Organisations should embrace ‘microlearning’ in order to improve employees’ professional development, career progression and awareness of diversity and inclusion, research has suggested.
Sixty per cent of knowledge is lost within an hour of learning, according to a report produced by D&I consultancy Brook Graham, suggesting that employers are not getting value from more traditional learning programmes such as workshops or online courses.
It says organisations would instead benefit from offering bite-sized chunks of learning content, citing research from industry analyst Josh Bersin who found that the average employee only has 24 minutes to dedicate to formal learning each week.
Learning in bursts of three to seven minutes matches working memory capacity and average attention span, the report claims, and will help prevent cognitive overload, thus enabling learners to absorb key takeaways.
A study by German university Hochschule Weserbergland found that by using “spaced repetition” learners can recall 80% of what was learnt after 60 days.
Brook Graham suggested that bite-sized training material can be delivered through quizzes, interactive films and games.
Learning and development
Sheena Corry, head of D&I solutions design for Brook Graham, said: “D&I training has received a degree of bad press, being considered merely as compliance training or a ‘tick box exercise’, which is ineffective at bringing about any real change in an organisation. It can also be a daunting prospect for many as they get to grips with often emotive topics and unfamiliar terminology.
“The best way to counteract this is, simply, to break it down into more manageable individual chunks that anchor to real-life situations that people can relate to. We have already begun to implement microlearning in our own programmes, and find that businesses and their employees really respond positively to it.”
Brook Graham has developed a ‘Conscious Inclusion Hub’ which delivers bite-sized D&I training.
“By using a ‘little and often’ approach the Conscious Inclusion Hub helps to cement new concepts in a way that users can easily relate to. This effectively underpins wider D&I learning programmes and has been successfully proven to bring about real change within organisations,” said Corry.
