• Read More …

Use marketing techniques

It is widely recognised that organisations that have high employee engagement also have better financial performance and yet all too frequently engaging learners in business critical programmes becomes problematic.

The key to engaging learners is to think like marketing practitioners instead of learning & development practitioners. For example L&D professionals frequently survey the workforce to establish attitudes and opinions in relation to the organisation. Marketing professionals on the other hand, will survey consumers to establish their needs and preferences in order to improve their targeting and to influence a change in their purchasing behaviours.

Know your market

UK consumers (your employees) are one of the most sophisticated groups in the world. In particular the 30-50 somethings are experiencing the various marketing tactics adopted during both boom and bust economies for the third time!

Your 20-30 somethings grew up in the media age and are therefore used to accessing information in the moment, at the touch of a button; and all of these people are adept at navigating their way through the plethora of brands all competing for their attention.

For your learning activities to gain any level of engagement you will first need to understand what drives your learners.

‘Drivers’ fall into three main categories:

Have to — where there are consequences attached i.e. paying the mortgage.

Need to — anything that relates to staying alive i.e. eating; and lastly.

Want to — those things where choice and aspiration are prevalent.

Having understood the key drivers you will now need to understand what interests them, so ask questions relating to hobbies and interests; behaviours; sense of humour; TV programmes and reading choices (newspapers and magazines as well as books).

When combined, all of this information will give you a workforce profile that will contain all the clues you need to engage your audience. For example you may find that you have a workforce with a strong sporting interest so incorporating some form of competitive element to your learning may encourage a more active participation.

Readers of Heat magazine are likely to prefer communication with lots of images; whereas fans of Private Eye may enjoy humour or verbal communicating. Understanding these differences and crafting your learning materials to incorporate some of these elements will help to hold the learners interest.

Any quality learning provider will welcome this kind of information and be happy to introduce a creative element to the material.

How to engage your audience

1. Create INTEREST

Use teaser campaigns; stealth campaigns; provide previews to key influencers; involve control groups in the design process; above all make it aspirational—something that it good to take part in.

2. LAUNCH

A launch will put your learning on the map, making it ‘water cooler’ worthy—but make sure that there is a compelling call to action.

3. LOYALTY

Make sure that you have built in compelling reasons to engage with your learning. Your ‘consumers’ will have certain quality expectations that will need to be met and there needs to be recognisable features and benefits. Above all make sure that the learning is enjoyable!

4.ENROL

Master marketers understand that the physical act of enrolling increases the likelihood of engagement and creates a community. Look at WeightWatchers as a prime example of this. In return, provide some form of ‘identification’ whether it is for the individual or the desk or the computer there needs to be a constant physical reminder of what they are doing and why.

5. Set GOALS

Goal setting helps to maintain momentum and creates a sense of achievement. It will also renew interest and peer pressure.

6. ACKNOWLEDGE

Acknowledgement that is built into team meetings for example is a great motivator. It provides visibility and focus and maintains wider interest particularly from management.

7. LEVERAGE

Understanding where and how to leverage engagement can be established early on when understanding what drives your workforce. Undoubtedly, learning programmes that are linked to career structure or pay and benefits will be more successful as they fit in to the ‘Have to’ and ‘Need to’ categories. However, never underestimate the power of a game, chance or collectable element to your learning programme as these can be powerful motivational tools—the sales of lottery tickets and scratch cards should give you an indication of the potential buy-in that can be created.

So you’re not a marketer

Try not to feel overwhelmed by what may appear to be expensive or complex motivation activities. Some of the most effective impact and engagement activities are very simple such as hitting a milestone to win a paid day off or achieving a pass mark in order to choose which lunch break you can go on.

Try this quiz