Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2016 - 32

WE CAN REQUIRE
ATTENDANCE,
AND WE CAN
REQUIRE
COMPLETION,
BUT WE MUST
INSPIRE LEARNING.
each employee influences the way tens of
thousands of people see the brand.

ENGAGEMENT MATTERS
One of the ways this new approach will
manifest itself is in the way we think about
engagement. This has been one of our
industry's most popular buzzwords lately
and for good reason: it's obvious that
our training will be more effective if the
learners are actually paying attention, and
we know quite a bit about how to increase
engagement in the training.
We know we need interactivity, and
recent research suggests multi-sensory
interactivity is most effective; the presence
of voiceovers in particular significantly
enhanced
engagement. We
know
engagement is increased when we tie
learning to real-life problems, and the more
a learner can identify with the details of the
problems, the more engaged they'll be. And
we know social ties are a central component
of engagement; recent research on brand
engagement indicates that "interaction,
participation, dialogue, co-creation, and
sharing of brand-related values" with a social
group dramatically increases feelings of
engagement with the brand.
But if we are thinking of our learners as
customers, we know the relationship
can begin long before the event starts,
and one of the most important aspects
of this relationship is generating interest
before the training starts. Marketers
understand the importance of this
because there is a natural barrier to
entry for any consumer experience.

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Take movies, for example. Movies are
expensive and loud and all the way across
town and it's not socially acceptable to
wear my pajamas to the theater; in short,
there are a lot of reasons for me to not go
see a movie. Movie trailers come to me,
and the best of them are so compelling
that I can't wait for the chance to put on
real pants, drive across town, and pay
my $12. Trailers get us engaged weeks or
months before a movie opens, so, by the
time the theater darkens, we are paying
full attention.
We deal with similar barriers to entry
for learning and development. We can
eliminate many of them with pre-training
engagement, but this approach is not
as common as it should be. A recent
survey shows that L&D teams do a very
good job at what we might call "reactive
engagement": using data about the
training to improve it and increase learner
response. Training consumption trends
and scores on learning assessments are
used by almost half of those surveyed
to increase engagement. Much more
rare are tactics that serve to increase
engagement before the training starts:
promotional videos are used by one-third
of respondents and training incentives are
used by less than one-fourth.
There are risks and expenses to working to
build engagement before training, but the
upside is enormous. The first advantage
is helping our learners understand how
the training will benefit them. First
impressions are key, and finding out about
a new compliance training through a oneline company email can be disheartening
to say the least. A promotional campaign
in which we explain that better adherence
to policies will increase efficiency and save
jobs could make the 30-minute course
seem like a reasonable investment in the
company. A small gift card for participation
can show your team that you value their
time and are not simply forcing them
to click through an e-learning course.
These simple measures can significantly
improve employee attitudes to training,
and research has shown the importance
of positive employee attitudes toward
change management initiatives.
For example, let's consider the development
of a large-scale systems training for a

multi-billion dollar financial institution.
Learning a new system can be challenging
for employees who have been with an
organization for some time and grown used
to previous work methods, and resistance
to this type of training can be high. To
promote engagement, motion graphics
and infographics were produced and rolled
out prior to the systems training. These
pre-training engagement pieces directly
address how the new system will help the
employees be more successful and gives
them an overview of the training to come,
reducing the psychological barriers to entry
for the full training.

MOVING FORWARD
There are many advantages to treating
our learners as customers. Understanding
that they need to be sold on the value of
training will help us connect the goals of
the training to their interests, and that
re-examination can help us craft more
effective approaches. Showing our team
members the value of the training before
it begins will reduce barriers to entry and
increase engagement from the outset.
Training is valuable, for the company and
the individual. If we do a better job selling
our learners on that value, our training
goals will be much easier to achieve.
Keith Gibson is the vice president of client
development at Allen Communication
Learning Services. Email Keith.

TAKEAWAYS
By training learners as customers, corporate
learning and development can be more successful.
If we treat our learners as potential customers who
have to be sold on the value of the information,
we are more likely to produce training that actually
connects with them and changes behavior.
* We must persuade learners to engage with
training; we can't just demand that they learn.
* To convince them, we must connect our goals
with theirs and show them how the training can
help them achieve things they value.
* To accomplish this, we must understand what
our team members value and respect that it may
not always be the same thing the CEO values.

http://www.trainingindustry.com/training-outsourcing/products/research/incentivizing-training-the-role-of-marketing-in-corporate-learning.aspx http://www.trainingindustry.com/training-outsourcing/products/research/incentivizing-training-the-role-of-marketing-in-corporate-learning.aspx http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215000084 https://books.google.com/books/about/Increasing_Student_Engagement_and_Retent.html?id=7A_MMBDHlOMC https://books.google.com/books/about/Increasing_Student_Engagement_and_Retent.html?id=7A_MMBDHlOMC https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237528794_The_Grounded_Theory_approach_to_consumer-brand_engagement_The_practitioner's_standpoint https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237528794_The_Grounded_Theory_approach_to_consumer-brand_engagement_The_practitioner's_standpoint https://www.towerswatson.com/en/Insights/Newsletters/Americas/insider/2015/06/how-employee-attitudes-toward-change-affect-change-management

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Magazine - November/December 2016