As a learning and development manager, your goal is not just to create training programs but to ensure they are engaging, effective, and widely adopted by your employees. In this guide, we explore the different facets of learning engagement and detail the strategies you can use to boost it within workplace learning environments.
How is Learner Engagement Measured?
Engagement with learning journeys encompasses three critical aspects: participation rates, active engagement during the course, and completion rates. Simply put:
- Participation rate measures how many employees sign up for training.
- Engagement rate reflects how actively participants are involved in the learning process.
- Completion rate tracks how many finish the course successfully.
When you’re trying to get more people to join your corporate training course, clear communication is the name of the game. Meanwhile, stimulating learner engagement during the classes requires more than that, and it’s closely linked to the formats and trainers you choose.
For instance, encouraging engagement in online learning involves making sure there are interactive elements, whereas in-person training will require that your session leaders are both knowledgeable and competent in energizing participants. Ultimately, when people engage in learning actively, it results in a deeper understanding and retention of knowledge.
The Challenge of Low Training Participation
Getting employees to sign up and complete training is one of the key roadblocks to L&D initiatives’ success. A 2019 estimate found that only 10% of the $200 bn that corporates spend on training and development delivers real results. Among the reasons is the fact that there is a significant amount of friction associated with training, including requiring learners to make time (often outside of working hours), travel to the places where learning takes place, or a failure to follow up with the learner once the training is completed.
When the upsides of going the extra mile to learn something new are not obvious, the enthusiasm to sign up and actively participate in training dwindles. This could be due to a perceived irrelevance of the content, inconvenient scheduling, or lack of visible benefits tied to the training.
How to Boost Employee Engagement with Training
Ideally, workplace learning should become a habit that is supported by the company culture and encouraged by leadership. When you think about it as a habit, it’s easier to develop an understanding of what’s needed to engage others to learn.
Using James Clear’s habit formation principles, we devised a list of simple learner engagement strategies based on four key principles: ease, attractiveness, rewards, and communication (being obvious). Following this breakdown can help you to structure your approach for this task better and make it easier to organize initiatives.
Make it Easy
Make it straightforward: Ensure the sign-up process is as smooth as possible. Remove as many barriers as you can – be it cumbersome forms or a confusing online portal.
Dedicate time: Allocate specific times for training, ensuring employees have no other competing responsibilities during these periods. Finding ways to make it fit into people’s schedules eliminates the common "I’m too busy" excuse.
Engage managers: 56% of employees say they would spend more time learning if their manager suggested a course to improve skills. When managers actively encourage training and discuss its benefits, employees are more likely to take it seriously.
Make it Attractive
Make it fun: Gamify the learning experience where possible. Interactive elements, such as quizzes and leaderboards, can make learning more enjoyable.
Keep it interesting: Update your content regularly to keep it relevant and engaging. Use real-world examples that resonate with your employees' day-to-day tasks and make sure learners can get their hands dirty applying the new skills.
Highlight the benefits: Clearly articulate what employees stand to gain from the training: answer the question “What’s in it for me?” This could be new skills, career advancement opportunities, or even recognition amongst peers.
Customize: Whether tailoring courses at a team or individual level, it’s important to offer a degree of flexibility to account for different skill levels and learning styles.
Make it convenient: Forget the all-or-nothing approach, where people need to make firm commitments and stick to them. Instead, offer micro-learning opportunities so that people can integrate learning into the flow of work.
Make it Rewarding
Accreditation: Offer certificates or professional credits that contribute towards career progression. This not only adds a tangible benefit but also enhances the perceived value of the training.
Experience gains: Showcase success stories of past participants who have notably benefited from the training. Nothing convinces like a promoter who’s experienced visible career benefits.
Peer connection opportunities: Facilitate networking within learning sessions to boost engagement for learning. Connections made can be valuable and add another layer of benefit to attending training.
Continuous feedback: It’s easier to stay engaged when you know how well you’re doing. A continuous feedback loop ensures that workers have clarity on their abilities and are motivated to continue pursuing their objectives.
Make the Benefits Obvious
Enhancing how you communicate can make a world of difference when it comes to engagement with learning.
Effective messaging: Always lead with ‘what’s in it for me’ from the employee's perspective. Tailor this message according to the different roles or departments within your organization.
Creative campaign names: Choose catchy, memorable names for training programs. This can spark curiosity and stick in the memory longer.
Promotional kit: Develop engaging promotional materials such as posters, emails, and intranet posts. A consistent and attractive visual identity helps keep the training in everyone’s mind.
Use multiple channels: Don’t just stick to email. Send ongoing nudges across various communication channels like internal social media, team meetings, and company news boards.
Pro tip: engage stakeholders: To boost stakeholder buy-in, customize messages for different audiences to show the specific benefits for their teams. Moreover, empowering executives to become learning leaders is a proven tactic for boosting engagement with learning.
Learning and Engagement in Virtual Courses
With the rise of remote work, virtual learning environments are more crucial than ever. Ensure your technology setup is user-friendly and robust to facilitate seamless learning. Introduce tools that encourage interaction, such as real-time polling and whiteboard collaboration, to keep the virtual environment lively and engaging.
Another feature essential to virtual learning is having breakout rooms. Working in small groups allows participants to learn from each other and build rapport. It’s of utmost importance that people can see each other, therefore any solution you go for should have video conferencing capabilities – and you may want to make it mandatory in order to increase engagement.
Conclusion
Transforming your training from mandatory to irresistible isn't just about making it fun or easy. You need to think of ways to simplify access, create buzz among internal leaders, communicate benefits clearly, and use technology effectively.
By focusing on these aspects, you’ll be sure to skyrocket learning engagement on all fronts, from sign-ups to active learning and graduation. Learning shouldn’t be another task on the to-do list — rather, you want it to be a compelling, rewarding, and enriching experience for your talents.
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