The Essentials of Learning On-Demand

The global pandemic has forced us all to change how we work. Senior leadership at organizations have been jarred out of business as usual and have had to shift thinking about how to engage and keep employees safe. The impact on the learning and training space has put the idea of learning in the flow of work front and center.

But modern learning requires new thinking around learning content as well as communication and distribution of that content. The biggest shift is the need to augment corporate, in-person learning with operational learning. Whereas corporate learning is delivered by HR, operational learning is delivered by a specific business unit familiar with the processes and policies employees need to know to do their jobs.

The Essentials of Learning On-Demand

To make this shift, organizations will need the five essentials of on-demand learning:

#1: Trust

When content is trapped and inaccessible it erodes the trust of learners. If it’s hard to search and find what is needed at the moment or if the content is out of date, learners won’t engage with an LMS or other system. On the other hand, a single source of truth where learning content is current, up-to-date, and valuable builds trust.

#2: Access

If the content is locked away in a cumbersome LMS or in a physical location like an office or a binder, learners get frustrated. Some interesting statistics point to the gravity of the problem: 80% of workers are deskless workers yet only 6% of the content is designed for a mobile learning environment. Deskless workers need the ability to access learning content on any device whenever they need it.

#3: Speed

We’ve all seen how quickly things change during a pandemic, and the pace of business isn’t slowing down anytime soon. It’s no longer sustainable to take months to create and distribute learning content. Learning and training professionals need simple yet powerful authoring tools to quickly create engaging content and distribute it instantly—no matter how many times the content changes. 

#4: Relevance

While corporate learning is important to orient employees and develop skills, it lacks relevance when employees are on the job. Corporate learning content tends to be structured and focuses more on skills and competencies. But when a sales rep or front-line worker needs information on new products or services, they need content that’s unstructured for that moment. Through a quick video or infographic, sales reps and front-line workers can get the content they need and get back to work. 

#5: Adoption

Heavy LMS is often slow and isn’t flexible enough for workers so user adoption drops. By focusing on learners organizations can go a long way to increasing adoption. That doesn’t mean abandoning investments in LMS rather it’s about complimenting LMS with a modern learning platform. Bringing learning to learners can drastically increase adoption. 

Delivering a learning experience that’s built on reliable, relevant, and up to date content and accessible on any mobile device is the way to evolve learning to meet the demands of today’s world of work. To learn more, watch the 5 Essentials of Learning in the New World of Work.