Why ‘just in time learning’ is your secret weapon to success
Isn’t it great that we can all master any skill we choose with the help of Google and YouTube? Wouldn’t it be even better if we had those kinds of resources at work. They could help us do our job better and achieve things quicker? Just in time learning (JITL) is a training method that Engage uses. Employees can learn whatever they need to know, when they need it. Discover exactly why it’s so important and how it can help your workforce.
It sends engagement levels through the roof
So picture yourself in a training room, completing a 45-minute course on ‘Customer Service Best Practice’. Now it’s a week later and you need to know how to deal with a tricky complaint. Do you remember everything you learnt in your training? Probably not! Just in time learning means that workers can learn what they need to know, at the moment they need it. This makes them significantly more engaged because they actually want to know the information, rather than being forced to learn it. They could quickly pop out the back, search their query on their phone, and then return to the customer and deal with the complaint in the right way.
It is flexible
Staff can search for information whenever they need to know it and it fits around their work routine. They don’t have to take a huge chunk out of their time to study and can learn whilst they are working. It will take them just minutes to look something up, so it doesn’t have to interrupt their flow. Why waste time holding long presentations, courses, and workshops when employees can look up the answers that they need immediately.
You empower your employees
By giving your staff just in time learning, you empower them to keep their knowledge topped up and learn more whenever they want to. Gone are the days of them having to wait around for a manager to answer their query. If they don’t know how to use the till, they can quickly find the answer on their mobile device and start using it right away. If they didn’t find the answer helpful Engage’s just-in-time learning solution allows them to add comments, so that the article can be tailored to make it the most helpful that it can be.
They learn by doing the tasks rather than reading about them
Herman Ebbinghaus, a famous psychologist from Germany, created the Forgetting Curve Theory. In his theory, he explains that 70% of any new information is lost if it’s not practised within the first 24 hours. So in fact, by training your staff early before they have the chance to practice, their knowledge and skill will deteriorate. By the time they actually need the knowledge, it won’t be there to help them. Just in time learning increases memory retention by helping employees practice what they are learning, in the moment.
It’s just enough learning
If you ask staff to read through a massive PDF or sit through hours of PowerPoints and talks then, naturally, they are going to tune out. When we are pushed to process a lot of data our prefrontal cortex shuts down like a blown fuse. According to Sandra Chapman, founder of the centre for brain health, “The more information we download or take in, the more shallow our thinking is and the more fragmented our brain systems are.” Surely you don’t want a load of blown fuses in your business?
People have also started to learn differently because of the rise of the smartphone and Google. According to Markc Prensky “people now learn differently than they did, even a generation ago” and “you can’t hold people’s attention the way you used to.” Presenting employees with a lot of information at once is just not effective anymore because we have changed the way that we learn.
It’s like having a helping hand every step of the way
Obviously, no business has the resources or time to have a manager on hand every time an employee gets stuck. But when employees get stuck they lose confidence and focus, which is bad for their performance. By giving them just in time learning you give them the performance and support that they need 24/7. This is perfect for new starters who might be feeling overwhelmed by the amount of new information that they need to know. You can boost their confidence by making sure they have the information they need at their fingertips.
It speeds up operations
When employees aren’t confident in their actions it can significantly slow down their performance. This is because they are continuously hesitant as to whether they are carrying out a task in the right or wrong way. Richard Petty, a psychology professor at Ohio State University, has spent decades studying confidence. He defines confidence as this: the stuff that turns thoughts into action. Why? Because confidence first turns our thoughts into judgements about what we are capable of. It then transforms those judgements into actions. So when you give your staff just in time learning, you give them the confidence to carry out new tasks, which in turn makes them more efficient.
Want to unlock the performance of your frontline teams?
Ocasta Engage unlocks the performance of your frontline teams through comms, microlearning and knowledge. Customers include Next, Virgin Media O2, Burgertory and Tesco Mobile, who have achieved desirable results, including;
98% engagement rates
3.75x more recognition amongst their teams
94% of all comms being read.
