Letting Employees Choose Where and How to Learn

The idea that everything must be covered during onboarding has become outdated. Businesses can help new employees quickly transition into their positions by providing the most valuable information at the right time.

Bill Cushard, head of training at ServiceRocket, argues that many businesses are trying to fit too much information into the onboarding period. “So many times we’re teaching people things in training and onboarding that they won’t necessarily need every day of their job — why waste half a day on it?” he asks.

We now have the tools we need to make it easy for employees to find the information they need at the moment they need it. More than that, they can access information on the device of their choice and, potentially, in the format of their choice.

According to experts from the Association for Talent Development, businesses should be making sure that employees have access to everything they need on mobile devices. Look for ways to support employees and put resources at their fingertips. For example, a mobile-friendly, searchable eBook of your employee handbook is a great idea.

When Agile Staffing and Consulting put their training manual into a knowledge management system, they made it both easier to keep it updated and for employees to access it. Bringing a knowledge management system into their training process comes with some additional and unexpected benefits.

Employees now have access to training videos in addition to the text, and the onboarding process has been shortened. On the whole, the company estimates that they’ve saved $75,000 in training resources and employee time through better knowledge management.

Training doesn’t have to be guesswork. You can find out exactly what information is the most important and useful to your employees with the help of analytics that reveal popular content and a top producer analysis.

Many team members have the same questions, but at different times. Your team can continually go to each other (or their managers) to ask the same questions over and over again, or you can find a way to ensure once the question has been answered, anyone can find the answer.

When you have a knowledge management system that collects every question, discussion, and piece of content, employees will go there first to find answers. If the system includes analytics, you can see which questions people are searching for the most and what content is helping them. That gives you valuable data about the topics new employees most need to learn.

To learn more, check out our eBook, “Knowledge Management and Training: Why Social Learning Works.” It delves into six methods for more effective training and why better knowledge management is so important in enabling employees.