2020 could be called the year of remote working. Though offices are slowly welcoming employees back to their desks, many corporates are choosing to take a more flexible approach. Remote working has numerous advantages and a hybrid office structure allows companies to make the best of both worlds. While a lot of things stay the same, some aspects of working do change for remote workers. After all, they will be working with teams that may not meet. Thus, to maintain the company culture a microlearning platform for remote workers is essential.
Personalized training content
Sure, you could have a zoom workshop. Get everyone to sign in at the same time and have a trainer conduct a session. But, there are multiple disadvantages to this. Not everyone learns just by listening. Some learn better by reading up material. Others by watching a video. There’s the language aspect to be considered too. Though everyone may speak English, you may have employees who are more comfortable learning technical skills in hindi. A microlearning platform for remote workers personalizes the content to suit individual needs. You can present the same material in different ways so it is understood well.
Own pace learning
There’s no doubt about it – everyone learns at a different pace. There are some concepts an individual may grasp instantly. Others may require a few iterations. Now when everyone’s participating in a group session, people who’ve understood the concept will feel frustration if it’s repeated. On the other hand, if you simply assume everyone grasped the lesson, there’ll be significant percentage of people who would be excluded.
A microlearning platform lets everyone learn at their own pace. It’s an individual experience and there’s no hurry to complete a module and no worry about going over a module for the second time either. An individual who feels most active in the morning is free to complete training at the beginning of the day while someone else may choose to go over the content at night.
Build a culture of learning
When you choose a micro learning platform, you’re putting the onus of learning on the individual. This slowly builds a culture of constantly learning since there’s always new material available to you. Gamification in such platforms also encourages healthy competition. Participants can see how much of the training they’ve completed vs how much is left on progress boards. They can also see where they rank as compared to others on ladderboards. This pushes them towards engaging more with the platform and thus fosters an attitude towards learning.
Higher engagement and retention
At the end, it’s not just about reading a chapter or watching a video, you want your employees to understand and absorb the training. Microlearning basically breaks down content into small modules. This keeps in mind the fact that we have fleeting attention spans. Rather than asking an employee to stay focused on training for an hour, you’re asking him to do so for just 10 odd minutes. This is much easier to do with minimal distractions. An employee can complete a module when he’s take a break or while he’s commuting.
Shorter training modules also mean that the information is more likely to be absorbed and retained for longer. This makes your training more effective.
Assess Feedback and Make Improvements
When it comes t traditional workshops, making a change to the content is difficult and expensive. Sometimes you don’t even realize what needs to be changed because you don’t get correct feedback. IF you ask employees they may be willing to share what works but be hesitant about critical feedback. On the other hand, a microlearning platform provides real time unbiased feedback. For example, if you see that a large percentage of participants are stuck on a particular level, you could take a look at the material in that module and edit it to make the subject easier to understand. These edits are easy to make and not an expensive proposition since everything else remains unaltered.
Today, there are a number of vendors providing a microlearning platform for remote workers. It’s a popular option given all the advantages it offers. That said, not all are equal. Look for a learning platform that I suited to your content requirements and overall employee needs. Look for learning platforms with gamification to make the learning process more interesting and engaging. These platforms can be used not only for training and skill upgradation but also for onboarding remote workers. The possibilities are endless. So, are you ready to get started?