HRD and training managers must revolutionize training practices to contribute to the digital transformation of their company and meet the needs of frontline employees. Like businesses, the world is also experiencing its digital transformation! This fact no longer needs to be proven.
A study by ITU (International Telecommunications Union) provides very telling figures.
“There are 3 billion Internet users, 3.6 billion mobile phone users, and 2 billion active social network users in the world today. Unsurprisingly, Facebook has the most users (1.2 billion).”
According to OECD, digital technology is the “mother tongue” of 21st Century learners. New hires expect development strategies that speak to them and improve innovation capacities. To be competitive, digital must be the heart of business processes, customer service, and employee development.
Frontline employees can also suffer negative effects caused by technologies that accelerate the pace of life and work. In its “Research Bulletin” of November 2014, Bersin by Deloitte describes the modern learner as a stressed, versatile, impatient, overworked, mobile… and connected person.
What they desire – expect– is bite-sized coursework on a flexible schedule, accessible from desktop and mobile platforms. Micro-learning meets the needs of a just-in-time knowledge grazer.
What is Micro-Learning?
Micro-Learning is an online training concept based on an educational performance approach, based on short video modules of 5 minutes at most, using text, images, and sounds. It responds to the constraints of overworked learners who have little time to devote to their training. This short format allows you to work and learn simultaneously, making the most of the learner’s ability to concentrate. Most frontline employees one will easily allow 5 minutes in his work schedule, not an hour! And yet, Micro-Learning is not limited to the short format. It is also characterized by other essential attributes that increase its efficacy tenfold:
These attributes includes:
- Online on PC, tablet, smartphone… Instant access, unlike the face-to-face format, where you have to move around and waste time.
- Autonomous: Each module is independent of the other, even if it is part of a more global training course. The possibility of consulting a module without having to go through modules before frees the learner from a constraint felt as heavy. To draw a parallel, I can open a dictionary on any page to understand a word, but I cannot start a novel on page 200!
- Granular: one skill per module. Each learner can thus organize and personalize his training according to his own needs.
- In video: this is the most efficient medium for transmitting information in a short period.
- Concentrated: Micro-Learning modules should only convey the essentials on a specific subject. Introduction, comments, conclusion… all this is superfluous and counterproductive.
- Updated: the short format facilitates updating by the service provider. Therefore, learners are assured of having current training modules, unlike the face-to-face form, which quickly becomes obsolete.
As you will have understood, these are all of the components that define Micro-Learning, making this concept, which has become a reality, an effective tool to train frontline employees.
