Today, organizations are more responsive, efficient, people-centric, data-driven, inclusive, and diverse than ever before, but the eruption of Covid-19 has further accelerated what was already a changing paradigm in management philosophy. 

The World Economic Forum’s October 2020 report states that 85 million jobs will be displaced, and 97 million new ones will be created by 2025. Organizations have a lot of upskilling and re-skilling to do and Learning and Development has become an increasingly prominent area of focus. 

Industry analyst, Josh Bersin, in his 2021 presentation, Untangling the HR Technology Market, refers to the ‘big reset in HR’ and the resulting changes in operating models, spurred on by a speedy increase in distributed working practices in response to the pandemic. This reset has marked a shift from a trend of centrally controlled, process driven organizations, towards more adaptive models favouring distributed control with centralized coordination. The difference is that the second of these is more agile and, therefore, more resilient, enabling organizations to better weather disruptions. 

Gartner’s report on the big tech trends for 2021, highlights people-centricity as an important influencing theme in technology design and deployment.  Agile business models often introduce more complexity because they involve things like distributed networks, public cloud, blended workforce and digital workplace. So how do you keep all your stakeholders engaged in learning and how do you know that your chosen learning strategy is working? 

The answer, of course, is measurement. However, the days are gone when employees attended training sessions and away days where you could witness first-hand how engaged they were with the learning and the work. So how valuable is this information and is there a way of gauging it’s value in a digital environment? Reporting functionality is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with learning managers able to gather vast swathes of data on the behaviours of learners, but what are the metrics that demonstrate the impact your learning strategy is having on engagement and retention and what is the real value that learning brings to your organization?

What to measure and how to measure it 

Linkedin’s 2021 report on Skill Building in the New World of Work, notes a surge in the use of survey tools in the past year. A significant climb to 27% of professional L&D respondents globally, say they are now using employee survey tools to measure learning program effectiveness, with a number as high as 43% in the UK. Survey tools and quizzes help learners retain knowledge and generate measurable data on learning experiences, but these aren’t the only sources of valuable data.

Employee retention rates are a key metric. Have they risen, dropped, or remained static? Another is to look at the number of new skills that individual employees are accruing. The two metrics are ostensibly linked. If an employee is learning new and useful things, they are likely to stick around longer. 

You can only upskill people effectively if they are engaged in the first place and to do this, we have a new generation of learning platforms that help us put people at the centre of learning. It’s not just about the tech though, it’s also about adaptive learning models such as Learning in the Flow of Work, self-directed and micro-learning, and personalized learning pathways. People-centric learning programs facilitate behaviors that come easily to learners, because they are familiar, and help them retain learning by making it relevant.  

Learning and Development often measures course completion numbers, minutes spent learning, repeat visits. These stats tell us how a learning platform is being used, but not how much is being retained, the extent to which productivity has increased, or how effectively skills gaps are being filled. 

How to get the best feedback 

In today’s digital-first environment, we do not have the luxury of being able to read body language and gather anecdotal feedback from groups of learners in physical training rooms, so how can we assess that they are truly enjoying learning and getting what they need from the content? Gathering feedback on the intangible sense of excitement in learners is difficult to emulate in a digital scenario, but this qualitative feedback is arguably as important as the quantitative stuff.

To take both aspects into account, you need a learning tool able to track employee interaction, comments and sharing, as well as the numbers of return learners, courses completed, and minutes spent learning. A learning management system that integrates the ability for users to share experiences and anecdotes – social media style, and set up chats around specific topics, allows you to track different types of feedback. The data gathered from these interactions builds on employee satisfaction scores generated by surveys and offers a more complete picture of their learning experiences, so you know what’s working and what needs improvement. Providing opportunities for employees to get excited about new topics and challenges together, is a galvanizing force and bolsters competitive edge. 

So, whilst there is no one-size-fits all guide as to what metrics to focus on, to truly understand the impact of your learning strategies, the more data the merrier – the qualitative and the quantitative. 

A learning system that operates in a familiar way, tapping into existing behavioural modes based on social sharing and reciprocity, helps people to learn, retain and upskill, and organizations to measure, improve and adapt. 

We are so excited to announce that as of today, 7th of April 2021, Motimate is part of the Kahoot! family. Since we founded Motimate in 2017, we have been working hard to make learning fun and easy.  Now we have more than 230 customers counting over 130 000 active users spread across 35 different countries around the world. 

Kahoot! is on a mission to make learning awesome by empowering individuals, organizations, schools and corporations to unlock their full learning potential through a game-based learning platform. Kahoot! is used by 97% of Fortune 500 companies and has hosted 20 million participating players in organizations in the last 12 months, with 120K paid corporate subscribers globally.

While Motimate is all about making learning fun, easy and rewarding, Kahoot! is on a mission to make learning awesome. Both companies have the same approach to what the best learning experience looks like. We have the same beliefs when it comes to learning, gamification and engagement. And we love to move fast, work agile and have fun.

Our paths crossed, we fell in love, and now the timing was right to join forces to make the best learning experience for organisations ever made. 

“We are excited to welcome Motimate into the growing Kahoot! family. The acquisition of Motimate is another exciting step in Kahoot!’s strategy to build the world’s leading learning platform and strengthen Kahoot! at Work’s offerings even further. ”                                

Eilert Hanoa, CEO, Kahoot!

For our customers this means that we over time will integrate our two platforms in order to give you the best learning experience ever made possible. For Motimate being part of the Kahoot! family will give us much faster access to the international market. 

We have already started working together so stay tuned for some really cool and exciting product updates to come 😎

From the very beginning of the Motimate journey we have had international ambitions. The Motimate team is always pushing limits, and we’re really proud of our recent growth. Teaming up with Kahoot! is hugely exciting, and we can’t wait to start leveraging our synergies to accelerate product development and expand our international reach. 

We are really proud of what we have achieved so far and we hope that you will find this news just as exciting as we do. This is also a perfect opportunity to thank all our customers for believing in us and helping us build a really strong product! 🙏

Best Regards

Team Motimate ❤️

By Jan Steinar Kvilesjø

Jan Steinar Kvilesjø, CTO at Motimate, is responsible for realizing our technological vision, making sure we offer our clients the best possible features to keep them at the cutting edge of mobile learning capability. Here, Jan Steinar takes a look at the technology driving the future of remote working and how to overcome the hurdles presented by different workplace models.

Technology trends in the workplace

According to Gartner’s recently released report on Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021, 40% of businesses from all industries will have implemented an anywhere operations model by 2023. Underpinning this model, it says, are three themes: People centricity, location independence, and resilient delivery. 

An Anywhere Operations model describes the ability of a business to support customers and employees wherever they are, safely, securely and easily. This past year, more than ever, has highlighted the importance of adaptability, flexibility and the necessity for ensuring business continuity in the face of external stressors. The pandemic has heralded a decentralization of organizational life, with more employees and customers accessing networks and services remotely than ever before. For the majority of organizations, this has meant new and often complex technology needs.

How to Operate Anywhere

An anywhere operations model supports the delivery of business services across distributed infrastructure. Such a model gives employees remote access to all of the network resources that they would have access to when they are in the office. Equally, customers can access a business’ full range of services.

In an increasingly distributed working environment, businesses need to optimize knowledge sharing and information transfer across internal and external business functions, and all the way along the supply chain. This means training and communicating with employees and stakeholders whether they are in the office, working from home, or on-the-go. 

Anywhere operations are virtual business models, made possible by the distributed cloud, a tech trend that is making global collaboration possible on a scale that has heretofore been impossible, realizing opportunities for businesses in every industry.

A distributed cloud model allows localized clouds in multiple locations to process data and make these calculations where the transactions are actually happening. In addition, distributed computing helps overcome the challenges of localized data regulation because all the responsibility for operations, updates, and compliance with privacy laws remains with the host cloud system. With a distributed model, customers can keep things simple, benefitting from the public cloud without having to invest in complex private cloud solutions. 

Anywhere operations allow a business to be more efficient and more agile. With this model you can recruit and franchise anywhere in the world and offer round the clock client and employee support, safe in the knowledge that you are compliant with local data regulation. 

As well as facilitating greater scalability, this model helps to future proof a business by enabling business continuity, through greater flexibility and full back-ups, when facing unforeseen externalities and stressor situations such as global pandemics.

Anywhere Operations and Mobile Learning

Mobile learning by its very nature is people-centric – enabling learners to train on-the-go, wherever they are, but they need to be able to do it easily and securely or it becomes a hindrance rather than an enabler.

The distributed cloud removes the clunky and expensive business of having to worry about implementing or updating IT infrastructure to support your remote learning programs and optimise user experience, freeing businesses up to focus on getting the delivery right and growing. 

Thanks to Motimate’s anywhere operations model, potential barriers to recruitment and productivity are dismantled. Through our distributed cloud infrastructure and API enabled integrations capability, clients can garner the benefits of 24/7 access to their e-learning system safely and securely, wherever you are in the world and with zero latency. And you can do it affordably. This means you can recruit and train people all over the world, stimulating growth, flexibility and access to the best talent.

Anywhere Operations and the Post-Pandemic Workplace

Daily operations continue to adjust to the Covid-19 pandemic, supported by models such as home working, hybrid working, remote work, digital workplace, and flexible work. Multiple lockdowns have challenged businesses to overcome the hurdles of remote working, but Anywhere Operations is not just about working from home. It’s about creating a fully-fledged, all-star operating model that is enhanced and not hindered by its digital environment. The idea is not a temporary fix to a crisis situation, nor is it about being able to jump on a video call or access files when you spend an occasional day working from home. It’s about creating a future-proofed digital working or learning environment that is equal to, if not better than the equivalent physical environment. Such models require careful attention to all aspects of work life – from holding meetings to enabling discussion, and from creating an inclusive environment to effective scheduling, tool sharing, and goal setting. 

In a post-pandemic era, every business is going to need to establish the best model to suit its needs. For some, it will mark a full return to a physical place of work, but for others it will be an opportunity to rethink how you operate in the long-term.  And, of course, businesses may still be affected for some time by the post-pandemic regulatory environment, so adaptability will continue to be key. 

With Anywhere Operations you can be prepared to tackle the post pandemic working model of your choice, whether face to face, remote, or hybrid. 

If you would like to find out more about how you can get maximum benefit from Motimate’s anywhere operations model and make full use of the distributed cloud to unchain your learning programs from the shackles of centralized computing, get in touch and we’ll show you how!

Today, Millennials alone make up over a third of the global workforce. There is a sea of opinion as to why Gen Y and its successor, Gen Z, are so different from their predecessors. There is no doubt that, as a generation, they do things differently. There is a sea of opinion, yet few organizations seem to have a grip on what they really want from a job and how to help them get it. 

Why is this? Well, it is quite possibly because the gap in generational characteristics is far greater between Baby Boomers and Millennials than between any other generations, and so the gap in understanding when it comes to the workplace, is far greater. For this reason, this generation has been labelled disruptors. They now make up over a third of the global workforce and have become the catalysts for organizational change, just by being themselves. 

This generation of tech savvy, digitally hard-wired, high-speed individuals are capable in ways that previous generations are not. On the other hand, they are often perceived as lacking in the communication skills required to thrive in daily organizational life. Another way of looking at this, however, is that it is organizations that need to adapt to meet the learning needs of their workforce.

So, are Generations Y and Z  friend or foe to organizational learning and communication? Well, that all depends on the learning and communications strategies with which managers expect them to engage. A hierarchical organization looks at its workforce from above and asks, “why do you not fit in?”  A contemporary organization looks across at its multi-generational workforce (or over video link) and asks, “how do we need to adapt?” and maybe, “would you prefer me to WhatsApp you the question?”

In reality, a learning strategy that meets the needs of Millennials and Generation Y is simply a modern learning strategy fit for a modern workforce. These are fit-for-purpose learning strategies reflecting current externalities and making best use of the technology we have available to us today.

Stereotypes and Strategies

Because the behaviors of the Millennial generation have been amply scrutinized by others prior to this, we’ve created a handy summary of behavioral stereotypes, offered alternative perceptions, suggested some possible reasons for these behaviors, and proposed ways of adapting learning strategies to address these.

STEREOTYPE NUMBER ONE

Millennials are entitled, demanding and have high expectations.

We say 

Well, they are definitely motivated, intellectually curious learners. They value personal development over remuneration and are willing to spend their own time and money on self-improvement. They are searching for a sense of purpose in their work, beyond making money. They don’t shy away from taking on the big challenges, and they want to make a positive impact (a somewhat elusive concept in itself) as quickly as possible. 

Why is this?

The vast majority of Millennials have been educated to degree level and have developed a taste for learning. They are used to on-demand content that they can access whenever and wherever it is convenient for them to do so. 

They are a generation brought up to believe they can be and do anything they want in life, but they have also grown up in the shadow of a number of major world events including 9/11, numerous teenage shooting sprees, and the looming calamities of climate change, and the global Coronavirus pandemic. These things can shake a generations sense of security and drive. 

How can you adapt your learning strategy?

• Engage learners with self-directed opportunities that also allow them to use their own initiative in directing and managing their learning and development.
• Make access to learning flexible and on-demand with a mobile learning platform. 
• Make the most of their motivation and thirst for self-development and use it to embed a culture of learning in your organization.

STEREOTYPE NUMBER TWO

They are impatient, have short attention spans and don’t know how to communicate. 

We say 

These are definitely very efficient people, with little to no patience for bureaucracy. They like to get ideas out there, no matter whether you are their peer, boss or the CEO. 

Why is this?

These are people used to learning and communicating digitally, faster and without having to deal with bureaucracy or hierarchy. They do not see barriers where there don’t need to be any. They are used to accessing information whenever and wherever they need or want to, thanks to Google. 

They have grown up with high-speed internet and software that is well-designed and glitch free. They do not have Generation X’s patience for battling with user interfaces that are far from perfect. Social media has normalised the sharing of ideas and content amongst peer groups and this behavior carries into the corporate environment. 

They feel the need to get somewhere better, faster, because that’s what their peers on social media seem to be doing.

How can you adapt your learning strategy?

• Make lessons short and relevant, using a strategy based on micro-learning.
• Make it ok and easy for people to share their ideas via built-in peer communication capability modelled on social media platforms. 
• Ensure a glitch-free, intuitive user interface.
• Develop clear progression pathways and opportunities for personal development.

STEREOTYPE NUMBER THREE

They lack self-esteem and need constant affirmation.

We say 

They may seem confident and comfortable with big challenges, but they are, after all, still relatively young, maturing and growing their career paths. Gens Y and Z communicate differently – they have highly-developed digital communication skills and are accustomed to very open communication and sharing, which means that they are often not afraid to ask for support in the workplace, but if they don’t get it, they may not stick around.

Why is this?

Constant comparison – everybody else’s lives look better than theirs on social media. They have more conflicting priorities than previous generations due to social and environmental externalities. They want financial security, but this doesn’t always align with the sense of purpose and impact they want to have. Used to on-demand emotional reinforcement provided by social media systems. Interpersonal interactions differ from digital interactions – they are more complex, awkward, peppered with grey areas, and do not offer the same instant reinforcements as likes and smiley faced emojis.

How can you adapt your learning strategy?

• Embed regular, informal opportunities for relationship and trust building communication with colleagues – both face-to-face and via integrated systems of communication modelled on social media platforms.
• Set short-term, achievable, confidence-building goals.
• Engage as managers, integrating recognition and reward systems into your learning platform and offering regular feedback.
• Personalise learning pathways as much as possible.

STEREOTYPE NUMBER FOUR

They are always on their phones / texting / playing games

We say

Yes, it probably is true that they spend a lot of time on their phones, but they probably spend less time in meetings and on computers. They are avid communicators and keen learners and their phones support both of these missions. 

Why is this?

The amount of time spent coordinating communications (physical, phone and video-based) can be shocking to them. Also, phones are a learning tool as well as a communication tool and enable non-traditional modes of learning. Texting is a faster and more efficient way of communicating, organizing, and sharing information and new ideas than meetings and phone calls. It allows for highly time effective bursts of intensive communication and more flexibility than phone calls and meetings. Games are a valuable tool for learning winning strategies, problem solving and conflict resolution skills.

How can you adapt your learning strategy?

• Implement mobile-based learning & development to enable swifter, more flexible communication with peers and colleagues.
• Gamify learning to make it fun, but also to create opportunities for setting goals and rewards and enable a clear sense of progression.

Effective Learning Is a Two-Way Street

A workforce that wants to learn, get better, innovate and grow is surely a dream come true. It does, however, mean that organizations need to adapt if they are to fuel this enthusiasm and retain talented employees. Energy spent focusing on the challenges of managing Gen Y and Gen Z would perhaps be better spent developing engaging strategies to help them grow and achieve the impact that they so eagerly seek. 

If you would like to request a free demo and learn more about a Millennial-friendly mobile learning solution that offers flexible, self-directed, on-the-go learning, get in touch with us now!

By Jan Steinar Kvilesjø

Jan Steinar Kvilesjø, CTO at Motimate, is responsible for realizing our technological vision, making sure we offer our clients the best possible features to keep them at the cutting edge of mobile learning capability. Here, Jan Steinar takes a look at how the API economy has revolutionized the mobile learning and value creation opportunities for businesses working with cloud-based systems.

About the API Economy

Historically, businesses have often struggled to integrate digital services. Different bits of software, underwritten by different coding languages have found even the most experienced programmers struggling to connect the dots. Today, cloud computing and the rise of the Application Programming Interface (API) have massively simplified the possibility of combining different software.

Initially something used by programmers and coders to integrate new software into existing systems, today the Public API (Open API) is a strategic business tool, offering the promise of continuous innovation and new value-adding products and services. This once back-room species of software is now front and centre-stage, and the opportunities are manifold.

How APIs Work

Integrating your app-based services creates a bridge of communication between different bits of software. This means that you can create smart workflows that not only save time and resource for your business, but that form the basis of potential new products and services. Combining app-based services together opens up a world of innovation previously locked away behind doors that have been clunky, awkward and incredibly expensive to open.

One part of our API is the Experience API (XAPI). The XAPI standard allows systems to speak to each other and record data about multiple types of learning experiences. XAPI integration enables data gathering from a wealth of relevant sources, storing it in a single repository called a Learning Record Store (LRS).

A factor that sets an XAPI integration apart is its ability to record statements, essentially recording qualitative feedback. Integrating your mobile learning platform with the XAPI means that you can draw on far richer data, building a clearer picture of learning activity and helping you to deliver better, more relevant, learning experiences. Better data collection offers greater oversight, which informs better decision-making across the business.

How APIs’ Add Value

From a learning perspective, the value of XAPI integrations is that they enable context relevant, just-in-time learning. Connecting your e-learning system with a CRM such as Salesforce means that employees can be trained whilst they work, without ever leaving the Salesforce platform to look at their emails or log into their e-learning system. Information about learner progress can be collected and fed back to your e-learning system.

At Amazon, XAPI is used to integrate the e-learning system with workstation software to facilitate just-in-time learning on screens at packing stations. This means that new employees can learn on the job, greatly reducing the time to productivity of new employees. Couple this thinking with the flexibility of mobile based learning and the possibilities for combined system just-in-time learning increase even further.

From a business growth perspective, the XAPI standard simplifies the process of partnering with other organizations, enabling product and service innovations, greater speed to market, and allowing businesses to offer their customers more choice and greater flexibility – think Uber.

How Motimate Uses API

API makes meaningful new partnerships easy to establish and manage, making collaborative business models a no-brainer. In 2020, Scandinavian recruitment firm, Otiga Group, integrated Motimate with third party recruitment app, Mojob. This integration allowed them to develop a streamlined process for attracting, selecting and training the best temps for their clients’ needs.

By integrating Motimate you can also save time on training related admin and HR activity. Zapier is one of the tools that we use to connect the cloud-based business and productivity apps used by our clients to their mobile learning system. It’s a powerful combination and you don’t need to be a developer to action this integration. Here are some examples of Zaps that help automate simple activities:

• G-suite – to disseminate user diplomas on course completion
• Google Forms – to run surveys to help assign learners to the right groups
• Office365 – to set up calendar events for newly registered users
• Slack – to send team members notifications about completed training modules
• Twitch – to add new video followers to learning groups
• Mailchimp – to share new training courses with subscribers
• Shopify – to enable access to monetised training courses through a web shop
• Squarespace – to activate self-signup to courses

The experience a new employee has when joining an organization, has a significant impact on how long they remain an employee. When it comes to onboarding new employees, the popular focus tends to be on the onboarding process as a strategic lever, with investment directly increasing long-term retention and driving down cost.

This is all very well if you’re recruiting permanent staff, but what about businesses that rely on influxes of seasonal workers? To what extent is it worth investing in onboarding these employees?

Increasingly we are accepting that onboarding does not end at the close of an employee’s first day, because it’s not just about paperwork and orientation. It’s actually about feeling and learning objectives too. You can’t get a real feel for the culture and learn everything that you need to know, all on your first day – if only because we can’t retain that much information at once.

Different organizations roll out onboarding programmes that last a week, a month, 3 months and, in a few cases, as long as a year. The point is that learning doesn’t stop when you exit the gate at the end of your first day.

But for a business that relies heavily on seasonal workers, such as the hospitality and retail industries, extended learning programs are often not an option. So, what aspects of this thinking can be applied to onboarding seasonal workers and are they even relevant?

Why Is It A Good Idea to Invest in Onboarding Temporary Staff Well?

Recruiting a seasonal workforce takes time, planning and money. Whether we like it or not, the way we onboard can be subject to externalities that are beyond our control. If there is something that Coronavirus has taught businesses, it is the importance of flexibility, adaptability, and being able to move fast when you need to. An agile onboarding process, allows you to respond to these externalities

TusenFryd is Norway’s largest theme park, with 450,000 visitors a season. The park has just 35 permanent staff and employs up to 750 seasonal workers in peak periods. Most of these candidates are young, with little or no working experience. This year, the uncertainty created by Coronavirus as to whether the theme park would open at all, resulted in the TusenFryd team having to train their new recruits and open the park in just 6 weeks. In that time, members of staff created and deployed 8,000 moties (training modules).

4 Reasons to Invest in First-Class Onboarding for Temporary Staff

1. To the customer, temporary needs are just as important as long-term needs. Better onboarding means more preparation, which leads to better performance and satisfied customers.

2. If anything, the fact that a proportion of your workforce is made up of temporary staff means that you have to work hard to get your onboarding right in a shorter space of time. With careful planning and the right technology and tools, a short-term hire can have a long-term impact on customer experience, brand-building, and as an example to other staff.

3. Your temporary staff can be a long-term asset. If you’re recruiting a high number of people every peak season, onboarding becomes an important opportunity for brand building. These temporary employees may become brand ambassadors, helping you to attract future hires. So, give them a good experience. And they may themselves come back again next season. Long-term, this strategy can save you time and money.

4. Just because a hire is short-term, it doesn’t mean you won’t feel their loss if they leave before the season is over. According to BCG, there is a direct correlation between talent management, performance management, and revenue growth. Unproductive candidates who regret taking on their roles have a direct impact on turnover.

10 Things to Consider When Onboarding Seasonal Employees

1. STANDARDIZATION AND AUTOMATION: From an HR perspective, the efficiency of digital onboarding is a dream, facilitating standardisation and a level of automation is shown to increase response rates from candidates and smooth the onboarding process. Highlighted by the Harvard Business Review is the fact that organizations with a standardized onboarding process experience 62% greater new hire productivity, along with 50% greater new hire retention.

2. RELATIONSHIP BUILDING: For hiring managers, it means people can, to some extent, hit the ground running. It gives them an opportunity to set the tone, communicate culture, and start building a relationship. The social aspect of onboarding is also important, buddying up new hires with each other or with existing employees is a good idea and this can be done digitally.

3. COMMUNICATION: It’s important to set expectations from the start, communicating mission and making sure goal-related messaging is clear.

4. CULTURE: Set the tone with your onboarding programme. Culture is communicated top-down, so having leaders review onboarding materials periodically can be a good idea. Sharing resources that communicate culture is a helpful way of gaining buy-in. You might use a recording of the Founder or archive material talking about founding of the organization.

5. PRE-LEARNING: The value of pre-learning should not be discounted. This can help speed up the path to productivity. It is, however, important to be aware that time committed to pre-learning is time spent working and you may need to renumerate candidates for the time they spend learning before their first physical day on the job.

6. JUST-IN-TIME LEARNING: On average, we retain up to 70% of the information with which we are presented at any one time. It may seem like a luxury in a case such as Tusenfryd, where the focus is on opening the park under significant time constraints, but continuous learning helps staff retain knowledge over time. Once those park gates open to the public, new recruits are still very new. On-demand training capability means employees can access the information they need wherever they are, applying it to the task at hand. It’s the difference between someone doing an average job, and a great job.

7. THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY: Just-in-time learning requires the right technology to ensure that you are rolling out the same training capability to everyone. This is worth thinking about if you are operating across multiple sites with different configurations and conditions. In such scenarios, mobile-based applications are often the most flexible.

8. PERSONALISATION: Time is a precious resource and not to be wasted on training that is not relevant. Prioritising delivery of relevant learning for individual candidates helps them focus their time on the knowledge and skills relevant to them.

9. SCALABILITY: If you are recruiting seasonal staff across multiple sites it’s important to think about scalability, making sure the information is applicable, and that the tech is available and con|

10. CONFIDENCE BUILDING: Just like learning to read, a good beginning is the foundation for future success. But you need to be told that you are doing well to believe it and you need examples to follow. At TusenFryd, they use confidence building modules, awarding titles such as “best with the guests” and “happiness champions” to quickly help employees achieve their best and become examples of excellence to others.

A PWC survey, published in 2020 surveying 2,380 executives around the globe, has identified a group of companies that are performing in the top 5% of organizations. These companies see greater returns in every area as a result of significant investment in new ways of working and the value generated by digital investments.

With digital strategies increasingly becoming the mainstay of successful businesses, companies struggle to know where to focus their efforts. Investing in developing your existing workforce has time and again proven itself to be a better investment in the long-term. Recruitment is time intensive, costly and you don’t always get it right. But the speed at which employees need to learn to maintain productivity and create competitive advantage is greater than ever before.

These challenges, together with the emergence of increasingly sophisticated learning management systems and insights into learner behavior, are focusing the efforts of learning and development departments the world over. Whilst leading organizations with strong digital strategies blaze a trail in which others try to follow without getting burned, deciding how to invest in upskilling your workforce at the necessary rate can be like trying to unpick a gordian knot.

So, what are the learning tools and strategies that engage learners, help them learn fast, retain their learning, develop them and make them effective? The answer, in some part least, seems to be digital strategies that make use of gamification.

5 Aspects That Make Gamification a Fantastic Strategic Lever

1. A millennial workforce is hard wired to absorb information in a more dynamic way. Traditional two-dimensional approaches to organizational learning do not get the desired results. Gamified learning requires less attention span, is more fun, engaging, motivating and proven to make learning more memorable. The personal sense of achievement experienced by learners when completing a level, earning a badge or reward makes them come back for more, embedding a culture of learning.
   
2. A mobile phone is not just a phone, it’s a games console. When not working, people are often reading, communicating and playing games on their phones. When interacting with these devices, they are in a particular mindset in which they are already primed for reward. LMS strategies based on gamification tap into this mindset and enable users to absorb knowledge and information on-demand. In this way, learning for work becomes part of their everyday, mimicking the way in which they already interact with content outside of the workplace and enabling them to keep up with colleagues and meet targets, whatever their schedules.
   
3. Much of the focus on gamification tends to zone in on its effectiveness as a learning tool. But gamification is also a fantastic teaching and managing tool. Successful gamified learning strategies are structured in a way that helps leaders and managers focus on desired outcomes and the goals and targets they need to set to get there. These training programs require them to understand what motivates their employees and think about the content and learning strategies and rewards that work in their specific contexts. Done right, these strategies greatly improve knowledge retention, employee retention and business outcomes.
   
4. Gamified learning content is measurable, which means that you can see how people are performing, where the skills gaps are and understand how fast learning targets are being met.
   
5. Gamification has proven to be effective in the recruitment process. Gamifying your content demonstrates understanding of behavior, people and how to motivate them, making you a more attractive employer to a younger workforce.

So, from the corporate perspective, gamification:

• Helps focus leadership on desired outcomes and how to engage their workforce.
• Is a tool for communicating and embedding organizational culture.
• Speeds up learning.
• Increases productivity.
• Helps drive better outcomes.
• Makes recruitment more interesting, faster and more effective.
• Helps retain employees for longer.

5 Reasons Learners Like Gamified Lessons

Psychologists reading this will know about the effects of Dopamine, a chemical reaction in humans triggered by the promise of reward. Games create competition and urgency, locking learners into a mindset that encourages faster learning, a desire for self-improvement and better performance. This mindset also makes people more productive.

From the learners’ perspective, gamification:

1. Gives learning context, making it relevant
2. Builds confidence, providing safety from failure
3. Makes boring topics interesting and memorable
4. Ranks performance, highlighting areas for development
5. Enables on-demand, mobile-based learning

Gamification is as much about mindset as it is about the learning tools. It seems that we learn better and faster when we are having fun, when we are competing and are rewarded. Not much has changed since the playground after all.

5 Things We’ve Learned About Getting It Right

1. Keeping it simple is a good place to start, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be carefully planned. Although the potential for gamification in the corporate context has reached new heights (think virtual reality and avatars), most companies stick to the more basic elements of points, badges, levels and leader boards, which in themselves are highly effective.
2. Used correctly, gamified learning tools are highly effective for peer benchmarking, but they need to be designed and deployed carefully, to ensure that they genuinely build on each other and offer a realistic picture of individual performance. In this way, management can set meaningful learning targets and benefit from real-time feedback as those targets are achieved.
3. The things that employees most want gamified are the more boring aspects of training, because these are harder to retain – areas such as software training and corporate communications, as opposed to every-day tasks. This makes it a particularly useful tool for project-based work.
4. Ranked in order, the following tools constitute the top five motivational elements in gamified learning:
   
   – Rewards
   – Rewards
   – Badges
   – Points
   – Leaderboards
   – Levels
   
5. It’s important to make sure that there is a clear path of progression mapped out for learners. These elements need to equate to performance within a hierarchy and not be handed out randomly, so that employees can gather meaningful feedback and benchmark their own performance against peers.

By Marieke Bjørgung

Marieke Bjørgung is a Key Account Manager, working to ensure that Motimate is meeting the evolving learning needs of 21st century organizations and the people who make them work. Here, Marieke takes a look at how the LMS has evolved over time, what the expectations are of an all-star LMS system today, and what features truly engage users.

When it hit the scene in the early nineties, the LMS was a revolutionary technology. It wasn’t until we were well into the 2000s that we realised our learning systems were no longer fulfilling the needs of learners and their managers. This was due, in large part, to the arrival of the mobile phone and the new capabilities that it unlocked.

The First LMS – A Contentious Issue

There are many definitions of the LMS, causing some disagreement on when the first one was invented. However, it is generally agreed upon that the first fully featured, internet enabled, Learning Management System (LMS) was released by Norway’s NKI Distance Education Network in 1991. Named EKKO, it was designed to enable distance learning.

The purpose of the LMS, in its various guises, is to enable e-learning – aggregation of training materials, automated delivery of training programs, tracking and reporting.

The early LMS meant that learners could, for the first time, sit at their computers and complete training modules based on quizzes and multiple-choice questions. From the very beginning, an LMS could track basic information, such as course completion and competence. This made it a useful tool for managers to keep track of how learners were doing.

Enter the Mobile Disruption

In the nineties the LMS was about providing a web-based solution that supported on-demand learning. By the time the 2010s arrived, needs had evolved, expectations had changed and the LMS needed to keep up. It became about enabling learning anytime, anywhere.

The impact of the mobile phone on learner behaviour was revolutionary. People were suddenly talking to each other more regularly and more often. Information was being shared at a rate never before achieved and this, of course, had a significant impact on outcomes.

The Smartphone – Things Will Never Be the Same Again

Once the smartphone was introduced, giving us the gift of mobile internet, things sped up even more. Work began to spill over into travel time and home time until, suddenly, you didn’t need to be in the office at all, or even static. The speed of information exchange and so had our expectations of being able to learn, execute and deliver at a rate never before imagined.

Over time, behaviours shifted. Attention spans shortened with information being parcelled up in increasingly bite-sized chunks. Content became more colourful, more interactive, more fun. We became arguably more social – sharing information continuously between friends, family and colleagues. Constant information flow and communication made it possible for more people to do things that once may have seemed out of their reach. A basic level of competency became the norm.

In the last decade the LMS has become far more sophisticated. An LMS can now integrate with CRM and HRM systems and collect and analyze data in real-time. It offers more complete insight and a far richer learning experience than its predecessors could.

The Old Versus the New LMS

In the last decade we have seen the introduction of new capabilities and features such as real-time communication, new forms of mixed content based on audio, videos, images, gamification and more. Many of these have been enabled by the smartphone which has also been the catalyst for truly mobile, anytime, anywhere access to learning.

An analysis of how the LMS has changed over time highlights the following areas:

The Future of Learning is Personalization

The traditional LMS improved learner management. For the first time managers could see what courses had been completed and by whom. They could see their scores and suggest additional modules to candidates. They were able to track knowledge retention over time, using quiz-based tests. But the training was generic, and users often found themselves learning things they had no need to apply.

So, the future of learning has become about personalization in five key areas:

1. Customisation

Internally, an organization should be able to apply its own stamp on its LMS, making it part of its culture. This helps build internal culture and communications. Personalization of the system helps people feel ownership and that it is a part of their corporate identity.

2. Timing – Flexible and The Real-Time

A truly flexible LMS can be accessed by users anytime and anywhere. Mobile-based LMS’ offer autonomy, allowing people to be masters of their own schedules and learn on-the-go whether on the train, at home, or in the field. This flexibility means that they can apply the training in real-time if they need to, reinforcing the learning before they have a chance to forget it. They can also feedback and ask questions in real-time, providing an immediacy of learning that’s fit for the 21st century.

3. Personalized Learning Pathways

Today, LMS’ use intelligent algorithms to make automated recommendations for courses based on a user’s skill profile. It can also extract meta-data from learning materials in order to make such recommendations even more accurate. As a result, the learning becomes more targeted and relevant to the individual. No-two learners have exactly the same experience and no time is wasted on training that is not relevant to the individual. LMS’ have often been accused of being impersonal, but this level of individualistic learning, I would argue, could not be more personal.

4. Content-Enabled Alternative Learning Modes

We know that people absorb knowledge differently, showing natural aptitudes for oral, visual or kinesthetic learning. The modern LMS offers a content-rich learning environment capable of catering to different learning styles through traditional formats as well as with live content, internet video and gamification. We can’t yet truly personalise every aspect of digital learning for every single individual, but we are getting a lot closer.

5. Incentivisation & Feedback

Everybody needs encouragement. Countless studies have told us that feedback and incentives are key to engagement and growth. Recognition systems integrated into your LMS help you unlock the potential of essential engagement tools. Based on LMS data, these tools facilitate leaderboards for peer benchmarking, reward systems based on badges or points, and prompts for managers to offer prizes, if warranted.