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Reaching a Flexible and Busy Workforce: Are your training efforts hitting the mark?ROSE BRYANT-SMITH, DIRECTORROSE SCOTT, DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGER

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Digital training is not yet embedded in Australian workplaces to anything like the degree anticipated when its versatility, affordability and almost infinite reach first became apparent.

The global growth of digital learning has been massive – the market is projected to be worth a whopping $19.05 billion by 20221 – yet a relatively small proportion of Australian organisations is harnessing its full potential.

To be clear, by ‘digital training’ we mean training which is delivered, or part-delivered, by any of the electronic means which do not require people to sit in a classroom looking at a trainer with a slide show!

By this definition, digital training includes learning experiences which utilise or are delivered via:

• webinars, • podcasts, • apps, • self-paced online learning courses, • live e-learning (e.g, virtual classrooms), and • recorded or live video.

REACHING A FLEXIBLE AND BUSY WORKFORCE: ARE YOUR TRAINING EFFORTS HITTING THE MARK?

In recent years, a large volume of very sophisticated education material has been released on platforms developed by leading tertiary institutions; for instance, Coursera is the brainchild of Stanford University academics; edX was first developed by Harvard University and MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and FutureLearn was started by a coalition of UK universities. Collectively known as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), their disruption of traditional modes of higher learning are ongoing and the subject of dedicated research.

Of course, the cost advantage of digital learning has been a driving consideration in the advent of MOOCs. As one MIT professor noted early on, “it’s a terrifying but useful prod for traditional universities … it’s making everybody sit up and answer the following question: ‘How can I justify charging students $45,000 a year to attend large lectures when they can find better exemplars on the Internet?’.”2

Is digital training effective for learners?

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Equally, the rapid rise of accessible, online training and university courses caused some to wonder whether the learner’s experience was still a quality one. The MOOC phenomenon offers invaluable data with which to compare outcomes from traditional training with digital training. The answer – as with all training – is that the quality of the training depends on the quality of the content, as much as the mode of delivery. In general, learning online is at least as effective as learning in-person.3

Recently, researchers Enna Ayub, Goh Wei Wei and Wong Seng Yue4 looked into how learners experience and accept online university courses, and found that the important factors in online learning are:

• a self-directed learning environment, • user-friendly design of course contents, • interactivity of the course content, • the guidance provided to the learner as they work through the course, and • fast internet speed.

They observed, “Learners can choose what content they wish to learn, which makes their learning personalized. The openness of MOOCs allow learners to have free access to content, activities and assessment. In term of interactivity, learners can collaborate and communicate with their peers, resulting in emergent knowledge.”

Various studies have shown that e-learning is at least as effective as classroom-style learning and produces similar outcomes.

Digital learning has been shown to be able to:

• foster a greater degree of communication and closeness among students and instructors/ mentors;• be more rigorous in terms of time and thought required;• motivate learning beyond the course; and • result in learners changing their work practices.5

However, digital learning can also be more dependent on student initiative, and increase the risk of academic dishonesty.

Fundamental to all of this research is recognition that the method of delivery is as crucial to a successful outcome as the more vaunted consideration of individual learning styles. Digital is proving to be the flexible, affordable option that matches more readily the changing workplace dynamics experienced by individual workers.

REACHING A FLEXIBLE AND BUSY WORKFORCE: ARE YOUR TRAINING EFFORTS HITTING THE MARK?

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REACHING A FLEXIBLE AND BUSY WORKFORCE: ARE YOUR TRAINING EFFORTS HITTING THE MARK?

In the past, most employers approached training and development from a ‘job for life’, compliance perspective. Staff were told, every 1-2 years, the things that they must hear to manage the company’s legal risk and support its accreditation. They either arrived at the organisation with, or developed in the first month, the skills they needed to do the job which they were likely to do for the next 10, 20 or 30 years.

In this historic context, most organisations’ training and development program was one-size-fits-all, top-down, centralised and static6. Most training was delivered in person to large groups of people, nearly all of whom worked full-time.

Today, the world and our workforces are evolving at an increasing pace. A new approach to workplace learning is required. Not only are employees more likely to work flexibly (ie at a variety of hours and locations), they also need to be agile, adaptive and keep up with rapid change in the knowledge-intensive era. Chatti et al write:

“Learning is fundamentally personal, social, distributed, ubiquitous, flexible, dynamic, and complex in nature. Thus, a fundamental shift is needed toward a more personalized, social, open, dynamic, emergent and knowledge-pull model for learning.”7

A wholistic, workforce-planned perspective is needed, which makes various learning opportunities available on demand to staff who want to pace themselves and explore new ideas.8

A Change of Pace Requires a Shift in Gears

Enable Staff to Tailor their Own Learning

The low cost and high variety of online learning options means that employees can tailor their own learning program to suit their interests, learning style, and daily workflow. Employees can be supported to take control over their own learning, creating a ‘mash-up’ of training services stemming from different sources.

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REACHING A FLEXIBLE AND BUSY WORKFORCE: ARE YOUR TRAINING EFFORTS HITTING THE MARK?

In any given month, an employee might attend an industry webinar in their lunch break, listen to podcasts on their commute, engage in mutual coaching discussions with a colleague in a different area of the business, complete a MOOC at Stanford for free, and attend a conference in-person.

In this way, employees can ‘pull’ learning materials in the right depth and at the right pace, when they need it, rather than waiting for their employer to ‘push’ training to a group in a closed environment. With the right content and mix, blended learning – including whatever content via whatever mode that suits the employee best – can be more effective than either traditional learning or e-learning alone.9

The tailored, ‘mash-up’ of learning modes works for all staff, but for those staff working flexibly, it is absolutely essential.

Over 70% of private sector organisations in Australia have flexible working strategies and policies, and many other companies have informal flexible working arrangements with staff.10 This is not surprising: companies offering real flexibility have been proven to demonstrate a competitive business edge, stronger organisational performance and employee loyalty. They report better mental health, better attraction and retention of millennials,11 more diverse teams, and better gender equality.12

Further, employees know they are more productive, happy, efficient and able to do ‘deep work’, when they are allowed to work where and when they want, and have the necessary tools.

• 65% of workers believe that their productivity improves when they are working flexibly and remotely;13

• Where flexible arrangements are widely used, all employees are four times happier than in organisations with no flexible options;14 • 62% want better access to collaboration technology to enable them connect to their colleagues;15

• 92% of workers believe video collaboration technology helps improve relationships and fosters better teamwork.16

Employees also want recognition of their priorities of career progression, with clear policies about promotion and compensation, and the ability to keep learning even when they are away from the seminar rooms at head office.

Flexibility

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‘Taking time out’ for professional development

The other incredible benefit of including digital options in your organisation’s learning offering is its accessibility within every person’s daily workflow. Employers can tap into each person’s curiosity when it strikes, by making short and long learning experiences available to each employee, at their desk, on the smartphone, any time of day. Ideally, each employee should be able to access new skills when they need it, and ‘learn in the flow of work’.17

Corporate learning experiences can be designed to be available whenever employees want them, with the same availability as social media.

In fact, social media offers a powerful model for the cultivation of compelling interactions. Rather than feeling we’ve been wasting time, digital training borrows some of the immediacy of variety and connection perfected by social media platforms and puts them at the service of real learning.

Lifelong learning can’t always be scheduled neatly around other commitments, but digital devices mean we needn’t try. Its 24:7 availability means that digital learning minimises disruption to employees’ work days.

REACHING A FLEXIBLE AND BUSY WORKFORCE: ARE YOUR TRAINING EFFORTS HITTING THE MARK?

Tap into Digital to Nurture Your Talent

Nurturing and retaining talent is the primary challenge for most companies.18

Enabling staff to access worthwhile training, and do so efficiently and easily, is vital. Consider high-growth individuals who love to learn, the growing number of employees working flexibly, and incoming millennials. Employers must invest in and nurture their most valuable asset by exposing employees to new and challenging opportunities before their roles become stale. Employees want to be encouraged to keep up with changes in their industry; it is rewarding to know and to grow.

Learning is a continuous process. It shouldn’t slow down after the employee’s first day, or only be available at 1pm on the third Tuesday of the month. Digital is an essential element to upskill and empower all your employees. Are you taking full advantage of its potential?

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Worklogic’s Training has Evolved

Worklogic’s workplace training and coaching have always been essential adjuncts to the work we’ve done as investigators, mediators and cultural reviewers. It’s often clear that skills development and team-building are the positive tonics needed to support employees struggling with conflict or inappropriate behaviour.

In recent years, our modes of training have expanded with technological change, to reach employees whose work is increasingly flexible, remote and wedded to technology.

Our face-to-face training has become more sharply interactive, incorporating videos and interactive polls to optimise participant engagement. Our webinars on hot topics are available in real time and also on-demand, enabling people to tap into training when it is most relevant.

Mooski represents Worklogic’s latest leap into best practice for contemporary training. By utilising all those elements that research has shown to galvanise engagement and real learning, Mooski brings team-building into the 21st century.

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Powered by Worklogic, Mooski is a delightful online team-building experience, where colleagues get to know each other better and reflect on their own individual traits, values, strengths and work relationships.

Worklogic’s Training has Evolved AND

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A three-week online programs for teams, Mooski is built on the latest research from business schools and organisational psychologists about:

• intrinsic motivation• mindfulness• purpose and values• workplace culture• innovation• happiness

Mooski is fresh in two important ways.

The first is its delivery modes. Informed by the latest research on digitised training, adult learning and diverse workforces, Mooski comes directly to the enrolled participant wherever they are located.

Starting with a captivating digital animation, each morning for 15 days an email arrives. Meeting a variety of learning styles, workflows and working arrangements, participants can use their smartphones or computers to:

• listen to podcasts, • complete short tasks and exercises, • springboard into discussions within the team and with colleagues, and• engage in activities that are sometimes quietly reflective and sometimes actively collegiate.

The message for staff is, we respect your individuality and your daily workflow, and we want to engage with you meaningfully.

As discussed in this paper, digital delivery is not only surprisingly effective, it can also be delivered for low cost. For less than AU $100 per participant, you can see all the benefits of team re-engagement and energisation.

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Recognising the preferences of our clients’ teams, we also offer a premium option for Mooski which combines digitised delivery with a face-to-face component (workshops with the fabulous Grevis Beard or Rose Bryant-Smith). This is because research indicates that, with the right content and mix, blended learning can be even more effective than both traditional learning and e-learning alone.19

The second – and equally important – way in which Mooski innovates is its underlying philosophy. Mooski is informed and directed by the latest psychological and business school research into employee happiness and engagement. A recent Harvard Business Review article20 stated that, “After surveying over 20,000 workers around the world, analysing 50 major companies, conducting scores of experiments, and scouring the landscape of academic research in a range of disciplines, we came to one conclusion: Why we work determines how well we work.”

This is why Mooski places great emphasis on prompting participants to map their personal values against the purpose of their work. We encourage staff to let go of restrictive and negative mindsets, to be mindful in their daily interactions, and to try new ways of interacting with colleagues.

In many ways, Mooski is light-hearted and playful, which makes it accessible and non-demanding. At the same time, at its core you’ll find a serious methodology designed to stimulate workday mindsets, liberating staff from negativity or inertia.

On the following pages is an outline of the program to give you a more detailed understanding of how Mooski works.

To discuss Mooski for your teams, call Rose Scott, Digital Products Manager at Worklogic, on (03) 9981 6500.

Day 3

Day 4

Day 5

what to expect each day

An introductory video designed to spark interest and curiosity about Mooski’s defining concepts

Team members listen to a Podcast on Autonomy. Additionally, participants are asked to start thinking about the donation Mooski will make to a charity of the Team’s choice on behalf of each team member who completes – a subtle inducement to give Mooski a go!

Following up on ideas introduced in the previous day’s podcast, participants are asked to reflect on the persona they bring to work and to Choose their Attitude.

They are also asked to write a personal letter to themselves describing their best working self – and hide the letter away…

Your team’s Mooski Associate is asked to organise for the team to choose the charity most aligned to the core purpose of your business. To do this, team members are asked to reflect on that core purpose.

Mindfulness – a practice demonstrated to enhance human wellbeing and performance - is the theme of today’s Podcast.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 1

0

Day 1

1

Each participant is asked to initiate a meaningful conversation with someone in their workplace they have otherwise overlooked or avoided.

No report or judgement is to be made about this – people are asked to find their own motivation for doing it.

Having listened to the Mindfulness Podcast, participants are now invited to put what they’ve heard into practice, using short follow-up instructions.

Today’s Podcast is about Purpose – our sense of purpose as individuals and how it can meld with the purpose of our work.

Your team’s Mooski Associate is asked to bring the team together, if it is easily possible, for the group to workshop together their ideas about – ‘what’s our work for?’

Each participant is asked to spend time reflecting deeply on what matters most to them. What do I see as my purpose in life?

Participants listen to a Podcast today. The theme is Communication – how to do it better both individually and as a team.

Day 1

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Day 1

3

Day 1

4

Day 1

5

Day 5

0 – fo

llow

-up

Explores seven ways to approach having a difficult conversation and encourages participants to put the approach into practice.

Team members are asked to group together in twos or threes and go for a lunchtime walk where they discuss and share something they have found inspiring, learning things about themselves and each other.

Participants listen to a Podcast today. The theme is Values and the emphasis is on finding ways to enact personal values in the workplace so that people become conscious of working with integrity.

Mooski’s final activity tests again the ways in which each participant can be the version of themselves they most want to be at work. The Mooski Associate lets Mooski know which charity the team has chosen for its donation.

On this day, thirty days after the last Mooski email on Day 15, access to the password-protected section of the Mooski website expires. A final message is sent to each participant.

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EndnotesAll endnotes accessed August 2019.

1 Shubhomita Bose, ‘98% of All Companies Plan to Use E-Learning by 2020’ (2017) https://smallbiztrends.com/2017/12/2018-e-learning-trends.html

2 Justin Pope, ‘What are MOOCs Good For?’ (2014) https://www.technolo-gyreview.com/s/533406/what-are-moocs-good-for/

3 Candace Hazlett, ‘Comparing effectiveness of learning in MOOCs and classrooms’, 2014 published on edX, https://blog.edx.org/comparing-effec-tiveness-learning-moocs

4 Wei Wei Goh, Seng Yue Wong and Enna Ayub (2018). ‘The Effectiveness of MOOC Among Learners Based on Kirkpatrick’s Model’. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318928616_The_Effectiveness_of_MOOC_Among_Learners_Based_on_Kirkpatrick’s_Model

5 Larry Moyer, ‘Is Digital Learning Effective in the Workplace?’, E-Learn Mag-azine, 2002 https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=568598#R15

6 John Brown and Richard Adler, ‘Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0’, EDUCAUSE Review, vol. 43, no. 1 (2008) https://er.educause.edu/articles/2008/1/minds-on-fire-open-education-the-long-tail-and-learning-20

7 Mohamed Chatti, Mohammad Agustiawan, Matthias Jarke and Marcus Specht (2010), ‘Toward a Personal Learning Environment Framework’, Inter-national Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments, 1(4).

8 Whitney Johnson, ‘Your Organization Needs a Learning Ecosystem’, HBR Online, 2019 https://hbr.org/2019/07/your-organization-needs-a-learn-ing-ecosystem

9 Snejana Dineva and Veselina Nedeva ‘Accepted Strategy for the Further Development of Blended E-Learning: Tk-Yambol Case Study’, 2010 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309487318_Accepted_Strategy_for_the_Further_Development_of_Blended_E-Learning_Tk-Yambol_Case_Study

10 Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Flexible Working is Good for Business, 2019 https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/Business%20Case%20Feburary%202019%20Final.pdf

11 See e.g. Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Flexible working is good for Business: The Business Case (2019) https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/de-fault/files/documents/Business%20Case%20Feburary%202019%20Final.pdf and The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2019 https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/millennialsurvey.html

12 See e.g. Chief Executive Women and Bain & Co, The Power of Flexibility, 2016 https://cew.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/BAIN_CEW_RE-PORT_The_power_of_flexibility_Boosting_gender_parity-vF.pdf, and Diversity Council of Australia, Future-Flex, 2017 https://www.dca.org.au/research/project/future-flex-mainstreaming-flexibility-design

13 Fay Calderone, ‘Flexible work for everyone: the evolution to a new nor-mal’, Smart Company 2018 https://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-hu-man-resources/flexible-work-for-everyone-the-evolution-to-a-new-normal/

14 Melanie Sanders, Jennifer Zeng, Meredith Hellicar and Kathryn Fagg (2015), The Power of Flexibility: A Key Enabler to Boost Gender Parity and Employee Engagement https://cew.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/BAIN_CEW_REPORT_The_power_of_flexibility_Boosting_gender_parity-vF.pdf

15 PolyCom Inc, 2017 https://www.polycom.com/company/news/press-re-leases/2017/20170321.html

16 Polycom, above.

17 Josh Bersin and Marc Zao-Sanders, ‘Making learning a part of every-day work’, HBR Online, 2019 https://hbr.org/2019/02/making-learn-ing-a-part-of-everyday-work?referral=03758&cm_vc=rr_item_page.top_right

18 Jordana Valencia, ‘Scaling Culture in Fast-Growing Companies’ HBR 2019 https://hbr.org/2019/06/scaling-culture-in-fast-growing-companies

19 Jordana Valencia, above

20 Lindsay McGregor & Neel Doshi, ‘How Company Culture Shapes Em-ployee Motivation’ (2015) https://hbr.org/2015/11/how-company-cul-ture-shapes-employee-motivation