It can be difficult to keep the attention span of staff while going through important meetings or training sessions. Sometimes sitting for long periods of time with information being thrown at them can make it harder for staff to hold their attention and stay focused on important company policies, safety compliance, or training.
Microlearning is a new technique that many corporate offices are adding into their training programs as a method to allow staff to easily retain information, boost engagement, and learn skills in short bursts that will keep their attention. There are a number of reasons why microlearning works well in the corporate world where it provides an interactive way to present content without staff forgetting what they learned like they might in a long one or two hour session.
Let’s learn more about what microlearning is and how it can boost learning retention in corporate training!
What is Microlearning in the Corporate World?
Knowing what microlearning consists of in this aspect is a great way to get familiar and implement it in your own business!
Many managers want to learn about more engaging ways to help train their staff without the fear of losing their attention or forgetting what they just learned in a long class. Microlearning is a useful technique that many corporate offices use for training their staff as it provides a ton of helpful benefits for staff for retaining information and staying engaged.
Microlearning: The Definition of a Useful Tactic to Help Corporate Training
It’s first important to learn more about microlearning and what it is before implementing it into any corporate training session or class. It is often seen as posing a positive impact on staff when initiated. Staff are used to hours-long training sessions for certificates that they need, updated company policies, or even a rehash on topics that are important pertaining to their job position.
Instead of going through the same training or spiel over-and-over again, microlearing can be implemented instead to help keep staff members engaged and help them retain information more. This technique is done by delivering content in small, focused groups that can last anywhere from two to ten minutes. Whether this covers a specific topic, concept, or in the form of quizzes, videos, or even infographics, it can help boost staff engagement, retainment, and it is set to easily fit a busy schedule–like those who work in the corporate world.
Key characterizations of microlearning include the following:
- The focus on one topic or learning objective at a time
- Hold sessions that last anywhere from two to ten minutes
- Provide accessibility for staff through mobile devices to make it flexible for staff schedules
- Include content such as quizzes, short videos, games, infographics, etc.
Benefits of Microlearning for Corporate Staff
There are a number of benefits for microlearning in corporate offices and some of the reasons managers make the switch to this technique include the following:
- Knowledge retention - Allows information to be broken down into smaller chunks for staff to consume and retain better compared to long training sessions
- Increases engagement - Long training sessions can overwhelm and burn out employees where this technique makes it more useful and fun with games, quizzes, etc.
- Just-in-Time Access - Can be accessible through a mobile device to fit around a staff member’s schedule with tons of flexibility
- Great for remote and hybrid teams - Short sessions are accessible according to their schedule on any device
- Improved efficiency and work productivity - Content can be learned in minutes where it doesn’t take too much time out of an employee’s work schedule and other responsibilities
- Can be personalized to specific staff - Microlearning can be a great way to help certain staff with topics they are struggling with because it can prevent any training frustration
Top Examples of Microlearning That Can Be Used in Corporate Establishments
Corporate job positions don’t have to be mundane and monotonous–here are some top microlearning tactics to train your staff!
There are numerous reasons as to why microlearning is crucial for corporate employees. Not only does it help them to take a step back from a stressful project or their daily responsibilities, but it is a unique method that helps to improve efficiency by allowing them to retain more information in short bursts compared to an hour-long session.
Here are some of the top examples for how microlearning can be used in the corporate world to benefit your staff!
Pair it With Digital Signage For an Extra Boost
Digital signage is an incredible piece of technology to use if you wish to incorporate microlearning in corporate training–and here’s how. Already, digital signage can be used as a way to interact and boost engagement with your staff by showcasing company news, events, and creating employee spotlights for their hard work–so why not use it as an interactive way for them to learn off of too?
There are many different types of interactive content that you can create to help with microlearning different training courses for staff. For example, you can create QR codes for staff to scan on their phone and take quizzes, use it to present a short video that is easy to digest, or hold small training sessions with “key takeaways” on past training sessions to get over the forgetting curve.
Some other useful content ideas can consist of posing quiz questions and holding small discussions–or pose the question in the morning for staff to think about, then discuss it in the afternoon–short tutorial videos, or even give employee spotlights to staff who have been following specific trainings by the book to be an example for others.
Question of the Day
We lightly glossed over this idea in the last section, but posing a “Question of the Day” is a great form of microlearning that can get staff thinking as soon as they come into the office. Having this question posted on a digital signage screen, whiteboard, or anywhere where staff commonly congregate can get them thinking and think of an answer right away.
The microlearning technique comes into play when you get your staff together to talk about the question. You can have each staff member answer the question in their own way, give their own opinions of what it means, or you can simply talk or give a short prompt about it to help with continuous learning and keep staff thoroughly engaged.
Interactive Quizzes
Many staff members struggle with taking in a ton of information at a time, especially with long training modules. If you’re looking for ways to get your staff engaged throughout long training sessions, interactive quizzes are a great way to help them retain information in bite-sized pieces and avoid forgetting material they just learned.
The reason why interactive quizzes work especially well for microlearning in the corporate world is because they break everything down into pieces that are easy to digest–which makes retaining information easier–along with actively recalling what you just learned quickly. You can even make friendly competition out of it where you can integrate badges, ranked leaderboards, and also give points out for high scores that can lea to rewards.
Quizzes also act as an assessment because they can help gauge how well your staff is digesting the information and if there are any skill gaps that need to be addressed among your team. Any gaps that are addressed in these quizzes can be followed up with training–but many managers see an increase of course completion and understanding by using this method of microlearning.
Short Video Tutorials
Are you implementing a new program, system, software, or compliance procedures that you want your staff to become more familiar with, but don’t want to give them a long training session about? Sometimes watching long videos or even long training sessions with someone going over the topic can cause staff to only half listen to the inner workings of new softwares and procedures. Instead, opt to introduce short video tutorials on how a program, system, software, or new procedure will work within the corporation–which can help staff to retain it much better.
A shorter video compared to a long one can help staff to understand the basics right off the bat within two to three minutes compared to an extensive course on new products or procedures being implemented in the company. “How-to” videos that get straight to the point and are easy to understand are engaging and can help staff get to work implementing this new training in their daily tasks and learn more about it as they use it.
By reducing cognitive load and being a flexible form of learning, short video tutorials can align with modern attention spans, improve focus and attention, and give staff the opportunity to learn while they’re on-the-go or even on their break.
How Shift Can Benefit Your Microlearning Techniques in Corporate Trainings
Microlearning can be presented in a multitude of ways including digital signage–but with the right CMS platform to bring it to life!
Digital signage is one of the best ways to present content to your staff that can help boost engagement, improve internal communications, and help with staff retention and acknowledgement. If you’re looking to implement microlearning into your training sessions for your corporate staff, but need new ways to keep them engaged throughout the learning process, digital signage paired with a content management system (CMS), such as Shift, can help you to see a stark improvement.
Shift: The Ultimate CMS Platform For Microlearning
If you’re looking for a CMS platform that has an easy interface, pre-made templates for easy content creation, and the ability to be creative with how you help train your staff–then Shift is among one of the best options. Shift is a unique CMS platform that aims to help increase employee engagement and communications through employee spotlights and recognition, but can be used to help with microlearning training sessions.
From adding visual aids and infographics, short videos, and even making interactive content with QR codes, Shift allows you to be creative with your content to help train staff.
Other Features Shift Provides to Boost Team Learning and Recognition
Shift has a ton of other useful benefits that can overall boost employee morale and help them feel valued at your corporate company through easy-to-create content. Here are some other unique features that Shift can provide for any corporation wanting to get their staff more involved in trainings and more:
- Boost employee engagement through recognition and appreciation
- Celebrate staff birthdays, work anniversaries, and other achievements
- Show training videos
- Employee spotlights
- Interactive polls for staff to anonymously complete
- Expands internal communications
- Allows staff to retrain and re-skill in key trainings
- Helps leaders learn more about staff
- Encourages employees to do work harder
- Increases productivity
- Create diverse content using pictures, videos, or documents
- Use as a wayfinding and navigation system
- Broadcast company announcements, updated policies, etc.
- Use to post emergency alerts
- Streamline workflow and post frequent updates about each day’s tasks
Microlearning in Corporate Training Can Make the Difference
There are a number of reasons why managers and team leaders are switching to microlearning in corporate training courses. Not only does it help make it easier for staff to retain information, but it also does it in an interactive way that can help to remember the material.
Using Shift and digital signage is a great way to create content for microlearning that will help benefit your staff with training courses in the corporate setting–so why not give it a try today!
