The Great Resignation may not be making headlines anymore, but for many industries, talent is still calling the shots. If you want to retain the team you have, you need to look beyond office perks and extra vacation days to benefits like employee development. In fact, 94% of employees say they would have stayed at a previous company longer if offered more development opportunities.
One increasingly popular approach to employee learning and development: learning in the flow of work, also known as informal learning. Learning in the flow of work refers to the idea of integrating learning and development opportunities into the daily tasks and responsibilities of employees, allowing your team to learn and grow while they are on the job. Research from Josh Bersini has revealed that employees who spend time learning at work are 47% less likely to be stressed and 39% more likely to feel productive and successful, compared to those who do not.
For many businesses looking to deploy learning in the flow of work, Microsoft Teams, already in their software toolbelt, integrated with a Learning Management Solution (LMS), is an excellent platform to deliver this type of training.
Benefits of Informal Learning with Microsoft Teams
Your team already communicates, collaborates, and gets work done in Microsoft Teams – now, they can learn in Teams. While there are many tools you can use to implement learning in the flow of work, using Microsoft Teams has many benefits. Let’s review a few here:
- Employees can apply what they are learning immediately in their role
Employees are more likely to be motivated to learn when they see the immediate benefits of their learning. Hosting training in Teams makes it easy and convenient, as your employees likely spend most of their day in Teams anyways. They can then take what they learn and immediately apply it to their work, all within the same screen. This makes the value and impact of their learning clear and helps your team stay engaged.
- Information is relevant and meaningful
Traditional training programs follow a curriculum that often isn’t regularly updated (we’ve all seen those cringey training videos with 90s outfits). When viewing these types of training, it may be hard for your team to think the information is worth learning if it seems antiquated. When you use Teams, it’s easy to regularly update your materials to ensure the information is actually relevant and timely, critical to keeping your employees engaged.
- Employee engagement can increase
Gaining new skills and solving problems improves a person’s self-esteem and helps eliminate stress from their role, increasing employee engagement. This may be at risk if you force your team to learn an entirely new platform to partake in this training, though, as it adds more stress than necessary. By using Teams, a platform your staff is likely very confident using, your team is more likely to stay engaged and complete training, allowing both you and the employee to reap the benefits of the learnings.
- Avoid costs associated with traditional training programs
By integrating learning into the daily tasks and responsibilities of employees, companies can reduce the need for expensive off-site training programs and can also decrease the amount of time employees need to take away from their work to attend training.
Leveraging Microsoft Teams for Informal Learning
So, what strategies can be used to implement learning in the flow of work using Microsoft Teams? One approach is to provide employees with on-demand learning resources, such as online courses, webinars, and tutorials, which can be accessed and completed within Microsoft Teams. This allows employees to access learning materials when they need them, and it also allows them to learn at their own pace, either at their desks or on the move.
Another approach is to provide employees with coaching and mentoring opportunities through Microsoft Teams. This can be done through formal mentoring programs or by providing employees with access to experienced colleagues who can provide guidance and support through the platform's video conferencing and chat features. This approach can be further utilised, for instance, with the onboarding of new colleagues.
Organisations can also create a culture of learning by encouraging employees to share their knowledge and experiences with one another using Microsoft Teams.
This can be done through knowledge-sharing platforms, such as intranet forums, and by creating opportunities for employees to collaborate on projects and initiatives using the platform's team collaboration and file-sharing features.
MaivenPoint Curricula Optimizes Learning on Teams
Creating effective learning content in Microsoft Teams needs careful management; using third-party learning management solutions like MaivenPoint Curricula helps facilitate a more convenient process for provisioning learning content in Teams.
Most learning management solutions can import content across a range of subjects via a protocol like SCORM. This enables an organisation to roll out training for such topics as health and safety, information security and more, quickly and efficiently, to their staff and connects your employee community to a rich plethora of content for their upskilling needs.
Curricula takes this a step further, allowing the creation of learning paths, including eight different types of assessment, that are then delivered contextually in your Teams channel groups. Curricula can also integrate with third-party content services like Go1 and LinkedIn Learning.
If adoption of Teams, or any other M365 tool, is a challenge, then there are collections of bite-sized content, such as Microsoft 365 Training from AvePoint, that can be embedded in Teams to upskill the employees of an organisation.
If you need seamless integration of learning in the flow of work with Microsoft Teams, Curricula is your ideal LMS to get started on a hybrid-ready corporate learning journey.
Final Thoughts
Learning in the flow of work is a powerful approach to learning and development that can help companies improve employee engagement, motivation, and retention. By providing employees with the opportunity to learn and grow while they are on the job, companies can not only improve the skills and knowledge of their workforce but also achieve better results and increase productivity and competitiveness.
Together, Microsoft Teams and MaivenPoint Curricula allow you to deliver valuable employee development to your team, right on their desktop, or mobile, in a convenient and effortless way.
Want to learn more about learning in the flow of work? Download our free eBook Enhance Workplace Training with an Embedded Teams LMS for more insights and best practices.
