Talent Management System

How Belitsoft Can Help With Gamification Gamification consulting. Insights on how to improve your existing training program or guided creation of a new one with game elements. Gamified eLearning apps. Web, desktop, and mobile applications that help your employees or customers learn better. Course development. Creating a new course with game elements included. Learning games development. Using a game-based learning approach for the benefit of your company. Business gamification. Designing a motivation system for non-learning activities. GET A FREE QUOTE What is Gamification in Corporate Training? Gamification is defined as using game-design elements in a non-game situation. This is different from game-based learning where gaming is used to teach players certain knowledge or skills. The line gets blurred in case of learning games, as many of them are just interactive quizzes in disguise. In corporate environments it is used to increase the learners’ motivation, make training more fun, improve engagement, and, as a result, help the employees train better. While it is not without its risks, gamification has proven its effectiveness and has rightfully been popular in the corporate training centers for the last decade or so. Peculiarities of Gamification in Corporate Training There are several aspects that make gamifying corporate learning a bit different. This is directly tied to the principles of adult training and human psychology. For a gamified training program to be effective, it must: 1. Grant People Autonomy The program shouldn’t force people to study. Rather it should create an atmosphere that gives learners a feeling of being in charge. When this happens, the motivation soars, and the learning outcomes improve as a result. On the other hand, if the program feels like a dictator that makes people log in just to avoid punishment, it can actually decrease the employee effectiveness, including the work-related KPIs. Mandatory fun is detrimental. 2. Provide Value No amount of bells and whistles will make the training program attractive to your employees if this program doesn’t provide something useful. But if the learning can bring meaningful results and bring them fast, people’s trust in it skyrockets.  One of the ways to provide that is having bite-sized learning materials that answer specific work-related questions. Employees can turn to them whenever they need to learn how something is done and use the knowledge they gained right away - both doing their job and improving their skills. 3. Show Competence The better a person is at a chosen activity, the more they want to go back to it. Gamification should reinforce this aspect by providing fun interactive quizzes, rewards for special achievements and possibly some sort of leaderboard to reinforce the competitive spirit. Advantages of Gamification over Other Training Methods Corporate training is the area that the employees are most interested in gamifying. They have a good reason for it. Gamification has many advantages that put it ahead of other approaches to learning. 1. Increased Motivation and Engagement A gamified learning environment needs acceptance from the learners themselves to be effective. Fortunately, when there is consent, badges, points, and other similar elements make people spend more time studying voluntarily, whether it is because of perfectionism, competitive spirit or simple fun.  As they are more willing to learn, knowledge retention improves accordingly. 2. Better Learning Habits With the right design of game elements, you can foster behaviors that make learning more effective. For example, giving badges for revisiting tests can improve knowledge retention by 15-20%. This requires precise planning, but the results are more than worth it. 3. Timely Feedback This benefit is twofold. On the one hand, this helps learners understand their strengths and weaknesses, as well as how far along the learning path they have gone. Knowing that they are good at time management (via the “Early bird” achievement”) but not so good at precision (having won no badges for perfectly done tests) will show a user what they need to pay attention to, in order to become better. On the other hand, gamification features show the employer the problematic areas in their employees’ skills. Moreover, it can function as a supplement or even a replacement for traditional performance reviews, helping promote the best and address issues with the workers who need improvement. 4. Better Engagement Another advantage of gamification is the feeling of doing meaningful work that learners experience. There is hardly a need to repeat the fact that happy employees are productive employees and the ones who would stay with the company instead of seeking other job opportunities. Risks Note that gamification is a tool, and just like with any other tool it can be misused to a detrimental effect. Just slapping a bunch of badges and a leaderboard onto your learning app can actually make things worse. One example is the Disneyland Resort Hotels debacle. The company has implemented an electronic leaderboard which showed the performance results for laundry staff. It showed green light for workers who were meeting their production quotas, yellow - for those lagging behind and red for the underperforming. This turned out to be an “electronic whip” forcing people to skip bathroom breaks and punishing pregnant women for not being able to keep up.  Another is the “Slam-Dunk” sales game, which turned out to be only partially successful. “Slam-Dunk” visualized achieving results and making progress (e.g. calling, closing deals, or getting leads) as basketball actions like the eponymous slam-dunk. However, it was only working for the employees who actively consented to its use and endorsed the concept. Those who weren’t on board with the game suffered decreased productivity from “mandatory fun”. Popular Gamification Features There are five gamification methods that are used most often. Points Each lesson, quiz, and other activity is assigned a certain point value. The more of these the learner completes, the higher his overall rating. While the points themselves may be worth nothing in real life but they are an indicator of the user’s commitment and success. Leaderboards People who aren’t very competitive by nature can likely ignore the leaderboards completely. But those who thrive on trying to outdo their fellows, will put in real effort to get to the top. Some ways to make leaderboards more effective is creating separate ones for different departments and wiping them clean every week so the new learners have a chance to get the first place. Note that a leaderboard should only be used for positive reinforcement. “Loserboards” are a great way to bring down morale and make everyone hate their job. Badges Badges are used to reward specific achievements, like continuously studying 7 days in a row, or completing the course ahead of your peers. They might seem straightforward, but need careful approach to be effective. For example giving a badge for passing the test perfectly on the first time is deceptive: if the learner makes one mistake, their chance to get the badge is gone forever and it ceases to be a motivating factor. Levels The points mentioned above can also be used as experience to help the learner gain “levels” just like a character in a role-playing game. The purpose of this is twofold: firstly, the level can be an indication of the work that the learner put in the training; secondly, it could be used to scale the difficulty of training so that it provides adequate challenge to the user.  Narrative A human is sometimes defined as a “storytelling animal”, which is an indication of how we all like stories. Using a narrative can give meaning to the actions that the learner takes over the course of the program (e.g. solving a riddle is saving a princess) and thus makes the experience more enjoyable and effective. Examples of Gamification in Corporate Training There are many specialty learning areas that can be gamified. Here are some examples. Onboarding A good way to make the first impression on your new employees is to give them a fun and engaging way to learn the basics of their new company. One example of it is Xerox’s Stepping Up application. The leaderboard in Stepping Up. Source This is a gamified software that the company uses to train new managers. It allows them to solve “quests” that are based on the real situations they can face in their job. Moreover, some quests can only be solved by a team of people thus improving the users’ teamwork and leadership skills. Stepping Up is also integrated with Yammer, giving the application a bit of extra social effect. Employee Engagement Deloitte Leadership Academy is a resource for training the leadership skills of the executives. The company fully intends to preserve its place among the Big 4 accounting firms, and so has made sure that its management is constantly improving. Besides the learning materials from top educational institutions like Harvard and Stanford, it features a well-designed gamification system. The leaderboards are especially noteworthy: they are separated by skill levels, departments, and locations, so everyone can compete in their “weight class”. Moreover, the leaderboards are refreshed each week, so that the new hires can have a shot at the first place too. Compliance Training Game elements can be used to help people learn about the company code of conduct and official regulations. For example, Bridgestone, a multinational car parts corporation, holds the “Bridgestone Compliance Battle Royale” for its teams across the world. The participants compete in a series of quizzes via the Kahoot! app. The winners get rewarded with a real trophy and employees with the highest scores get individual gift bags as well. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the Big 4 auditing companies, has used gamification to approach cybersecurity training. They have developed a “Game of Threats” - an interactive game that helps both coaches and the executives they train to learn about defending from data breaches in a fun and engaging environment.  Game of Threats. Source The players are divided into teams called “Threat Actor” and “Company”. Each team has a number of cards they can play - such as “DDOS Attack” for the hackers and “Network Scans” for the defenders. The players decide which actions they should take to win, while the trainers give advice and provide feedback. Skill Training SAP, a large business software corporation, uses a game called “Road Warrior” to train its sales reps. SAP Road Warrior. Source This is actually an interactive quiz disguised as a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”-style game. It simulates a “pre-call” session with a customer and rewards players for making choices that bring them closer to closing a deal. As a salesperson progresses through the game they can level up and gain badges to show off their skills. Advice on Gamifying Corporate Learning According to the Scientific American magazine, there are three main elements in any motivational program, including gamification of corporate eLearning: Autonomy. When people have a feeling of control they tend to be more determined in reaching their goals. Value. If people feel that they are learning something useful, they are more motivated. Competence. The better a person becomes at something, the more enjoyment this activity brings.  Best practices in gamification are based on these elements. Clear Goals While improving the mood of your employees is a noble endeavor, to achieve success you need a specific and measurable business goal. It could be improved knowledge retention rate, increased sales, shorter meeting times, etc. - anything that directly affects employee productivity and the company’s bottom line.  Your learners should have clear goals too. Knowing that they will be rewarded for successful completion of a quiz without mistakes shows them which behavior is beneficial for them and, in turn, to the company.  Carrot, not Stick The example of Disneyland shows that gamification elements are beneficial only if used as positive reinforcement. Otherwise, they would be just as effective in driving people away from the eLearning program and demotivating them.  Appropriate Challenge What is the point of an achievement badge if anyone can get it with little to no effort? Gamification elements should give learners a challenge that fits their skill level. Too much or too little, and it risks becoming either boring or demotivating. This is the reason companies reset their leaderboards, for example: otherwise, some employees will hoard the top spots making it impossible for others to reach and forcing one group to rest on their laurels and another to give up on the competition whatsoever. Varying Incentives Depending on the nature of people’s work, they will be motivated by different things. So it is vital to design your corporate learning gamification program in a way that incentivizes its target audience specifically. For example, engineers developing a device and salespeople promoting it will be driven by different things.

Example of a Custom Corporate Elearning Platform's Architecture Looking for the best elearning companies to meet all of your corporate training needs? Send us your request for information, contact us to know how our elearning consultants could help you with custom corporate elearning development, e-learning application development or choosing pre-built corporate eLearning software, corporate e learning implementation project plan, training or support! Custom Corporate Employee Onboarding Training The major challenge for enterprises today as ever before is an effective onboarding and new employee orientation. Employee onboarding training automation is the current top-1 hot trend to solve this challenge. Need a Custom Employee Onboarding Training Automation? We have a solution for you. Contact us to get a Proposal New employees who went through a structured on-boarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years. (The Wynhurst Group). Stakeholders of the top-performing companies believe that successful onboarding of new employees is not just a function of product education but also a practice that ensures that they will be well trained on the company’s brand, mission, messaging, policies and procedures. Online learning experience portal with a guided centralized access and blended delivery model (custom e-learning courses, live virtual instructor-led training sessions and on-demand reference resources) is the “build once, use many times” solution for onboarding and new employee orientation needs. Online learning experience portal is the solution for: companies that pay for unused training content because their current onboarding system can not assign courses, so employees are not held accountable for their required online training and they just are not taking the training. modern companies with a high percentage of the workforce that works from remote or virtual office locations. startups or early-stage companies that need effective systems to support expanded resources once funding is secured or cash flow is achieved. Key features of the Onboarding Module of the Corporate Talent Management system: Integration with an existing HR system. When a new hire is added to your HR system, their account is automatically created in the LXP. Course enrollment automation. When your new hires are added to your HR system, they are automatically added, for example, to a “Welcome to the Company” onboarding course in the LXP. Controlled timeframes. Select a time period for the selected course by which it needed to be completed. For example, you can set up a course to be completed during the first week of the employee joining. With this option, you will know that new hires are meeting their onboarding goals and keeping up with their training schedule. With the ability to set deadlines you can track who has completed their training and who needs a reminder. New employee onboarding roadmap or learning path. The learner path is the logical order of courses that must be completed one by one. For example: Orientation -> Policies and Procedures -> Health and Safety, and so on. It isn't possible to start a new course until the previous is not completed. Onboarding course completion assessment. A learning assessment is the best practice to be sure that an employee has really studied required materials, for example, onboarding compliance training. So-called summative assessment method is generally acknowledged in the corporate community. It focuses on measuring learning outcomes at the end of the learning process. Group-based automation. This feature enables training managers to easily assign the onboarding curriculum for each department to ensure they have easy access to specialized training. You can create “customer support group”, “sales group”, etc. and once a new hire logs into your LXP they have access to all the same courses as their fellow team members. Customized reports with analytics. You can access details of new hires’ performance and ensure they’re keeping up to speed, gaining the knowledge they need. Additionally, you can measure their overall performance to see where to make corrections to a course content to improve the learner experience. LinkedIn-like enterprise internal network. Use the internal social network feature to help new starters explore profiles of existing employees, establish connections and chat with more experienced colleagues to ask for advice. Advice It can be counterproductive to force workers into long lesson plans when they are already busy with their regular tasks. Instead, consider repurposing your training and onboarding materials into shorter, bite-sized pieces. Belitsoft is committed to helping HR professionals and training leaders to make a difference in their organizations. Advantages of Corporate eLearning Cost-efficiency Cost reduction and cost-efficiency are the most significant benefits of online corporate training. No need to hire instructors, purchase textbooks, or print learning materials. There is also no need to create or equip special classrooms - employees can take online training directly at workplaces. Investment will be required to create and maintain an online learning platform. But it is minimal in comparison with the traditional individual development of employees. Choosing the right training system allows the company to optimize the financial costs of staff education. Real examples and numbers. Dow Chemical saved $34 million dollars and decreased learning expenses from $95 per learner/per course to $11 per learner/per course due to converting from classrooms to online education. IBM also managed to save big bucks in transition to online corporate training. The amount saved is reportedly $200 million, and that is roughly 30% of the previous training budget of the company.  Access to education anywhere 24/7 Now you do not need to wait for the materials to be prepared or for the trainer to have the opportunity to conduct training. No need to attend special classes for continuing education. You can get all the necessary information almost immediately and from anywhere. Employees have the opportunity to learn on the job, as well as at home, in a cafe or any other place using a telephone or laptop and the Internet. Today's employees demand workplace solutions that match their lifestyle. Someone perceives information better early in the morning or at the beginning of the working day, for others it is easier to get training in the evening. An employee can plan his time himself. With a growing global workforce, one of the benefits of e-learning is that it can be created and broadcast around the world. Modern solutions for e-learning allow employees from different departments and countries to participate in discussions directly in the training module. Reduces training time Switching to e-learning can also result in tremendous time savings for you and your employees. Tests have shown that e-learning reduces your employee’s training time by 60% compared to traditional training. Instant feedback and results tracking As LMS tracks user activities, it is way easier for the business owner to get information about the courses completed. After getting full information about skills that were in for improvement, employers get a better understanding of how to apply talents of people they are in command of. Employees can also receive real-time feedback. No manual ratings. After completing the course, the employee passes the test and the system automatically tells you what needs to be improved and where to find the necessary information. In e-learning, it is possible to set clear criteria by which the knowledge acquired by an employee in the learning process is evaluated. Increases Learning Involvement Thanks to gamification, the use of video, and other interactive content, e-learning can significantly increase your employee’s engagement and increase the retention of information received. This is especially true for specific, concise topics, such as training in new software, compliance procedures, or reference guides that they can access on the go. Learning is no longer a chore. When an employee can learn in an interactive and engaging environment, this leads to improved retention of knowledge and skills. As a rule, such information is perceived much easier and simpler. Permanent access to important information Your LMS can become a bank of useful information for your organization. The company’s knowledge base, documentation or any other useful information can be stored here. Thanks to the access settings, you can choose to whom and what information to make available. If your training covers a lot of materials that will need to be referenced later, for example product specifications, eLearning gives your employees the ability to access these resources exactly when they need them. No more searching for information on a computer or in mail. All the necessary materials will be available to you anywhere, even from a mobile device. For example, if an employee needs to freshen up the memory of how to properly draw up a contract, he can simply log into the LMS system and click on the module and find the required document template. Online learning platforms also allow employees to review key information exactly when they need it. Scalability The flexibility of e-learning allows you to adapt training for any number of employees and in any number of languages. Instead of trying to find instructors and training facilities for training, all your employees need is access to a computer or mobile phone. Corporate LMS can be quickly rebuilt and updated with new modules, which makes it a universal training tool. Productivity increase People are always looking for growth opportunities. Online training allows employees to quickly gain new knowledge and master new processes. One of the main complaints about traditional teaching methods is that the time-consuming nature of programs takes away their valuable time that could be spent on other work. With the help of training management systems, employees can participate in their online courses at any time, including at home or during downtime, so training should not conflict with other important or time-sensitive work tasks. Employees who are better trained and knowledgeable about the company's products and services will be more effective and will help improve the image of your business. Reduced employee turnover rates Happy and well-informed employees are employees who are more likely to remain loyal to your organization. By giving them access to 24-hour online learning and self-study modules, they can advance their professional goals and feel motivated to increase productivity in the workplace. They can also identify areas in which they may need a job and find out their main strengths so that they can become better employees and more informed advocates for your brand. How to understand that your company needs an effective corporate elearning system? Basically, modern companies at some stage of their activities face the following problems: Development of non-standard production processes requiring timely and compulsory study by staff Territorial randomness of company branches Limited time to learn new material The overwhelming majority of employees trained in the traditional form of training Minimum budget allocated to a staff training program A large number of employees in need of training were recorded. The presence of one or more factors indicates the need for e-learning in the company. Successful Companies Using Corporate Elearning As of today, nearly half of the most profitable world-known companies use eLearning tools for online training. Are you still teaching your employees the old-fashioned way? Here's how successful businesses use eLearning to keep their workflow more effective. Shell is a global multi-billion dollar corporation working in oil and gas industry. It is one of the six Big Oil supermajors with an annual revenue of $305.18 billion. Shell operates in over 70 countries, managing 92.000 employees. In 2006 Shell decided to ensure quality of their services and modify training for its contracting and procurement staff. They wanted to increase the company’s profit by improving staff performance. Besides, they have to support employees speaking in multiple languages and adapt learning to the standards of the Shell management system. The training program involves an online portal, known as Shell Open University. It offers a wide range of practical, commercial and technical learning tools. Employees have unlimited access to online courses, webcasts, e-books, and guides. They evaluate their own knowledge, capabilities, and competency both before and after completing the program. Moreover, Shell will reimburse the money and time spent on further employee learning if the corporate curriculum is insufficient. Toyota Motor Corporation is a multinational car producer founded in 1937. Their corporate structure consists of over 340.000 employees working in 51 manufacturing branches in 28 countries. Toyota is the world’s third-largest seller delivering its vehicles in more than 170 states. As of 2017, the company has raised $249.9 billion in revenue. Toyota Motor Europe has been using eLearning to train over 18.000 motor technicians and engineers since 2005. The company upgraded to the latest version of its LMS in 2013 to provide continuous training without having to be re-certified. The platform offers learning materials for dozens of distributors and hundreds of retail outlets in over 50 countries. ‘I’ve found [...] that getting people to embrace e-learning is much more about change management. It’s bigger than making people to use the system; it’s about changing the way they think about getting information.’ Sann René Glaza, Toyota Motor Europe’s senior manager for the Learning Technologies Group Toyota learning program includes 150 classes for its certified technical staff, as well as training courses for non-technical employees working for distributors in Europe and Asia. PayPal is an American company managing a global online payments system. The platform supports more than 100 currencies for daily banking operations. As of 2016, it has replaced traditional paper procedures with electronic money transfers for over 188 million people. The statistics show that PayPal’s annual revenue amounted to $13.0B, up from $10.84B the year before. The company has made a huge contribution to reorganize its employee-training programs. They adopted more nontraditional but at the same time more effective learning techniques. For example, PayPal uses social media like Facebook or Twitter’s Periscope. They created private group and invited experts to help employees or teach short classes. ‘It’s worth making the investment if you want top people to stay longer and do their job better.’ Derek Hann, Chief learning officer at PayPal For more in-depth learning, PayPal uses Udemy for Business. The employees browse its extensive library of over 2.500 courses and study the content at their own pace. Since accepting eLearning at PayPal, the number of active learners has doubled. That is to say, there are employees who complete at least two training courses every six months. The company was able to cut corporate training expenses by 25 percent through implementing eLearning technology. Need developers for your product? Hire our dedicated team! Pitney Bowes is a global company best known as a mailing services and equipment supplier. It has more than 1.5 million clients in over 100 countries, including 90% of the 500 largest US corporations. The company was number 634 on the Fortune 500 in 2017, having received $3.4B in annual revenue. Since its foundation in 1920, Pitney Bowes has spread to 33 cities around the USA. Besides, there are offices located in Hatfield (UK), New Delhi (India) and Tokyo (Japan). As of December 2016, they employed approximately 14.000 people worldwide. Their Presort Services team has over 4.000 employees who speak 17 languages. ‘Through team building, leadership exercises and professional development programs, we’re learning that our common values are so much greater than our differences, and it has greatly benefited our work environment and value we deliver for clients.’ Erika Hohlweck, Executive Customer Service Manager at Pitney Bowes The company chose Udemy for Business to train their distributed engineering team. Each employee has a lifetime curriculum access and can test their knowledge by taking quizzes. They are able to choose the program most relevant to their specific technical role and training requirements. Besides, the platform provides extra courses about personal development or data analytics. As a result, 84 percent of Pitney Bowes team used eLearning. The top learners notice a positive effect after working with the content for 16 hours. Founded in 1996, Booking.com is an online accommodations reservation platform based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. In 2005 the company was acquired by US-based Booking Holdings for $133M. As the global online travel market continues to grow, Booking.com decided to implement eLearning solutions to help rookies develop their technical skills. Using online tutoring, the company immediately saw an increase in engagement of workers who on average spend 5+ hours learning on the platform. ‘We were looking to create a culture of learning in general, but wanted to specifically encourage internal Booking.com employees to develop new skills and find new opportunities within our company, rather than leave us after a few years.’ Kirk Davies, Digital Learning Manager at Booking.com Verint develops software and hardware tools for customer engagement management and information security. Their products enable over 10.000 multinational organizations and government agencies to monitor and analyze voice, video and data on computer networks. The company was founded in 1994 with a headquarter in Melville, NY. Today, they have multiple offices around the globe with 2500 dedicated specialists. ‘The main issue was that our sales team wasn’t consistently making the best use of our CRM system. This sometimes made pipeline forecasting more difficult than it should have been. [...] Gamification presented an innovative—and engaging—approach to help us achieve the results we wanted.’ Graeme Gabriel, Strategic WFO Consultant at Verint Verint chose eLearning solution to encourage EMEA-based sellers to better understand company’s products and boost their KPIs. One way to drive engagement was to create different content items like quizzes and blended learning sessions. They prepared 2-3 tasks a week making them educational and fascinating at the same time. As a result, their KPIs grew by 300 percent on average within a few months. Headquartered in San Francisco, Lyft is a fast-growing transportations company doing business through a ride-hailing app. Launched in 2012, Lyft has raised $4.3B in total funding. The issue with getting budget was one of the problems associated with corporate training and education. New staff came in with different skill sets and it was hard to know how much to spend and what skills to train. Originally, Lyft introduced a half-day in-person training that did not meet the expectations. The company walked a different path by choosing online self-selected curricula. Managers use eLearning to train their teams. They assign subordinates certain classes to help employees learn new skills. New hires initially access an onboarding platform, so managers can monitor what everyone is learning and help them get caught up as quickly as possible. In the nearest future Lyft plans to record all-hands meetings and corporate events to make them available for 24/7 access. Since 1893, Crouse Hospital has taken care for generations of Central New Yorkers. It is a private non-profit health institution that serves more than 250,000 patients each year. With over 2.700 workers, the hospital is one of Central New York's largest employers. Crouse Hospital modified its training program in 2015 by implementing eLearning technology. Before switching to online education, administrators had a lot of paperwork related to employee professional development. The process was time-intensive when it came to filing handwritten class rosters and paper transcripts. Using the edtech method, students can access all needed information tailored to the healthcare industry. The software allows the hospital’s educators to create or access existing classes, track students’ results, and generate reports. Besides, managers can easily add or remove employees from the program avoiding red tape. All this resulted in significant time savings, allowing employees to focus on other responsibilities. Founded in 2007, Global Campus serves as an online campus of the Colorado State University. In 2016 they launched one of the first gamified strategies for higher education employees. Derrick Pope, Director of Enrollment at CSU-Global Campus, directly led the development process and shared the details on his blog. ‘For several years I’ve explored the possibility of using gamification in higher education administration. While most businesses implement gamification with the goal of motivating customers or users to complete a series of tasks, I wanted to apply this concept to further develop employee skills internally.’ Derrick Pope Gamification is the process of adding game elements to existing systems to motivate users’ engagement. Derrick saw this as an opportunity to create something unique for the organization and employees. His primary goal was to create an engaging system that encouraged and rewarded participation while employees improve their job effectiveness. ‘If your gamification environment doesn’t evolve with your team and business needs, the experience will get stale and users will become less engaged. If you’re not getting better, you’re getting worse.’ Derrick Pope

As per Gartner, developing critical skills and competencies is the top priority for HR leaders. Why? Consider the manufacturing industry. By 2028, it stands to lose over $454 billion in GDP due to improperly skilled staff. Having the right talent is crucial for all businesses. Fully realizing this potential is the promise of the leading-edge eLearning trends of 2023. ELearning Trends 2023: What Is in the L&D Focus? Continuous Learning to Prevent Employee Turnover As a response to high employee turnover rates, companies are ramping up their investments in continuous learning to both retain their existing talent and attract new professionals. Encouraging a culture of ongoing education where employees feel recognized, appreciated, and inspired leads to enhanced performance and more cohesive teams. Crafting programs with the employees' future in mind shows commitment to their growth. Personalization in Learning LinkedIn Learning According to the think tank, Towards Maturity, 55% of learners prefer customized content and teaching methods. This indicates that learning systems should adapt to individual needs, rather than the reverse. Personalization hinges on three key factors: pace, approach, and content. Learners should have the freedom to progress at their own speed. If they find the content easy, they can move through it more quickly or even skip it. Using an approach that suits each learner's preference is vital. For example, if one person enjoys game-based learning and another prefers videos, each should be able to learn in the way they like best. Focus should be on what learners need to understand, not how. Even two newcomers might have different interests and areas of challenge, necessitating custom content. Learning Experience Platforms (LXP) exemplify this personalized strategy. Similar to how Netflix recommends shows tailored to a user's preferences, an LXP suggests courses most relevant to a specific individual. For instance, LinkedIn Learning offers classes influenced by a user's profile information, trending industry topics, software usage, desired skills, and even location (with geofencing enabled). LXP is an excellent tool for continuous learning. It allows users the freedom to deviate from a set curriculum. Alongside just-in-time learning aids, users can chart their own development path. Upskilling and Reskilling Pinpointing appropriate training content is key to upskilling and reskilling. This extends beyond just functional, domain, or technical competencies. Micro-skills and specialized knowledge are becoming increasingly important. Given the high demand for multi-talented individuals with specific knowledge, training content must be tailored to ensure learners can apply it to their roles. Skill mapping benefits not only the individual but also the organization by revealing avenues for profit and growth. Using skill mapping as a foundation for education enables a more individualized and continuous curation of training material, as opposed to a rigid and sporadic approach. Automated Targeted Assessment Targeted assessments are gaining traction as a tool to identify effective learning strategies and content. Organizations find this trend beneficial, as it aids in crafting personalized learning solutions for their employees. By collecting data on learners' knowledge, skills, and comprehension, trainers and content creators can better assess outcomes and develop relevant content. This not only eliminates misconceptions but also fosters a positive rapport between learners and Learning & Development teams. Social Learning Humans naturally learn well in groups. However, this doesn't mean online environments can't support social learning. It includes all educational activities that involve observing and imitating others. The first step in this approach is community building. When learners can turn to each other for help, it enhances knowledge and camaraderie. The second step is promoting healthy competition. The right incentives can motivate people to strive for excellence (see our article on gamification for examples). Finally, social elements contribute to a culture of continual self-improvement, benefiting both employees and the company’s bottom line. Only 10% of our learning occurs in formal settings. Recognizing this, many companies now support informal training. Soft Skills Training While job-specific training has always been crucial, there's a growing emphasis on soft skills in today's corporate landscape. With current technology capable of automating up to 50% of work activities, companies are now focusing on enhancing employees' soft skills, which machines can't replicate. Soft skills typically include: Leadership Problem-solving Communication Teamwork Adaptability Organization Time-management And more Leadership training, in particular, is garnering special attention. Effective leaders are vital to retain employees, especially as silent resignations are increasing. This has spurred organizations to invest more in leadership development. In 2023, we anticipate more companies prioritizing leadership training programs. These programs aim to equip leaders with skills to inspire their teams, manage conflicts, delegate tasks effectively, and make informed decisions. By fostering strong leaders, businesses can keep top talent and drive their success. Check out Belitsoft’s portfolio to see how we've designed custom software for leadership skills development. Improving Communication Skills through eLearning While it may seem counterintuitive, companies like Deloitte have shown that eLearning can indeed enhance communication skills. Businesses can measure soft skills to a certain degree, and the benefits are tangible. Indicators might include less time spent in meetings, reduced employee turnover, and increased customer and employee satisfaction, among others. Emphasizing Well-being Training Alongside soft skills, forward-thinking companies are introducing well-being training in 2023. Companies are rolling out courses that focus on mental, physical, and financial well-being to tackle issues like burnout, work-life balance, and financial health. These programs cover personal development topics such as productivity strategies, mindfulness, taking time off, and managing personal finances to reduce stress. This shift underscores the importance of work-life balance and helps mitigate burnout risks. User-Generated Content In the workplace, employees are more receptive to learning when their peers create the content. Referred to as user-generated content (UGC), this process involves employees actively creating learning material for themselves and their colleagues. The popularity of UGC is growing, as employees seek more interactive and personalized learning experiences. The benefit of UGC is that it fosters employee agreement and engagement, resulting in higher participation rates and more effective peer-to-peer training. Learners can contribute in various ways, such as through Q&A forums, short videos, case studies, and reviews. Showing the power of UGC and motivating employees with rewards are key to successfully recruiting people to contribute. With UGC, employees have first-hand information on both the problems they face and their corresponding solutions, so using this information is as close to teaching-by-doing as it gets in an online environment. Just-in-time aids are the main area where UGC thrives. When a person has successfully shown others a way to complete a specific task or an efficient workaround, everyone benefits. Personal stories. Not only are they fun and relatable, they are also engaging and useful. Users or the L&D team can create learning content from these anecdotes. Focus on Employees' Digital Skills As we move into 2023, one of the key eLearning trends is the need to enhance digital literacy among employees, especially as organizations continue to adapt to remote and hybrid work models. In order to keep pace with the relentless evolution of technology, organizations are prioritizing investment in digital literacy training for employees across all levels. It's no longer just a nice-to-have skill; it's a prerequisite for success in today's digital workplace. Priority of Data Security Training In the coming years, companies will have to make data safety instruction a priority. With the rise of cyberattacks like ransomware and malware, it is essential for employees to stay vigilant and be aware of potential threats. This responsibility goes beyond just the IT security team and extends to the entire staff. Companies will focus on cybersecurity training to teach people about the best practices and ensure that all staff members know how to prevent cyber risks. Creating awareness about the importance of data privacy and protecting critical assets such as people's identities will be a top preference for organizations in 2023 and beyond. By implementing these training programs, companies can prevent brand reputation loss, financial losses, and other detrimental outcomes. ELearning Trends 2023: Tech Tools to Achieve L&D Goals The Increased Use of AI There are several possibilities for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve the eLearning experience. Think of it as your own virtual teacher that assists in your training. The advantage of AI mentors is that they are available for learners via any device to provide help and the info required round-the-clock. It is easy to integrate a cloud-based LMS with AI-powered robot assistants like Temi for home learning. This robotic tutor can move autonomously, sense its environment, and keep track of your movements. Learners can use voice instead of typing their queries. Right now, we are talking not just about an artificial teacher who would talk to students throughout the training, but also can help to choose the most correct paths of learning. AI can facilitate the creation of highly customized training routes by analyzing the patterns and data it collects from the activities of every learner. The system will provide a more comprehensive course for those with a lack of basic knowledge and skip some modules for more advanced trainees. Availability and affordability, speed, effectiveness, and personalization are a small part of the benefits expected from the deployment of the AI into the studying process. AI's data analysis can make platforms more engaging for effective training. The Adoption of AR/VR Technologies The eLearning industry is witnessing a surge in the adoption of VR and AR technology, which is increasingly affordable and accessible.  With VR, learners can undergo simulations of real-world situations, resulting in a highly engaging and immersive learning experience. Meanwhile, AR enables a more flexible and contextual learning environment by superimposing digital content on the real world. Both VR and AR offer stimulating and captivating learning experiences and allow for personalized and interactive learning. Learners will experience an immersive journey with VR and AR eLearning courses by 2023. Mobile Learning The importance of m-learning has been growing for a while now. In the COVID-19 pandemic, the market is positively exploding: various sources project growth from USD 80 billion to USD 280 billion over the next seven years. It is easy to see why this happens. Initially, it provides versatility and covers nearly every learning approach, such as virtual instructor-led training (VILT), blended learning, online-only training, just-in-time learning help, and more. Second, it is beneficial for the learners, as they are already familiar with smartphones and feel comfortable working with them. The mobile learning domain encompasses all kinds of training done via a smartphone or a tablet. This includes dedicated m-learning apps. We have previously covered some prominent examples in our blog (e.g. Duolingo). Performance support tools (PST - learning aids designed to help employees whenever they need help) are currently the most popular niche for such applications. They help solve problems that the learners can encounter in their daily work and teach them at the same time. This kind of teaching is much more effective than simple repetition. That is why PSTs are a must-have for any company which cares about L&D. A mobile app that we have made for our customer’s LMS is an example of this trend. The original system was desktop-based, but the usage of smartphones has increased, so the customer has adapted. As a result, he got a flexible and reliable app that kept pretty much all the functions of his LMS but allowed them to be accessed on the go. See the relevant showcase for details. In order to enhance the mobile learning experience, it has become essential for learning apps to provide users with the option to download content and access it offline. This trend is gaining popularity as it allows learners to access course materials anytime, anywhere, with no internet connection. Microlearning Modern learners are short on free time and even shorter on attention spans. That’s why microlearning (delivering educational material in bite-sized chunks) is growing in popularity. Microlearning content can come in any format (text, video, pictures, etc.) and is relatively cheap to make. A quick answer that solves a pressing problem is exactly what microlearning is all about. Sometimes people are just looking for an answer to a specific question, like “How to install a WordPress plugin?” Or they might be too busy to sit through the whole hour-long lecture. Making bite-sized learning materials available to be accessed quickly when required is a fundamental component of the LXP strategy. We have delivered a microlearning app for one of our American customers. It had both mobile and web versions, with phones being a priority platform. The idea was to make a tool that would help qualified professionals get continuing education on the go. It started with courses in law and dentistry and is expected to expand further. See our showcase to learn more. A recent approach that emphasizes even shorter learning sessions is nano learning. Some nano learning sessions are as brief as 3-5 minutes. Despite their brevity, these sessions are easier to remember than longer lessons, particularly when learners lack the time to sit through hours of content and must repeatedly pause the course. Gamification Gamification involves the use of game elements outside of a game. For example, giving an app user a badge as a reward for studying 10 days in a row is gamification. Schools, Fortune 500 businesses, and even the military use gamification and game-based learning. Integrating it into an organization's employee training strategy can improve engagement and retention rates. Research shows that game-based learning is more enjoyable and engaging for 80% of US workers. Studies suggest gamification combined with reading can boost outcomes by 45.5-60.67%. This process can include fostering competitive spirit (“The average score for your job position is 67%. Can you beat that?”) or suggesting the most useful content (“PHP developers find chapter 9 the most interesting”). We have been making gamified software for quite a while now. Take, for example, Ticken - an online touch-typing course. Besides having an innovative teaching method, it uses points and leaderboards to further motivate learners to excel. And when they need to relax after a lesson, there are learning games that are both amusing and effective for knowledge retention. See the Ticken case study in our portfolio to learn more. Game-based Learning What do you need more as a training manager? Creating functional content and delivering it on a basic learning platform? Or engaging your learners with their training and increasing their educational performance? Based on sound instructional design, the learning game approach increases engagement (stimulates interest) and boosts motivation to learn the topic. Students are more involved in game-based learning significantly longer than in non-game-based training. Effective serious games form a positive mood to encourage players to continue the play. Visual learners prefer to see rather than read. Augmented (AR), Virtual (VR) and Mixed Realities (MR) have offered immersive learning experiences for a long time. Let’s consider the usefulness of all of them from a corporate point of view. AGCO was one of the first large manufacturers to use AR Glass, a hands-free device, as part of their workers' training to get step-by-step instructions. The company has reduced the time needed for inspection, production, and initial education. Yes, VR has been associated with gaming, but according to a survey by Greenlight VR, the desire for study exceeds the desire for gaming content (63.9% to 61%). Several Fortune 500 companies, such as Boeing, UPS and Walmart, have introduced VR into worker education programs on a wide scale. And some have been happily impressed with the results. With the help of MR, trainees can interact with surroundings created by a mix of real and virtual worlds. They also can approach and manipulate things, leading to a more proper understanding of how things work. High price and substantial lead time to develop these technologies have been two factors that prevent the evaluation of immersive learning strategies. But with main authoring tool providers like Adobe and Trivantis getting into VR solutions, the price points will eventually drop. Our latest game-based learning project was Extraas - a powerful platform that teaches Math and Dutch to high school students. Serious games are at its core, so to use the customer’s budget more efficiently, we even developed a custom game engine. As a result, the platform has already gained thousands of users and raving reviews. Game-based eLearning Platform For Selling Math Training for Kids See the Extraas showcase in our portfolio to learn more. Converting Instructor-led Training to eLearning There is a reason the most effective companies include eLearning methods in their learning and development (L&D) programs. Several of them, actually. The fact of the matter is, eLearning is much cheaper than live training due to the lack of many expenses: teacher salaries and related costs (benefits, taxes, etc.), classrooms, and other factors. eLearning is much easier to scale than ILT - just have the extra people access the same materials. eLearning is superior to traditional training for using advanced instructional strategies. This is what we did for our customer when building TET - a custom driving theory course. The whole point of the project was to get away from the outdated and inflexible live and DVD-based classes. As a result, the students learned whenever and wherever they wanted, achieving better results. And our client got a successful and profitable business. Elearning Platform For Selling Driving Theory Online Course For more information on TET, check our case study. Interactive Video Learning According to a survey by Wyzowl, 69% of consumers prefer video over any other form of content to learn about new products and services. This trend has made video-based learning a tough competitor for static e-learning content. Today, learners prefer to watch demos, explainers, interviews, and how-to in video format as opposed to reading plain text instructions. Making a video interactive boosts its efficiency and reduces the issues it may have from a user being unable to interact with the information. Popular editing software and authoring tools can create interactivity: Branching. A “choose your own adventure”-style materials that allow users to set up their own learning path as they watch a video. For example, giving them a job-related problem and asking for a solution. The user will see the results of their decision. This is a great way to drive engagement, as well as providing the learner with the knowledge. Quizzes. It is possible to pause the video automatically at a predetermined point, pose queries, redirect the user based on their response to the question, and display their score in real time. You can also set pass/fail criteria, time limits, and more. Direct downloads. Allow users to access additional educational materials without leaving the video page. Embedded elements. Incorporating a variety of elements, such as links, maps, widgets, calendar invitations and images, can enhance the learning experience. Video conferencing tools are also increasingly being used by companies, with 78% of them using such tools in 2022 and growing in 2023. Data Analytics in eLearning Learner analytics are used to review student behavior and improve training. There are countless tools available for that, from Learning Management Systems with xAPI to intelligent tutoring systems with the eye-tracking feature. Remarkably, most information for learner analysis is so simple that top-end technologies are not even required. At such a basic level, even a modern LMS can solve most of your L&D woes, as long as it can track and recover the data you need. In most cases, the information you need is as simple as: Completion rates of courses. Who are the most proactive learners? What do your learners choose to learn and why? Where are students struggling? What are their strengths and weaknesses? Who is the best fit for a certain task? For example, JoomlaLMS allows tracking learners’ performance to identify ways to improve your eLearning course. With its reporting functionality, you can define gaps in students' knowledge and skills, determine the organization’s compliance level and overall learners' performance. From the eLearning point of view, “Big Data” is data collected from students’ activities and their performance, but the volume of this data is beyond the ability of traditional databases to capture, manage and process with low latency. So Big Data Analysis helps to structure and present the data in suitable formats. With Big Data analysis tools, you can track the performance of each student to make learning more personalized. Also, big data analysis can provide information on how the training affects your ROI. You will know when a student makes mistakes or simply doesn't receive knowledge properly. Then you can make the adjustments to correct common problems. Besides, it can help to choose the most suitable study route for each student. Research on the adaptive eLearning model, which relies on Big Data by using competency-based knowledge and social learner activities, shows that the analysis transforms the training paradigm and provides an effective learning rhythm. Chatbots in Learning Chatbots For Bringing New Staff Into an Organization The chatbot can guide an employee from job acceptance; getting them excited about joining and validating their decision, through the initial on-boarding process where they can learn about processes, team structures and brand values. Nothing beats the feeling a new employee gets when they receive a personal message from the company founder or their manager! Millennials (Generation Z) will make up 50pc of the global workforce by 2020.They like messaging platforms, so companies probably should use chatbots to engage these employees. Example of a Conversational interface (chatbot) - Chatterbite - for a Corporate eLearning. Source: http://www.chatterbite.com/internal-comms/r Chatbots For Skills Gap Analysis Employees should have the skills to do their job. Skills gap analysis is evaluating their skills to find out where they currently are and where they should be. The paperwork in doing a skills gap analysis in the traditional way is overwhelming. So they don’t happen as often as they should. As Sam Hennessy from Filtered (a UK eLearning publisher) noted, “Using a chatbot you could roll out the questions little by little. Then deliver feedback as insight based on the previous batch of questions. This will actually create a positive feedback loop. People will want to give excellent answers because they are now interested in the results”. Chatbots For Microlearning Bite-sized learning (microlearning) is text or video that teaches something in under 5 minutes, like “how to protect a spreadsheet”. Corporations have adopted microlearning and are delivering it through chat interfaces. Harvard Business Review has created something close to this using a Slack chatbot. Every weekday it picks a random article from a curated pool and sends a summary to you via chat. This is a great example of being proactive. Chatbots For Getting Feedback Once someone has taken a course, have the chatbot ask them some quiz questions. Do this over a few weeks. Doing the same thing over and over can help you learn. Then look to see if anyone keeps getting the question wrong. If they are, then the corporate learning department can step in and give those people a little extra help. You can also get feedback on how well the course was. Chatbots for Search Needs Imagine a machine that could access your company wikis or knowledge bases and serve up information in real time, in a context that’s helpful to the employee who needs it—much like the computer on Star Trek’s “Enterprise.” Chatbots can learn to personalize data for employees and filter irrelevant data. Rather than sifting through work data to complete daily tasks, workers can simply ask individual chatbots for the information they require. Chatbots will do the acts of Googling and searching. Chatbots are the ideal way to achieve any task using the internet, as they help to avoid unnecessary data. ‘Enterprises are increasingly turning to web applications to streamline their processes and make collaboration easier. Still, applications are siloed and unable to communicate with one another. A chatbot could one day render apps obsolete. Chatbots can conduct the same tasks as most applications in one integrated system and tailor the results to the user.’ Daniel Newman, CEO of USA-based Broadsuite Media Group