A constant state of connection has grown increasingly common, especially for knowledge workers. From email and messaging apps to social media and Alexa, it’s rare to feel completely disconnected from technology (without taking what may seem like drastic measures).
Certainly, the downsides of hyper-connectivity—such as depleted attention spans and degraded interpersonal relationships and skills—warrant serious consideration. But when it comes to the workplace, high-speed internet and sophisticated, social technologies have opened up new avenues for delivering learning and engaging learners across the enterprise.
So how can smart organizations seize this potential to reach employees and stakeholders with effective learning?
Let’s look at four elements of a modern learning culture that reap the benefits of hyper-connectivity in today’s workforce.
1. Deliver Learning in the Flow of Work
As noted by Josh Bersin in Chief Learning Officer magazine, perhaps the greatest value of all this technology and connectivity is our ability to deliver learning right when employees—and extended enterprise learners—need it most.
Among other things, Bersin cites the potential of learning experience systems, microlearning platforms, and other technologies to reach learners with the learning content they need and want but often, ironically, lack the time to consume.
Rather than delivering learning that requires employees to take time from their roles to complete, L&D teams can harness the hyper-connectivity that pervades the modern workplace to seamlessly integrate training and development into the learner’s day-to-day tasks.
2. Deliver Anytime, Anywhere Microlearning
Microlearning is another effective learning strategy that delivers for the hyper-connected, tech-savvy learner.
This method serves up easily digestible chunks of learning that employees and other learners can consume around the demands of their roles. Because of its on-demand consumability, microlearning can elevate productivity and performance—delivering concise, targeted learning content designed to close gaps in skills and knowledge.
Think quick how-to videos, system and feature demos, or a series of short emails with safety tip refreshers. These are excellent examples of using microlearning to reinforce key behaviors, hone skills, and drive performance in specific, targeted ways.
And it almost goes without saying that the typical hyper-connected learner in the workplace usually has a smartphone handy at all times. So it stands to reason that mobile learning apps are another valuable tool for delivering training content that learners can access anytime, anywhere.
3. Capture Tacit Knowledge and Build Communities of Practice
Hyper-connected learners aren’t just connected to learning technology. They’re also connected to each other.
With easy access to learning platforms and other technologies that support collaboration, L&D teams can foster social learning and encourage the creation and growth of communities of practice.
A hallmark of the modern learning organization, communities of practice can help an organization:
- Capture tacit and institutional knowledge
- Facilitate informal learning and mentoring
- Enhance the employee learning experience
- Compound the impact of learning across the business
- Build and reinforce a culture of learning that connects people across organizational levels.
4. Track Learning Analytics and Business Outcomes to Drive Your Learning Strategy
Hyper-connected learners are plugged into all your organization’s systems and tools, as well as learning delivery platforms—such as your LMS or LXP.
By harvesting data from these business systems and correlating that data with learning analytics, L&D teams can track the impact of learning on individual or team performance, then map results across the business to measure the value of learning at the organizational level.
From there, L&D teams can develop data-driven insights to inform the way learning is designed and delivered going forward.
Enhance the Potential of Hyper-connectivity and Learning Technology in the Workplace
Hyper-connectivity across the organization creates opportunities for L&D teams to design, deliver, and measure learning.
Learning technology, coupled with the appetite for digital interactivity found throughout the workforce, makes it easy to reach learners across the enterprise, right at the point of need. It also supports knowledge management and collaboration across the business, enabling organizations to effectively and efficiently grow the capability of their workforce.
Consider exploring gomo Learning as your partner in authoring content for the modern workforce and instilled LXP as a platform for delivering and measuring how your workforce interacts with the content you create.
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