In today’s always connected digital age, we can easily become overwhelmed by the amount of information that is available to us. This is especially true when it comes to training for a new job or learning a new skill. Despite this flood of information, by implementing a bite-sized learning strategy, you can help your employees focus on what’s most important, one piece at a time.
Here are six reasons your company should start using a bite-sized training strategy today:
1. Easily on-board and get new employees up-to-speed
As a new employee, it can feel extremely daunting to go through pages and pages of information in an attempt to learn everything you need to know to successfully do your new job. When you implement a bite-sized learning strategy, you can help ease the pain of on-boarding new hires by creating specific content that fits into this “bite-sized” training methodology. The goal is not to overwhelm but to ensure comprehension. This approach to learning avoids throwing too much information into the mix at one time.
2. Increase engagement and knowledge retention
Bite-size content is easier to digest, understand and remember. This concept encourages trainers to identify important information, break it down into smaller pieces, and then streamline the delivery of that content in a way that is easy to digest in a short period of time. This will not only help employees feel less overwhelmed during training, but can also boost knowledge retention. In addition, providing training in small/focused pieces helps challenge learners to contemplate and think about the topic at hand.
3. Adapt to the growing mobile workforce
Increasingly, work is something people DO rather than a PLACE people go. Bite-sized learning, unlike a traditional approach, focuses on meeting the needs of the modern learner. This approach enables learners to access small chunks of information at their fingertips, anytime and anywhere. No need for a rigid schedule or lengthy lectures. The ability to access training on-the-go will also help encourage learners to utilize the training material more frequently because of the convenience.
4. Implement training content quickly
The beauty of bite-sized training is that it’s short and to the point. This learning format allows for easier content creation as well as quicker delivery and implementation. If you’re familiar with administering training, you know it can be frustrating to create fresh, engaging content that can be utilized quickly. Bite-sized learning can apply to both new and previously used content. The key thing to remember when crafting content is to stay focused on the topic at hand and keep it simple. To start, try revisiting older content that needs to be improved. You can do this by simplifying the content and breaking it down into key points for the learner to take-away. Additionally, the format (video, podcast, infographics, article, etc...) of the content plays a major role in how the learner successfully acquires and comprehends the material. In this way, you can take content that’s seemingly old, used, boring and make it into something fascinating and worth of spending time with.
5. Increase social collaboration
Bite-sized content is, by nature, social content. Why? Well, would you be interested in reading something that your contact posted that is titled, “5,000 Ways You Can…” No, I didn’t think so. Most individuals in our society have a waning attention span, especially when it comes to sorting through the mass amount of information that is available to us. We want to be able to find exactly what we are looking for when we need it. When we share bite-sized content with other like-minded individuals, it opens the door to collaboration and conversation.
6. Improve Behavior Change & Performance
When training doesn’t feel like a chore, individuals will most likely embrace the training. However, if the learner feels like the training is irrelevant, time-consuming and difficult to use, then the chances of the user embracing the training program is slim to none. Training should always be part of a company’s culture and when done correctly, the learner will feel like their company cares and is making an investment in them. This ultimately results in higher retention rates, increased business activity, as well as happier employees and better performance.
Does your company utilize this type of bite-sized training? What type of training culture does your company have?
Share below!
