Three Ideas Creating Transformational Learning Experiences in the Digital Workplace

E-learning is not enough!

Anyone with a video camera and a learning management system (LMS) can create online training programs for their company, but is that enough? Simply applying digital tools to a traditional training approach is not enough. Digital technologies have the ability to transform the way we design, deliver and distribute our learning and development content. The leaders highlighted in this post are always looking at new trends and new platforms to figure out how they can leverage these tools to create better learning experiences for their company. Here are three of their ideas that are transforming the digital workplace, and disrupting the way we think about learning and development.

1. MOBILE FLASHCARDS FOR QUALCOMM’S NEWBIES

   The Idea: Qualcomm’s employee mobile application provides new employees with industry and company jargon flashcards.

   

   Photo credit: http://www.worklearnmobile.org/

   What Makes It Great: Qualcomm is an industry leader when it comes to mobile learning. The mobile flash cards serve as an excellent tool for onboarding new employees. Because they are available via mobile device, employees can access them on their commute, while they are waiting in line, or anytime it’s convenient. They don’t have to carve out time to sit at their desk and learn about the company because they can do this whenever the opportunity arises. The other bonus to the QC Lingo flash cards is that employees can demonstrate their knowledge by “playing” the game which results in an actual score based on the employees comprehension. This is helpful for HR or managers that are tracking progress.

2. BLACK AND DECKER’S VIDEO SALES TRAINING

   The Idea: Sales representatives from across the company create and submit brief videos about product features, sales solutions, and weaknesses of competitor’s products to a curated video library used for training.

   What Makes It Great: This all began with one employee’s idea of creating better training that engaged the visual learners on their team. When it piloted, a dozen employees received Flip video cameras and were asked to submit videos that would help new sales representatives. The project was a huge hit, and now it has changed the way they deliver training. They were able to cut down on the total time needed for in-person training (which also cut costs), they are engaging and getting buy-in from more team members, and they are training more people than ever before.

3. APCO WORLDWIDE’S FIELD GUIDE TO CLIENT BRAVERY

   The Idea: Creativity and Digital Trends training delivered globally through virtual viewing parties and applying growth hacking mentality.

   What Makes It Great: We’re proud of this new learning and development initiative at APCO! Webinars can offer companies a sufficient solution for global training, but they are often watched alone at a desk. That’s why the Field Guide to Client Bravery viewing parties are a great way to merge the online training with the benefits of a face-to-face learning environment. This also allows for more expertise to be infused into the training topic because local experts serve as hosts to these viewing parties and follow the training with 30 minute facilitated discussion about the topic. Much like a blogger will slice and dice content to best distribute it onto many platforms, we are finding ways to take the content from one presentation and package it in a variety of ways for our diverse global audience. Our offices that can’t join viewing parties receive digital content from the training session, facilitator guides and discussion questions to bring it all to life in a live training session delivered by a local expert.

   Here are a few testimonials about the series from APCO employees:
   I found it really useful to understand more about both digital itself as well as decoding client requests.

   The Field Guide to Client Bravery series promotes sharing those resources and generating ideas through communication and collaboration.

All three examples show that there is no “right size fits all” when it comes to learning in the digital workplace. Digital platforms and technologies serve as a vehicle to deliver high quality content in several different ways. The emphasis needs to be on personalizing the learning experience for each employee, and digital tools make that possible.