Learners Desire More And Deserve Better
Employee learning has become increasingly significant in the past decade, making it crucial to develop a well-rounded Learning and Development (L&D) program and improve it continuously. Nowadays, information has the highest value, and technology changes rapidly. Hence, workers’ skills must keep up with the pace of change.
Companies often believe it’s enough to introduce a school-like training, expecting different departments to sit together and listen to monotonous lectures. However, employees aren’t eager to learn content that isn’t tailored to their job roles. Your learners desire more and deserve better. Financial analysts will likely not find marketing workshops helpful and perceive them as a waste of time. That’s why it’s essential to avoid one-size-fits-all formulas and consider what program is suitable for specific positions and functions.
Nevertheless, traditional L&D training no longer has the same effect. It’s time to leverage tech and enable employees to participate regardless of their geographic location. For example, the eLearning market will likely reach $320 billion by 2025. Business leaders know that physical classes and outdated methods aren’t suitable for the post-pandemic era and a new generation of employees. But even eLearning must be beautiful, relevant, engaging, and tailored to the needs of your staff. Here’s everything you should know about it, and about how to develop custom programs.
What Is eLearning?
eLearning represents a learning system that educators and facilitators conduct via digital devices and resources. This formalized educational approach provides a more inclusive experience because it enables learners to join remotely. Companies typically use webinar tools, video channels, and online learning platforms to develop eLearning programs and ensure smooth interaction and knowledge transfer. Even though you can blend it, it mostly unfolds in a digital setting, requiring a stable internet connection, computers, and other relevant assets.
This learning model allows educators to share lessons with people in different locations, making it a stellar solution for telework and hybrid work. However, HR professionals often question its ability to deliver a human-centric experience. Although eLearning eliminates or reduces the physical presence of participants, it isn’t necessarily detached or isolating. Learners can still meet each other, share insights, and interact in videos and team chats.
Thus, L&D teams can blend eLearning with in-person training to make it more diverse and appeal to participants who learn better face-to-face. The goal is to consider what would work best for the people in your company and provide a custom solution.
How Is Custom eLearning Different From Regular Online Training?
eLearning is more accessible than traditional approaches, but most employees want a more personalized experience suitable for their needs. For instance, not every worker can join the online workshop or video meeting when their team can. Therefore, it’s necessary to adjust and ensure everyone can participate.
Custom eLearning means tailoring the program to different departments, job roles, and employees. It requires a deeper understanding of your workers’ abilities, ambitions, and difficulties. Not everyone has the necessary resources to join the training, and some might need specialized workshops. However, custom eLearning is more inclusive. It enables you to adjust the program schedule, content, and approach to individual employees’ needs.
Custom eLearning also allows you to address unique business goals and prepare staff for specialized projects and tasks. It’s more flexible than standardized online learning and makes it easier to encourage people to participate.
Over 91% of employees want personalized training and memorize better when the content targets their job roles and career paths. Moreover, custom eLearning leverages various educational methods and channels, allowing experimentation to thrive. As a result, you can reduce one-on-one coaching and create a program that gathers learners who share similar needs and objectives. This improves team collaboration and helps employees connect.
Custom eLearning Training Benefits
Custom eLearning has numerous benefits for companies and employers, but the following are the top five:
1. Employee Retention Boost
74% of consumers experience frustration when receiving content that has nothing to do with their interests. That also reduces the odds of loyalty and repeat purchases. Learners are not much different. Your employees want to learn things that resonate with their job roles and help them reach their professional goals.
If you deliver a program that is irrelevant to their needs, they will likely become demotivated and wonder whether you genuinely care about their growth. In the worst case, employees could look elsewhere, hoping to work with an employer that provides personalized L&D programs.
On the other hand, custom eLearning training appeals to their specific needs and helps them advance and obtain relevant skills. This makes them happier about staying with your company and leaving a positive review.
2. Individual And Team Productivity Increase
It’s essential to consider individual and team needs equally. After all, both have unique goals and strive to adopt relevant knowledge.
Consider what your teams need to progress and improve their performance when creating eLearning programs. Treat them as individuals and tailor training to their expectations and ambitions. For example, social media teams might like to increase their copywriting skills or engagement. Provide content that helps them achieve this and consider their individual needs.
Some employees might join workshops at different hours or prefer other learning methods than their teammates. Meet everyone’s needs equally as that will improve their performance and team dynamics.
3. Helps Reduce Frequent Mistakes
Training helps employees obtain new knowledge and competencies and teaches them to avoid frequent mistakes and turn the ones they do make into lessons. For example, if your teams continuously fail to deliver projects timely, it isn’t enough to provide them solely with task-related skills to boost their performance. Also create workshops that help with time management and procrastination. Otherwise, the L&D program could fail to prevent critical mistakes that slow down team productivity.
4. Employee Engagement Increases
Over 60% of workers say the ability to do what they do best in their job role is beyond significant. It helps them with engagement, retention, and performance. People require continuous stimulus to enjoy their jobs and understand how external factors impact their industry. That’s why personalized training is essential for nurturing their passion and keeping them interested in their job roles.
5. Internal Mobility Improvement
Custom eLearning is a stellar way to offer upskilling and reskilling opportunities and encourage internal mobility. Instead of looking outside, you can develop your existing employees and help them transition to different job roles.
Thus, personalized training can show them other possibilities in your company and spark interest in another position or department. Employees can also obtain relevant skills and knowledge with a method tailored to their learning style and abilities.
How To Develop Efficient Custom eLearning
Efficient custom eLearning allows workers to take ownership of their learning process and choose a method and path that aligns with their needs, objectives, learning styles, resources, schedules, and interests. That’s why the first requirement training should meet is to help employees achieve their professional advancement goals.
However, career development is usually different for everyone. Some employees might want to improve or obtain specific skills, and others to transition to other job roles. It’s crucial to understand what the employees need and provide a suitable eLearning program. Start by helping employees identify what they want to achieve and where they see themselves in the future.
The next step is to develop digital training activities that align with their targets and provide the necessary means and support to reach their objectives. You can also combine workshops that focus on job-related knowledge with those that help employees grow beyond their current job roles.
1. Personalized Learning Paths
Encourage employees to decide their learning path using branching scenarios and interactive learning maps. They will also need stable support that keeps them on track and helps them maximize their potential, such as mentors. If an employee prefers to navigate eLearning on their own, direct them to Q&A forums, where they don’t have to interact with people if they don’t want to. Besides creating goal-oriented training, it’s crucial to provide a personalized learning path.
Efficient eLearning training consists of content tailored to each employee and their job role, goals, and needs. Avoid introducing workshops and lectures irrelevant to their job descriptions or that they already know.
Use a comprehensive Learning Management System enabling the assigning of different courses, lessons, and resources to specific employees. Allow them to select the content that resonates the most with their experience and competencies. Moreover, use microlearning and separate training into smaller learning units, allowing employees to choose what they find relevant for their goals. It prevents burnout and accelerates the memorization process.
2. Adjust eLearning To Different Learning Styles And Schedules
It’s also crucial to consider different learning styles when creating group training. Although every employee should reach the same understanding level, not everyone learns the same way. For example, some workers are visual learners, while others learn best through coaching. Stellar eLearning depends on catering to different needs and learning styles. Diversify your online training with podcasts, videos, infographics, quizzes, assessments, and case studies. Finally, make it accessible by adjusting schedules and ensuring everyone has time and opportunity to participate.
Conclusion
The accelerated transformation of technology and the rise of social media is making personalization nonnegotiable. As a result, customized experiences are becoming the norm, and learning is no exception. Employees want content and material tailored to their goals, needs, and preferences, making it crucial to customize your eLearning program and align it with their expectations. This gives them more control over their growth and learning path, increasing engagement, productivity, and retention.
