Upskilling Employees The Right Way In 2022 With Microlearning

Organizations across the globe have started to prioritize employee upskilling due to the constant disruptions and technological changes happening over the past three years. Due to the impact of the pandemic on businesses and the rise of digital transformation and remote working, it has become clear that upskilling is worldwide. A Udemy report published in 2021 suggests that employees are being upskilled at a much higher rate than previous years. Data suggests that this trend is mainly due to a growing number of companies recognizing and addressing the skills gap. In this new normal, the potential employees reduce this skill gap between an experienced professional through microlearning. Hence, organizations are increasingly using microlearning platforms to retrain and upskill their employees to adapt to changing business conditions.

There is no doubt that microlearning is the best possible approach to upskill employees in this era of hybrid and remote work. In this article, Rezolve.ai highlights the importance of microlearning in employee upskilling, how it enhances employee performances and its key-business benefits.

But, before we begin let’s understand why employee upskilling is more important than ever in 2022.

Employee Upskilling and its Accelerating Demand

The purpose of upskilling is to provide employees with the training they need to improve their current skill set, thereby enhancing their ability to advance in their current roles and add more value to the organization. Rather than hiring new employees and investing more resources in employee onboarding, you can develop the leaders yourself by upskilling your existing team. Taking this into account, more and more companies are fostering a learning culture to upskill their employees.

The upskilling of a workforce has been necessary for quite a while. However, the current situation of an upsurge in unemployment and global economic conditions has heightened this need. World Economic Forum estimates that around 35% of the core skills needed by employees have changed over the last five years. Furthermore, the report states that the current changes will continue to evolve and that everyone will need an additional 101 days of learning by 2022.

Companies must change their strategies in response to changing working conditions as most organizations work remotely, so employees must become proficient with modern technology tools. Moreover, there is no secret that the new workforce generation expects to have a greater opportunity to advance in their careers. Their goal is to develop transferrable skills to support their professional and personal growth. That's what microlearning is for.

Microlearning: Why should you consider it?

Today employers and other learning leaders are increasingly investing in shorter bursts of learning, called microlearning, rather than day-long expert-led seminars and hours-long classroom training. Microlearning can be described as bit-sized, easily digestible learning material that can be accessed at anytime, anywhere, from any device. Since it is available in engaging multi-media formats such as animations, images, audio, texts, videos, interactive PDFs, short eLearning modules, and even podcasts – microlearning helps employees retain information for a longer time, resulting in greater efficiency.

In addition to being relatively affordable and mobile-friendly, microlearning has dramatically improved retention and engagement. According to a study conducted at Dresden University, microlearning resulted in a 22% better retention rate over traditional learning techniques. Thus, it is true that Microlearning offers an excellent way to upskill employees in an age of mobile devices and declining attention spans.

Read More: Microlearning for employee training-Key factors to consider in 2022

Upskilling with microlearning

Microlearning is one of the best methods of upskilling employees in 2022, which has been proven to be more effective and convenient for all. It can be a valuable component of employee upskilling in various ways such as:  

1. Engaged employees
   
   In this hybrid work environment, short bite-sized learning contents are a great way to keep learners engaged and, ultimately, upskill them effectively. It's up to the employees to decide when they are ready to learn, at their own pace, and at any location they choose. It enhances the way people engage with digital content. With microlearning, learners have access to a variety of short formats that keep them captivated.
   
   
2. Microlearning can be personalized.
   
   Microlearning uses adaptive, clinically proven algorithms to enhance the personalization. Many microlearning platforms use game-based assessments and on-demand modules that can measure the learner's retention and enable them to complete the modules at their own pace. Microlearning content is available on desktop, laptop and mobile devices, enabling learners to incorporate learning into their daily routines. This brings scalability to learning through personalization and portability. The use of microlearning to develop upskilling and reskilling will allow an asynchronous online course to attract more learners.
   
   
3. A better retention rate
   
   Microlearning courses aim to achieve one learning objective for upskilling and reskilling. Creating microlearning training content using video or animation can engage learners and give them learning outcomes they will remember. Make sure your learning content is localized for your learners. A microlearning course can be created into a short game, quiz, game, audio, text etc. to support the reskilling and upskilling process. Using these strategies, learners can better retain any new concept introduced to them by understanding the action that needs to be performed.
   
   
4. Increase employees focus and attention span.
   
   Microlearning is an ideal instructional approach that caters to the lack of attention among employees that microlearning provides. Providing learning content in short bursts and distributing the modules sufficiently helps the human brain absorb information better. When small-sized content modules are conveyed within minutes, attention problems are addressed. Thus, microlearning is the best tool for training employees that require no additional time.
   
   
5. Cost-effective
   
   Training sessions become more expensive as they get longer. In order to design a day-long course or longer, there is a great deal of material to include. Microlearning, however, does not require such a large investment. Due to the fact that the modules are in a bite-sized format, microlearning is less expensive. 
   
   

Conclusion: Microlearning: An Effective Mean for Upskilling

Microlearning has become a key tool to support organizations as they manage unprecedented change due to the pressing need for upskilling and reskilling. In an ever-changing job market and regulatory environment, microlearning help employees stay productive and competitive. Especially when an abrupt change occurs, microlearning method can provide the necessary data to prove performance readiness or prescribe a learning plan to increase employee proficiency.

Rezolve.ai's smart conversational microlearning platform, Morsel.ai, helps transform your training program into something quick, easy, and enjoyable right from Microsoft Teams. Want to more? Check here.