5 Critical eLearning Tips For Employees
Learning is critical to grow a business and maintain employee morale. In order to design eLearning that engages employees, it is important to understand what makes people engage with learning in the first place. There are many different factors that can influence engagement, but some of the most important ones include intrinsic motivation, relevance, and satisfaction.
In this article, I’ll share some critical ways to design eLearning that engages employees by taking into account their individual needs and motivations. The benefits of doing so are clear:
- Employees who are engaged with their learning are more likely to be productive, creative, and successful in their roles.
- The outcomes transfer to the business. More engaged employees are happier, which reduces the employee churn rate.
- There’s also an increase in knowledge sharing which benefits the entire company.
All these benefits have short-term and long-term advantages for people and businesses, making it critical to optimize eLearning practices in training people. Let’s get started and look at the key principles behind designing eLearning that engages employees.
Key Principles For Designing eLearning To Engage Employees
1. Make Sure The Learning Is Relevant To The Learner
One of the most important things you can do to ensure engagement is to make sure that the learning is relevant to the learner. This means designing content and activities that are directly related to their job role or goals.
For example, if you’re designing training for customer service representatives, make sure that the learning covers topics that will help them do their jobs better, like how to reply in simple sentences and alleviate the concerns customers have. For employees who deal with B2B suppliers, other knowledge such as cold calling and technical skills become essential. Avoid creating the same content for your entire team unless it’s a universal requirement, like ethical codes and POSH compliance.
2. Make It Intrinsic
Intrinsic motivation is the desire to learn for learning’s sake. It’s what drives people to seek out new knowledge and skills even when there isn’t an external reward or incentive involved. When designing eLearning, look for ways to make the learning itself intrinsically motivating. This can be done by making the content interesting and engaging, providing opportunities for exploration and discovery, and giving learners a sense of autonomy and control over their learning experience.
You can also give employees the option to pick what they want to learn. Do this by signing up for business packages on eLearning platforms. You’ll create access to multiple subjects and employees will train themselves in areas they care about.
3. Keep It Satisfying
Another important factor in engagement is satisfaction. People are more likely to be engaged with learning experiences that are satisfying and enjoyable. One way to increase satisfaction is to provide learners with opportunities to give feedback and see their progress over time. You can also design activities that are challenging but not too difficult so that learners feel a sense of achievement when they complete them.
For example, if you’re training your content team, you might want to track the performance of their content, such as the engagement levels, growth in traffic, and other measures. Doing so will help show how their work is positively impacting the company and help keep them motivated.
4. Make It Social
Social learning is another important factor in engagement. When learners are able to interact with each other and learn together, they’re more likely to be engaged with the content. There are a few different ways to make eLearning social. One is to provide opportunities for learners to collaborate on projects or activities. Another is to use social media platforms like discussion forums and blogs to encourage interaction and dialogue. It’s also critical to recognize employees when they achieve a certain level in their learning. Doing so ensures that employees associate positive emotions with learning.
5. Make It Personalized
Personalization is another key ingredient in engagement. When learners feel like the content is tailored to their specific needs and interests, they’re more likely to be engaged with it.
One way to personalize eLearning is to use adaptive learning technologies that can adjust the content based on each learner’s individual needs. Another approach is to provide a variety of content options so that learners can choose what they want to learn about. It’s important to use learning platforms that automate this—they will make personalized recommendations using AI tools that help learners grow in necessary areas.
Back To You
By following these principles, you can design eLearning that engages employees and helps them achieve their goals. As a result, you’ll see many benefits in your business, both in terms of productivity and bottom-line results.
I’ve shared some of my top tips for designing eLearning that engages employees. Now I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment and let’s hear your ideas.
