Why is it that the issue of staff engagement is still quoted as one of the major challenges in delivering blended or e- learning in the workplace today?

After all, aren’t we simply trying to offer our people useful and relevant learning that will help them do their job better, increase capability and satisfaction?  What’s not to like?

Apparently, quite a lot, because the learner engagement issue has featured heavily in seminar and conference programmes for at least 10 years!

So, what is going so horribly wrong?  How can experienced Learning & Development specialists have so little breakthrough in this area?

There is of course, the age old argument that standards of education are slipping and that therefore the general ability of the workforce to learn is decreasing; and yet ask a 7 year old to identify 100 different Pokemon characters correctly or a 15 year old to explain the plot of Abe’s Odyssey for the Playstation and you are likely to receive accurate, detailed and surprisingly educated replies.

This leads me to consider that it’s not the subject matter, but the way in which the subject matter is delivered that is at fault.  Our education system was developed when Britain had an Empire primarily for white middle-class children; and whilst I’m sure many would argue there have been enormous strides in teaching techniques since then, how much of our workplace learning genuinely reflects that?

Fundamentally, businesses seem to develop a cycle:

All too frequently training that is not relevant; poor quality; dumbed down; too theoretical and delivered in a warm classroom is what the workforce have experienced and therefore have come to expect.  As a result unless learning interventions have a real WOW factor, they are likely to be met with varying levels of apathy.

Of course there are many exceptions, but the idea of ‘doing some learning’ is not generally that exciting.

So how can we change the learners’ expectations without blowing the budget?

• Firstly I would encourage you to do little really well and leave the audience wanting more. Take a serious red pen to your training schedule and consider what could be delivered differently or integrated.

• Look at the commercial objectives of your business and scrap any learning activity that does not directly impact those objectives. These are not market conditions for the faint-hearted and you need to be honest and ruthless about whether you can track outcomes  to deliver a measurable and reportable ROI.

• Get to know your workforce. Who are my target audience?  What do I know about them?  What will make their life easier, more successful or happier?  How do they like to be communicated with?  What language do they relate strongest to?  What is most likely to turn them off?

• Try to establish where or if a WOW exists in their lives currently. Understanding your audience is absolutely crucial to creating engagement, so my advice would be to capitalise on things that already interest them.

• Steer away from whizbangs as they are often an expensive waste of time. A quality learning solutions provider will be able to combine content with commercial relevance and offer a method of delivery that capitalises on existing interests.

• Sometimes, being involved is enough. How much do we really talk and listen to our workforce before launching our new learning programme?  How often do we genuinely involve them in putting the solution together and promoting it?  How hard do we work to have our target audience embrace learning as if it were their idea.

What it breaks down to is how the ‘how’ is done.  If we treat it as a process we squeeze out the human element – the very essence of engagement.  It has to be approached with a clear set of objectives, but with a genuine curiosity on how best to achieve them.

For corporate managers the art of having dialogue with staff is in danger of becoming a lost art.  In order to achieve objectives it seems much easier to send well crafted emails or run well designed presentations i.e. essentially one-way traffic rather than genuinely asking people what would be most useful.

Training Needs Analysis provides a good starting point, but is not generally done regularly enough or deep enough to provide a finger on the pulse.

Often we see Learning & Development overstretching themselves and becoming reactive and ineffective  in the process.  Surely it is better to deliver a smaller number of programmes that absolutely hit the spot, where new knowledge and behaviours become embedded as business as usual and where a genuine return on investment can be measured.

In essence, just as a marketer will define strategy and decide tactics based on market research, customer feedback and commercial results - Learning & Development professionals need to adopt the same customer-focused approach.