How Microlearning Helps with Better Engagement

Microlearning allows employees to help their employees do their jobs better and gain long-term skills for professional development. The short learning bytes associated with microlearning improve internal communication by creating smooth pathways for knowledge transfer and increase knowledge retention. The modules of microlearning are available anytime and anywhere.

The microlearning modules can take the form of standalone courses or as segments of a longer core curriculum. Equipped with a formal learning strategy, employees can incorporate new skills as they begin to acquire them. Since engaging employees is key to creating a workplace with real personal connections, microlearning becomes even more important.

With the pressure to complete tasks quickly often affecting employee performance, it can be difficult to encourage employees to take time out of their day and complete modules with enthusiasm and deep thought. The time frame of microlearning and its adaptation to technology and modern education methods means it’s the perfect way to connect with employees and inspire them to learn. At eLearning Partners, we believe your employees are your best asset. Here’s how you can keep them engaged with microlearning.

Related: eLearning vs. Microlearning: What Are the Differences?

What is Microlearning?

Microlearning can be defined as the delivery of short bursts of content provided to learners so as to help them study for their convenience. All categories of microlearning-based training share the characteristic of brevity, which can either be provided as short-term learning activities or small learning units. 

From text to complete interactive media, microlearning content can take various forms. Regardless of the type, the length of the content should be short and precise. You know how reticent employees might be when they’re looking at a long, seemingly endless email in comparison to one that’s short and sweet. Just like an email or another form of internal communication, microlearning should be brief and to the point. Some examples of microlearning content include text (phrases and short paragraphs), images (photos and illustrations), short videos, audios (small snippets of speech or music), tests and quizzes, and games. 

Different types of microlearning support different formats. Bite-sized learning has actually been around for quite a long time, even before computers came into being. However, the popularity of short bursts of learning has increased in the past few years, especially since smartphones entered the market. In fact, you can even think of leading microlearning platforms as a mix of Instagram and Twitter but in an educational form.

What are the Benefits of Microlearning in Employee Engagement?

Organizations can benefit greatly from microlearning in terms of employee engagement and several other factors. Some of these benefits are as follows:

Improves Long Term Skills

Microlearning is a great way to make employees improve job performance. The short, frequent nature of microlearning provides knowledge to employees in moments of extreme need, making them highly accessible and adaptable. 

There’s crucial enforcement of previous learning that takes place when employees are subjected to microlearning. The periodic reinforcement they receive allows them to get through their tasks faster, and the instant accessibility lets them become more productive. As the delivery of knowledge happens within the workforce, getting proficient takes a shorter amount of time.

That means that not only will they learn skills that are immediately necessary but retain them better for the future.

Forms Personal Connections

With the right-on-time support and efficient reinforcement, learners get to polish and hone their skills. Since your company is helping them sharpen their long-term skills, you’re also reinforcing their knowledge that you’re committed to helping them grow professionally. If multiple employees are using these modules, they have something to talk about either informally or at meetings.

Decreases Delivery Time and Development Cost

As microlearning techniques have a short duration, they don’t require complex graphics or animations. This equates to lower costs in development and quicker turnaround times. This is what makes microlearning easy to design, develop, and deliver.

Be it a standalone asset, a component of grander training initiatives, a solution to finish a task, or a performance tool, microlearning supports an array of purposes and is easy to maintain. Microlearning gives a more efficient ROI and the benefits of implementing far outweigh the costs. This is due to the fact that they can be reused for a milieu of training purposes. 

Applicable for Reuse and Repurposing

Once tweaked a little, the content created for one type of microlearning can be used for other training purposes as well. It’s the modular setup of microlearning that makes it easy and quick to repurpose content. The elements of microlearning can be blended to develop new content.

Since the modules of microlearning are versatile, they can be employed for various purposes across the organization, and used for eclectic learning objectives. With the business objectives constantly changing and developing, microlearning helps you with keeping up by creating forms of learning that match the respective objectives. If multiple employees take on microlearning, you can also improve internal communication by making sure everyone is on the same page about workflow and standard operational protocol.

Makes Training Simpler

We all know that microlearning is easier to manage because of its brevity. As a result, microlearning helps organizations train employees at an accelerated pace and in a much more cost-effective manner. Therefore, the cost associated with creating course manuals for traditional training sessions is eliminated.

The issue of using outdated learning material is something companies will never have to face, since the modules of microlearning can be updated easily. Organizations are able to keep up with the ever-changing business requirements and strategies due to the modular features of microlearning. By providing updated courses to their employees, training managers are able to give their employees a learning experience that’s stress-free. This is because the courses are accessible anytime and anywhere. 

Microlearning is Available on Demand

The microlearning modules are so easy to access that your employees can avail them even from their mobile devices. Therefore, the possibility of building their skills is available to them all the time. If a salesperson, for instance, is meeting a client and needs to know some urgent information, they can just look up the related content about the product and complete the task.

Since microlearning incorporates newly acquired skills right away, they’re bound to remember it for a long time. When information is readily available to employees instead of it being thrusted on them, they feel more empowered, and this leads to a better return-on-investment. 

Microlearning Provides Customized Learning Experiences

Each learner is different and has a unique way of consuming content and retaining information. The same content can’t apply to everyone, and it’s unwise to want to train every employee in a similar manner.

Microlearning is a breath of fresh air in this regard because learners get the option to personalize their learning experiences and choose their own learning path. They can select the modules they want to complete and the ones they wish to omit in order to save time.

They can also choose certifications based on what will help their career. Therefore, microlearning empowers employees through knowledge. Once they’re held accountable for polishing their skills, they begin to take it more seriously.

Microlearning Helps with Attention Spans

It’s easier to engage people in a shorter time frame rather than a long time frame. Therefore, thinking of putting your employees through long training sessions is definitely a bad idea. Microlearning can help you with that.

Microlearning breaks down each and every learning outcome, thereby delivering relevant and to-the-point content. When knowledge is provided to employees in shorter snippets, it’s easier for them to consume and digest. Modern learners want to gain knowledge without having to spend hours on it, and microlearning is the perfect format for it, as its modules are easy to recall and remember.

Microlearning Engages Modern Learners

The modern learner uses technology for almost everything, such as banking, shopping, and more. These tech-savvy beings enjoy learning when technology is involved and incorporated in smart ways. Since microlearning uses technology to impart knowledge, they find it easier to learn.

It keeps them engaged and captures their attention since it’s readily available and fun to engage with. It removes the burden of having to be somewhere physically in order to learn. No particular device is necessary for microlearning, and the ability to choose a device of their choice increases the employee engagement further.

Microlearning Provides Instant Feedback

In microlearning, tracking and pulling out reports is easy. It helps with internal communication by providing instant feedback to your employees, and when employees are provided instant feedback for their performance at work, they can assess their performance and avoid errors in the future. 

The process of transferring information is more effective in microlearning. This leads to less time taken for training, which in turn leads to a higher return-on-investment. Even if you choose a specific module, you can easily edit it within a short span of time. 

Examples of Microlearning with Your Employees

Microlearning allows employees to deal with challenges and find the answers on their own. If you want to use microlearning for better employee engagement, here are some ways to do so:

Videos

You can offer animated videos and whiteboard videos to your employees. They can either be stand-alone modules or sections of a microlearning course. They increase engagement by explaining an abstract idea, providing step-by-step procedures for the visual learners, and providing a different take for those who prefer text by combining animated texts and videos.

Infographics

Infographics are useful because they help condense all the content from a long period of training into the most important points and takeaways. More information can be provided through interactive infographics, which deepens the training and enables the employees to learn more. 

This category of microlearning can be used by organizations in their employee onboarding process in order to take in employees quickly and bring them up to speed with the policies and procedures of the company. Infographics improve internal communication by making basic information readily available so that direct communication can target other detailed points of interest.

Webcasts and Podcasts

Podcasts and webcasts can be an effective tool in microlearning, especially when your employees spend quite a lot of time on the road. You can choose to make your podcasts longer and in-depth, basic and precise, or perhaps a moderately detailed discussion of important theories. 

Webcasts, too, can provide a more visual approach. When viewed live, webcasts also allow for questions from the viewer that can be answered on a real-time basis.

Gamification

Microlearning destroys the myth that training is mostly boring. By bringing in gamification as a microlearning method, organizations can create employee engagement in a large manner. It helps the employees learn concepts while playing a game. You can incorporate all sorts of gamification tools, such as badges, social interaction, levels, and competition, which can help employees feel a personal connection to the modules you provide.

Social Learning

Social media is something used by almost everyone these days, and it’s not just something that can be used merely for entertainment. Social media learning can actually be used as a microlearning method. It connects learners through brief yet thoughtful interactions. 

The internal social network can be used by company trainers to provide material to the employees, post which everyone can connect and join in to continue the process of learning, which leads to better engagement.

Geofencing

Geofencing occurs when organizations provide training in the form of push notifications when learning is necessary in a specific geographic location. This helps when your employees need certain information about a place they’re at. They’re sent the necessary information on whatever device they’re carrying for microlearning. 

Microlearning for Immediate Growth and Engagement

Employees gain access to learning methods across different modalities, which include videos, infographics, gamification, and social learning. This enables them to break the repetitive nature of other forms of learning with more engaging methodology. Because of the unique pacing of microlearning, employees can also expand their knowledge without significantly interrupting their workflow - and even incorporate new skills as they learn them.

Microlearning engages employees through ongoing learning that can be easily incorporated into their daily professional life. With a methodology optimized for personal connections, microlearning provides modules that employees will actually want to complete while allowing them to stay in tune with your company’s daily operations instead of focusing solely on isolated learning modules.