call this learning 'in real life'.
The average working person has just?4 minutes a day?to learn. And if you consider the fact that traditional methods of employee training - workshops and the like - were never really impactful (research shows that it can take?as little as an hour?for people to forget 50% of what they heard) it’s clear a new workaround must be found, one better adapted to a new world where time and attention is at a premium.
That's where microlearning comes in - condensing information into relevant, digestible 2-5 minute chunks ensures that training is better retained, and more engaging. Google has enshrined the principles of microlearning into their learning culture in the form of 'Whisper courses'.
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3. Learning is personal
"We have the opportunity in people development to study how Googlers learn, and you know by now we study pretty much everything, and that helps shape our work."
Google’s third belief is that everyone learns differently. Not only do no two people enjoy learning in the same way, but what they need to know inevitably varies based on their role and level.?However you have chosen to disperse learning content, the bottom line is that it should incorporate different mediums and activities, to accommodate different peoples’ preferred ways of learning.
Another essential step in creating a more tailored and personal journey for individual learners is analysis. After any learning material is circulated, the results should be considered. Only through data analysis can knowledge gaps for future learning be more easily identified, allowing you to personalise learning experiences.
A way to automate this learning personalisation process to an extent is to set triggers, which when set off, disperse relevant learning. For instance, if you are a ride-hailing company and a driver’s rating slips below a certain predetermined threshold, they are immediately sent what they need to know to raise ratings without further intervention from you.
Extra reading ??
Is SCORM Dead?: The Future of SCORM and SCORM Alternatives
The learning technology industry has come a long way since the arrival of SCORM in 2000. While new solutions have enabled the creation of adaptive, flexible and user-friendly training content, SCORM remains trapped in the age of Flash animations and static, one-way learning.?
So why is SCORM still a must-have for so many learning and development teams? Is there a better way to deliver training to the modern worker? Find out in our latest blog.
How to Reduce Turnover and Retain Employees in Manufacturing
Like many industries, manufacturing is still feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and faces a variety of issues ranging from supply chain disruption to meeting Net Zero goals.?However, arguably the most pressing problem is?the skills gap,?with up to?85%?of businesses struggling to recruit and hold onto the best talent available.?
It’s therefore imperative that manufacturing companies utilize the options available to them to reduce turnover, retain employees, and hold onto the talent at their disposal.?Read this blog to find out what those options are.
Join the conversation ???
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Join our LIVE webinar next week where we'll be demoing the new eduMe + 微软 Teams integration, and showing how easy it now is to create and deliver bitesize training content to your frontline teams.
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We were lucky enough to join our partners at Beekeeper at their recent Frontline Success Summit, leading a talk on 'Flexible learning & development for the frontline' ??
Our Founder & CEO, Jacob Waern , was joined by APC Overnight 's HR Director, Corina Forman , who shared so many invaluable insights into fostering an engaged and informed frontline workforce. We highly recommend watching back the recording to learn from her 30 years of expertise in the sector.
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Want even more insights into the world of frontline training? Head to?edume.com?for more free resources ??