As we approach 2020, it’s a good time to look ahead at what will shape L&D next year and into the future.
A key consideration is the fact that Millennials will comprise 75% of the workforce in the next five years.
What this means for Australian organisations, is that this generation alone will be the driver for L&D strategies going forward.
Mobile phone in hand, this cohort plan to stay in their jobs for just two years, and when they choose a workplace, their highest priorities are professional development and the latest technology.
So, with this in mind, how can organisations effectively engage this digitally dependent cohort to attract, train and retain them?
Meeting Technology Expectations
We know that 93% of Millennials expect that up-to-date technology is an important factor when choosing a workplace.
With BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) the standard for new starters in most organisations today, a mobile-first, video-based, interactive and micro-learning focused strategy is key.
Flexible, Accessible and Interactive
Diversity and flexibility are core expectations for Millennials in a mobile learning strategy. Learners demand a multi-platform experience, with the ability to dip in and out of courses whenever and wherever they are.
While the preferred learning style is through multimedia, this can add pressure to course creators to make learning that’s not just informative, but interactive.
L&D professionals can start with implementing strategies and tools that encourage the creation, curation and combination of video, audio and even VR – to deliver a responsive, interactive experience.
Empowerment
Customising learning paths and putting the control in the hands of your learners is key. By implementing a user-centred approach, delivery of content which is self-driven and searchable will also deliver results.
Case Study – Godiva Chocolatier
An organisation that has hit the mark by engaging its Millennial workforce is one of the world’s best known luxury chocolate brands, Godiva.
The company has 600 boutiques and 800 employees around the world, including in Australia.
Keeping Millennials Engaged
Godiva’s Chief HR Officer decided to develop a training initiative that would inspire and educate their most promising Millennial staff in Godiva Boutiques.
These employees would be rewarded with enhanced roles and responsibilities that would, in turn, deliver a better customer experience and improved store performance.
Godiva started working with the gomo authoring tool to create a custom theme for Godiva’s eLearning courses, which include onboarding training, and its seasonal product knowledge training for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas—peak times for product sales.
Due to their seasonal nature, these courses needed to be rapidly built for a quick turnaround against strict deadlines. Using gomo as their authoring tool was critical to meeting those deadlines.
One of Godiva’s key aims was to engage learners, especially its Millennial employees so the learning program had to deliver an interactive, dynamic and fun experience. To meet the learners’ expectations of how content was delivered, the eLearning, therefore, made use of a range of different interactive activities and media types including audio, infographics, animations and videos.
The design process aimed to inspire and educate Godiva’s mostly Millennial retail staff. As part of a blended learning program, The Godiva Global Chocolate Mastery Program consisted of five eLearning modules and a parallel multi-level game called Chocolate Quest: Guardians of the Cocoa Bean.
The learning was:
• Mobile first, accessible via in-store iPads
• Sensitive to all the different cultures of the learners
• Presented in bite-sized chunks (microlearning)
• Text-light wherever possible
• ‘Scannable’, with the main messages concisely expressed and further opportunities to drill down for more detail
• Bold, contemporary and focused in terms of visuals, with all images carefully chosen to complement and enhance the key messages
• Varied, with videos and animations included to create a diverse learning experience.
Designing a Mobile-First Learning Solution
Employees within the Boutiques had no individual email addresses or computers. In most cases, they didn’t even have their own desks to sit at while learning. Some stores provided access to shared desktop computers, but the content had to work for busy employees working on the shop floor, primarily on in-store iPads. The eLearning modules were therefore designed to be consumed on a variety of devices, making full use of gomo’s built-in ability to offer 100% responsive digital learning.
The design solution further capitalised on the mostly-mobile audience with features like vertical scrolling navigation and parallax scrolling. This helped to create a very modern, familiar and interactive experience for learners.
The Result: Greater Learner Engagement and Improved Sales
Employees embraced the eLearning, giving it an average rating of 8.9/10.0 and individual course modules rated as high as 9.4/10. A time-delayed learner survey saw a 17% increase in self-reported confidence to talk about the Godiva brand to colleagues and customers.
Post-learning scores on ability (from explaining where Godiva sources its beans from and its stance on sustainability, to guiding customers through a tasting) saw an increase from average to good scores (5.1 to 7.7 out of 10), to near-perfect scores of between 9.3 and 9.5.
And, most importantly, a follow-up evaluation proved that learners were applying their new knowledge in store, which contributed to Boutiques represented on the program growing significantly faster year-on-year than Boutiques that weren’t.
“As a global company that is over 90 years old and counting, to be able to offer a digitised learning experience that mirrors a gaming environment, while challenging the learner and reinforcing key learning points from the digital module, enriching their jobs, improving customer experience and increasing sales is a true three-way win,” – Karina Chiechi, Learning & Development Manager Godiva Americas
