Earlier this week, we had the pleasure of hosting our first webinar of the year, which featured our very first guest from outside North America. Our featured guest was learning veteran, Donald Taylor, who joined us all the way from the UK. Together with our CEO Carol Leaman, Don lead a discussion around three trends that corporate learning professionals should keep an eye on this year.  The trends were derived from the results of a survey, which Don conducted on his blog back in December of 2014. The survey had a total of 14 different options to choose from, which Don then summarized into three overall trends. This was a completely self-selected survey; however, it garnered over 600 responses from learning professionals all around the world.  Before you read the details on the three trends below, quickly glance at the headlines as well as the images and ask yourself, how would I rank these three trends in terms of importance to my business? Here are the three trends that were revealed and below each one is a list of the survey options that made up the trend: Wider Delivery Channels On the webinar, there were many points raised on the pervasiveness and growing importance of mobile learning as well as video. Of those who attended, many believe that video is simply a must have when it comes to learning and the bigger questions coming up now are around how video can produced sustainably at scale. Mobile delivery continues to be a big trend for the year; however, we learned that this might be the case more so in North America as opposed to other parts of the world. Carol Leaman suggested that this might be due to more distributed workforces and the trend toward BYOD.  Networked Individuals Personalization, collaboration and curation were three of the top five responses in the survey that Don administered. Many attendees were curious about what exactly personalization is and even how it differs from curation. Don explained it in a very simple way and let me paraphrase it for you here: Curation is making sure you gather all relevant materials in one place, personalization is making sure that material gets delivered exactly those who need it, when they need it. There was also a great comment by an attendee in the webinar, which summarized the importance of collaboration quite well:  "90% of learning is participant to participant, so we must enable networking"-@DonaldHTaylor #LearningTrends — Axonify Inc. (@Axonify) January 20, 2015 L&D and the Business Ultimately, this trend is about how the Learning and Development function is impacting the rest of the business. A facet of this trend that Don and Carol spent a bit of time on was Knowledge Management. As we learned from the survey results, this facet is particularly intriguing because it is of high importance to North Americans; however, the rest of the world does not seem to care for it (at least based on the survey data). Carol suggested that this might be due to the need for many North American companies to find an effective way to handle the transfer of knowledge from an aging workforce to a new generation.  Rankings Earlier in the post I asked you to think about how you might rank these three trends for your business. The survey respondents (Over 600 learning professionals, self-selected from around the world) ranked the trends this way: Networked individuals (44%), wider delivery (30%) and L&D and the business (26%). A rhetorical question that Don posed the audience at the end of the webinar was, have we got this in the right order?  I am going to leave you with the same question and invite you to share your responses in the comments below or via Twitter. I also encourage you to check out the slides and recording from the webinar for more detail on the great discussions and insights shared during the session. Written by Shum Attygalle The post Webinar Summary: 3 Corporate Learning Trends to Watch in 2015 appeared first on Axonify.

The movie "Office Space" follows an unmotivated IT employee named Peter Gibbons and his friends, as they try to survive Initech, a 1990s software company. Faced with an unreasonable boss, a depressing work environment, and a general lack of motivation, Peter tries to pull off a scheme that would allow him to quit working, forever. Although Office Space is clearly a work of fiction, it sends a fair warning about how not to run a company, especially with regards to corporate training. Initech’s employees are disengaged, unmotivated, bored and restless-not exactly characteristics that are sought after. The way Initech’s employees feel about their work is the same way many employees feel about their training process. So how do you avoid the same pitfalls that Initech faced? Here are three lessons that Initech never learned, but you still can:   1. Focus on Employee Engagement  Source: quickmeme.com Training isn’t going to work unless employees are paying attention and actually absorbing the information they need to know. In many cases, it’s not that employees don’t want to put in the effort to learn, it’s that the training is delivered in such a way that employees just can’t bring themselves to engage with it. Day long training sessions are overwhelming, long, and result in an information overload. Using gamification techniques, like competition, storylines and achievements, gives training the spice and excitement it needs to really make employees care.  2. Give Relevant Feedback It’s happened to everyone: you reach the end of an online training module, complete the test and…you have to do the Whole. Thing. Again. Training programs that just say you’ve failed a test, and don’t tell you where you need to improve, are a lot like the boss in the clip you just watched: they don’t listen, and reinforce things that you already know, instead of focusing on your weak areas. Delivering training that detects where each employee goes wrong, and personalizes training to fit each employee’s needs, is the most effective way to see performance improvements.  3. Address Employee Concerns…Before it’s too Late Note: only watch up until 0:45 The best way to find out if training is working, is to ask the employees themselves. Do they enjoy it? Is it effective? Is there anything that they would change? Disregarding employee feedback only leads to fed up employees…and although they may not threaten to "set the building on fire" as Milton did in the clip above, ignoring employee concerns about training can have equally damaging consequences. Shrink, lost sales and accidents are all the result of ineffective training, so hearing what your employees have to say about your training process is an invaluable step you can take. Initech may be a caricature of a company, but there is truth in humour. Employee disengagement, a lack of relevant feedback, and ignoring employee concerns were Initech’s downfall, and they could be the downfall of your training program. Gamifying training, personalization and addressing employee concerns are all ways you can improve your training, and avoid the consequences that Initech faced: an unmotivated workforce.   Written by Emily Kroboth The post 3 Corporate Training Lessons Learned From "Office Space" appeared first on Axonify.

As a university student working on a co-op term right now, I can say that taking a break from the stresses of "learning" is a welcome opportunity. For the next four months, there won’t be any cramming, all-nighters or exam stress because in the ‘real working world’, these things don’t exist. Going back and forth from school terms to work terms has given me perspective on not only my education, but on training in general. And it’s got me thinking: much of corporate training mirrors what I’m doing in university now: professors stand at the front of the room for three hours, and at the end of it all, their job is done and I’m stuck trying to remember everything they’ve just said. As a third year student, only a short time away from entering the workforce, I have a request: Please don’t give me the training I’m used to. Let me explain. Ode, Olivia, Dave, Emily, Joe and Tori are some of Axonify’s resident Millennials. Chasing a Grade There just isn’t enough time to really learn in university. Between classes, assignments, extra-curriculars, work, and a plethora of other commitments, students just don’t have ample time to review concepts daily. This creates an endless cycle of playing catch-up, which in turn makes university about grades, not about learning. What’s the difference? The difference is in copying answers off a friend to guarantee you get the marks, instead of sitting down and mulling over the concepts yourself. The difference is in skipping class to catch up on all the work you have to do, instead of learning it first-hand. But most of all, the difference is what you take away from university when it’s all over. Learning is defined as the acquisition of knowledge. But is it really learning if the knowledge is acquired overnight, only to be forgotten as soon as students walk out of the exam room the next day? You may have gotten an A, but is that really valid if you would receive a C on the same test a week later? What value is there in a degree if none of the classes, concepts or ideas are remembered in the long run? There’s no doubt that there’s value in policies such as progression requirements and cut-off averages: however, I’m finding that this is what students do (and ultimately must) focus on. Too often I’ve seen education approached with a ‘staying afloat’ type of mentality. The question is, how do we turn the university experience into an actual learning environment, instead of four years of chasing a grade? It’s Time to Innovate Brain science research says that lecture-type learning isn’t effective, material should be reviewed everyday to increase retention, and that learning should be delivered in bite-size pieces. So the way university is structured now—taking hours of class everyday, each in a different subject—isn’t exactly brain friendly. And it’s impacting students in the worst way. We are in the midst of a mental health crisis, which can be attributed to many factors, but with a big one being anxiety related to grades. Students have studied in this lecture-style format for hundreds of years, and the concept of university has managed to evade innovation in this regard. It’s been proven that there are many different learning styles, so why is university only catering to one? When will it be time to take the leap from an outdated method of instruction, to one that’s proven to be brain friendly? Nothing changes overnight of course, but I think it’s about time university institutions explore other methods of instruction, methods that will beat the forgetting curve and ultimately do what’s most important: truly instill the knowledge of relevant subjects in each student. The World of Corporate Training There have been a variety of articles written about how to approach the peculiar Millennial Generation (hey I even wrote one myself) but here’s my number one piece of advice: don’t give us the training we’re used to. Don’t give us hours of training once, and then expect us to remember everything. We’ll pass the test at the end of the day, but without proper reinforcement, all that training knowledge is going to follow the same path as our first year Economics class: in one ear and out the other. The training and development world is at an exciting point right now, because we’ve figured out what really works when it comes to learning. Thanks to brain science research, we know people learn best in shorter sessions, and will actually remember that information if it’s reinforced. That being said, I would implore whoever’s reading this—whether you’re a Vice-President, a Training Specialist, a Manager—think about your training. If it reminds you of sitting in a lecture hall, you’re likely not engaging people, and this time, it’s not people’s grades on the line, it’s your bottom line. Written by Emily Kroboth The post A Millennial’s Perspective: Please Don’t Give me the Training I’m Used to appeared first on Axonify.

The success of your business relies on a workforce that’s competent, highly skilled and knowledgeable; who can apply these attributes effectively to the job they do for you.  Blindly trusting they have these attributes is more than a little bit risky… What if you don’t know what they don’t know? For instance, consider your internal safety program. It might appear that employees understand proper safety measures and what to do in the event of an accident or other safety hazard. But how do you know? Is a "smile sheet" survey at the conclusion of training—2 months ago—enough to make you confident employees retained what they learned and can make the right decision? Do you want missed sales targets to be the red flag identifying there’s a problem with your sales force?  Although you spend thousands bringing your sales team together for new product training, there may be many people who don’t really learn the information well enough to sell your products effectively.  What would happen if your customer service representatives weren’t at the top of their game? Even one "time out" to check with a supervisor is enough to increase resolution time… and aggravate a customer looking for assistance! Would it make a difference to your business if you knew without a doubt that your employees had the knowledge and skills to perform at peak levels? How much more opportunity would you consider if you had a high comfort level in their competence? How much more risk averse would you be if you knew they weren’t at the peak level you need? What would it change if you could predict the speed at which employees could achieve competence or excellence in selling a new product? The key is to dig deep and mine the information about your employees’ knowledge and learning; then put that intelligence to work.  To leverage employee learning data effectively, you need a variety of metrics: A granular baseline knowledge level for each employee, on each critical topic. A consolidated baseline knowledge level per topic, across department, geographic or demographic boundaries. Progressive knowledge improvement rates on every topic, for every employee, as well as consolidated by department, geographic or demographic boundaries. Knowledge about which employees participate in learning, and which avoid it like the plague. With this type of learning data, there is a variety of intelligence you can obtain: Understand baseline knowledge levels of specific topics and analyze whether the knowledge meets your target levels. Understand in which topics your employees need more training: where they are, and where they need to be. Identify low levels of participation: understand which employees need to participate more in their learning programs, and evaluate whether low participation equates to lower knowledge levels. Understand training effectiveness: identify knowledge lifts by product, policy or procedure - by individual or department. Relate training to job performance improvements: with historic learning data, you can identify and correlate knowledge lifts to job performance improvements over specific periods of time. When you know what your employees don’t know, you have the ability to fix it. Mining learning data, then turning it into actionable intelligence is a sure way to ensure your workforce is competent, highly skilled and knowledgeable. That’s a workforce that can support and grow your business. Written by Carol Leaman The post When You Don’t Know What They Don’t Know. appeared first on Axonify.

Take a minute to join me in a thought experiment.  Think of your favourite retail store. I’m sure you’ve been in one before so you know what the environment is like. Now try to think of it during a time when it’s particularly busy, perhaps during the holiday season. I’m just trying to help set a scene for you here, so really try and picture as much as you can about that store.  Now imagine you are an associate working at that store. Part of your role is to walk around and ask customers if they need help with anything at all.  During one of your walks you happen to notice a customer who is looking at something on your his or her mobile device, while at the same time looking at one of your products. You even notice this person taking pictures of the barcodes on your products. You decide to approach this customer and see if you can offer any assistance.  You: "Good morning, is there something I can help you with?" Customer: "No thanks, I just noticed on my phone that another retailer is selling this same product at a lower price."  Let’s stop the thought experiment there. The Reality of Omni-Channel On a webinar earlier this week, our CEO Carol Leaman explored the world of omni-channel retailing and some of the big challenges associated with it. She discussed some of the realities of the way digital channels are influencing sales and the changing expectations in the mind of consumers when they enter retail stores.  According to research from Retail TouchPoints, five big barriers to omni-channel success are: 1. Inaccurate Inventory2. Actionable analytics3. The Shifting Mindset of Consumers4. Poor Integration of Systems5. Lack of Employee Enthusiasm The fifth barrier is what Carol spent the most time discussing. She mentioned that one of the most important and cost-effective steps a retail organization can take, in order to increase the success of their omni-channel strategy is to focus on improving this fifth barrier.  How Toys"R"Us Canada is Tackling the Fifth Barrier On the webinar, Carol shared the story of how Toys"R"Us Canada is tackling the challenge of executing an omni-channel strategy at the store level. In order to be successful, what they realized is that their front-line associates needed to be educated and buy-in to the importance of omni-channel in an engaging way.  Their solution was to leverage a bite-sized, gamified and personalized approach to associate training, which focused on three specific levels of understanding: 1. What - What is omni-channel?2. Why - Why is it important to the customer, to our organization and to YOU? 3. How - How do you make omni-channel happen day-to-day? Here are some of the results Toys"R"Us Canada saw from leveraging this approach:  Consistent execution at the store level High levels of voluntary participation in training Significant knowledge growth in topics surrounding omni-channel Behavior change exhibited by associates at the store level Let’s go back to the thought experiment.  Customer: "No thanks, I just noticed on my phone that another retailer is selling this same product at a lower price."  Imagine that you did not know how to respond in this situation and what you came up with ended up resulting in the customer leaving the store and your organization losing a sale. Remember it’s a busy season, so imagine that this same interaction happened simultaneously in a different part of your store and then across multiple stores across the country (or even the globe).  This is the reality of how consumers behave today and it truly underscores the importance of the role an associate plays in executing a successful omni-channel strategy.  If you’re interested in watching the full-recording of viewing the webinar slides, they are both available on-demand now. Written by Shum Attygalle The post Webinar Summary: Increasing Omni-Channel Adoption With Associates appeared first on Axonify.

Have you seen this dress? Ask a friend or colleague what colors they see. People all over the internet are disputing the dress’ colors. Some say it’s blue and black, while others say it’s white and gold. While this dress has sparked an open debate among the general public as well as celebrities, including Taylor Swift and Kim Kardashian, the fact is that these types of varying interpretations happen all the time, even when people think the issue is "black or white". The workplace is one spot where these kinds of widespread opinions occur frequently. That’s because people use different filters to process information, meaning that when it comes to interpretation, there are often many shades of grey. As an employer, you need to have a clear picture of what these filters are so that you can get people to understand the true answer or correct course of action. The goal is to stop any internal questioning or arguments and get everyone on the same page. But, the problem is that managers often don’t know these types of internal debates exist because they usually don’t come to the forefront, as in the case of this social media dress color craze. That’s where eLearning technology can help. Managers have a tool to ask their employees what they know and what they don’t know. Then, they can use this tool to deliver learning that not only teaches employees the official company policies and procedures, but also reinforces them continually. Let’s say your organization has specific customer service guidelines, for example. Many people will have different ideas of the best way to handle a complaint, for example. Yet, the organization has one consistent method it wants employees to follow. eLearning technology can help achieve this consistent behavior across associates in different departments and store locations by delivering training from one source and then serving up questions to test employee comprehension. Proceeding blindly, without visibility into your employees’ knowledge and understanding poses a significant risk. If managers aren’t aware of differing interpretations, they can’t address any inconsistencies that can cause negative consequences, including conflicting customer service responses across bricks and mortar locations as well as online stores. While there can always be lots of debate within an organization, at the end of the day, there is only one right answer when it comes to official policies and procedures. The goal is to clarify them through learning to stop the argument and change behavior accordingly. Oh, and by the way, if you’re still engaged in a heated discussion over the color of the dress, British retailer, Roman Originals has set the record straight, just like organizations should. Written by Carol Leaman The post #TheDress - Stop Arguing. Start Agreeing. appeared first on Axonify.

We’ve all heard of brand names turning into verbs. These days, we Google, we Skype and we Facebook. Today, on the third year anniversary of Axonify becoming an official company name, we’re excited to say that it’s happened to us too. In fact, if you walk through the busy distribution center at Walmart, you’ll likely hear employees ask, "Have you Axonified today?" That’s because Walmart workers coined the verb, "Axonified" after the Axonify eLearning platform became part of their daily routine. Axonify eLearning software helps 75,000 hard-working Walmart employees increase their knowledge of corporate safety and compliance procedures as well as improve performance behaviors using a fun, fast and personalized approach to learning that incorporates game mechanics (such as competition, leaderboards, game play and more) along with proven scientific methods of information retention. Ken Woodlin, Vice President of Compliance, Safety and Asset Protection for Walmart Logistics, began a partnership with Axonify in 2012 when the company ran a 6-month safety training pilot program with 5,000 logistics workers in eight Walmart distribution centers. The goal was to take the retailer’s existing safety program, that had strong behavioral components, cultural connectivity and compliance policies and procedures in place already, and make it the world’s best. The results proved to be directly in line with this vision. During the pilot, recordable incidents at Walmart decreased by 54% in the retailer’s eight subject distribution centers, morale was elevated and injury expenses were mitigated. This prompted the retailer to expand implementation to its remaining 150-plus centers across the United States and more than 75,000 associates. This early success also initiated Walmart’s plans to bring Axonify to its entire transportation department of more than 6,000 drivers. "We have seen tremendous improvement as a result of our associates’ ownership and engagement in our safety programs, as well as leadership commitment to the program," says Woodlin. "Metrics like Lost Times have been reduced by more than 50% in the past three years, and Incident Rates and DART rates [Days Away from work, job Restrictions, and/or job Transfers] are well below industry average. Feedback about the Axonify system has been phenomenal, and we believe the process has been a significant contributing factor to our improved performance and engaged associate base." The Axonify eLearning platform is straightforward and efficient. Walmart associates log into the system daily and spend a couple of minutes receiving safety culture content, often in the form of questions. The system provides instant feedback, so associates know which questions they get right and where they need improvement. The system also shows associates how they measure up against their peers. The next time, associates log in, the system remembers their responses and will ask questions to reinforce information they know, as well as follow up on information they don’t know, to ensure learning progresses, behaviors improve and associates don’t forget what they learned previously. The reason the Axonify eLearning software is so successful in environments like Walmart is that it is based on proven learning principles designed to work the way people actually learn and retain information. This unique approach to learning allows Walmart to simplify training through a bite-size approach, make learning fun, adapt it to employees’ individual learning needs and increase knowledge and retention by applying proven cognitive approaches, such as repeated retrieval and spacing, that are proven to enhance learning and recall. Since Walmart implemented Axonify more than three years ago, associates have become more able to spot potential safety opportunities, see the connectivity of safety in the workplace with safety out of the workplace and have also become more comfortable raising safety concerns. One of the best parts, according to Woodlin, is that safety training has become a continuous loop driven by good behaviors and fed by the corporate culture, rather than a one-way top down approach. "Feedback about the Axonify platform has been phenomenal and we believe the process has been a significant contributing factor to our improved performance and engaged associate base," says Woodlin.  Written by Laura Martin The post Walmart asks, "Have you Axonified today?" appeared first on Axonify.

The following post was featured in eLearning Industry on February 20th, 2015. These days, finding out almost anything is easy. Want to know the answer to a question? Just Google it. Want to get career advice? Poll your peers on LinkedIn. Need to see the latest breaking news? Watch it broadcast online. While this type of immediate access to information has its benefits, it also has its drawbacks. Employer and employee expectations are out of synch. Employers have higher expectations on staff to remain in the know. Yet, they often do not provide employees with instant access to the information they need. Employees expect the information they require should be at their fingertips. When it isn’t, they search outside the organization to get it. This conflict poses a huge challenge for those responsible for corporate training because they can no longer control the information employees receive and there is an increasing risk that the information they uncover themselves is outdated or completely inaccurate. Besides these misaligned expectations, today’s information deluge means employees face more distractions than ever before that interfere with daily tasks. Incoming tweets, emails and texts, combined with websites, videos and apps all vie for learners’ attention. In fact, throughout the workday, interruptions disturb employees as frequently as every five minutes and two thirds of knowledge workers complain they don’t have time to do their jobs (according to the "Meet the Modern Learner" infographic by Bersin). With competing demands and constant disruptions, it’s no wonder employees feel distracted, impatient and overwhelmed as they try to keep their heads above water. Not surprisingly, for professionals responsible for corporate training, capturing the time and attention of today’s modern learners as well as ensuring the information is correct and consistent, becomes an almost impossible task. Almost! By joining modern learners on their own turf and adjusting for shorter attention spans, increasing job demands and information overload, modern trainers can engage modern learners in new and more effective ways. Here’s how: A group of Axonify teammates. 6 Ways To Engage The Modern Learners GO On-DemandGone are the days of scheduling training sessions at a single time and location. Web-based eLearning apps that modern learners can access from desktops, tablets or mobile phones make it simple to participate in training whether they’re in the office or working remotely. Making learning accessible anywhere and anytime also means employees don’t have to travel to training sessions to get the information they need to be successful in their jobs. GO Short"I don’t have time!" is a common complaint from learners who believe training takes them away from completing important job functions. Offering online training in short five-minute bursts each day means employees can increase their knowledge on an ongoing basis over time without feeling overwhelmed and without impacting their regular job duties. Chunking training information into bite-sized pieces also makes it more manageable for learners to digest—allowing them to be more open to receiving training in the first place. GO PersonalEmployees learn differently, at their own pace. Using adaptive eLearning technology provides individuals with the training information they need at the time they need it. This eLearning technology also allows content to adjust according to learners’ roles and competency levels on various topics. Depending on how learners answer questions, the material changes to either re-educate them on certain subjects or reinforce information they already know. By creating a personalized knowledge map, this type of eLearning technology can track learners’ progression over time and also help them master topics that are integral to job performance. Learners who have more knowledge have higher rates of individual success, which translates into increased success for the organization as well. GO InteractiveTraditional classroom-based training or online course delivery requires employees to do a lot of listening. The large amount of material covered, combined with increasingly short-attention spans, results in learners not retaining enough information to apply it on the job. Even when information is presented in shorter formats, research indicates learners will begin to forget what they learned almost immediately after the event. More than ninety percent of the material they learned will be forgotten in as little as a month. Technology that allows modern learners to take a more active role in their learning (by asking them to click on answers to multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks or match responses) drives participation, engagement and long-term memory. It also reinforces the information in the brain so learners have a lesser chance of forgetting the material completely. GO FunMention training and you’ll likely hear a lot of groans. But make it fun and learners are much more receptive. Taking advantage of eLearning technology that applies game-based learning techniques is a great way to connect with modern learners at every age and role in an engaging and entertaining way. eLearning technology that incorporates gamification is key to making the learning experience enjoyable and drives high participation. Examples of gamification include games and activities that allow learners to overcome challenges, offer the chance to compete with other learners and give them the opportunity to earn points or rewards for their efforts. Additionally, incorporating leaderboards and other stats so modern learners can review individual performance and see how they measure up against their peers, is a great way to take advantage of gamification elements in eLearning Technology. GO Long TermTraining sessions can’t make a positive impact if learners cannot recall and apply the information after they have learned it. Turning to eLearning technology that incorporates repeated retrieval—the practice of learning a concept, testing recall of that information, reviewing the concept again and then testing recall again—ensures modern learners maintain their knowledge and solidify it in memory over the long term. Additionally, eLearning technology that uses questions to challenge learners to recall information at different intervals (e.g. days, weeks, months, etc.) increases information retention. Research shows memory retention improves as the time intervals between the information increases, stimulating the brain to remember. Written by Carol Leaman The post Go Engage The Modern Learners. Here’s How appeared first on Axonify.

Legacy Sales Training Methods Does this sound familiar? Sales representatives fly in from all over North America for your weekend sales training session. It’s expensive and people are grousing about losing a weekend, but how else can you get all the new product training done? Arrival is Friday, with a welcome dinner that evening. Next morning, eyes are red, heads are sore, and attention seriously wanes by 2pm. Seems to be a lot of people taking breaks for "customer calls," although it’s the weekend. Sunday is a repeat of Saturday. Everyone heads home late Sunday evening.  Four months go by and it’s time to evaluate sales number. You hope to pinpoint just how much sales have jumped since that critical training event several months ago. But, there doesn’t appear to be any appreciable increase: Everyone is performing at much the same rate as always. Reps that meet or exceed their quota continue to do that; reps that don’t meet their quota, perform as usual. Modern Sales Training Methods Today’s forward-thinking organizations take learning to a new level. Sales representatives from all over North America participate in several scheduled virtual learning sessions on new products without having to leave home base. Sessions take place over a 2-week period, giving sales professionals the opportunity to maximize time in the field while still participating in this critical learning. After the 2-week training period, reinforcement and engagement programs kick in to keep the learning momentum high, and keep the sales force involved in a continuous learning program.   Four months later, you look at whether sales have improved since the original training event.  When you evaluate individual performance against target numbers, you see that almost all of your sales reps have achieved a higher percentage of their quota. You take a look at the individual knowledge levels of each sales rep, and there appears to be a direct correlation between knowledge improvement and quota achievement.  Sales Effectiveness = Effective Training We all know that better sales skills produce better sales performance. But we’ve never really questioned the fire hose approach to sales training—both for products and sales techniques. We thought this was the best way improve the abilities of our sales teams. But proven research into learning retention, combined with advances in technology, have changed this. Yet, many sales organizations seem to still be stuck in a legacy-style sales training model, with no appreciable return on investment. What’s wrong with legacy training methods?  Aside from the high expense of bringing the sales team together for training, there is really no solid technique to ensure that what people learn in their training sticks with them for any length of time. In fact, research proves that people lose almost 90% of what they learn within about a month. Not auspicious for a positive ROI. Why are modern training methods so much better?  With so much research into brain science and learning—as well as the emergence of sophisticated eLearning technology—we’ve finally figured out that it’s not training that produces better skills and performance. It’s how effective the training is that really makes the difference.  Brain science has defined several learning techniques that help improve the long-term effect of training, which allows people to leverage what they’ve learned, when and where they need to. Techniques like spacing and repeated retrieval provide ongoing learning reinforcement so people never forget the important information—and, in fact, begin to maintain critical information for the long term. Confidence-based learning encourages people to carefully consider whether what they know is correct, and improves their confidence in their knowledge. And confidence in the right information is as critical to selling as knowing the product inside and out. Personalization means that people learn what’s relevant for them, in a manner that makes sense for them, and on the platform—such as mobile devices—they prefer; which makes learning easier and much more engaging.  When you leverage eLearning technology that applies these modern sales training techniques, all sales professionals—whether retail sales associates, high-end technology reps or pharmaceutical sales staff—can reap some big rewards: While you may still conduct in-person training, using eLearning technology to reinforce information after the big event helps ensure people remember more of what they learn for far longer, effectively using it to improve their performance.  Learning doesn’t need to cut into selling time: Using intelligent eLearning technology, sales professionals can participate in short, daily learning reinforcement sessions—in as little as 5 minutes per day—before they begin work, or when they have a bit of down time. Frequent in-person training sessions can be transitioned to eLearning sessions, reducing travel costs as well as extended time away from the job.  People sell what they know, so as knowledge and confidence in products or solutions grows, so will sales. Learning ROI can be dramatically improved—as people retain more of the knowledge they learn over much longer periods of time, the effect of training becomes more significant. Are you currently using legacy sales training methods or are you taking sales training to a higher level? Feel free to share any challenges you’re facing or talk about your modern learning success. Written by Laura Martin The post Maximizing Sales Effectiveness Through Effective Training appeared first on Axonify.

"The Customer is King."  Always has been, always will be. But today’s customers are a totally different breed!  They want to research products online, and buy online or in the store. They want product information on their laptop, tablet or smartphone—at home, on the go, or even in the store. They want a seamless experience through all shopping channels. These customers also place higher expectations on sales associates: They want associates to be experts on ALL the products they sell—in the store, plus online. They want associates to be as "tech savvy" as they are. And they want associates to provide product recommendations based on their own knowledge and expertise, as well as customers’ individual preferences and past purchases. Most retailers agree that creating an omni-channel strategy is the best way to meet these new customer demands. But, when hourly paid sales associates are critical for omni-channel success, this solution isn’t as simple as it sounds. After all, associates must not only know how to sell, but also become product evangelists, distribution experts, and customer service advocates too. Beefing up associate knowledge is one of the most significant ways retailers can up the success factor of their omni-channel strategy. Yet, 40% of retailers report that store associate training is a major barrier to omni-channel success. Conventional training methods just don’t cut it. It’s not enough to simply shove employees into more training sessions: this takes associates off the floor and they just forget what they learn anyway. To truly increase associate knowledge for omni-channel success, retailers need to re-think employee learning completely. Modern learning approaches are leveraging brain science research to dramatically improve knowledge retention and help create more confident sales associates, who are better equipped to service customers. Here are 5 eLearning components that are critical for effective associate training in an omni-channel environment: Daily, bite-sized learning counteracts information overload. Associates receive training in short bursts each day, rather than lengthy, one-time sessions. The daily learning reinforcement helps associates retain information for the long term—and also allows managers to deliver critical up-to-the-minute product and promotion updates. Personalized learning adapts to individual strengths and weaknesses to meet associates’ unique learning needs, instead of training everyone the same way. Areas where associates have high knowledge are continually reinforced, while areas where they are less knowledgeable receive more attention until they increase their learning. Mobile learning delivers information to associates when and where they want it—even to associates’ mobile devices on the store floor—so they can receive training on demand. Gamification makes learning fun—improving associates’ engagement and enhancing knowledge retention. Supports Coaching with reports for managers to help them detect knowledge gaps by the topic and individual, as well as identify top performers. With the increased knowledge retention that comes from modern learning practices, retailers find associates have the knowledge and skills at their fingertips to better service customers in an omni-channel world. Associate performance improves, along with business results. Customer remains King! Learn more about how companies, like Toys R Us, are increasing omni-channel adoption with sales associates by accessing our omni-channel webinar recording. Written by Laura Martin The post 5 Critical eLearning Components for Omni-Channel Success appeared first on Axonify.