Building A Culture Of Curiosity

Fully blended learning solutions fulfill on employees’ desire to learn and grow

New remote work environments demanded the digital transformation of business and increased the need for up and reskilling employees. As a result, the eLearning industry has seen a rapid growth – way beyond digital learning programs. Modern platforms support all encompassing, transformative experiences that drive learner engagement and motivation – in return leading to greater employee productivity and retention.
 

Technological advances in the past decade, and the challenges related to Covid during the last 1.5 years, have completely changed the work environments we were accustomed to. Remote work structures have made physical offices redundant for many organizations, and at the same time widened the talent pool a company can recruit from – it no longer matters where you find the most suitable candidate for a position, when everyone is working from home. Blockchain technology as well as VR and augmented reality have made recruiting across the globe easier than ever, saving time and resources in HR. 

The Digital Transformation of Business Increases the Need for Upskilling and Reskilling

This new reality also comes with many challenges: structural and organizational changes happen faster than ever; technology is evolving at such rapid speed that it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to upskill and reskill staff as fast as they need to adapt. The digital transformation of workplaces – long pushed aside by c-suites consisting of mostly older executives that were married to traditional thinking – suddenly became a necessity in 2020, and those who weren’t early adopters faced serious challenges during the coronavirus crisis. Upper management as well as HR and L&D leaders were confronted with another problem: soft skills related to leading remote and virtual teams took priority over hard skills. Topics such as change management, crisis management and creating a new company culture suddenly ranked highest among leadership requirements. For the first time in 2020, the LinkedIn Learning Report stated emotional intelligence as one of the most crucial interpersonal, human-centric workplace skills, pushing aside task-oriented skills such as time management.

The Problem with Digital Learning

With skill requirements changing, organizations see a need for new training methods, tools and platforms. In-house instructor-lead training, long considered the best way to train, is being replaced by digital learning solutions. What we know today about effective learning online goes way beyond original ideas of downloading a program and listening to modules. Why those systems never worked too well is evident: cookie-cutter curriculums, based on listening to lectures, rarely promote learner engagement. Purchasing such programs for the staff promised to be cheaper, but usually lacked the necessary analytics to properly measure ROI. The statistics are staggering: 90% of people who register for online courses never complete them. The reasons, according to The Muse: they are too boring, too unstructured, too lonely, or don’t deliver a clear reward such as an official certificate at the end.

Blended Learning Solutions – Bite-Sized and Mobile

Providers of training solutions have learned from this, and a new era of e-learning as emerged: advanced hybrid or blended learning methods combine all key elements of successful learning and have shown to boost learner engagement and deliver effective results. They combine individualized virtual live training with self-paced digital learning as well as social learning and a level of gamification, always keeping a human connection at the center of the experience. The most advanced platforms combine bite-sized micro learning with mobile learning on the go, usually via a smartphone app that gives learners the ability to learn whenever and wherever they want, in the nooks and crannies of their day – may it be between meetings or during a run in the park – making draining classroom sessions after work a nuisance of the past.

The Power of Social Learning

The majority of modern LMS’s have recognized the benefits of a social learning component to support learner engagement and enhance the learning experience by allowing participants to benefit from hearing different perspectives on a subject. The ability to create “networks” of students that can interact with one another further increases their chance of completing any training program successfully. This can happen through group coaching calls, sharing of assignments, a discussion forum or even a “peer coaching” component for learners to practice their newly acquired knowledge and skills on one another. The learning pyramid by the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science indicates that retention is highest when the material is not only practiced, but taught to others. Modern learning science acknowledges this by allowing students to team up and coach one another.

The Psychology Behind Gamification 

Gamification has become another buzzword in e-learning technologies, based on the psychological principle of challenge and reward, which makes learning not only more effective but also more enjoyable. The excitement of achieving and unlocking a new level within a learning platform or the chance to earn certain rewards and badges releases endorphins – often enticing learners in a way that makes an “official certification” at the end less relevant. Technical features that allow for achievements within a program to be shared on social media further increases excitement and peer recognition, a true win-win situation as it also benefits the learning providers with word of mouth and influencer marketing. Badges, leaderboards, avatars, challenges, rewards and unlocking different levels are amongst the most effective gaming techniques according to learning solutions provider pulse learning.

Companies that Fail to Train, Pay

Companies that aim to become a learning-focused organization and invest in their staff’s training, want to know their investment pays off. According to the LinkedIn Learning report 2021, 29% of L&D professionals expect their organizations to shift their budget from instructor-led training to online training and blended learning solutions, and 33% believe their budgets for training will increase. Measuring the ROI of training in emotional intelligence or resilience and adaptability – the number one soft skills of 2021 – is often not as easy as measuring language or technical skills.

Blended learning providers address this demand with in-depth analytics, satisfaction ratings and client surveys. More than anything, organizations know: unmotivated, unhappy employees are more likely to quit, and high turn-over is costly. Even if they stay in their job, according to Gallup, disengaged employees are 37% more absent, have 18% lower productivity and are 15% less profitable. Gallup further looked into what that means in monetary terms: an actively disengaged employee costs their organization $3,400 for every $10,000 in salary. If they earn $60,000 a year, their disengagement costs their company a staggering $20,400 per annum.

Training Management in Effective Communication Is Crucial

Research shows the biggest reason for an employee to become disengaged or leave their job is for the lack of learning opportunities. A culture of learning and curiosity on the other hand supports organizational growth and employee satisfaction. Managers play an important role in how staff experiences their job, therefore it is crucial to constantly advance their skills, especially when it comes to decision making and communication. A survey by the Institute for Health and Human Potential (IHHP)  with over 40.000 participants revealed that most people deliver effectively in 92% of those areas but usually fail to face the last 8% of a challenging situation or conversation – those crucial moments when speaking honestly, authentically and with compassion can make a profound impact on any relationship, particularly between manager and employee. Surveys by quantum workplace have shown that the majority of staff wants to have career conversations, but few bosses make them a priority or know how to properly conduct them. Effectively training on those conversations can make a profound difference in employee satisfaction.

Fostering Curiosity – a Corporate No-Brainer 

Driving curiosity and providing learning opportunities on all levels of an organization, therefore, become a powerful tool in keeping staff engaged, happy, motivated and highly productive – which in return helps reduce turnover cost and increase revenue. Companies are wise to put training at the forefront of their investments. Simon Brown, the author of the book “The Curious Advantage” and Chief Learning Officer at Novartis, instigated a curiosity month at the pharma giant in September 2020 with 170 events. During his podcast episode together with Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, Vas summed up the experience: “Knowing that a sense of curiosity, learning and mastery is so important to human motivation, it’s almost a no-brainer to invest wherever you can in providing better learning opportunities to your people.”

Sabine Ehgoetz is a Content Creator and Marketing Executive with many years of experience in B2B and B2C e-learning technologies. Her training in awareness and performance coaching combined with her affinity for new technologies, drive her passion to support the development of highly effective and engaging training programs that deliver a lasting, transformative experience. Sabine currently works in project management and product development with the Institute for Health and Human Potential.   Connect Sabrina Ehgoetz