The top 5 advantages of micro-learning in the workplace
The benefits of bite-sized learning can elevate the efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity of your employees.
Do you know the advantages of micro-learning?
Have you thought about implementing eLearning micro-learning in your organization?
Providing your employees with online training content is an excellent start to making training more accessible and powerful. But taking the plunge into small, bite-sized learning nuggets can further increase your training’s effectiveness.
Are you interested in learning more about micro-learning and how it can transform your employees and organization?
In this article, we’re diving into the world of micro-learning content. Specifically, we’ll answer the question, “What is bite-sized learning?” and provide you with the top five benefits of short, relevant training content.
Let’s jump in!
What is bite-sized learning?
Most organizations and companies have training programs for their employees, whether it’s onboarding training, sales training, etc. These training programs prepare employees for their jobs, roles, and responsibilities.
Most of these programs include days, weeks, or months of reading training manuals, watching videos, attending meetings, or some combination of these.
Lengthy training may be valuable for a new employee, but what about when you need to quickly upskill a current employee or provide on-the-spot refresher training?
Enter bite-sized learning (also called micro-learning)!
eLearning microlearning content is training content that’s:
- Easily accessible
- Quickly consumable
- Job-specific
With micro-learning, think about content that an employee can digest in under 5 minutes. And because micro-learning content is easily digestible and relevant to the employee, it captures attention and drives learner retention.
Some bite-sized learning examples in contrast to longer, traditional training include:
- A series of six, 5-minute long videos on company values, instead of one 30-minute video
- An infographic of sales learning nuggets released every Monday for one month, as opposed to a single 1-hour long PowerPoint presentation
- A quick 10-question quiz/assessment on current industry trends with a prize for the highest scores, in contrast to a company-wide meeting
Ultimately, bite-sized learning is about getting relevant, informative content into the hands of your employees as soon as they need it.
Now that you have an answer to “What is bite-sized learning?”, let’s look at some of the benefits of bite-sized learning.
The top 5 benefits of bite-sized learning
We’ve mentioned some benefits of bite-size learning in passing already, but we want to take a closer look at some of them.
Here are five advantages of eLearning micro-learning.
1. Heightens employee engagement
One of the top benefits of bite-sized learning is that it increases employee engagement.
In a recent study, 58% of employees said they’d be more likely to use their company’s training tool if it included bite-size content, like micro-learning videos.
eLearning micro-learning content meets the content consumption habits of modern learners. When it comes to learning, today’s employees want content that’s:
- Relevant to their needs and desires
- Readily available and fits into their schedule
- Easily accessible from the office or remotely
Learners also want self-guided learning that allows them to jump from one topic to the next at their own pace.
Micro-learning checks all of these boxes so that employees genuinely engage with the content.
2. Increases learner retention
Another one of the advantages of micro-learning is that it increases learner retention.
When learners are given small bits of information-rich content, they’re more likely to remember what they watched or read.
Here are two scenarios:
- A company holds a 2-hour long sales training with speakers and PowerPoint presentations walking through the sales process steps.
- A company releases one 5-minute long animated video every week, detailing a specific step of the sales cycle.
Which scenario do you think provides the most value for the company?
Scenario two, of course!
Both scenarios provide employees with information about the company’s sales cycle. However, scenario one is information overload, while scenario two provides a more digestible amount of content.
Content that’s quick and focused on one topic helps with learner retention.
3. Gives employees relevant, actionable insights
Third, bite-sized learning content provides employees with job-specific knowledge that they can directly apply to their roles.
For example, let’s say you want your sales teams to close more sales. You can create a 5-minute video on building client trust and creating urgency in the sales process. At the end, you can challenge your employees to put one of the tips from the video into practice.
Because the video was only 5 minutes long:
- Your sales team can easily remember and pick out one tip
- Sales reps can quickly revisit and rewatch the video if necessary
Short, relevant content helps employees take away information and put it into practice.
4. Quickly release “just-in-time” and refresher training
Small learning nuggets are also an excellent way to give employees “just-in-time” and refresher training.
“Just-in-time” training
Things can change quickly, especially in our ever-evolving business environment. With micro-learning content, you can create and distribute necessary training or information at a moment’s notice.
As soon as something comes up, you can deploy relevant content into the hands of your employees.
Refresher training
In addition, bite-sized learning content is the perfect way to help employees remain knowledgeable in vital areas.
Did you know that employees (and humans in general) can forget 50-80% of all information learned if it’s not reinforced?
Instead of having employees go through an entire training program again, you can release micro-learning videos, blogs, infographics, etc., on previous training topics to keep the information fresh in your employees’ minds.
5. Provides upskilling and reskilling opportunities
Micro-learning allows you to provide new training and upskilling opportunities to employees.
The Future of Jobs Report from 2018 stated that labor markets would be disrupted, jobs would require new skills, and entire industries would be transformed. As we’re coming out of the COVID season, this is coming true.
Many work environments and industries are changing. As a result, roles are becoming more fluid, and employees need to learn new skills quickly.
Bite-sized learning is the perfect tool for creating Skill Agility® in the workplace—the ability to adapt and change at the pace of change. Employers can utilize micro-learning content to help their employees transform their skills and knowledge to fit any new environment.
Your go-to team for fun, engaging micro-learning content
eLearning micro-learning is a way to provide employees with accessible, bite-sized chunks of information. Unlike longer training sessions, micro-learning uses quick reads and short videos to capture attention and drive retention.
The many benefits of bite-sized learning in the workplace include:
- Heightening employee engagement with training
- Increasing learner retention
- Giving employees relevant, actionable insight
- Quickly releasing “just-in-time” and refresher training
- Providing employees with upskilling and reskilling opportunities
Ultimately, micro-learning training content provides the modern workforce with content that’s tailored to their needs and desires.
Are you ready to start seeing these advantages of micro-learning in your workplace?
At Unboxed Training & Technology, we’re your go-to team for training content that’s engaging and effective. First, our creative team takes the time to understand your company and its training needs. Then, they work to create fun, engaging content that your employees won't want to put down. Oh, and our award-winning online learning platform, Spoke®, is the perfect way to house and deliver all your content. So whether you’re looking to revamp your current training program or want an entirely new program, you can count on us to deliver what you need.
Reach out to us today to learn more about “What is bite-sized learning?” and see some bite-size learning examples in real-time.
Request a demo to see how custom, creative micro-learning content can impact your teams.
