New Trends in Social Learning & Development

What’s going on with social learning right this very minute? SkillSoft offers some answers to this question in a recent white paper “The Eight Truths of Social Learning. Now.” It explores what the company has found in developing and implementing its own InGenius® platform along with practical suggestions for making any system function more effectively. Let’s look at the first of 8 “Truths” and how it might apply to a social platform used as part of acculturation onboarding.


Truth #1 – Social Learning Requires 3 Elements

According to SkillSoft, you need a solid platform, great content, and a thriving community to make this type of initiative work. This combination of infrastructure, information, and individuals is the three legged stool upon which social learning rests.

Infrastructure

The platform is the foundation. If your application isn’t easy to use, no one will want to spend time engaging with it. You may want to use a module that meshes with your current HR suite, or one that relies on an established, external social network. Cost and ease of implementation aren’t the only factors to consider. Your decision might depend on how much inside information might be revealed in the discussions that take place between coworkers. For a social platform that meshes with an advanced learning and development system, you might even go with a custom application.

Information

Content is the next stage – and this is where you have to look within your company to find talent. An outside vendor can set up your software, but only those who are embedded in your organizational culture can provide the “wetware” to make your site interesting. Don’t expect your employees to grow the network on their own. You have to lead the way. HR and managers may well have to generate 75% or more of the content during the initial phases. This is an ideal time to set the tone by focusing on business and employee development related topics rather than social chit-chat.

Individuals

A great deal of the community building happens organically once you have the first two legs of the “stool” in place. However, HR should also ensure that new hires are given an extra incentive toward participating. This can be done as part of acculturation onboarding by assigning social learning tasks. Virtual meet and greets are also a great way to generate content and discussion. If you have relevant educational information hosted on your platform, new hires will quickly learn that this is the place to go to learn how to fit in with your organization.

Continuous Improvement in Acculturation Onboarding

As I've mentioned in previous posts, one goal of acculturation is to get a new hire operating at full capacity as soon as possible. Shortening the time from the hire date to the highest level of productivity decreases the costs associated with turnover.

Many employers purchase an acculturation onboarding product to help them achieve this goal. However, without a system in place to actually measure the results it's hard to say if the investment is really worth it. You will also have no idea what steps to take to improve the entire process. It's time to take a clear-eyed look at what acculturation can do for your company.

Collect, Analyze, Improve...Repeat

Used properly, an acculturation onboarding program should gather data that allows you to identify areas that could be improved. This means you need some way of measuring, testing, and scoring employee performance each step of the way. Such data collection should take place during orientation, training, and subsequent development.

There aren't any limits to the type of information you can collect. You also aren't restricted in the creative ways you can go about taking measurements. For example, you might email employees a quiz that tests their knowledge of everything from safety procedures to company policies. The results would give you several pieces of information:

1. What percentage of your workforce is engaged enough to respond/participate
   
2. How well your employees understand company policies and best practices
   
3. Which areas in your training program need to be revamped to make them more effective
   

Measure the Envelope - Then Push It

To get the most out of any product or system, you have to know what the optimal outcome would look like. Generally, organizations have some objective standards in place that allow them to measure various aspects of productivity. However, many don't take this to the next level. Do you know what maximum productivity would really look like? It is possible that you are settling for less than your employees have to offer.

Developing your new hires to their highest potential is simplest when you integrate your acculturation onboarding software with each of your competency measurement systems. Fortunately, Emerald Software Group products are designed to interface with other platforms you already have in place. You can readily create a closed-loop process that promotes continuous improvement.