An employee is an organization’s greatest asset. They represent your brand, your company’s culture, and purpose in everything they do and say. Think about the touchpoints where an employee begins to connect with your organization and the opportunities where you can positively, or negatively, impact their experience.
When employees feel connected to their organization, they are motivated and driven — ultimately delivering their best results. Quality, overall, goes up. Customer satisfaction with your product and services increases. And business results are more likely to be achieved. Just like organizations focus on employee engagement strategies, organizations should also focus on their learning and training strategies.
Executive Networks recently surveyed over 1,300 individuals across North America, India, and Europe to understand how workers and business leaders perceive the impact of the ways of working and learning on their organization. When asked, 30% of workers — regardless of their position across the organization — state the lack of career advancement and development opportunities as a major contributing factor to why their employees are leaving.
McKinsey’s 2022 Great Attrition global survey found 40% of workers are planning to leave their jobs. However, organizations that promote learning and development enjoy higher retention rates.
Managers recognize that employees want training and are looking for growth in their careers. For quick and easy wins, many employers are leveraging off-the-shelf (OTS) solutions. Despite these good intentions and desire to show responsiveness, many OTS solutions are not learner centric. They do not meet employees’ expectations and have limited impact on their desired growth. It leaves employees unfulfilled, feeling that they are not being heard, valued, or connected within their organization. So, what training and learning offerings can really make a difference?
At the heart of any learning experience is the learner. To meet the learners where they are, the goal should be to develop custom-designed learning experiences that are relevant and create an emotional connection. Learner-centered design focuses on customizing the learning experience and the content to the learner, rather than the other way around. While a learner-centered design strategy is effective, it is not enough. To be impactful, the training must be engaging and enriched with interactive content. Simply put, training is futile unless employees are engaged and invested.
Custom content is specifically designed and developed to inform and engage your learners. It aligns to your organization using your unique brand voice. It reflects your processes, culture, and values and is tailored to address your business goals. And the content can be developed with the input of your own subject matter experts to resonate and relate to your employees’ day-to-day experiences.
It can be designed and developed in a way that is adaptable — providing your employees with the opportunities to learn new things or support the specific growth in their careers. This doesn’t mean that the most effective curriculum is necessarily fully custom developed. Leveraging off-the-shelf solutions and integrating with content that complements your brand may prove to be the most impactful.
As employees reflect on their professional priorities, feeling a sense of purpose and value is increasingly important, if not non-negotiable. Happy and loyal employees become champions for your brand and add value to your team. Developing positive experiences throughout their employee journey promotes a connection that transcends beyond your company if they change jobs. So, why shouldn’t your training take advantage of all the touchpoints and be tailored to your specific organization?
Are you interested in talking with an Ardent specialist today about your custom learning needs? Get in touch!
