Meeting Learner Expectations: Bridging The Learning Divide
Mind Tools Corporate, the on-demand, practical learning solution, has teamed up with research organisation Towards Maturity, to produce a report to help bridge the learning divide between L&D professionals and employees.
In today’s digital workplace, “always-on” technology offers new learning challenges to organisations. Digitally-savvy consumer learners want to solve problems like they do outside work - with access to easily digestible information, available on their chosen digital device, where and when they need it. In gist, learners expect more, and it’s up to the organisation to deliver.
Although it can be hard to change something that’s worked in the past, the L&D sector now has the exciting opportunity to revolutionise and modernise its current approach. It just needs to listen to what its learners are asking for. By moving on from classroom-based learning, employers will be able to create and lead a learning culture that empowers people to develop their skills with self-directed learning. They'll also be able to integrate high-quality learning into people's everyday work.
In the White Paper report, “Bridging the Divide: Solving the communications breakdown between L&D and learners,” we learn that 95 percent of L&D professionals want to increase learner engagement within their organisations. However, only 26 percent of those professionals believe they are successful in doing so. So, what can we do help the other 74 percent?
First, we need to understand the perspective of the learner and what motivates them to engage in learning. According to the report, the majority of learners want to learn to do their jobs better and faster. Seventy-six percent of staff engage in learning while at work. But 47 percent also learn independently, keeping up their Continuous Professional Development and supporting their career progression while outside work. This means that learners want to develop themselves, and are prepared to put in the hard work to do so.
What does this mean for organisations? In order to maintain a competitive advantage in the future economy, companies need to invest time and money in developing their people’s skills. Learners are keen to develop themselves, but they can’t do it all on their own. The reality is that staff need support and encouragement in their learning in order to excel. This is why nudges are required to drive real behaviour change, in even the most successful organisations.
But what are the most effective ways of motivating employees? Research shows that 59 percent of learners believe that getting recognition for learning achievements is important. However, only 21 percent of L&D professionals reward or give staff recognition for their achievements. Learners become more engaged and motivated to achieve success if they receive appreciation for the work they do to develop themselves. This benefits both themselves and the business.
L&D leaders want to achieve the benefits of becoming more learner-centred, so why not download this report to help get you started? Oliver Craddock, CEO, Mind Tools said “This in-focus report gives us a way into the learners’ world and highlights the gap between their current perception of L&D, and where and how they feel that learning can have the biggest impact. Organisations can change their learning culture and involve learners in the design of learning tools and systems, to take advantage of the popularity of new thinking around user experience and learner-centred design.”
The full report, which can be downloaded here, features data drawn from:
The Towards Maturity 2018 Benchmark™ research, with data from over 700 global L&D leaders, reported in The Transformation Curve (www.towardsmaturity.org/transformation2018). This is free to download thanks to the support of Towards Maturity Ambassadors.
Data from the Towards Maturity Learning Landscape™ research, gathered online during 2017 from a sample of over 10,000 learners.
Notes
Mind Tools Corporate is exhibiting at Learning Technologies, which takes place at ExCeL on February 13 and 14. Visit Mind Tools at stand H20 for a live demonstration, and find out how Mind Tools Corporate can help.