WHITEPAPER

Millennials and the Zen of Digital Learning

Executive Summary

The Millennial or the Gen Y men and women are the talked about workforce since the start of this century. This generation is awash with information, technology, networking, and as everybody before this generation agrees, less attention time. Businesses need to reorient themselves if they are to engage and retain this generation of workforce.

This brings us to the topic of Training or Learning and Development (L&D). To make you organization relevant, a pioneer and thought leader you need to invest continuously in the skills (knowledge) of your employees. Knowledge is gained through Training, and Training depends on the kind of people you hire!

Milennials are going to be deciding force in the coming years. It is obvious from the way they are reared from childhood that their learning methods and working ethos are markedly different from other generations. Organizations will gain nothing by forcing old fashioned methods, like classroom rote learning, to a generation whose attention span is lesser than blinking of an eye, enjoy company of peers, and always open to change (read job hopping). Gen Y are well aware and very talented but outspoken and brash. They work hard and party hard. Workplace, according to them should exude fun and openness. So creating an environment that takes into consideration the Millennials habits and concerns is good for the organization, at least from an economic perspective. Organizations can take advantage of talent of various generations and enable inter-learning among these generations, workplace behaviour is one such example. The bottom line is that Workforce may change but not the organization’s aim of staying relevant in the market. So do all it takes to be a great integrator of different generations of mind sets and extract the best out of them if you want to catapult to the top position of your domain, and stay there!

Going Digital is the way forward, as Gen Y has taken to digital artefacts (internet, mobile, social media etc.) like ducks to water. However, it must be complemented with Analytics so organizations know their investments in L&D are yielding the desired results. This article discusses why millennials prefer to learn themselves rather than being taught. Millennials, beginning with analysing their nature to advisory notes on designing appropriate Learning solutions for them, powered by Analytics.

Millennials are taking over the workforce

Workforce 2016

50%

32%

17%

1%

Workforce 2014

5%

25%

38% 32%

Millennials Boomers GenX Vets Millennials Boomers GenX Vets

Challenges in Engaging millennials

How can you integrate millennials with your existing workforce.

We spoke about the characteristics of the Millennial generation. Flip the coin and you can see that these characteristics can become challenges to employers. Documented below are some of the challenges employers or managers can encounter when dealing with Gen Y:

Need Directions: Millennials need directions in their work. They perform excellently when given clear cut directions and therefore seek clarity, and checklist sort of approach to project tasks. Feedback driven: Millennials ask for feedback on their

efforts and quite too often. They feel that feedback (a positive one) will increase their confidence. Also, Millennials prefer to advance through merit alone rather than a combination of merit and experience. Less Attention span: they get distracted easily

making it difficult to capture and retain their attention.

Some researchers put the average attention spanof a Millennial as 8 minutes. Absorption of complex or voluminous thought processes in one go can be tedious for them. Multitasking: they are excellent in multitasking but this

may interfere with the grasping instructions or performing critical tasks requiring undivided attention. Behaviour: Millennials are expressive, liberal, collaborative,

and strongly value their individualism. They are less open to criticism and may clash with other generations in workplace over values, work culture etc. leading to them being branded as arrogant and entitled.

The reason why these challenges are discussed is to understand the mind set of this dynamic generation and train them to adapt to their workplaces better as the next sections explains.

Gen Y is completely brought up on a diet of technology and information. They are acutely wired to technology, unlike the previous generations. They like everything digital, even learning. This proximity to technology enables them to stay connected (via interaction-Whatsapp, social media, Instagram etc.) and therefore better networked. They are more amiable to collaborating with their peers. Therefore, creating a learning environment using the power of technology and informal learning methods that millenials identify with, helps them learn better. Millenials are used to receiving feedback often. You can help them understand their roles in the collaborative learning environment and the support they will be lending to others. Then sensitize them to opinions, evaluation, and critiques from peers or tutors as mediums of receiving feedback, apart from encouraging self-analysis of their learning. Ensure that the collaborative learning is intuitive with easy to user interfaces accessible from outside the workplace too (mobile devices) and which contain learning only required for the moment.

Millennials Survey: Please look at this list of personality attributes. Do you think young graduates like you (21-32) or the previous generation (aged 33+) are more likely to possess each, n=1,039

Hiring Managers Survey: Please look at this list of personality attributes. Do you think millennials (21-32) or the previous generation (aged 33-55) are more likely to possess each, n =200

Red Brick Research

Hiring managers’ viewsMillennials’ views

Training –The first step to integration

Organizations have the important task to integrate Gen Y with other generations in the workplace. Training plays an important role in imparting, not just technical skills but soft skills as well.It is imperative that learning systems go digital. That Gen Y loves everything digital makes it worthwhile to investment in digital learning systems. Some of the elements you can include this training are: Keeping Millennials at the center of Learning: ascertain the learning that Millennials need at the moment. Find out how

and when they prefer to learn. At the same time drive home the point that learning will help them add skills and pave the way for career growth. Release short volumes of course content: impart short modules of the course that the learner can accommodate amidst

his/her work schedule. Mention links to more information on that course so the learner can look up for them. Use different delivery formats: package the course content into various formats that suit the learner. Examples include

video, digital books, web, online interaction, Q&As, broadcast, podcast etc. Millennials aren’t averse to hand outs, job aids and ready reckoners, so use them too. Explore the use of social media in this process as sharing/discussing the lesson among peers will help you gauge how much the learner has understood. Make learning accessible: making content easily accessible isas important as creating or broadcasting them. You

can upload on intranets, embed within applications (in line help), online directory etc. Go a step further by making recommendations to the learner about a topic he/she can learn based on learning trends. Make learning mobile device friendly: this on-the-go, multitasking, less attention span generation loves mobiles. So make

content viewable/downloadable via mobile browser or native app in a mobile or tablet. The learner can use this content to learn while on the move (on a train, running, walking etc.). Learning must facilitate knowledge retention: the format of delivery, ease of learning, availability, and accessibility must

all achieve the supreme goal- retention of knowledge, so the Millennial learner can apply the learning in his/her job. Repeat learning must be encouraged until the learner gets it right.

Help from Analytics

This is one area where continuous feedback is welcomed. Learning analytics accrue data about the learning programs and learners and make it available for insight gathering. It is helpful for both trainers and learners.

According to Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR), Learning Analytics is defined as “the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the environments in which it occurs.”

Organizations have realized the importance of using data in learning, especially for the following reasons: Use learning analytics to make informed decisions on talent

suitability for critical processes/businesses Use Learning analytics helps in engaging audiences within

and outside the organization Make learning (and skill addition) an important component

in distinguishing organization as a pioneer in the market

With increasing number of Millennials in workforce, using analytics makes absolute sense. It helps you tackle questions like the ones listed below: Which of the training programs are contributing to increase

in employee productivity? With ongoing addition of employees, how does the

employability compliance looks across the board? Some training programs, accessed at a particular time and

format are resulting in greater performance. Why? Two teams of the same department had taken the same

course but have vastly different performances. Why? Replacing an online question & answer session with web

based training has yielded negative results and drop in participation. Why?

Analytics can help answer these questions. You can identify newer/unique methods of training like using cloud, social media, documentaries etc. You can track the learning journeys of employees, mapping it with outcomes at every *Time to market:

It is the period from the conception of a product/service to its availability in the market. It determines how soon the product can be developed and made available in the market before its competitors do the same.

*Image Courtesy: Elance-odesk, Red Brick Research

touchpoint. Lastly, you can predict the future training needs in your organization.

ConclusionTarams Digital Learning Solutions help in optimizing Learning Management System (LMS) capabilities. Our effective reporting and system integration help you to develop activity-based metrics for measuring the real impact of learning on your business or institutions. Tarams Digital learning platform supports millions of end-users across the world. Designed to remove limits to learning, our systems have solutions for diverse learners and instructors, whether K-12, higher education, universities and corporate organizations. With LMS emerging as an inalienable part of your organization’s success we offer our partnership to help you grow knowledge bank with strong learning technology strategy.

“The times they are changing” sang Bob Dylan. So is it in the workplace which is increasingly becoming filled with Gen Y employees. As their numbers swell you will need to find newer ways to train them and keep them productive. You can use their traits to their, for example, technology dependence and collaborative nature. Plus, there is a huge boost from using Learning Analytics. Let us face it, the bottom line of a company’s performance sheet doesn’t care which generation is contributing to its numbers, it just needs them to stay high. Keep it that way with informed training.

About TaramsTarams is a technology consulting and product engineering company that helps clients transform their mission critical business applications to digital platforms. With over a decade of experience, we offer robust technology solutions to attain performance optimization, revenue generation and cost savings to some of the Fortune 500 companies. Tarams takes an agile and collaborative approach across the value chain and provide you a strategic advantage.

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Credits:* Customer Experience: Creating value through transforming customer journeys- McKinsey&Company