Dive Brief:

• Employers of all sizes are using cloud-based technology to augment their onboarding efforts, according to an article at HR.BLR.​
• As a result, they are making the process more engaging, fun, and effective, says Karl Mehta, CEO of EdCast, a personal learning network.
• By leveraging cloud-based technology and trends in social networking, trainers have opportunities to adopt a “peer-to-peer format,” making onboarding “far more fun and engaging than the traditional way learning was delivered," Mehta says in the article.

Dive Insight:

“In the past, training tended to be ‘HR centric’ or ‘course centric,’ while the new paradigm is user centric,” Mehta says. 

Many companies using the cloud still conduct in-person onboarding events, but the technology gives them the opportunity to personalize onboarding. For example, if two new hires join a company on the same day but one is a faster learner or more experienced, that individual might feel frustrated learning with a group in a classroom or rehashing information he or she has already mastered.

With cloud-based technology, new hires can proceed with onboarding at their own pace and, once they demonstrate their knowledge in a certain area, the technology allows them to skip over information that less experienced employees would have to complete, he says.

Other benefits include reduced costs for classroom training, the ability for learners to access content anywhere and anytime, and the employer’s ability to continuously refresh content, to push information to employees, and to make onboarding “a continuous event,” Mehta says, adding that when moving to the cloud, it is important to be open to change. 

“You can’t take advantage of all the innovation if you have a locked mindset,” he adds.