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E-Training: Continuous Potential
September 25, 2009
By Timothy L. Hill
The typical employee learning approach used by different types of organizations may not be the best way to ensure new skills and knowledge are put into practice every day. The event-driven, point-in-time sessions—where an instructor leads a course (the "event") over a series of hours or days, an employee attends and participates, and then everyone goes back to their jobs—doesn't provide the tools needed to apply those lessons on an ongoing basis. CLOs and their teams assume (or hope) employees will take all the expertise shared at the event, internalize it, then apply the learnings back at their desks the next day. But that's a difficult task.
The typical employee learning approachThe formal learning process has its place—it is a great opportunity to provide employees with new competencies and knowledge that help them perform better in their jobs and impact the bottom line of their employers. However, "teachable moments" happen naturally and informally every day over the regular course of business—long after the learning event concludes. To quote Charles Handy, "The best learning happens in real life, with real problems and real people, and not in the classrooms."
In fact, research shows approximately 80 percent or more of job skills, or what employees know to perform in their jobs, are learned during these informal scenarios. When employees are back in their roles, these informal conversations frequently are not encouraged. Informational communications between the employee, peers, mentors, and other experts to gain answers and knowledge needed for job performance is not facilitated.
A continuous learning model—where all the information is readily available and easily accessed—removes the single event-driven approach and instead applies it to on-the-job teachable moments that happen every day. With a continuous learning approach, an online environment is established where all course information is shared, course attendees have access to the instructor, as well as relevant subject matter experts, peers, mentors, and coaches, and students are able to communicate and discuss what they learned long after the learning event is over. From best practices to lessons learned, to posing questions and even continuing to role-play or practice how to apply the learning to the job role, the learning process continues for the student long after the class concludes.
Continuous learning environments ensure that training and development efforts continue to improve employee performance and have an impact on the business. Whether it's to improve customer service, shorten time to market of new products and services, increase sales, or improve quality, employees take learning courses for specific reasons. Yet at the end of the day, an assessment taken by a student demonstrating recall of the knowledge shared at the course only goes so far. Employers need to see that the information and capabilities their employees learn is applied on the job, improving job performance, and having a positive impact on the business and the bottom line.
Continuous learning establishes a community of learning that supports the employee. By recognizing that "teachable moments" occur every day, employees will continue to learn and improve their abilities long after the learning event is over.
As president of Blackboard Inc.’s Professional Education group in Washington, D.C., Timothy L. Hill leads the business operations for corporate, government, association and career college clients. He previously served as Blackboard’s senior vice president, global marketing. He can be contacted at ProEdInfo@blackboard.com.
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