{"id":19875,"date":"2021-05-26T09:56:58","date_gmt":"2021-05-26T09:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/?p=19875"},"modified":"2021-05-26T09:56:58","modified_gmt":"2021-05-26T09:56:58","slug":"how-to-get-people-using-your-learning-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/blog\/how-to-get-people-using-your-learning-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"How to get people using your learning platform | Advice from the experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comparing them to horses probably isn\u2019t the best place to start, but it\u2019s a similar situation to those leading stallions to water and unable to get them to drink. It\u2019s not enough to simply offer a learning platform, you have to incentivise and entice people into quenching their learning thirst.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Whether that\u2019s through rewards, a slick marketing push that helps them understand why it\u2019s worth their time or breaking down the barriers that might be standing in their way, there\u2019s plenty you can do to get people logging in and learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are just some of the issues we\u2019ll elaborate on here, and we even asked some of the HowNow community to share their advice too – they\u2019ve been there and done it, after all.<\/span><\/p>\n

Create purpose and pathways to progress<\/b><\/h2>\n

When you can\u2019t see the point in doing something, it seems all the more pointless! If there aren\u2019t opportunities for development within your company, that\u2019s not only a personal downer but it means less clarity on how your role is tied to the organisation\u2019s future. But wouldn\u2019t it be better if that person was a key cog in the machine and felt like it too?<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, that starts with conversations around development, but they\u2019re moments when you can start bringing in ideas around learning technology\u2019s role, learning in the workflow, knowledge sharing and plenty more.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s a point <\/span>Martin M\u00f8ller Andersen<\/b>, Head of Global L&D Online Learning and Operations at Telenor<\/strong>, was keen to point out:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important that people have a purpose for what they need\/want to develop and train.\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Managers should have catch-ups with employees to discuss development plans and encourage employees to develop relevant competencies and skills related to future career goals or work related challenges.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Employees should be encouraged to continuously explore and develop skills and competencies that will support and improve their ways of working and results.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And picking up from Martin\u2019s point, all that encouragement could be for nothing if the learning materials aren\u2019t relevant to how they\u2019d like to progress or they\u2019ve not been given the autonomy to take a degree of control for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Something that Edd Tomlinson<\/b>, Senior Consultant at Xoomworks<\/strong>, points out too:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMake the knowledge something they need and reward them for their learning. It depends on the business I would say but we give our users the choice to choose their own learnings and develop their own career path.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what we can establish here is that it all starts with conversations – where you determine career and development goals. That\u2019s your platform for using your learning platform more effectively! You can then create the pathway that helps people build the relevant skills, add the content that gives people effective experiences in the platform and begin encouraging them to find other resources for themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

Make it easy for them – three ways you can pull that off<\/b><\/h2>\n

1. Make it easy for them by meeting learners where they are<\/b><\/h3>\n

Of course, there has to be a degree of convenience alongside everything we\u2019ve mentioned so far – otherwise, you will be met with greater reluctance to use your platform. That\u2019s often been one of the push backs against the traditional LMS, that if people want to find relevant information they\u2019d have to stop whatever they were doing and log in to that external system.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Luckily that\u2019s a stigma most learning platforms are happy to help you break and, as we\u2019ll come to later, it could just be a case of clearer instructions and communication. For now, let\u2019s just focus on the idea of meeting people where they already work.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was the top tip from Adam Davies<\/b>, People Development Partner at Gymshark<\/strong>, when we asked for his advice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTake the learning to where they are, rather than trying to take them to something else.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine you\u2019re having a really busy day and the offer of free pizza pops up – the only catch is having to leave the house and collect it. When you\u2019re busy, not even the lure of lunch on the house can get you to leave the house. How about this scenario, they\u2019ll deliver it to your front door and there\u2019s no disruption to your day – now that\u2019s so much better!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Imagine that pizza is our learning resource and it\u2019s clear that no matter how delicious the reward, it still needs to be accessible to get people\u2019s mouths watering – even if it\u2019s the knowledge that will help you do your job better or overcome a challenge.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Make it easy for them by integrating with the tools they already use<\/b><\/h3>\n

That convenience aspect is why it\u2019s so important for so many organisations to find a learning solution that integrates with the tools people already use every day. If you\u2019re at the stage where you haven\u2019t found a learning platform yet, take stock of which platforms people use and need to find knowledge in and then factor that into your search. If you\u2019ve already signed up for a platform, take the same approach but understand that you\u2019ll be limited by where your platform integrates.<\/span><\/p>\n

For a lot of people, they\u2019ll spend the majority of their day on some form of messaging platform. So imagine how much more likely they are to love your learning platform if they can use and access it from their messaging platform. <\/span><\/p>\n

As <\/span>Katie Harrison<\/b>, People Operations Assistant at Cognism<\/strong>, told us, integrating with Slack<\/a> is something they find incredibly useful.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have found it is useful to share items you\u2019ve created on Slack, especially if people ask questions that you can answer using HowNow. This drives people to start using it.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And that last part is particularly poignant because sometimes you just need to get people to start using it! Once they\u2019re in there and seeing the benefits, they\u2019re more likely to come back. Those integrations are simply removing some of the barriers that might stop them developing the desired behaviours, because there\u2019s no drastic change to their current ones
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Make it easy for them by bringing all your learning and resources into one place<\/b><\/h3>\n

Now, what could be easier than all your knowledge and shared resources being in one place? That was the golden nugget from <\/span>Nikolina Todorova<\/b>, HR Manager at Xoomworks<\/strong>, who also went on to explain why HowNow\u2019s nuggets are so useful in capturing that knowledge behind one front door.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf all your knowledge is in one place, people don’t have to use a variety of platforms to access what they are looking for.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

HowNow\u2019s Nuggets are great for getting a short and concrete answer\/solution for an issue someone is facing – because there\u2019s no more reading long manuals\/articles.<\/em>\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you\u2019re ready to ditch those long manuals and start saving the knowledge that matters where people can find it, let us show you around HowNow<\/a>! Or, if you\u2019re too curious to wait, we\u2019ve got an on-demand product tour<\/a> you can watch right now.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shameless self-promotion out of the way, the overall point is to think about how you can reduce the number of places in which your information lives. When it\u2019s clearer to people where they can find what they need, they\u2019re more likely to search for it because they\u2019ve got even fewer barriers to overcome.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve all been there at home, wondering where something is but not bothering to look because it could literally be in any room in the house. When we know which room it\u2019s in, we\u2019re more inclined to have a look and if we know it\u2019s in a particular cupboard we\u2019re even more encouraged. We\u2019re back at convenience, but again we\u2019re seeing just how powerful that can in getting people involved, taking first steps or forming those new habits.<\/span><\/p>\n

Get your L&D communications strategy right<\/b><\/h2>\n

The honest truth that most people need to hear is that if nobody knows your learning platform exists, there\u2019s no chance they\u2019re going to use it. If they know about it but don\u2019t understand the benefits or value of using it, you\u2019re probably no better off. And if they know about it, but they\u2019re not hearing positive things from colleagues then they won\u2019t be encouraged to log in and get learning.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s the value of internal communications, a credible learning brand and passionate advocates for your platform. <\/span><\/p>\n

Something <\/span>Marie Payne<\/b>, People Development Specialist at Checkout.com<\/strong>, alluded to when we asked her about learning technology adoption.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPut essential learning on the platform. Gain executive buy-in. Train all the People Team to use the platform well so they can disseminate knowledge regionally.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Marie points out, a great first port of call can be training your People, HR and L&D teams on how the platform works, so that they can not only become advocates for it but they can give others the knowledge they need to use it effectively. That also gives them the skills to become a support centre for learners and help them troubleshoot issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s something we discussed in our <\/span>guide to building learning brands<\/span><\/a>, but if you can find people early on who love the platform or further down the line are really getting value out of it, they can become your platform champions too. That might be enough to get others on the platform or convince your executives that it\u2019s valuable to learning and development. They\u2019re normally more impartial and passionate about the product, making it easier for them to get others on board.<\/span><\/p>\n

Building strong brands is something that can really be built through a slick communications strategy. What\u2019s the main pain point? How does the platform solve that? And are your marketing efforts getting that across to people?<\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest tip would be to step into your learner\u2019s shoes and answer that famous \u2018what\u2019s in it for me?\u2019 question. Like with any purchase, we\u2019re looking for the product or service that answers that – otherwise it\u2019s not worth our time and money. If your messaging is connecting with them on that level, there\u2019s a far greater likelihood that they\u2019ll be heading into your learning platform.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you’re looking for more tips on driving digital adoption, we’ve got five more of them for you in this guide to getting people involved in your platform<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Five<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comparing them to horses probably isn\u2019t the best place to start, but it\u2019s a similar…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":437,"featured_media":19878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3117,2484],"tags":[1595,1211,1711],"yst_prominent_words":[278,225,8,9,161,349,1294,162,1740,1091],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19875"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19885,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19875\/revisions\/19885"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19875"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.liquid-themes.com\/hownow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}