How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI

My free eBook, How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI, is designed to help you understand the value in adopting Personalized eLearning.

It additionally provides insights on how it can be used to craft learning experiences that are relevant and engaging. As an extension, they provide demonstrable gains for learners and businesses, leading to a higher ROI.

How Will the eBook Help You?

eLearning and, notably, Mobile Learning are fast becoming an integral part of an organization’s training delivery.

• Learners love the flexibility it offers (training on the go and on the device of their choice). Plus, they can consume it at the pace they are comfortable with.
• Organizations see a significant gain in being able to reach a wider audience with a consistent message and track the progress effectively.

With this gain comes an associated challenge. While eLearning or Mobile Learning enables organizations to reach a wider audience. The same program gets rolled out to a heterogeneous audience that may have differences on account of:

• Learner proficiency.
• The learner’s role.
• Learning style.

Personalization of eLearning is an effective approach to address this gap. It enables you to not only reach a wider audience but design more engaging, customized and highly relevant learning experiences.

Unlike the “one size fits all” approach, Personalized eLearning provides a far more immersive and meaningful learning experience to learners.

In this eBook, How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI, I outline how you can practically adopt Personalized eLearning for your varied corporate training needs with a focus on driving the employee performance as well as a higher ROI.

Do watch my webinar on the same topic – How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI.

Loaded with examples and live demos, this webinar will provide ideas that you can use to offer Personalized eLearning for your key training needs.

Table of contents of the eBook, How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI

The eBook is divided into 4 sections, and as is the case with my other eBooks, I use a Q&A based approach.

The key questions that I address are: 

1. What is Personalized eLearning?
2. What are the benefits of Personalized eLearning for the learners and the organization and how does it drive better performance?
3. How can Personalized Learning help L&D teams in the development of employees?
4. What are the learner’s needs and how can these be addressed through Personalized Learning?
5. Can all trainings be mapped to a Personalized Learning based approach?
6. What kind of trainings can leverage on the Personalized Learning based approach?
7. What are the other measures that can enhance the impact of Personalized Learning?
8. What are the techniques that you can use to offer Personalized Learning?

Here is the overview of the eBook:

Section 1: Personalized eLearning – Definition and Benefits

This section provides the definition of Personalized eLearning and lists the benefits it offers to the learners and the organizations (focusing on its ability to drive employee performance).

Section 2: How Personalized Learning Enhances the Development of Your Employees

This section provides insights on how L&D teams can leverage on Personalized eLearning to drive employee performance.

Section 3: Adopting Personalized eLearning – 6 Questions Answered

This section is designed to be a micro guide and it features 6 questions that are likely to be on your mind as you plan to adopt Personalized eLearning.

These range from the value it offers and how exactly does it help. This section also outlines the kinds of trainings that can be Personalized and other supporting measures that will help you increase their impact further.

Section 4: Techniques You Can Use to Offer Personalized eLearning

This section outlines the various techniques or approaches that you can pick from to offer Personalized eLearning for your organization.

The Value and Impact of Personalized eLearning

Learner-centric approach: We are moving towards training delivery that empowers learners and provides them the requisite control. Personalized learning is a great learner-centric technique that provides a unique and custom learning experience to each learner. It also provides them the control to select the learning path based on his or her interest, existing knowledge, or the demands of his or her role.

Impact on ROI: On account of better motivation, higher engagement, improved completion rates, and increased application of the acquired learning, the usage of Personalized learning will show a better ROI on the training spend.

This is not all. It encourages a “pull” based consumption as well as self-directed, continuous learning and you can use this to eventually trigger behavioral change too.

I hope this eBook, How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI, will provide the required insights on how you can leverage on Personalized eLearning to drive employee performance and see a better ROI on your training spend.

Do download my eBook, How Can You Use Personalized eLearning to Drive Employee Performance and Achieve Higher ROI.

If you have any specific queries or would like to see how we can help you achieve your mandate, do contact me.

10 Content Curation Strategies for Corporate Training

The Internet may give us data in seconds, but this often requires us to go through a maze of options before we get what would work best for us. This gap can be addressed through Content Curation that provides users the curated or relevant information they seek.

The use of Content Curation for corporate training is on a steady increase and it is being leveraged by L&D teams to support formal training as well as informal training.

•  It is also a great booster for Self-Directed Learning.
• It enables organizations to mine their existing knowledge bank and ensure that selected, curated content can equip their learners with right information.

Take a look at this Infographic where we list 10 Content Curation strategies for eLearning that you can use to enhance the impact of your corporate trainings.

Content Curation enables L&D teams to offer highly relevant content to support their primary training. Its key value-adds are:

1. Content Curation provides a repository of relevant and meaningful resources that can be accessed easily from a central location.
2. It empowers L&D teams, Subject Matter Experts, and learners alike as they can play an active role in the process of Content Curation.
3. You can use the opportunity of Content Curation to motivate your learners and recognize the team members for their active contribution, usage, and recommendations.
4. Content Curation is a great way to foster a culture of continuous learning.
5. It encourages informal learning (just-in-time learning that is particularly useful for Performance Support intervention) and, more specifically, Self-Directed Learning.
6. Content Curation promotes inclusive learning and allows the knowledge base to be continuously enriched by learners’ contributions. (While this would need a team to audit the new resources, this would also keep the curated content dynamic, relevant, and aligned to what learners want).

Want to learn more? Reach out to us.

How Can You Use Personalized eLearning To Drive Employee Performance And Achieve Higher ROI

This eBook is designed to help you understand the value of adopting Personalized eLearning. Additionally, it provides insights on how it can be used to craft learning experiences that are relevant and engaging. As an extension, they provide the demonstrable gains for learners and businesses, leading to a higher ROI.

Please sign in to download the eBook

By signing in with LinkedIn, you're agreeing to create an account at elearningindustry.com and accept our terms of use and privacy policy.
Learn more about how we use LinkedIn.

Sign In with LinkedIn

Key Chapters

1. Personalized eLearning—Definition And Benefits What is Personalized eLearning, what are the benefits of Personalized eLearning for the learners and the organization, and how does it drive better performance? Besides providing a customized learning experience, can Personalized eLearning offer other benefits? 2. How Personalized Learning Enhances The Development Of Your Employees How can Personalized learning help L&D teams in the development of employees? What are the key benefits that Personalized learning experiences offer for the development of your employees? How can Personalized learning impact the development of your employees and how can you craft effective and Personalized learning experiences for your employees? 3. Adopting Personalized eLearning—6 Questions Answered What is the significance of Personalized learning for employee training? What do the learners want, and how can their needs be addressed with Personalized learning for employee training? How does Personalized learning benefit employees? Can all trainings be mapped to a Personalized learning-based approach for employee training? What kind of trainings would benefit from the usage of a Personalized learning-based approach for employee training, and what are the other measures that can enhance the impact of Personalized learning for employee training? 4. Techniques You Can Use To Offer Personalized eLearning What are the approaches to offer Personalized eLearning?

Infographic: Gamification Trends in 2020 | EI Design

Gamification for serious learning has been used for nearly a decade but there is still a question mark on its impact and ROI.

While “Have fun as you learn” resonates well with learners, these approaches are often looked at with skepticism by the corporates. Of the various myths associated with what Gamification can do/can’t do, here are the three I have encountered the most:

• Gamification in eLearning doesn’t really help learners learn. ​
• Gamification adds fun to learning but does not drive learner performance.
• Gamification appeals only to millennials.

The fact is that well-designed Gamification based trainings provide help to both organizations and learners at many levels.

We rank #1 in eLearning Industry’s list of Top 20 eLearning Gamification Companies for 2019!

We—as a top Gamification company—are here to help you implement Gamification strategies that will engage your employees better and drive performance gain.

Take a look at this Infographic where we list 5 key Gamification Trends in 2020, packed with tips and ideas you can use.

Gamification is a great strategy to provide an immersive learning experience. When designed well, it provides an engaging learner experience that is action-oriented, aligned to learning goals, and helps learners walk away with a sense of achievement.

We hope this Infographic provides you the right tips that you can use to increase the impact of Gamification based learning solutions in your organization.

Want to learn more? Reach out to us.

How to Enhance Your Leadership Training with eLearning

An organization’s success hinges on many factors. Good leaders drive performance by creating higher performing teams that generate better business results.

As a result, the leadership development training is a significant part of the overall training in most organizations. These trainings need to be designed to not only meet current business goals but also future goals. Well-designed leadership trainings increase employee engagement, enhance productivity, and improve retention levels. Most significantly, they help nurture talent as you ready the organization for its future goals. Without this investment, you will not have the strategic or competitive advantage.

None of us are born leaders, and the way to acquiring leadership skills is through multiple channels like:

• On-the-job (experiential) learning.
• Structured, formal learning.
• Semi-structured (Self-Directed) learning.
• Social or collaborative learning.
• Mentoring
• Coaching

In this article, I outline how you can use eLearning based training to enhance the impact of your leadership training.

I begin with a set of challenges associated with the design and delivery of leadership trainings and then show you how eLearning can come to your rescue.

Challenge 1: Too many things to do, too little time…

Given the business dynamics, leaders have a lot on their plate and there just isn’t enough time to invest on learning. But the bottom line is that in today’s fast-paced world, the need for continuous learning is essential to sustain success.

The answer lies in using techniques like eLearning to provide leadership trainings that enable them to effectively juggle between their jobs as well as find time to build or hone their leadership skills.

How eLearning would help: eLearning stands out as the preferred mode of learning on account of its strengths that mesh well with the way today’s learners want to learn. The key benefits eLearning offers for leadership training are:

1. It provides anytime, anywhere access.
2. It can be used to provide a personalized learning plan.
3. It offers learners the flexibility to move across devices (smartphones or tablets to laptops or desktops).
4. It is self-paced (provides control to the learner to drive the pace to learn).
5. It is available on demand.
6. It provides training and other learning resources at the time of need, within their workflow.

Additionally,

7. Once built, it can be easily deployed to reach a wider audience.
8. Provides a consistent messaging.
9. Can be updated easily and redeployed quickly.
10. Enables organizations to easily track the learning journey.

Furthermore, eLearning enables organizations to address the needs of a multi-generational workforce and factor for globalization challenges with ease.

Challenge 2: Once is not enough—I need more and often…

 Successful leaders make an ongoing investment on learning to stay ahead and lead by example. You cannot create leaders by investing on only discrete trainings during the year. Instead, there is a need to provide learning pathways that can connect with learners all through the year and equip them at many levels. They should also foster a spirit of continuous learning.

How eLearning would help: eLearning can be used to provide leadership trainings that will help employees as follows:

1. Offer bite-sized, action-oriented formal training that features multiple nuggets connected through a learning path.
2. Provide ongoing connects through nuggets for practice and mastery.
3. Reinforce acquired learning and avoid the “Forgetting Curve” from setting in.
4. Push challenges periodically to stimulate review or further learning.
5. Provide ongoing updates to keep them in sync with the latest info.
6. Recommend additional reading.

Challenge 3: One size does not fit all – How to address the multiple facets of leadership training

Leadership trainings aren’t for the senior talent alone. It needs to be offered at several junctures during their career and these training needs require different approaches at each level. Take a look at three key levels to see what is needed at each level.

1. Early to mid-career leadership training: This is aligned to early talent spotting and grooming them for Team Leads and entry-level managerial positions. The focus at this level is primarily on increasing self-awareness (helping them move from individual contributors to leads/managers) as well as how to motivate and build high-performing teams.
2. Mid-career leadership training: At this level, the focus shifts toward improving skills to lead larger teams (may include leading a business unit) and skilling them to understand organizational and business dynamics. At this level, they also need to be upskilled to craft business strategies. Here, training alone would not suffice and there must be provision for Social or Collaborative Learning, Coaching and Mentoring as well.
3. Senior-level leadership training: Given the position (Sr. Executive or CXO position), the training needs change dramatically. They now include complete business planning, competition analysis and business strategy, as well as aspects like innovation that are necessary for an organization to create and sustain a differentiator. At this level, the training needs to have a mix of formal learning and Self-Directed Learning. It also needs to have a blend of Coaching and Mentoring.

How eLearning would help: Although eLearning cannot address all the leadership training needs listed above, it can be certainly used to form the core.

1. You can design a learning and performance ecosystem to offer the leadership training. This will support a multi-modal approach and will go a long way in fostering a culture of self-directed and continuous learning.
2. Techniques like Microlearning can be used to create bite-sized and action-oriented learning nuggets that are connected through a learning pathway for each level.
3. You can leverage on Microlearning to offer highly personalized learning pathways (mapping to career pathways).
4. You can use the diverse formats of Microlearning (including Video Based Learning) to offer trainings that would resonate with learners at each level. These diverse formats can address different learning styles and the varied preferences of the multi-generational workforce.
5. They can have suitable interjections of other approaches like shadowing, collaborative learning, and coaching and mentoring to complete the spectrum.

Some of the eLearning strategies that can be adopted for leadership training across the three levels are:

• Complex Branching Simulations – To stimulate critical thinking and decision making.
• Case Studies – With scenarios for analysis and application.
• Scenarios/Challenges that reflect the job dynamics – To help relate to the situations and gear up for problem solving in a safe environment.

Investing on effective leadership training will certainly ensure better alignment to your business mandate and this will help you sustain your business and strategic advantage.

As I have shown in this article, you can use eLearning to create a successful and effective leadership training.

I hope I have provided adequate pointers that you can use. If you have any specific queries, do contact me or leave a comment below.

Key Employee Needs That You Must Incorporate in Your Learning Design

In the last 2-3 years, we have seen a significant shift that is impacting the way online training must be delivered.

Modern learners are moving away from traditional and prescriptive learning. Specifically,

1. They want the learning to be in sync with their lifestyles.
2. The learning should be integrated seamlessly into their workday.
3. They understand the value of “continuous learning” and expect the L&D teams to provide this environment in the workplace.
4. The content should be searchable and must be packaged to address specific needs and trigger the desired action.
5. They are not satisfied by the access to “learning pathways” but they need these to be highly personalized “career pathways.”
6. The learners want learning designs and experiences to echo the way they access Google or Amazon or Netflix.
   • Essentially, they want the flexibility to get the right learning resources fast, easily and on-demand.
   • They want access to the learning content and resources on the go, on their devices, and they do not want to log on to an LMS every time they have a need.
   • Additionally, they want meaningful recommendations that keep them connected and encourage them to come back for more.

As a Learning Consultant, I see L&D teams feel challenged by this shift. As I see it, this is the new normal, and L&D teams must re-strategize to meet this mandate.

The crucial change is from a “push” based training that is mandated on an LMS to a flexible “pull” based training that aligns to learners’ lifestyle and workday.

The next gen platforms like the LXPs are leading the way in offering this learning experience wherein the learners can define their own learning path. There are many other measures that you can adopt that will help you successfully meet this mandate. Let us begin this exercise by looking at the different perspectives from key stakeholders (L&D, Business, as well as employees). From this analysis, we will identify the critical employee needs that you need to incorporate in your learning design, and then, I list the possible approaches that will enable you to create effective and high-impact training.

The L&D Team’s Perspective

From the L&D perspective, their mandate is driven by Training Needs Analysis (TNA) and typically includes:

• Trainings for Upskilling.
• Trainings for Reskilling.
• Cross-functional Training.
• Training to fix an identified gap.
• Practice sessions to hone skills or for proficiency gain.

To support the primary training, they also need to provide for:

• Just-in-time learning aids that are available in the learners’ workflow (so that they do not need to go to the LMS) and can be easily accessed at the time of their need.
• Reinforcements to avoid the “Forgetting Curve” setting in.
• Challenges that push learners and act as nudges to review, refresh, or practice.
• Other supporting measures like Coaching and Mentoring.

Increasingly, they are adding measures that can foster a culture of continuous learning and these include:

• Leveraging on platforms for Social or Collaborative learning.
• Offering curated content to ensure learners explore and keep coming back for more.
• Encouraging learners to upload content (User Generated Content).

The Business Unit’s Perspective

The Business Unit looks at the training investment as a key measure to ensure that their teams are well-equipped to meet the business goals.

They want to see the investment of time and money spent on training results in a demonstrable gain notably on:

• Acquisition of new skills.
• Enhanced skills (performance improvement).
• Application of the acquired learning on the job.
• Behavioral change.
• Self-Directed Learning.

However, their crucial need is to see:

• The alignment of employee skills to meet the business KPIs.
• The ability to measure the impact of training on employee performance as well as on the business.

The Employees’ Perspective and Their Critical Needs

The employees want organizations to invest on:

• Training on the go.
• Training on demand.
• Varied design formats to address the diverse expectations of today’s multi-generational workforce.
• Providing flexibility to consume training on the device of their choice and be able to move seamlessly across devices to complete it.
• Offering content that is sharp and focused and can be consumed in short bites.
• Give options to “pull” content based on their needs, aspirations, or interests rather than mandated courses on an LMS.
• Provide controls to decide the quantum of time that learners choose to invest on the training and what works best with the learners.

They want learning designs that are:

• Accessible.
• Available on demand.
• Available within their workflow.
• Motivating.
• Engaging and immersive.
• Relevant, relatable, and personalized.
• Intrigue them and encourage them to explore and come back for more.
• Challenging.
• Rewarding.

 To meet the employee needs, you should adopt learning designs that:

1. Boost the learner engagement.
2. Ensure knowledge acquisition happens.
3. Facilitate the application of the acquired learning on the job.
4. Guarantee the desired performance gain and ROI occurs.
5. Certify a positive ROI on training spend is established.

How Can You Accomplish This?

Here are my recommendations that will address the needs of all three stakeholders and also ensure that the critical employee needs are fully met. I have layered them into 3 steps, and you can build on from one to the next.

Step 1: Opt for training delivery approaches that help learners learn. More specifically, add approaches that enable them to apply this learning to show better performance or the desired behavioral change. These should include:

1. Mobile Learning.
2. Digitalization of ILT (to Blended or Fully Online).
3. Performance Support Tools.
4. Informal Learning.
5. Social Learning.
6. Self-Directed Learning.

Step 2: Leverage on Learning strategies that have a proven track record of delivering a high engagement quotient and can create a sticky learning experience. Do integrate some of the new or emerging ones too to meet your employee needs and create highly immersive learning designs.

Some of my recommendations are:

1. Microlearning.
2. Gamification.
3. Video Based Learning (Videos and Interactive Videos).
4. Mobile Apps for Learning.
5. Personalization.
6. Curation and User Generated Content.
7. AR/VR and MR for Immersive Learning.

Step 3: Invest on tools and platforms to measure, enhance, and maximize the impact of their training. These could include:

1. Learning Engagement Platforms – LXP.
2. Learner Analytics.
3. Big Data-Reporting and Analytics.
4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Learning.

I hope this article provides useful insights on your employee’s needs and how you can incorporate them in your learning designs. My inputs will certainly help you create and deliver training that addresses the employee needs and will also help you show demonstrable gain that business units seek. The overall impact will be reflected in creating a more engaged team and you will see your ROI on training spend improve.

If you have any specific queries, do contact me or leave a comment below.

10 eLearning Strategies to Create Employee Development Training

To retain and nurture talent and to remain competitive, organizations constantly invest in training. Today’s rapidly changing business dynamics demand quick skilling or upskilling.

While many organizations predominantly use the facilitated, face-to-face ILT sessions, a significant percentage of organizations use eLearning to offer employee development training. From a “good to have” mode, eLearning is fast becoming the preferred mode of employee development training and performance enhancement.

The last five years have seen dramatic shifts in the way eLearning strategies are transforming learning and impacting employee performance. eLearning is fast becoming a “must have” for training delivery.

Take a look at this Infographic to discover 10 eLearning strategies that will help you create high-impact employee development training.

Adopting the eLearning based approach makes the investment for employee development training an effective and scalable method.

While the initial investment in the eLearning based approach is high, it provides a better ROI for employee development training on account of its ability to offer:

• Flexibility (can be taken on the go).
• Scalability.
• Custom trainings for different levels and roles.
• Personalized trainings.
• Avenues that address the needs and expectations of today’s multi-generational workforce.

We hope this Infographic gives you good insights on how you can leverage the featured 10 eLearning strategies to create employee development training.

Want to learn more? Reach out to us.

Gamification Trends in 2019 – Packed with Tips and Ideas You Can Use

Well-designed Gamification based trainings provide help to both organizations and learners at many levels. 

 

The value from the learner’s perspective: The value Gamification based trainings bring in is re-affirmed by user feedback too. I list part of the findings from Talent LMS’s Gamification at work survey in 2018:

1. 80% of employees enjoy using Gamification software at work.
2. Employees feel that Gamification makes them more productive (87%), more engaged (84%) and happier (82%) at work. 
3. 75% of respondents who play games often were more likely to agree that they’d be more productive if their work was made more game-like.
4. Older employees are more motivated by game elements than younger employees. 

 

The value from the organizational perspective: The use of Gamification for learning provides several benefits to L&D teams:

1. Gamification is a very engaging learning strategy and when crafted right, it helps the L&D teams meet the learning outcomes (similar to other strategies used in traditional eLearning).
2. Because of a higher engagement quotient, a Gamification strategy provides higher completion rates as well as a better recall and retention.
3. Gamification can be applied to meet various cognition levels—to help learners learn, practice, apply, or upskill. When applied over a period of time (spaced repetition), it can trigger the desired behavioral change.

In this video, see the 5 Gamification Trends that are worth a closer look. For each Gamification trend, we provide practical tips on why and how they can be used.

We hope the Gamification trends featured in this video give you the required insights on how you can use them to spice up your learning strategy.

Want more? Book a free consultation with us to learn how you can leverage on the featured Gamification Trends in 2019!

10 eLearning Strategies to Create Employee Development Training

To retain and nurture talent and to remain competitive, organizations constantly invest in training. Today’s rapidly changing business dynamics demand quick skilling or upskilling.

While many organizations predominantly use the facilitated, face-to-face ILT sessions, a significant percentage of organizations use eLearning to offer employee development training. From a “good to have” mode, eLearning is fast becoming the preferred mode of employee development training and performance enhancement.

The last 5 years have seen dramatic shifts in the way eLearning strategies are transforming learning and impacting employee performance. In this article, I outline how appropriate eLearning strategies can help L&D teams offer highly customized training that can keep pace with dynamic business demands. I also share the key benefits of this approach and list the eLearning strategies that can help you maximize the impact of your employee development training.

What are the Key Triggers for Wider Adoption of eLearning for Employee Development Training?

In contrast to the facilitated, face-to-face ILT sessions, eLearning has an edge on account of the following aspects. eLearning based employee development training:

1. Aligns to the way modern learners want to learn.
2. Provides anytime, anywhere access to learning (across devices, at office, during commute, or over weekends).
3. Empowers learners as it can be consumed at their pace.
4. Aligns to learners’ preferences (device of their choice or learning assets that suit their interests).
5. Matches the varied learning styles (can be offered in different formats to suit diverse learner profiles).
6. Offers personalized training.
7. Is scalable (can be re-adapted quickly across geographies).
8. Provides ease of updating and re-deployment.
9. Is economical than ILT sessions. It can reach a wider audience group in a shorter time while providing a consistent message.
10. Can be easily tracked (for the time taken, completion rates, as well as analytics on engagement, assessments, and so on).
11. Tracks learner analytics and uses the cues to assess the impact and ROI.
12. Fosters Self Directed Learning.
13. Promotes Social Learning and establishes communities of learning.
14. Encourages a culture of continuous learning.

How Can You Leverage eLearning to Make Employee Development Training More Effective?

Adopting the eLearning-based approach makes the investment for employee development training an effective and scalable method.

While the initial investment in eLearning-based approach is high, yet it provides a better ROI for employee development training on account of its ability to offer:

• Flexibility (can be taken on the go).
• Scalability.
• Custom trainings for different levels and roles.
• Personalised trainings.
• Avenues that address the needs and expectations of today’s multi-generational workforce.

What eLearning Strategies Can Help You Create High Impact Employee Development Training?

There are a wide set of eLearning strategies that you could adopt. My recommendations include 10 eLearning strategies that will help you:

• Keep the learners engaged.
• Ensure knowledge acquisition happens.
• Facilitate the application of the acquired learning on the job.
• Accomplish the desired performance gain.
• Achieve a positive ROI on training spend.

1. Microlearning: Short, bite sized trainings that can be consumed on the go and help learners achieve a small goal each time is the new normal. You can use this approach for formal training (multiple nuggets connected in a learning path) or as Learning aids (Performance Support intervention that are available within the learner’s workflow and provide support at the moment of their need). Microlearning can be used to promote Self-Directed Learning as well as to support ILT/VILT.
2. Video Based Learning (Videos and Interactive Videos): Video is a high impact medium and Video Based Learning can add value to your learning strategy at many levels. You can use them for both formal training as well as for Performance Support intervention. The Next Gen avatar, Interactive Video, enables you to have highly interactive learning interactions and assessments. They are a great fit for trainings like Leadership Development and Sales Enablement.
3. Mobile Apps for Learning: You can opt for Apps to impart learning, especially for initiatives that have on-going updates.
4. Gamification: You can increase the engagement quotient by using Gamification techniques that can be applied to pretty much most of your corporate training needs. An extended application can help you meet the tougher mandate of behavioral change. You can use Gamification techniques for most of the corporate trainings including, Induction and Onboarding, Soft Skills, Professional Skills, Sales training, and so on. Increasingly, Gamification is being used for Compliance trainings too.
5. Scenario Based Learning (SBL): This is a powerful Instructional approach and you can use it across corporate trainings (Compliance, Soft Skills, and even Application Simulations). You can also use them to drive the right behavior.
6. Storytorials or Story Based Learning: Similar to Scenario Based Learning, stories are a great way to create a sticky learning experience. This approach is versatile and can be used for a majority of corporate trainings. They are a great approach for Change Management or Awareness initiatives.
7. Branching/Complex Decision-Making Simulations: An extension of Scenario Based Learning, you can create complex, decision making scenarios to help build decision making skills in learners. The journey helps them understand the impact/consequences of their decisions. You can have branching scenarios that are based on choices learners make at specific decision-making points. This approach is useful for Sales Enablement and Leadership Development training.
8. Personalization: Combination of eLearning and granularity of Microlearning enables you to create highly personalized learning paths. These custom pathways can be created based on role, geography, current proficiency, or learners’ interests. This approach can create a much higher impact training as the learner gets to see highly relevant and specific content.
9. Curation and User Generated Content: Providing learners access to repositories that have relevant content that is curated by Subject Matter Experts is a boon. This can be personalized too, and goes a long way in fostering a culture of continuous learning. You can further increase learner participation by enabling them to contribute to the knowledge base.
10. AR/VR/MR: These techniques offer highly immersive learning experiences. However, they are expensive to implement and have longer development cycles. Instead, you can use them as a short nugget in an overall learning journey. This is easier on the budget and uplifts the engagement quotient for learners.

I hope this article gives you good insights on how you can leverage the featured 10 eLearning strategies to create employee development training.

If you have any specific queries, do contact me or leave a comment below.

How to Enhance the Induction and Onboarding Training with Mobile Learning

We all know how time consuming and challenging the recruitment process is. Once the right candidate is selected, the mandate of getting him/her inducted and onboarded swiftly and efficiently is the next challenge. New employees can get disenchanted if they are put through a poorly designed Induction and Onboarding program.

A lot of times while the program may have been structured well, its implementation is patchy. This not only tarnishes the image of the organization but also leads new employees to re-think their decision of continuing with the organization.

In contrast, a well-structured employee Induction and Onboarding program helps the new inductees gain a faster understanding of the following key aspects:

• The organization.
• Its offerings.
• Its goals.
• Where they fit in and what is expected of them.
• How they align to the organizational goals and effectively contribute to its success.

From the organizational perspective, well-designed employee Induction and Onboarding programs ensure that new employees face a shorter learning curve to gain the required perspective, knowledge, and skills that will help them contribute in a lesser time. It also ensures better productivity and helps the new employees settle down faster.

What Is the Most Commonly Used Approach to Deliver an Employee Induction and Onboarding Program?

 We all recognize the value of human touch, and it is indeed a very effective approach to help new employees settle down. As a result, the traditional model of imparting an employee Induction and Onboarding program continues to be the facilitated/ILT approach. Besides facilitated, structured sessions, additional support is extended at multiple levels (through the supervisor, seniors, buddy and so on).

Challenges associated with the facilitated or ILT mode for delivering employee Induction and Onboarding programs

While it is a highly effective and widely used approach, the overall impact goes down on account of the following factors:

1. Inadequate time spent by managers/supervisors: All of us multi-task and always have other goals and targets to work upon. As a result, the quality time spent by managers/supervisors tends to be lower than what is required.
2. Varied impact: This challenge is applicable to all facilitated/ILT sessions where the quality and the impact of the session is heavily dependent on the trainer.
3. Inconsistent messaging: Often, the same session is handled by different trainers and can lead to inconsistent messaging leading to lower impact.
4. Delays in timely completion: Due to the pressure of other day-to-day tasks, the employee Induction and Onboarding program related tasks tend to get lower priority. If the intake of new employees is small, there can be delays in fully completing the program.
5. Cognitive overload: The new employees are bombarded with so much data in the first few weeks that is difficult for them to assimilate the information. On the other hand, this information is not in a ready to use format when they want to review it or when they need it.
6. Difficult to maintain consistent versions across the organization.
7. Difficult to update and roll out.

So, Where Does the Answer Lie?

Opting for an online employee Induction and Onboarding program that leverages Mobile Learning is a superb way to offset most of the challenges associated with the traditional facilitated/ILT programs.

• Depending on your organizational dynamics, you can decide on the right blend wherein you can retain some parts in the facilitated/ILT mode but move the larger component online.
• Remember, a blended approach will ensure that you will have a right mix of the human touch as well as self-paced learning (Mobile Learning).

How Can You Enhance the Employee Induction and Onboarding Training with Mobile Learning?

Organizations continuously seek approaches that help them effectively connect to today’s multi-generational workforce and deliver employee Induction and Onboarding training that will resonate well with all of them. The learning journey should begin with the employee Induction and Onboarding program and should offer an ongoing connect for the learners to come back for more. Modern learners prefer a training delivery that syncs up with their lifestyle, their preference on how they want to learn, and where they want to learn.

Mobile Learning is a great way to train new employees in a shorter time, with a consistent message that can create the desired impact.

You can select from a range of immersive learning strategies that create a high engagement quotient and will help learners learn and apply the acquired learning on the job.

From an organizational perspective, online employee Induction and Onboarding programs featuring Mobile Learning helps organizations in the following ways:

1. It helps organizations provide a consistent message.
2. The program can be easily rolled out to a geographically spread-out workforce.
3. It can be easily localized.
4. It can be easily personalized based on the role/business unit.
5. It can be easily adapted to address the needs of today’s multi-generational workforce.
6. As data or business dynamics change, it can be quickly updated and redeployed.
7. It can be scheduled in advance and can be tracked if the implementation is happening, as planned.
8. It can easily track and assess learner performance, and this data can be used to provide additional support.
9. It is a cheaper option when compared to the facilitated/ILT mode.
10. Given the fact that the seat time of the online version is lesser than the facilitated/ILT session, it can be completed in lesser time.

From the learners’ perspective, the Mobile Learning based employee Induction and Onboarding approach:

• Provides them the flexibility to learn on the go and on the device of their choice. They can move across devices (from laptops/desktops at office to learn and on tablets/smartphones to refresh).
• Empowers them by providing control to them to pace their learning.
• Limits the information overload as they can assimilate shorter bites of learning.
• Provides them with an easy access to information and learning aids when needed.
• Creates a more engaging and immersive learning journey.
• Elements like scores and leaderboards enable them to stay cued to their rate of progress and also check on their progress against peers.

What Learning Strategies Can Be Used to Create Effective Online Employee Induction and Onboarding Programs?

To create high-impact employee Induction and Onboarding programs, the approach:

1. Should be simple and easy to assimilate.
2. Should outline a clear learning path and time frame.
3. Should offer a personalized learning journey.

How Can Mobile Learning Be Leveraged to Enhance the Impact of Your Employee Induction and Onboarding Programs?

Here are 8 tips that will help you leverage Mobile Learning for employee Induction and Onboarding training:

1. Deliver the Induction and Onboarding program in a Mobile Learning format, giving the employees the flexibility to learn on the device of their choice.
2. Offer Microlearning or bite-sized learning, making it easier for them to assimilate it at their own pace.
3. Multiply the impact and create an immersive learning journey through Gamification, leaderboards and so on.
4. Look at adding some learning nuggets that feature Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) to further enhance the immersive learning experience.
5. Use high-impact formats like Videos, Interactive Videos, Gamified quizzes and so on that keep them engaged.
6. Offer personalization (based on the role, region, or business unit).
7. Extend self-paced learning through Social or Collaborative Learning.
8. Deliver the learning journey through a custom portal for the highest impact.

Increasingly, organizations are opting for a Mobile Learning based approach to deliver their employee Induction and Onboarding programs. This approach delivers high-impact programs that can be taken on the go. It also enables them to offer a personalized learning path to induct new team members quickly and efficiently.

I hope this article gives you the required perspective on how you can leverage on Mobile Learning to offer employee Induction and Onboarding programs. If you have any specific queries, do contact me or leave a comment below.