MUR
Agile Learning Delivery
Imagine that you just woke up, you have a cup of coffee in your hands and have just switched on the news – and there’s a complete flurry!
• The volatile petrol price has reached a historical high – it has changed 9 times in the last 10 days!
• There is a political unrest in one of the Middle East countries and the scenario is extremely complex to even fathom the primary reason.
• The vaccine development for the Covid-19 outbreak is still in development. There is an uncertainty about when it will be available and when lives would return to normal.
• And with the outbreak still on – consumer behaviors and spending patterns have shifted drastically. Marketeers are finding it tough to bet on any single strategy!
These are just a few snapshots of the VUCA environment that we live in. The changing business, economic, political and regulatory environment has a deep impact on our work. We need to be attuned to these changes and anticipate the ramifications on what we do.
As a learning practitioner in VUCA times, the following questions might resonate with you:
• How do you rapidly develop training content which is relevant to your business NOW?
• How do you keep the content updated?
• How do you ensure the effectiveness of what you have designed – without making heavy investments?
• How do you develop the skills of a geographically (or even globally dispersed) workforce with ease?
• How do you cater to the needs of 5 different generations that work in your office (read virtual)?
• How do you keep up with the constant compliance requirements and ensure that your Leadership has peace of mind?
And most importantly, how do you keep doing all of these in repeat mode?
If you are looking for some serious agility in how you deploy your training programs, you need not look any further. At FocusU Engage, we have partnered with clients to rapidly design, develop, test and deploy large scale training programs, with agility.
Take a look at the following four concrete use cases that could help you define your problem.
Use Case 1: Training Reps in the Pharmaceutical industry
If you have watched the movie ‘Pursuit of Happyness’, you would definitely recall the image of Chris Gardner, hauling a huge medical device – a portable bone density scanner – from one hospital to the other. He is often running between them and facing some very tough questions from potential clients. Phew! It’s not an easy life.
The extremely complex pharmaceutical industry is fraught with an issue called ‘stale detail’, meaning the right information is not available at the right time. Microlearning can enable you to create unique self – paced learning solutions that are available to your frontline employees, when they need and where they need. Here are some examples:
• 2 – minute videos that explain a new drug with critical points
• Infographic which compares competitor drugs
• New updates on side – effects being discussed by consumers
• Peer learning forum where employees discuss top queries raised by doctors about a device
• Tips to remember before entering a discussion with a prospective customer
Use Case 2: Reduce Safety Incidents in Warehouses
If you operate in the eCommerce/Retail or any other industry which deploys warehouses, safety incidents would be a matter of concern. With heavy loads, forklifts and ladders or inflammable products, accidents are just waiting to happen. And if you have multiple warehouses across geographies, your problem is to create a culture of safety across. Here are a few ways that you can leverage microlearning to inculcate a culture of practicing ‘safety – first’ behaviors:
• Create a fun game (of not more than 3 to 4 minutes) which employees can play before starting their work
• Provide short scenarios to practice and share feedback with the learners based on their performance
• Design visual aids that could help remember important steps in handling a device
• Share 2 minute ‘how to do’ videos.
• Understand key gaps from the employee responses and align your safety training and job aids accordingly
• Track progress and send appropriate prompts
Use Case 3: New Product Launch in the Automotive Industry
The highly competitive automotive industry sees a new product launch almost every month. So much so, that product launches are often called ‘blockbusters’, a reference to the culture of Friday movie launches. The objective is to launch the product, create a buzz, beat out the competition and capture the market before the demand tapers out. In such a case, the Learning & Development team has a very short TAT to get their front line force ready to sell a new product.
After you have taken your employees through an ILT, here’s what you can do to leverage microlearning to develop sales capability:
• A simple game which tests the retention of knowledge
• Understand important features through hotspots on the product image
• Provide specific customer scenarios to face difficult queries
• Roll out competitor analysis through infographics
• Create advocacy by asking the frontline employees what they love about the product and share in the discussion forum
Use Case 4: Global Compliance Training
Governments require companies to execute specific compliance training such as POSH (Prevention of Sexual Harrassment). Certain industries such as the tobacco, pharmaceutical or processed foods are subjected to further regulatory nuances. If you are a multinational organization, you may have a stringent Code of Conduct that your global workforce is required to adhere to.
Here’s how you can use microlearning to deploy compliance oriented training program, such as the Code of Conduct:
• Design specific scenarios where an employee would be required to make a decision and use the information in the Code of Conduct
• Share feedback on the chosen response. Link back to the relevant section of Code of Conduct.
• Track progress through a dashboard and send out push notifications
• Allows learners to generate a certificate based on successful completion
• Revise content regularly and easily based on real scenarios
• Conduct annual refreshers easily
