TOP TRAINING COMPANY BEST PRACTICES
Emily was just promoted – she is now manager of the customer service team for student banking at a large financial institution. She is excited about her new position, and also a bit nervous as this is her first experience leading a team.
As a new manager, Emily wants to succeed and the first step is improving her management skills. She has been enrolled in her company’s three-day manager’s course which begins in two weeks – but she wants to start training now. With her days suddenly full of back to back meetings, when can she squeeze in professional development time?
The good news for Emily is that her company’s learning and development department has invested in microlearning.
Microlearning is short format training characterized by:
- Concise, easy to digest training modules of about 3 to 10 minutes in length
- Focused on one specific topic and learning objective, highlighting the most relevant information
- Delivered online and accessible via laptop, smartphone or other mobile devices
Microlearning is ideal for supporting longer format training programs. For example, a typical day in the three-day manager’s course Emily is attending covers eight topics. Each of these topics can be developed into a separate short microlearning module that participants can access after the course to reinforce their retention of the material.
When training is focused on a single topic, it makes it easier for learners to access if they have questions on that topic. Trainng modules can also be sent to employees to remind them of a particular aspect of the training, keeping it top of mind.
Today, Emily has an 8:30 a.m. meeting to discuss the newest marketing promotion for her company’s student credit card product. On her commute to the office, she is able to access the six-minute microlearning module developed to introduce the promotion to customer service. Emily is prepared for the meeting with questions she can confirm and convey to her team to ensure a smooth launch.
With her new busy schedule, Emily wants to find ways to improve her productivity. At noon she takes her lunch outside, and accesses the microlearning modules on time management and email best practices from her tablet to learn tips she can implement immediately into her daily job.
Checking out the headlines, there is yet another cyber security attack in the news. When Emily is back at her desk in the afternoon, she finds an email from human resources. It is a reminder about safe online practices with a link to a microlearning module on creating strong passwords.
Using microlearning, Emily was able to fit corporate training into her fast-paced workday.
If you are considering introducing microlearning to your company’s learning and development program, download “5 Corporate Training Topics for Successful Microlearning”. This is a list of five training topics that are particularly well-suited to microlearning, and why they are successful.
More on microlearning:
Delight Your Customers! Use Microlearning for Service and Sales Training
How Microlearning Can Reinforce Cyber Security Awareness Training