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08 Sep 2023
L&D
Blogpost, eLearning creativ technologies 0 comment

What is the need for an L&D partner?

L&D staff needs an enhancement in every company due to the workload pressure. Although a company might have an internal L&D department, problems arise when there are many projects.

There can be a requirement for an external training partner who knows where the skill gaps of a company are.

These are the reasons why an external L&D partner is needed:  

  • Conducts a skills assessment:

An L&D company knows the difference between how a company is performing and how it is supposed to. It knows how to conduct a needs assessment to detect skill gaps. It can ensure that simulations are handed over to employees, through which real skills can be evaluated. If they are lacking, it’s time to implement a training program.

Tests for assessment

There can be quizzes handed over to employees to check their real skills. There are many red flags for a company that its employees suffer from skill gaps when it has trouble meeting its desired ROI. The company also might have adopted a new technology, and employees might face trouble using it.

A company can use a Likert scale and rate skills from 1 to 5 depending on their importance. Then, evaluate the employees based on their skills. These skills gap can be higher for freshers who have just joined the company.

In that case, an L&D program is not the complete solution; shadowing is the answer, where the novices follow the expert people on the job. Also, every job profile has some skills that are more important than others, and the training should focus on closing the pivotal skill gaps first. For example, in the case of a telesales executive who sells products to customers daily, knowing negotiation skills is much more important than being an expert at Excel.

He can just know how to store data in Excel, but it’s a waste of time when he can’t make customers buy at certain prices.

Hence, for every employee, skills must be rated for criticality, i.e., which skills are more necessary than others. This is the last stage of a skills assessment process. After this process, the company can begin training for skills deemed a prerequisite for job performance and hire an L&D partner if needed.

  • Cheaper to use external resources:

The L&D team of a company needs to be supplied with expensive software licenses. But this is not the problem with an external L&D team, which gets its own software licenses, reducing the costs for a company. 

  • Access to the best resources:

When an L&D partner is hired, a lot of problems are solved for the company. It’s able to come up with the best output required for training. It gets access to the best training partners in terms of instructional designers.

Furthermore, it has content developers like subject-matter experts who know the topics in detail. Even if such an L&D partner does not have the best people on board currently, it can suggest the most productive resources to a company based on its connections. Especially in the case of technical skill gaps, where finding a subject-matter expert and instructional designers is not so easy.

When a Company has access to an experienced L&D partner, it hires the skilled resources swiftly and saves time. It also hires L&D staff who know the latest eLearning processes and authoring tools. It also knows the technology a certain industry needs to create its eLearning content. 

L&D Partners often help companies fulfil their training needs without hiring resources for a long time. 

  • Diversification of resources:

Such external L&D partners also help companies hire resources from other countries, which also helps an organization create resources for local training. It may have trouble finding the right resource for creating training materials for employees of a certain region. But with an L&D partner, all its localization needs are solved.

This freedom to choose resources from anywhere ensures the company can work with resources with complete credibility. It can allow remote work to them, and it’s the headache of the L&D Partner to manage them and get the work done seamlessly. A company can also save costs by opting for resources from cheaper regions than its own. 

Sometimes, better resources also exist for a company outside its own country; hence, hiring an L&D partner is necessary to find them. 

Conclusion

When a company opts for an external L&D partner, it maximizes its productivity with internal and external resources. The company benefits from cooperation between its resources and the L&D partner. It can also give feedback to the L&D partner so that its staff performs to the best of its abilities and any performance gaps are removed on time.

However, a major problem can arise when the in-house L&D refuses to collaborate with an external partner. This can be more troublesome when both kinds of resources work in different time zones, and cooperation is required. So, the company should convince the internal staff to be at their best level with an external partner.

03 Aug 2023
performance coaching
Blogpost, eLearning creativ technologies 0 comment

Why is performance coaching needed?

Need for performance coaching:

Mental health has become a major concern for everyone these days. People are feeling burned out these days. This is hurting companies now. Companies have to understand the characteristics of employees suffering from burnout.

Employees who suffer from this phenomenon don’t feel attached to anything. They also want to stay away from events in their personal lives. Since such employees become annoyed frequently, this can lead to depleted productivity, more leaves, and less cooperation with the team.

Some industries also require employees to work longer, such as customer service representatives, who have longer working hours. A company’s environment can also affect the health of an employee. Despite his best performance, an employee is not promoted or appreciated for his efforts, which can cause burnout. The lack of interaction with other employees also leads to burnout.

Overworking is the main reason why burnout happens. When employees don’t get any rewards for their work, they can lose interest in it.

Performance coaching can help a company alleviate burnout among employees:-

  • Training to eliminate stress:

First of all, the employees should be taught how to handle stress. Every employee faces stress, but simple coping mechanisms can help him wade through it. When employees become resilient to stress, they can handle daily life situations better.

When an employee knows what causes him to feel stress, he/she knows how to handle that situation better.

The employees can be trained on how to do deep breathing to stay calm in such situations. These kinds of techniques help employees avoid becoming frustrated even after facing stressful situations at work.

  • Time management training:

Goal setting is also crucial for companies so that employees are not overburdened with work. This is important for employees to achieve a perfect work-life balance. This can be done by the employees sitting down with the management and deciding what their career goals are. They can then create short-term targets out of these long-term goals.

The employees can also learn how to manage important tasks so that they don’t miss out on any family events. When they can prioritize, they can take time out for themselves rather than trying to finish all the work in one go. When employees have to do too much at once, burnout happens.

  • Communication training:

Communications at the workplace is very important so that employees can understand what others want from them. They must also have the patience to listen to others and respond with empathy. Good relationships at work can help a company have a harmonious environment.

Performance coaching can help employees avoid negative situations and convey their needs. Employees must how much to talk to other employees without crossing boundaries. When employees have learned the power of communication, this can help them avoid being submerged in work without causing a conflict. So, when employees learn where to draw a line, they can have a better work-life balance. They also let the other person know how much work they can handle.

  • Career-related training:

Companies also need to acknowledge the hard work of employees. This goes a long way in preventing burnout among employees. Therefore, companies must put money in their employees’ skills growth. When employees have growth opportunities, they feel satisfied and are therefore less likely to burn out.

How can performance coaching help?

For example, companies can enlist the aid of career mentors to help employees get personalized advice for their career growth. This also helps them set goals for such growth. A company needs to hire performance coaches to make sure that the employees are as motivated to stay in their jobs as possible. They can help them deal well with stressful situations.

They know how to psychologically help employees by providing them with positive feedback about their work. When employees get such feedback, they can maintain a positive work-life balance and also succeed in their jobs.

Performance coaching is also helpful for employees to set goals and develop action plans to attain them.

Coaches can also help employees not deviate from achieving their goals and get the best results from their hard work. It’s because in performance coaching, the performance of employees is continuously monitored.

Skill-based training is also imparted by such performance coaches, which helps employees confront negative situations through communication skills. When an employee knows how to turn an adverse situation in his favor by simply communicating, he can avoid stress.

Ensure that employees have a work-life balance when they have devised the right strategy to achieve their goals.

28 Jul 2023
assessments
Blogpost, eLearning creativ technologies 0 comment

What are inclusive assessments in eLearning?

Assessments form the basis for eLearning. Without them, it can’t be decided whether the learners are ready for work or not. But the assessments should be inclusive which means that nobody is biased against them due to personal problems, or lack of knowledge of local languages. There could also be other disabilities like dyslexia which could prevent a person from attempting a paper-based test and hence it should be taken care of.

Therefore, it’s the job of the L&D team of the company to design inclusive assessments.

Now what should be the characteristics of such assessments:

  • Prepare tests in all formats and common languages:

The test should allow participants to provide oral answers to questions. This makes sure that participants with reading or speaking disabilities are also able to pass the exam with flying colors. Also, the test questions should be translated into different languages so that all the participants can answer them. If a participant has a writing disability like a fractured arm, he should be provided an aide to complete the test for him or he can be provided speech-to-text facility for the test.

In fact, visually impaired participants should also be given the same facility so that they have no problems doing the test. The test could be converted into the braille format for them and they must have a speech-to-text typewriter so that they can complete the test.

The test takers should not have problems attempting the questions due to the language. The language of the questions should be simple and comprehensible for all. Apart from that, the questions should not be specific to a particular region. For example, if the questions are being attempted by someone from a specific country, then the questions should keep in mind his cultural norms.

There should not be phrases used in such questions which such test takers are not familiar with.

  • Relevant questions:

The aim of any good test is to the knowledge of someone who is going to work in a certain position in the company, whether he is apt for the role or not. The test creator must see to it that someone is not made to answer irrelevant questions in the test which are not related to his caliber to perform the job duties. A digital test is the norm these days since it can be easily evaluated by software and the test results are generated quickly. But someone, who is not required to type so much as a part of his/her role must not be given a test with a lot of typing requirements because it’s useless to check this skill.

Even if a candidate scores well on this test, it does not measure his ability to do good at his job which does not require typing. Therefore, a test must not suffer from construct irrelevant variance which means including impertinent questions in the test which don’t indicate anything in the context of certain skills.

There are also engineering test for employees to check whether they can fix machines in the future. But this test must not include questions in the local language containing intricate words which can’t be understood by someone who is not a fluent speaker. He is required to fix machines but not required needed to speak a language coherently.

Therefore, a test checking the engineering capabilities should be translated into foreign languages too for foreign engineers to attempt it. This is what the test creator has to keep in mind.

How to formulate test questions:

What is the construct of a test?

Whatever quality a test seeks to measure in a test-taker is its construct. Constructs are very important to be established before the test so that it does not stray away from its objective.

Hence, it should be the target of the L&D department to see that test content should be as per its construct. If a test content varies from the construct, which means it starts evaluating something other than the construct and this phenomenon is known as the construct irrelevant variance. For example, when a test requires engineering candidates to show an exemplary typing speed, it is varying from its objective of measuring engineering skills.

Then, as per these test results, the scores of the candidates will reflect their typing skills and not their engineering caliber.

Therefore, before designing any test it’s crucial that some steps are followed so that the test results reflect its purpose:

  • Definition of the Construct:

The first step is that the construct of the test should be established clearly.

  • Coming up with questions:

Designing the questions based on the construct of the test.

  • Testing:

Checking the test’s validity is important so that if there are any problems they can be identified before the test is given to the real candidates. It’s better that before a test is given to a sample, it’s chosen carefully. Such a sample should consist of diverse candidates so that the final test is as inclusive as possible.

For example, there can be the inclusion of someone who does not speak the local language in this sample so that the use of any complex term in the local language is detected 

  • Modification:

Revise the test based on the feedback of the sample of the candidates chosen in the previous step.

Test anxiety is also a problem in which a test taker can have trouble answering questions because of the pressure to complete the test within a certain time limit. It’s better that the test is designed in mind, keeping the construct. If the construct is to check the competence of a test taker, there should be a liberal speed limit.

13 Jul 2023
Tips for microlearning modules
Blogpost, eLearning creativ technologies 0 comment

3 tips to design microlearning modules

Companies are now focussing on microlearning to provide the best training to employees. But there can be problems in creating such kind of learning also. Microlearning is a structured approach and it’s not about just decomposing the elearning into several modules. 

Microlearning may not just consist of videos but it can include PPT presentations, games, and puzzles. You can follow lessons with games that can maintain the interest of the learners. All this creation of modules requires experience and proper analysis. 

Problems with microlearning: 

  • No flow in the videos:

Microlearning requires creating a proper flow before you can create the short videos. If the microlearning videos are not connected, it can cause problems for the learner. They may have trouble understanding one video after the other. This way, the learners can get confused and may fail to apply whatever they have learned in practical scenarios. 

  • Cognitive overload: 

Although microlearning aims to present limited information to the users, it can cause problems when they have to see too many videos. It can not cause problems in retaining information but also make sure that learners leave the course in between. Therefore, this issue can be avoided when the learners have to watch only a limited number of videos which eliminates any cognitive burden. 

  • Lack of assessments: 

Microlearning includes a fixed number of short-duration modules that may skip simulations and infographics. The learners might not get enough practice through such videos because no games are there. There is a lack of quizzes and assessments in such videos.

Also, unlike a long-term course that involves having discussions with fellow learners, microlearning lacks this element. The learners might not have time to talk to each other not leading to a better understanding.

The following tips can ensure that microlearning is created properly for the users: 

Tips for successful microlearning implementation:

  • Proper Analysis:

Just because microlearning consists of smaller modules, it does not mean that it should exclude critical information.

It can cause problems for the learners. The subject matter experts should provide guidelines to instructional designers about how such videos must be created. They only know what’s to be included so that the relevant information is passed on. If microlearning doesn’t cover the skills gap in the workforce, then it’s not worth the purpose. The subject matter experts can help discover the learning needs of the workforce through a needs analysis. 

Therefore, microlearning is not a suitable approach when a deeper understanding of the problem is needed. For example, simulations are needed in many learning scenarios when the workers need better retention. Skipping on them can cause issues, hence microlearning may not be the best possible approach every time. 

  • Timely delivery: 

The microlearning video should not be sent to the learner too late or too early because he could have forgotten what he watched last. In fact, the delivery of videos should be scheduled in such a strategy in the form of drip feed delivery or spaced learning.

Spaced learning which involves sending content to learners after intervals is useful because the same videos are sent to learners and there’s no confusion. When the learners are on the same playing field, they will have the same approach toward work.

Drip feed delivery is used in spaced learning that involves how many days will elapse before a new microlearning module is sent to the learners. 

In the drip feed approach, it’s decided when the content will be delivered to the audience. Hence, an elearning company can help in building the perfect drip feed of the microlearning strategy of the company. This ensures that the learners have enough curiosity to watch the latest video. This ensures better audience engagement with the videos.

Automation can be used for this purpose so that the videos reach the learners at the appropriate moment. 

The learners can be sent emails so that they can watch the latest video through the company’s video platform. Also, blog posts on the LMS can be used where the latest post consists of the lesson. The learners can be notified through the WhatsApp chatgroup about the same. 

  • Right design 

The design also requires an apt focus in microlearning. In the case of design, you have to ensure that the videos should consist of a checklist or a lookup table for the learners to recall the previous information. An experienced elearning company can help with such decisions. Whether a simulation is required or a decision tree is also a complex problem in microlearning because their duration is less. 

In the end: 

If microlearning has to be implemented properly, it has to take care of issues such as the learner’s needs and the decomposition of content based on its intricacy. 

29 Jun 2023
needs analysis for employee training
Blogpost, eLearning creativ technologies 0 comment

How can needs analysis affect employee training? 

Workforce training is happening in every company nowadays. But at is crucial about this thing is that it needs to be done properly to get the best results. When the employees don’t have any clue about the requirements of such training, the entire effort can go to waste. The employers must have clues about the needs analysis because the money spent on employee training will have the greatest impact in terms of time and energy. When the employee training has been designed as per the needs of the employees, they take an interest in it. They also feel motivated to continue with the training; otherwise, their dropout rates can be high. The trainers also find it easy to design employee training because they know the skill level of employees in terms of digital literacy, so employees don’t find the training obscure. The company can get positive outcomes from training when designed in such a manner.  

What is needs analysis?

A needs analysis provides a lot of data to the company about how employees like to learn. For example, how much previous experience they hold which helps in designing training. The employees should not be taught basics if they are experienced employees. Also, a complete needs analysis also delves into information about how the employees like to learn whether a visual or textual method is feasible for them.

Advantages of needs analysis

Set up performance metrics:

This ensures that the employees have the maximum retention rate. The needs analysis is useful when the companies measure performance after the training. Since the L&D department knows what the employees must learn from training, they can easily design performance metrics. If the training does not improve the performance metrics, it needs to be redesigned. The needs analysis is the foundation of employee training because it ensures that a company’s goals are attained. A company conducts employee training to ensure that its goals are met. But when there is no improvement in the performance of its employees, the training money is not well spent. 

How should needs analysis be done?

What is the difference between needs analysis and workforce analysis?  

Needs analysis is a prerequisite to employee training.

Companies can learn about short-term and long-term goals through this analysis. For example, these days, skilled labor is not so easy to find. Hence, companies must find labor that can handle machines apart from adopting automation. 

Workforce analysis is an in-depth analysis, a much deeper insight into the workforce of an organization.

Workforce analysis is a prerequisite of needs analysis:

It ensures data is collected about a company’s employees, including their skills and their background, such as their qualifications. This helps a company plan for the future, whether certain employees can be promoted from within to handle the positions and, if not, whether they can be trained for it. 

When the company has analyzed the workforce, it knows how much labor from outside it will need in the future(succession planning).  

The salary demands of employees also change with time. Hence a company should be prepared to adjust to all these changes with time. These analyses are responsible before a company prepares itself for any training. When a company evaluates employees’ skills, it must consider their hard and soft skills so that it knows how much training will be needed.  

Demand analysis:

Apart from analysis based on the skillset of the labor and how much they will learn in the future, a company also has an external environment responsible for hiring new employees. This is called demand analysis. A company might need new products depending on the market changes, so it must change its portfolio. Some new regulations also affect a company, like higher import duties due to which it must set up manufacturing of certain goods on the premises.

Based on all this, when a company has done succession planning, it knows who will take the employees’ positions and who will retire or be promoted. There will be many vacant positions that the company can predict will advance. 

The workforce capacity can be analyzed by a company this way by which it knows how many people will be needed in distinct roles and how many people will be sufficient owing to the changes in the market and depending on their productivity levels. If any changes are required, and the forecast predicts a higher number of people meeting the goals, the training should be planned accordingly.

That’s how, training should be planned after doing a proper needs analysis.

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He was a German psychologist who is known for discovering the forgetting curve. According to this curve, the biggest decline in memory happens within 20 minutes, and then 1 hour.