Yours May Be a High-Performing Learning Organization If . . .

Your organization has had its learning program in place for a while. At first, you set up some courses to simplify compliance, and you have since expanded your offerings to include professional and career development opportunities. Now you’re ready to take it to the next level. How can you make what you have even better? What are others doing well that you could emulate?

Organizations want learning that moves the needle. In a recent report, The State of Learning Solutions and Learner Engagement, HR.com took a closer look at some of the attributes that enable high performers to achieve just that.

Learning Is Strongly Embedded Into a Company’s Culture

Compared with their lower-performing counterparts, high-performing learning organizations more effectively embed learning as a core part of their culture. They do this by using tools—high performers were 26 percent more likely than low performers to give employees access to a dedicated learning resource and take steps to keep employees engaged and motivated, which we know plays a significant role in the overall success of a learning program.

Organizations can increase engagement in different ways, including by delivering personalized, interactive, and collaborative experiences and by providing opportunities for mentoring, coaching, and professional development.

Learning Experiences Are Personalized

One of the most common complaints employees have about their corporate learning programs is that what they’re learning doesn’t seem applicable to them. This lack of relevancy means that training is often regarded as an extra burden rather than an opportunity.

High-performing learning organizations are more than twice as likely as low-performing ones to offer personalized experiences that factor in a person’s background, career objectives, or individual preferences, ensuring each person’s learning journey helps them achieve their goals.

Learners Have Spaces and Tools That Enable Collaboration

Today’s learners expect to interact easily with their peers, instructors, and experts through various mediums. According to The State of Learning Solutions and Learner Engagement, high-performing organizations are more likely to incorporate collaboration features and tools including:

• webcasts (used by 38 percent of high performers versus only 20 percent of low performers)

• coaching (36 percent versus 13 percent)

• group chats (32 percent versus 13 percent)

• real-time discussions (31 percent versus 12 percent)

• enterprise social networks (28 percent versus 8 percent).

Leveraging these sorts of digital collaboration tools makes it easier for people to foster connections within and outside their teams and ultimately find the information and answers they need.

Content Is Created and Customized to Suit Learners’ Needs

Click-through materials can impart valuable information, but HR.com’s research found that high-performing learning organizations are taking it a step further and creating engaging, interactive, and immersive content that’s hyper-targeted to the needs of their employees.

Although simulations, videos, and games require additional money and time to produce, they have a distinct advantage: They’re inherently scalable. This type of content gives organizations the opportunity to dramatically increase the number of learners they reach, even in locations where physical instructors may not be present.

Performance-Related Metrics Are Actively Tracked and Monitored

Having access to activity and achievement data helps organizations diagnose and solve problems quickly, as well as identify ways in which they can continue to improve technologies, training, performance management, and company culture.

High-performing organizations tend to have strong overall learner engagement metrics and are three times more likely than low-performing ones to measure learner achievements. It’s perhaps no coincidence that 86 percent of high-performing organizations say their learners are engaged, while only 44 percent of low-performing organizations say the same.