Efficiency and knowledge retention: empowering workforces through digital learning.

We recently looked into the incredible impact digital learning has had on businesses over the last few years. From profitability to employee engagement, digital learning is making a huge difference across all aspects of organisational excellence.

One of the most important factors to consider is how effective digital learning can improve employee engagement and retention. According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace, only 15% of employees are engaged in the workplace. and 63% of companies say retaining employees is harder than hiring them. Stressing the responsibility organisations have to truly nurture their employees.

the insight.

It’s not rocket science – employees are critical to any organisation’s success, and digital learning is ensuring more can be done to maximise efficiency, happiness and crucially – productivity within a workplace. It’s not just engaged employees that outperform their unengaged peers, as a whole, companies with high employee engagement are 21% more profitable than their competitors. Engaged workforces also show clear signs of higher morale and pride for employees. A recent study discovered that higher-engaged workplaces saw 41% lower absenteeism. When you look at the other side of the coin, low employee engagement is a very costly problem. It costs businesses £4,400 on average to hire and onboard new talent.

Another huge obstacle preventing learning and development effectiveness when it comes to engagement and retention is an employee’s ability to retain said knowledge that is critical to their job. When it comes to the actual learning retention rates, digital learning drives information retention by up to 60% compared to a maximum of 10% during face-to-face training.

Considering that over 60% of companies expect and drive their employees to use learning resources, sometimes on a weekly or daily basis, to perform their tasks effectively, an ability to understand, retain and then apply knowledge can have major consequences on productivity and the quality of an employee’s work.

enhanced engagement.

One-third of employees don’t think the training materials they are provided are interesting or engaging enough. If your training material is unengaging and dull from the start, there is very little chance of providing a real difference to the employee’s journey. You risk creating a very negative first impression, giving the employee a poor initial experience with your company and their knowledge retention going forward. Outdated and unengaging materials and platforms will no longer cut it, the vast majority of today’s workforce expects every aspect of their job to be supported by digital learning resources.

Using engaging and inspiring learning platforms also gives employees greater control over their training, empowering them to plan their schedules. This helps ensure that peak activity hours remain uninterrupted. It’s crucial to consider that traditional and often outdated learning resources won’t always translate into engaging digital learning content. This is where course authoring tools, platforms and expertise come into play. Ensuring responsive and efficient scalability for the admins.

successful retention.

There are some alarming statistics surrounding knowledge retention, stressing the importance of engaging digital learning platforms. Employees will forget up to 50% of what they have just learned within an hour. Within a day, the learner will forget 70% off, and within a month – 90% of what they have learned. This is known as Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve. It proves that formal, one-off learning sessions, and short-term programmes, often in person, are simply not good enough. Engaging digital learning platforms that provide longevity, facilitate social learning, and allow for revisiting and self-scheduled learning, are key to combating the impact of the Forgetting Curve.

Digital learning platforms also assist in this process through built-in analytics and data reporting that will allow learning admins to gain visibility to training effectiveness. The power to analyse metrics to discover learning gaps is critical as it creates a complete picture of a learner’s progress and ability to retain. Allowing admins to look into the data to gauge where improvement or retraining is needed.

what you can do.

The research into employee engagement and knowledge retention can paint an alarming picture, but there is some good news. Efficient digital learning technology can help resolve many of the issues that these statistics bring to light. In 2018, Deloitte revealed the learning habits of modern professionals. The number one reason workers join an organisation is due to the learning opportunities and systems. It was also discovered that 94% of employees say that they would stay in a company if they invest in learning and development.

Another study by LinkedIn found that nearly 75% of learning and development leaders agreed that learning and development became more influential and overworked. Over 80% of the leaders surveyed highlighted that they struggle with the combination of responding at speed, maintaining quality and managing stakeholders. For businesses to future-proof their organisations and truly nurture their employees, an effective, sustainable and scalable digital learning solution must be in place.

If you want to learn how Mindboost can help support your business with engaging world-class digital learning, get in touch today. Check out some of our other news posts at the bottom, or fancy learning about adept-authoring tools? Read more here.