Companies and businesses have now started to develop themselves as digital learning organizations to stay relevant in today’s highly competitive business climate. In his Harvard Business Review essay titled “Building a Learning Organization”, author David A. Garvin shares that companies who want to grow as an organization should grasp a basic truth: that “continuous improvement requires a commitment to learning”. 

While traditional face-to-face training can help you achieve your goal of becoming a learning organization, more and more companies are realizing that the future of learning is digital, social, continuous, and extremely immersive. This is due in part to the digital revolution that is occurring across sectors and at all levels of company.

Human resources (HR), for example, have evolved over the years. Unlike before where it only functioned as a talent manager and business partner for the company, HR is now expected to create the future organization, incorporating not just new tools for hiring, performance management, and remuneration, but also a proper platform for continuous learning. For the latter, digital learning becomes a minor but important aspect of HR transformation since it produces an engaging and long-lasting digital employee experience.

So how do you build a digital learning ecosystem and in the process, educate HR and L&D leaders to realize this importance and their role as a catalyst of digital learning transformation in their organization?

 

Introduce a platform and conduct training sessions on how to use it.

With various apps for collaboration, communication, or human resources concerns in the workplace, employees need ample training time to be familiar with all of these. When Zoom, for example, exploded at the height of the pandemic, many workers had to learn how to navigate through this video conferencing app. In doing so, users gain appreciation about the  digital learning tool which leads to them being more receptive to using it. 

 

Develop an analytical engine behind the platform.

Source and choose a Learning Management System (LMS) that has analytic capabilities if you still do not have one. But if you have and it does not have that function, then consider developing one. Then proceed to share the benefits on why analytics is important learning and development. 

The analytical engine can help analyze how users behave or respond to the contents – which can be helpful in knowing how employees can increase their productivity and boost their performance, among other things. It can also contribute to more informed business decisions, greater revenue, and improved operational efficiency.

 

Ensure that the platform is user-centric or -friendly.

Consider a platform that is easy, flexible, and most importantly, just works every time – whenever you need it. These applications should deliver an outstanding User Experience (UX) and incorporate user participation at every level of development. 

For instance, while Zoom offers 40 minutes of free calls, the free plan of Google Meet allows up to one hour of free meetings, and both have many features that you can avail – which can help your business move forward. But of course, this all depends on your need at the moment.

 

Set a protected time to attend digital learning sessions.

Ensuring that your digital learning sessions have the protected time mean that you gain additional “completions” as a result of your efforts; your audience is more likely to return for more if you keep them interested; and that your digital sessions  may be finished in one sitting and immediately put into practice. 

Some studies suggest an average of fifteen minutes (as also stipulated in a TED Talk session) , but this varies depending on the content, audience appetite, completion, and material – whether you’ll be using a video, blogs, or podcasts. And because of the short and suggested time span, employees can prioritize their digital sessions on top of other tasks. If not, most will put it least on their priority list.

 

Model by example.

Leaders and managers should lead by example. If they want everyone in the organization to comply with digital learning, senior management should also be doing it and encouraging their people to do it too.

 

Increase engagement through social learning.

Though people can learn on their own, it is highly helpful and useful to encourage peer cohorts to keep knowledge consistent by engaging with others in the company. Thus, social learning – or learning from others – could be about anything: gaining information about something when casually discussing it with colleagues or friends; during a flight discussion with a fellow traveler; or even while exploring and connecting with people on social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and so on.

Businesses use digital learning to provide their employees with the tools and skills they need to succeed in the workplace. As they hunt for scalable means to train their personnel, businesses are realizing the need of investing in learning tools. While digital learning may be the answer to this goal, organizations must also prepare themselves culturally in order to provide an effective digital learning experience. 

To find out how to transition from face to face learning to a more effective learning and development approach this year, check out Dale Carnegie of Singapore’s blended learning solutions for hybrid teams. You may also get in touch with us to discuss the specific skills development solutions you and your team need today.