Motivating employee productivity during onboarding

You are reading this on any number of potential mediums: a mobile device, a tablet, your office work station, or maybe even your laptop at home. New and exciting innovations in global communication have given us the freedom to read e-mails, coordinate calendar events, and make calls anywhere in the world, day or night, rain or shine.

Technology has made it more accessible than ever to reach a wide audience, and that trend will continue to grow. With so many options to connect to and interact with content, it’s important to know how we can use the advancements of the digital age for practical reasons. We have seen a great change in work habits, personal communication, digital collaboration, and understanding for in-depth concepts.

It’s not just about motivating employee productivity, but technology is also an integral part of a successful business. Technology also changes, and in return, so do we. In order to successfully stay on top of the wave (instead of being crushed by it,) we have to adapt our methods of training. Employee onboarding is something that needs to constantly reevaluate how it works in order to stay relevant. Ask yourself “what good is a course if there is no takeaway?”

How effective is the current method?

There is a reason we call it “death by PowerPoint.”

PowerPoint, while designed to be a teaching aid, is often considered pointless, if you’ll forgive the pun. It’s easy to take an entire essay and format it on a series of slides and call it a teaching tool. Long, chunky, overburdened slides that are read verbatim do not engage your learner.

We are lacking precisely what training needs in the digital age: interaction. While the intentions of a PowerPoint are good, it’s really the implementation of learning that sets apart good onboarding from a total time sink. We should be in the business of building up a knowledge base that is capable and efficient, not the business of checking off boxes for our curriculum.

Realize that we spend most of our time on some sort of mobile device, and this is a perfect way to deliver content. Technology can be used to give employees a welcome to the office and its policies. It can motivate employee comprehension by increasing communication, delivering engaging content, and provide instantaneous feedback.

How do we attract their attention?

One thing onboarding has to compete with is the attention span of its participants. Employee onboarding has a reputation as a low thinking, non-engaging experience. It’s time to change that perception, especially for younger generations.

We have to make new employee onboarding something that demands more than an investment of time. We need learners to invest and apply what they comprehend. Gamification is a rising trend that has proven to be successful. By making interactive learning experiences, we call on the learner to drive the training forward by doing more than waiting for the next slide to load. Cognitively interacting with the course materials to answer a series of questions shows their understanding.

Where do we make employee onboarding happen?

The trend among academic learners is less in the classroom and more in distance learning. We are more responsive to learning when it comes to us. So why not apply this to employee onboarding, too? Go beyond the conference room and engage learners on their time and on their terms.

We are used to spending large portions of time on our electronic devices. It’s convenient, it’s personal, and it’s always within reach. How great would it be to have your resources readily available at your learners’ fingertips, accessed via your company intranet or digital workplace? Instead of considering mobile devices and tablets a distraction, look at them as an opportunity to establish an interactive training that they can call upon at their convenience.

Looking towards untapped potential

We are used to considering our devices distractions because they are constantly sending out push notifications. When we receive a new text, get a notice that someone has liked our social media posts, or when a timer has reset in our mobile games, our instinct is to respond. There is a relationship between user and device that can be further developed.

People choose to complement their lives with these devices and they respond to them. The technology has found a way to encourage frequent usage, so why not make your learning just as accessible?

The benefits of motivating employee productivity

Efficiency and productivity are two of the greatest selling points for any product.

With employee onboarding, training takes time for both the instructor and learner. This can be expensive because the only thing being produced in that time is a knowledge base. If the learners fail to retain the content, then the training is not only unsuccessful, but it is cost ineffective, which is much worse.

Moving away from the traditional formats of employee onboarding reduces costs because they are not as flexible in how materials can be presented, nor are they always available. Focusing on the benefits that the digital age offers immediate answers from your Learning Management system, regardless of where they’re being accessed. These factors are saving time and money.

Employee onboarding has evolved, and will continue to grow as a result of the changes in technology. Lengthy, formal introductions, training videos and written tests are being replaced with a more responsive, user driven experience. We see the need for onboarding programs designed with the learner in mind.

Learning is as agile as those who are benefiting from the training. By being as flexible as the learner, we foster better comprehension and development, which is always a great use of resources.