Tame your Large Scale Training Solution with Learner Journey Mapping

Training for large organisations can feel overwhelming. There are multiple modes of delivery, online, offline, face-to-face, print, e-learning, video and more. The audience groups may be hugely disparate in job function, location, timezone and so on.

How then can we ensure that we deliver effective training in such a complex environment?

By mapping the learner throughout their journey and selecting the most effective touchpoints at each phase.

Awareness

How many mandatory corporate training courses have you been notified about that were a generically ignorable email sent via an LMS platform?

Ask yourself:  How can I capture the attention and spark interest in my audience?

This often overlooked step is critical in ensuring your learners start their journey on the right foot.

Map out the channels you can leverage to drive awareness including email, print and digital signage, word of mouth, showcases, internal websites. Then look how each audience group can be reached via these channels.

Motivate

Going back to said generic mandatory training email notification, I recall it mentioned something along the lines of “You must complete this training by X date”. This was followed up with a prod from people managers.

We can do better than this!

Let’s explain to our audiences why the training is relevant for them and for the organisation. Let’s get clever with utilising our various communication channels to motivate our learners.

List the various ways that you can inspire and engage. Internal social media groups are a fantastic way to build an online community. Create an elevator pitch to outline the benefits of your training. Communicate regularly with positive messages that drive home the “what’s in it for me?”

If you’ve done these first to steps right you should have a large cohort of eager beavers ready to jump in and learn.

Learn

Your manager pestered you enough that you finally summoned the desire to log onto that online course about said generic topic- was it OH&S or Security? Bored, you click through and correctly answer the obvious multiple choice questions except for the one that says “is it a, b or c, b, c or d, b or f...”

Ask yourself: how can my learner have a better experience?

What mode of training will be most effective given my business and timeline constraints? Do I use a mixture of eLearning and face-to-face? Can I simplify the content to be a quick article or infographic? If it’s a system or tool can I provide a training environment or simulation that accurately mirrors their real experiences?

Transfer/Apply

Now that I’ve finished my <insert generic course> with multiple choice questions, do you think that there is any follow up to ensure that I can apply this information?

Remember: learning only occurs if the learner can actually achieve the competency that you are aiming to embed.

It is therefore critical to ensure that your assessment activities truly reflect the tasks that your learner is required to complete.

Also critical and often forgotten is ongoing support. During and after a large IT system implementation I ran “talk to us” sessions where users could dial in and ask questions. Callers in large organisation are often extremely grateful to have someone to talk to directly.

Furthermore you can leverage inbound questions to identify knowledge gaps and frequently asked questions, which will enable you to identify new opportunities to drive learning and behaviour.

Advocate

When I mention advocacy, I’m not talking about an executive leader spending big dollars on <generic eLearning course> then ensuring all the people managers support it.

We should aim to boost advocacy across all levels.

The leadership team being supportive in providing the influence and financial backing required to achieve endorsement, visibility and engagement.

The core project team spreading their passion.

A select group of influential and motivated champions who act as an interface between the learning team and the audience.

And finally… the ultimate advocacy should come for the learners themselves as they share their positive experiences with their peers. 

Would love to hear your challenges and solutions, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.