Learning and development functions have seen significant changes to workplace learning over the past few years. Today, it has become a fundamental requirement for organisations to align their learning strategy with the demands of the modern workforce.

The fact is the success of your business now depends on it!  

An important point for business leaders to consider is how they can maximise the engagement of their people through any new or existing learning solutions, whilst supporting and building not only the capabilities of their people and teams, but also those of the organisation as a whole. Let’s explore this further:     

I have previously worked with a client, who had noticed a downward trend in their customer satisfaction rates. We conducted an analysis of their customer communication channels, which highlighted a number of improvement areas, more specifically concerning their Twitter account. Upon showing the client the Twitter timeline for their Customer Support team they were shocked by what was revealed.       

Even though they were responding to their customers on a daily basis, their most recent tweet was from two years prior. We weren’t off to the best start, as it appeared that the client wasn’t effectively representing themselves to their Twitter audience. Things would only continue when we reviewed their ‘Tweets & Replies tab’.       

We were presented with endless rows of the same impersonal and generic responses, here’s an example:    

“Hi [customer name], thanks for getting in touch. Please DM us and I’ll look into that for you [employee name]”

The client was genuinely upset by this revelation as they recognised their team had been working hard throughout the pandemic and did their very best to respond to every Tweet. Whilst this did mean they had a great response rate; their replies were lacking any personalisation. The client had chosen to work with Davies for the following reason; to help increase their CX (Customer Experience) across all interaction types and not just social media.      

Now let’s take a moment to reflect upon your existing digital strategy. What steps are you currently taking to ensure that the experience is personalised and meets the unique learning needs of your people? If you don’t have any measures in place, consider this next question – what is the difference between your current digital offering and the above impersonal, general response? Think about your customer, this might be internal. What does your digital experience leave them with? Underwhelming responses and a lack of engagement?   

The reality is that there is very little difference between the two and continuing in this way could jeopardise the reputation and attractiveness of your organisation, in a marketplace which has grown fiercely competitive. If your initiatives are lacking in personalisation, your people will eventually treat learning as a tick-box exercise, rather than something that is experienced, enjoyed and shared with their peers.   

 Let’s delve deeper – Mandatory learning can quite often be a monotonous and repetitive task which must be completed every year. Think about what your people may experience each time that reminder drops into their inbox. Most employees are filled with dread – cue the eye-roll – but what if you could transform the learning into something immersive and memorable? At the very least you need to ensure that the content isn’t the same year after year, but how can you really maximise the engagement of your people and make the experience personal to each learner?    

Does this statement sound familiar? “I remember this from my last job”.    

We’ve perhaps all heard this being said by our learners at some point, and it usually boils over from the frustration of the same things being done in equally linear ways. How great would it be if you could banish the one-size-fits-all approach to learning and target the specific development needs of your people?       

This can be achieved by utilising “adaptive learning”, which is a customised digital learning experience that assesses the knowledge gaps of the individual learner. Algorithms identify what your people already know and where their knowledge gaps are. Which allows learning paths to be tailored to their specific needs.   

This method of digital learning would have the additional benefit of:   

• Uniqueness – The module adapts to every individual    
• Efficiency – 20 minutes saved each year can be advantageous to both your people and the organisation   
• Realises ROI (Return on Investment) – eliminated time spent on repeated learning and maximised productivity       

 By adopting this simple approach, you can:       

• Provide a strategy that solves the problems you have identified, as highlighted by Amelia Best, our Multimedia Learning Designer, within the first blog of this series.     
• Adapt the solution and strategy by identifying the needs of the audience, as discussed by our Head of Digital Experiences, Adam Eckersley.   
• Give the individual a sense of belonging and demonstrate that the learning has been created with them in mind rather than simply just a “Hi [customer name], thanks for getting in touch. Please DM us and I’ll look into that for you [employee name]” approach.       

This is the third blog in this series, and I would be interested to hear your thoughts on this particular subject. Have you experienced any of the above challenges? Please feel free to share your comments.    

We will be sharing more of our digital insights with you, so look out for our next blog from Mark Brierly, Senior Digital Experiences Consultant. He will be exploring ‘How you can ensure that your Learner UX (User Experience) delights participants’. And remember, we also have our upcoming webinar, where we will share with all attendees, an extensive playbook around digital learning strategy.  

Register here