How on-demand learning empowers your employees to excel

Let’s start with the obvious: New employees don’t typically walk into your company on their first day and say, “I really hope I fail in my new job!”

Nope, excitement levels are usually pretty high on day one! New hires come in with a shared expectation that the company is ready to provide the right training and support to help them to excel in their new roles. Everyone is aiming for success.

And yet sometimes, somewhere between onboarding and giving notice, employees decide things aren’t working out. For many organizations, this retention period is getting shorter and shorter. What’s going wrong? Why do employees feel disillusioned and ready to leave so quickly?

There are a ton of reasons why employees cut and run, but today, let’s focus on why they stay. Consider, for example, employee engagement. What factors encourage employees to engage fully in their work and in the company? What makes them feel accomplished?

Survey says…

The results of LinkedIn’s 2019 Workplace Learning Report draw a strong correlation between two important factors: 1) How well organizations understand their learners, and 2) What resources are provided that boost employee engagement levels.

To the first point, the report cites three things that today’s learners want:

• Self-directed learning that’s accessible at any time;
• Consistent access to mission-critical content and knowledge; and
• The ability to easily communicate and collaborate with coworkers and managers.

The best way to provide all three is to deliver a modern learning environment that supports mobile and social learning. Right now, that means on-demand learning tools, delivered on mobile devices. The good news is that this learning strategy is akin to what employees do with smartphones in their personal lives, so the learning curve is short and sweet.

And, in case you’re thinking these results only reflect the wishes of Millennials and Gen Z employees, think again: Gen X and Baby Boomers are also asking for mobile and social capabilities in the workplace. In fact, 74% of employees want to learn during their free time at work—a sentiment shared by learners across generations.

On-demand learning has the power to engage and retain

By providing on-demand learning tools, organizations enable learning in the flow of work. Employees can pull up mission-critical content to find out what they need to do at the exact moment of need. On-demand learning makes it easy to take initiative and control, both of which are very empowering.

On a final note, LinkedIn’s report found that 94% of employees believe they’d stay longer at a company if they felt the organization invested in their learning and development. Ninety-four percent. Is there really any doubt that on-demand learning is mission-critical not only for engagement and performance but also for employee retention?