Why Implement Adaptive Learning During Onboarding
Onboarding has been an integral process in corporate organizations ever since the genesis of what we call the ‘corporate culture’. Also called organizational socialization, the process is something no organization, that is worth its salt, can dare dismiss. And for good reason. There’s no doubt that the onboarding process is imperative in order to integrate a new employee into an organization and familiarize them with the said organization’s culture. Modern-day onboarding in organizations now utilizes eLearning courses or modules, and thus eliminates the need of having dedicated staff to take onboarding sessions. However, eLearning or no eLearning, there’s a problem with onboarding that needs to be addressed. Here’s what.
As new employees are indoctrinated into the organizational culture, and ‘processed’ to become efficiently walking, talking, working robots, they lose their own identity. Of course, this happens only on an external basis, and employees carry the ‘façade’ of being the efficient robot their organization requires them to be only while at work, it is still harmful to both the employee as well as the organization.
How? Because with their identities, employees lose their unique perspectives which could have perhaps helped their organization. Not only that, but trying to be someone that you are not for the larger part of the day is psychologically draining, not to say extremely depressing. And all of this if and when the employee actually complies with ‘the process’. Most of the times, employees are not able to maintain this ‘fake identity’, and as a result, either opt out of the organization themselves or are fired for not adhering to the organization's standards or expectations. Usually, it’s the former.
So, What's The Solution To This Conundrum?
Well, the solution lies in encouraging new employees to reveal their unique outlooks and nurture them. This can sound like an arduous task to take on, especially while onboarding, but one which will generate great ideas and result in employee engagement as well as satisfaction. As to the ‘how’ of it, this can be easily implemented using a form of eLearning known as ‘adaptive learning’.
Adaptive learning is actually an educational methodology that modifies the course content and its presentation based on an employee’s personality. Adaptive learning gets better with every interaction an employee makes, as it tailors the course according to the responses it gets, mapping an employee’s personality in a way. By personalizing eLearning courses for each new employee according to their personalities, knowledge is delivered in a way best suited to each new employee, which increases engagement and gets them up-to-speed quickly. Adaptive learning has been known to cut onboarding time into exactly half, thus making them into productive employees sooner. All of this, while making sure employees do not feel like robots being fed information and being expected to walk, talk and act a certain way.
Adaptive Learning + Blended Learning = The Ultimate Onboarding Tool
Of course, adaptive learning has to be coupled with certain other changes in organizational policies which allow for greater leeway in how employees conduct themselves, in order to ensure that the employees’ unique personalities and perspectives are not crushed while absorbing the organization’s culture. There’s a solution for that as well. Adaptive learning can be coupled with blended learning to make the ultimate onboarding tool. Blended learning can help personalize your training program even better, allowing organizations to fine-tune new employees according to their personalities, without draining them psychologically.
Creating such a corporate training program isn’t easy. It requires meticulous planning, a good L&D budget, as well as experts of the highest caliber in the fields of both eLearning and corporate training. Fortunately, there are various eLearning solution providers, which can help you facilitate this process, taking care of everything, every step of the way with your minimum to moderate involvement. The road to the future isn’t an easy one, but those that dare to walk it will find that it’s worth it.
