How personalized learning provides greater value for employees
Employees often associate workplace training with tedious and generic educational content that appears to be a few decades out of date. This sort of content is foisted upon employees as a check-the-box exercise – companies want to say they offer formal training around harassment, cybersecurity, and a range of other urgent issues, but they aren’t sufficiently focused on the quality of the educational content.
At a time when employees are increasingly demanding professional development opportunities, competition for talent is ferocious, and the need for an educated workforce has never been clearer, companies can’t afford to waste resources and employees’ time on perfunctory and ineffective training content. They have to ensure that workplace education is actually securing positive learning outcomes and meeting employees’ needs, which is why more and more companies are investing in personalized learning.
Personalized learning is built around each employee’s unique skills, behavioral tendencies, and learning preferences. Beyond drastically increasing engagement and information retention, personalization also helps employees develop the skills they need to advance their careers. Employees are more motivated to learn on the job when they believe training content is tailored to their interests and professional ambitions. When employees are engaged by training content, they’re more likely to say they’re growing in their roles and achieving career goals.
Over three-quarters of employees say they’re “ready to learn new skills or completely retrain.” This presents an unprecedented opportunity for companies at a time when there are far more open positions than candidates available to fill them. When companies offer opportunities to move into new roles, employees are significantly likelier to stick around over the long term. Personalized learning is essential for talent mobility because it identifies employees’ strengths and weaknesses, helps managers track employee performance on a more individual and granular level, and allows companies to allocate human capital more efficiently and productively.
The past several years have permanently altered the ways employees interact with companies and perceive their roles. Employees don’t want to be treated as interchangeable with one another – they want companies to recognize their unique contributions and help them pursue their individual career goals. Personalized learning is a way to meet these demands and expectations, which will help companies build healthier and better-educated workforces.
