Learning is the top leadership challenge, according to Deloitte's "2019 Global Human Capital Trends" study. Executives know that consistent learner experiences are the foundation of performance. However, delivering consistent results across a diverse workforce of employee backgrounds, cultures and learning styles is a key L&D leadership challenge.
Best-of-breed organizations use a training management system to drive consistent learner outcomes across a diverse workforce. Effective messaging does not mean one single educational pathway for the entire workforce. There are many different learning styles, and consistency is about getting the same message across for all learners.
Consistent training is a competitive advantage
Every employee in the organization needs training on a core curriculum of basics. Core training fosters employee behaviors that are consistent with organizational goals across individuals and teams. Generally, foundational training includes:
- Policy
- Workflows
- Human resources operations
- Communication standards
- Cybersecurity
Inconsistent training carries steep costs, including "learner dissatisfaction, a decrease in motivation and skills gaps, among other effects," according to Training Industry. Many employees are hesitant to share feedback on areas where they know their skillset could use improvement. More than one-third of employees admit they lack proficiency in at least one subject area related to a job, according to an edX poll.
Foundational concepts must be scaled to a diverse population of learners with different roles, responsibilities and cultural demographics. A training management system can foster individual learning pathways for consistent outcomes.
How training management supports consistency
Effective training isn't a checkbox compliance requirement. Best-of-class firms define successful training results using four critical lenses for performance, identified in Elevating Learning & Development:
- "Strategic alignment
- "Capabilities
- "Organizational health
- "Individual peak performance"
Consistent training success, therefore, takes intentional planning and a strategic framework to guide the way. A training management system can further support consistency by providing a tool capable of aligning L&D offerings with strategy. It then provides individualized learning pathways based on capability metrics and individual strength assessments. A training management system can scale learning messages into experiences while providing a variety of tools and modalities for learners to achieve shared success metrics.
Measure & respond
Scaling consistent learning outcomes may require adjustment based on learner feedback or outcomes. Curate and create content by using learning management system metrics to understand who's struggling to progress in training or apply new information. Most importantly, measure consistency with downstream behavioral metrics. "Don't test for knowledge," Christine Kensey tells HR Dive. "Test for application. Can your employees retain and apply the lessons and not just regurgitate them?" Motivate employees by providing clear goals, including L&D requirements and success metrics for each core training module. Clear individual success metrics support consistent learner outcomes and foster individual engagement with content. Evaluate employee participation, engagement and behavior after training to understand roadblocks to success. Downstream analysis of L&D key performance indicators (KPIs) can reveal patterns among certain roles or learning styles, and opportunities to refine training content accordingly.
Vary modalities
A training management system supports different content modalities that communicate and reinforce the same training messages. While it's essential for organizations to deliver consistent messages, individual learners may consume those learnings in different ways according to individual learning styles. In the end, it matters that the knowledge is understood consistently. That's where the consistency matters. That means mandatory training concepts can be scaled to mobile modules, eLearning courses and on-demand videos delivered to learners based on role, learning style or responsibility. A training management system supports richer content management around core concepts, to maintain consistent messaging across different experiences and media.
There are many paths to consistency
A cookie-cutter approach to L&D won't yield consistent results. A training management system can scale foundational concepts to different learning styles and content types, without losing sight of the main point. Accommodating diverse learning styles can unlock consistent performance results.
