Business never stops, even in the summer months, but sometimes your employees need a boost to stay motivated. In a recent survey of edX For Business customers, 75% of respondents said that engagement is a top challenge in implementing a corporate learning program. While employees are clamoring for training and new skills, our research shows that intentions and motivation can waver at different points in the learning journey as life and work responsibilities compete for time and attention.
At edX For Business, we’re dedicated to helping our clients get their employees across the learning finish-line and level up with new skills, enhancing their contribution to the organization and their overall employability.
1. Create Space to Learn on the Job:
edX For Business data demonstrates that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between workday learning and course completion rates. But learning doesn’t have to consume a lot of time and eat away at worker productivity. In fact, allowing and encouraging your employees to take just a few minutes to engage, apply, and discuss goes a long way in cementing learning. It also provides an immediate application and learning in context. Here are some ways you can support workday learning opportunities:
- Create dedicated internal messaging tools like Slack channels and internal portal discussion boards
- Schedule lunch-and-learns in areas of study with functional leadership.
- Establish “quiet rooms” where employees can squeeze in some uninterrupted learning during their lunch hours or other off-the-clock windows.
2. Celebrate Achievement:
Recognition and motivation go hand-in-hand. Even the smallest acknowledgements help to support learner engagement. A few simple ways to recognize those who earn certificates include:
- Post monthly lists of certificate achievers whenever the company shares news, like company bulletins, intranet, emails and company meetings.
- Encouraging posting of course and program certificates in work spaces, on LinkedIn and other trafficked areas.
3. Give Your Learners a Running Start:
Nothing succeeds like success. If you are launching or in the early stages of a corporate eLearning program, this is a prime opportunity to support and reinforce employee motivation and engagement.
- Plan for some “quick wins.” Our Enterprise Customer Success team can help you to identify foundational courses that have value across your organization and which are also accessible to every level and can be completed in a short amount of time.
- Double Up: edX For Business research shows that rates of engagement and success gain significant momentum after only completing two courses. Give your learning program - and your learners - a boost by mapping enrollment in their first two courses in quick succession (~1 month between first course end date and second course start date is recommended).
- Connect learning to the bigger picture. Identify how learning and career pathways support company strategy and growth. Further underscore the importance of skill development through messaging and participation from your organization's highest levels. (Even CEOs are never finished learning!) Have this clearly messaged by leadership.
- Put some skin in the game. Learners fare better when they're invested. The most motivated employees are those who embrace continued learning as an opportunity to solve work-related problems. With this mindset, learners equate their performance in courses with their own personally-held benchmarks, goals, and ambitions. And as they progress towards these goals, they feel a sense of self-satisfaction, which supports engagement and completion. One proven tactic to support this is goal-setting and equating course completion with the employee’s own ambitions.
Successful learner engagement leads to tangible re-skilling and workforce transformation, which are essential for organizations to adapt to the changing business landscape. Once your company has provided learning to its employees, engagement and fruitful learning are just a light lift away.
