Setting your employees up for successful change

Human psychology teaches us that fear of change is one of the most common fears people face. A simple change to a company structure, or the introduction of a new software, can heavily impact the motivation and productivity of an employee. Companies who ignore the impact of change on their employees often find themselves with unenthused employees, low end-user adoption and disappointing ROIs on new technological tools.

Put simply, change management is the administration and controlling of developmental changes within a business. There are many processes and formulas to build successful change management within an organization, but none as simple as increasing the communication and collaboration among your employees.

 "… A change without meaningful communication is a change without impact. — Andrew Light

In the past, companies found it difficult to effectively communicate business changes to their employees in an informative and engaging way. Now — with the advent of learning platforms and digital workplace technologies — managers can easily communicate changes with engaging training materials that utilize voice notes, images, videos and more.

Using digital workplace technologies and learning platforms, companies can further enhance employee training by incorporating more opportunities for consistent employee learning and improvement.

How can this be done? By starting to position learning as an integral part of one's daily workflow.

Learning in the flow of work — employee learning as a company responsibility

Your employees must buy-in to your company changes in order for these shifts to be successful. Your employees are your secret weapon when it comes to successful adoption of new tools and initiatives. However, what many business leaders haven't yet understood is what keeps your employees engaged with your company initiatives is their access to learning tools.

 "As automation, AI, and new job models reconfigure the business world, lifelong learning has become accepted as an economic imperative — Josh Bersin & Marc Zao-Sanders (Making Learning a Part of Everyday Work (hbr.org))

Josh Bersin, industry analyst and leader in talent and learning trends, put forth a revolutionary method called Learning in the Flow of Work: a practice that recognizes that, "for learning to really happen, it must fit around and align itself to working days and working lives." Bersin postulates that corporate learning should no longer be seen as an end point, but as a part of an employee's every day.

Learner behavior has gone through its own shift; individuals are motivated by what they need to learn and how accessible it is for them to learn it. People used platforms like YouTube and Google for early Learning in the Flow of Work behavior; they are easy to access, search and utilize for on-the-go learning.

Examples of this daily learning flow are also in your inbox. People commonly subscribe to daily news recaps, 'Word a Day' lists, or even foreign language exercises to promote consistent and cohesive learning practices. These are examples of how learning can become a fixed part of our day with easy access to the required information.

Meeting your employees where they already work with Microsoft Teams

Today, organizations can bring Learning into the Flow of the Work with digital technologies like Microsoft Teams. Teams is a technological set of tools and capabilities that help businesses communicate, collaborate and co-create with effective ease.

The Teams platform incorporates both micro-learning and macro-learning, which Bersin expresses to be a key factor in employee learning capabilities. Additionally, Microsoft Teams makes it easy to reach your employee training and learning goals by:

• Allowing for customizable learning and boosting the training methods that lead to success
• Putting learning opportunities at the fingertips of your employees
• Providing a platform that is easy to access, navigate and collaborate with from anywhere and at any time

Combining Microsoft Teams with a learning platform allows you to support company change management by providing detailed, accessible training to your employees, while also building talent and securing your position in a fast-paced, people-driven environment.

The future of learning

With the introduction of Bersin's concept of Learning in Flow of Work and the rise of learning platforms, it's easy to see the shifts being made towards the individual, end-user, learner and employee.

The everyday work schedule is morphing from being filled with email replies and long-winded meetings to a focus on employee learning, team collaboration and company change management.

Incorporating digital workplace tools keeps your organization aligned with Learning in the Flow of work practices and enables your company and employees to evolve as fast as the technologies themselves.

Don't be left behind: Learn about how to incorporate Learning in the Flow of Work with LMS365, the only learning platform built Microsoft Teams, read LMS365 case stories and view a demo here.