Why A Digital Learning Strategy Is Crucial For Success

Why A Digital Learning Strategy Is Crucial For Success
ASDF_MEDIA/Shutterstock.com
Summary: Most people learn from a variety of informal sources. Organisations are re-thinking their Learning and Development strategy with a view to incorporate more digital components to create a culture for continuous learning. That is called a digital learning strategy.

Digital Learning Strategy: Can It Lead You To Success?

How do you learn every day? Do you Google for answers or watch YouTube for a step-by-step tutorial?

A digital learning strategy involves learning by using digital assets such as videos, online courses, blogs, podcasts, articles and so on. In order to stay current in a dynamic workplace, it is important to keep learning all the time. For businesses to survive the digital age, they need to understand why a digital learning strategy is crucial for success.

Having a variety of digital asset types considers all the different ways people prefer to learn. You may like to complete a multi-week online course, while someone else may prefer watching a TED-talk. IBM has found that participants learn 5 times more material in online learning courses using multimedia content than in traditional face to face courses. Online learning caters to the different styles of learners, be they visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners. Adult learners do not like to be lectured to. They want to be engaged with the learning content and even participate in the learning process.

What Benefits A Digital Learning Approach Offers To Your Organization

By implementing a digital learning strategy, it provides learning to all learners and not just the chosen few. Many companies spend most of their training budgets on high-performing individuals and managers, neglecting to develop the rest of the employees. A digital strategy helps to reach all employees and provides the company with a competitive advantage. Research shows that two out of three workers quit due to a lack of training and development opportunities. Employees will likely stay in a company who value investment in their people.

Technology is enabling personalised learning, which is a key factor in helping people integrate learning with work. People want to learn the skills that will help them do their work better and not waste their valuable time learning what they don’t need. Traditional classroom training is not only impractical, but it can be boring too. Old methods of learning will not be effective in building skills for the future.

Imagine learning as part of your work day, where “nuggets” of information will pop up on your mobile or office device, giving you a quick 2-minute lesson on how to get a specific piece of work or project done. These pop-ups offer you instant learning and information related to the task at hand. The knowledge acquired is applied on the spot, and this helps learners retain the information more efficiently. With the rise of learning technologies such as chatbots, Augmented Reality and gamification, employees are encouraged to be the leaders of their professional development every day. Rather than dictating what your employees should learn, having a digital learning strategy enables employees to learn at their own time and own pace throughout the day.

Adopting A Digital Learning Approach In The Era Of Industrialisation

A digital learning strategy is also part of a company’s digital transformation strategy. Forward-thinking companies are taking a proactive role in adapting to the age of automation, digitalisation, and innovation. Developing the right skills that correspond to the needs of the changing economy is essential to helping companies survive the next wave of industrialisation. While no one knows for sure what skills are needed for the future, we have to change our mindset on how Learning and Development should be. Companies can create environments where employees are continuously learning new skills, where upskilling and re-skilling themselves are happening at the same rate that things are changing in the corporate world. Learning should be part of the work they do and not something separate from work. Implementing a digital learning strategy help employees stay competitive for the sake of your business and build the skills they need for now and the future.

Let's Talk Numbers

Furthermore, a report estimated that by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be Millennials bringing new demands to the workplace. Being a largely native digital generation, Millennials are savvy with mobile technology, social media and thrive on being connected. They are constantly learning with microlearning at their fingertips and recognise the impact of continuous learning on their personal and professional growth. This group of learners value flexibility in their schedule and expect to have learning as a top priority in the companies they work at. Inculcating a culture of learning via a solid digital learning strategy focuses on building the skills of employees and motivates employees from the beginning to take charge of their career.

Conclusion

People cannot be forced into learning. While you can make them sit in a mandatory compliance training class or make them click through an online course, you cannot force them to learn or remember knowledge. By making available the right tools for learning, employees will have at their disposal, an array of learning opportunities, to get figure out how best to execute their daily tasks. This, in turn, leads to a more self-directed and autonomous workplace where people can dedicate time to constantly improving the work they do, resulting in better efficiency and productivity overall.

Truly great companies are putting together a digital learning strategy to help their employees learn, gain expertise and build skills. Rather than asking employees to drop everything and attend training or learn a new skill, structuring a digital learning strategy as part of work offers opportunities to learn and re-learn all the time. This gives them a competitive advantage and projects a positive image of their company as one who truly values the talents and skills of their employees. As a McKinsey report states, “to be meaningful and sustainable, we believe that digital should be seen as less of a thing and more a way of doing things”, this sums up why a digital learning strategy is crucial for success in the digital age.

Originally published on April 11, 2019