Emily Schweiss
writes on August 7, 2017
Online learning is one of the most effective and flexible modes of technical training, allowing learners to access course material and hands-on practice whenever and wherever they have time. The only downside to elearning is the hidden nature of learning accomplishments and progress – the learning itself isn’t visible to anyone but the learner and their manager. Hidden progress can sometimes lead to decreased motivation, which can cause real delays in reaching learning goals. Our customer success team works with companies every day on ways to uncover learning in their businesses, both in group settings and in manager-employee relationships. Here are their top 10 recommendations to bring elearning accomplishments to light in your company:
- Carve out time during the workday for learning, even if it’s just 15-30 minutes a day to maintain consistency. Have this time marked on employees’ calendars, so they plan it into their days.
- Host lunch and learn events each week where learners can present or walk through a topic they learned or a problem they solved recently.
- Offer recognition to learners for their progress in their training. Bonus points for doing so in your weekly one-on-one meetings. (Let our success team know if you want a reporting walkthrough!)
- Make sure the above recognition is visible. Leaderboards are a great way to acknowledge who is making the most progress in their Learning & Development, and remind members about the importance of training (the WIIFM mentioned above). A little friendly competition can make learning fun.
- Combine individual training courses into qualifications that are necessary for role development and promotion – a new role could require a specific management qualification that employees can undertake in their own time, for instance. Once they have it, they can apply for promotion.
- Tie learning goals to annual performance reviews to give managers and employee pairs a clear way to discuss professional development and continued education.
- Create small group of learners to work on projects (that are work related) using the skills they just learned.
- Pair learners with mentors at the company. Treehouse training will provide all the resources and guidance needed to learn the technologies and skill sets, while mentors can focus their limited time availability with answering questions and describing how these technologies are put into practice within your company.
- Use company wide or department “All Hands” meetings as an opportunity to show the progress being made by your learners and how it’s benefiting your business.
- Coordinate with HR and launch an announcement campaign to raise awareness that Treehouse is an available resource and how to implement a culture of learning. Give the campaign a name that best suits your company, and don’t forget the “What’s in it for me?” (WIFFM)!!
These are just a few of the many ways to showcase learning progress and achievements. How do you put learning in the spotlight?
Get in touch to learn more about how we help companies upskill, cross train, and retrain their teams with technical skills.
