The Importance Of Employees Creating Training And The Role Of L&D
With all the authoring tools and eLearning examples available to us, it's easy to overestimate what a self-paced module should include in order to be impactful. If it helps to achieve a higher order learning outcome, we should definitely invest time in creating interactive elements and using more sophisticated technology.
However, not all training needs or deserves the same level of design complexity.
Training courses with "knowing" and "remembering" outcomes are great candidates for employee-generated content. Employee-generated content has several benefits for a Learning & Development team and the whole organization:
- Allows the design process to move at a faster pace. The L&D team can shift their attention from creating content to shaping learning moments. This also means the information from the course can be distilled sooner and reach learners the moment when they need it.
- Shifts the perspective of L&D from bottleneck to consultant or coach. Instead of having to wait for their project to be prioritized by L&D, SMEs can start whenever they're ready and use L&D as a resource for learning what makes a training effective.
- Helps the L&D team scale their design efforts and focus on more complex topics. Instead of taking on every request that stakeholders bring to them, L&D teams can put time into the higher order training modules, while still meeting stakeholders' needs.
- Gives Subject Matter Experts the opportunity to develop professionally and share their knowledge. This breaks down information silos and gives SMEs a whole new set of skills.
HubSpot's Initiatives To Facilitate Employee-Generated Content
Because in HubSpot we see the value of employee-generated content as part of our L&D strategy, we've launched a few initiatives:
Self-Paced Content Partnership - For some of our courses, we use an authoring tool called Articulate Rise. It's an easy to use authoring platform from the creators of Storyline, which enables authors to create responsive, engaging learning experiences in a short period of time. We bought a few extra seats in our Articulate Team account to lend to different employees interested in creating training. Subject Matter Experts enroll in a short eLearning course to learn more about creating learning outcomes and designing assessments, and then they're able to use Rise to put together courses quickly for their teams.
Space For Social Learning - Our Learning Management System, Docebo, has a social learning component which enables each department to have its own learning space within the platform, called a channel. Employees can upload almost any type of file to the channel; they can also like, comment, and share with their peers. What results is a searchable database of created and curated materials that are available to their team anytime, anywhere. Apart from the learning assets, our leadership partners have especially loved the ability to create short videos with updates to processes and store team communications in one place.
Train The Trainer Program - In the next few weeks, we will be launching a Train the Trainer program with modules on both facilitation and Instructional Design. The goal of the program is to connect participants with our resources and mentorship to create a community of trainers and designers globally. The program will include synchronous and asynchronous components, with opportunities for learners to practice and discuss what they've learned. One example of this is a Film Club where participants can upload a project they've been working on or a recording of a training, and then get feedback from their peers and L&D. We'll also be recognizing employees as they grow their skills in this field, rewarding them with additional responsibility in the group, the chance to facilitate training (for new hires), and inclusion in our Self-Paced Content Partnership.
Since launching these initiatives, we've been able to shift the view of L&D within our organization from a slow-moving order taker to an agile business partner. We've been able to build relationships with Subject Matter Experts and we spend our time coaching and consulting on smaller projects so that we have more time to design larger projects. In turn, this shift in focus decreases the time it takes to release a project to learners and increases our team's credibility.
Gone are the days when L&D was a middle-man—now we can focus on being a true partner.
