Real Learning Requires Real Data

So Much Content, So Little Knowledge

There is no doubt that the corporate learning industry is going through massive changes. From the rise of the Learning Experience Platform (LXP) to AI-generated learning paths, everything in the industry is altering. Companies and employees now have access to more learning content than ever before. Yet, nearly half of employees are unsatisfied with the offerings of their L&D teams and only 8% of CEOs say they feel L&D is impacting the bottom line of their business. Though studies show companies who properly engage in employee development can see much higher performance numbers, in most places, a lack of knowledge about the employee population is limiting L&D’s ability to deliver on their promise of improving a company’s workforce and helping employees gain the skills they need to succeed.

Workers of the World, Fragment

The change in today’s workforce is similar to the change from the Learning Management System (LMS) to the Learning Experience Platform. The big criticism of the LMS is its top-down nature. They were originally designed for a world where an administration at the top could look across the company, see the needs, and assign training appropriately. The LXP is much more bottom-up. In a true, “build it and they will come” mentality, the goal is to build an environment where learners can find what is of interest to them and navigate content on their own.

It makes sense that L&D is shifting in this direction because it is following a shift in the workforce. According to a report by McKinsey, roughly 84% of employees are now in some sort of matrixed organization. This means they are on multiple teams, with different accounting lines, and work on multiple projects simultaneously. This vastly complicates the idea of delivering “just-in-time learning” or even simply meeting compliance requirements. The shift to LXPs can in some ways be seen as L&D saying “we can’t know what you need, so let us help you find it yourself”. 

Netflix Has Better Data

There is where L&D teams often find themselves trying to create YouTube or Netflix for the employee learning experience. The problem is, we often don’t have enough data for that. In order to create the ideal experience for their users, online media companies are using past search history, friend’s search history, spending habits, etc. to make sure they are serving their customers exactly what they want when they want it. Most L&D teams are left with only a few data points based on the rudimentary integrations between their LMS and the HRIS. 

We know better learning occurs when it is delivered just-in-time, course completion rates are far higher among properly targeted populations, and engagement rates soar when there is interactivity such as reminder notification or connection with other students. The problem is the traditional model of learning management by Job Title and Department just isn’t up to these tasks. Learning teams need to take advantage of all the potential data sources available to them within their company, not just the data in an LMS or available to HR that is ready to consume, in order to build out employee learning profiles in a way that is effective.

Join the Streaming Wars

You don’t have to be a Netflix or YouTube to get the data you need in order to close the training and engagement gaps. Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) is one example of a data streaming technology similar to what large online platforms use. The technology integrates all of your applications and data sources together, whether on the cloud or in a spreadsheet, giving you an enriched data set and paving the way for automated workflows.

Need to validate an employee has completed a certain course before they start work on a specific item? No problem, iPaaS can facilitate that real-time check by looking at employee records in an LMS like Cornerstone, provide a viewable certificate from a document management system like Box, and capture a review-and-approve action with digital signatures from Docusign. Want to surface content your employees care about? Embed machine learning algorithms within the iPaaS data streams and you can marry content and users together in real-time based on an infinite number of criteria. Supplement Job Title and Department information with operations info from an ERP like SAP. Capture the meta-data from your campaigns using iPaaS, and get real-time insights about the efficacy and ROI of your L&D programs. 

It’s Dangerous to Go Alone!

Technology on its own isn’t enough. You need experienced professionals to help you close gaps in program management, data modeling, and technology implementation. All too often L&D teams are left with skill shortages in one or more of these areas because corporate resources have been allocated to initiatives that more directly impact customer experiences or sales. If this issue sounds familiar, maybe now is the time to enlist expert support!

Look no further than Better Every Day Studios and Eljun LLC, two companies founded by SpaceX Alumni working together to perfect L&D with expert consulting and iPaaS technology! Start a conversation today and learn how we can help: click here to start a conversation!