06/06/2019
Hello Friends! The new Big Boots Blog is up! I'd love for you to check it out. All about training. :)
https://www.bigbootsproductions.com/post/the-shift-to-microlearning
The Shift To Microlearning
Since the start of Big Boots Productions in 2007, we’ve serviced the retail training experts at Graff Retail and produced all the videos for their #1 online training system for retailers, “Graff Retail Online”. We’ve always been proud of our association with their incredible team and of the body of work we’ve created for them in the video series “Get Selling”, “Get Managing” and the most recent "Ready to Serve", focussing on the liquor sector. Graff Retail has been very successful in creating a “one stop shop” for retail organizations to train their associates and management via their e-learning platform. Their training includes videos, workbooks, coaching tools and continued support.
Over the past few years, a plan has been in the works to update their training video series, not only to acknowledge changes in the retail landscape, but to make the programs even easier to execute for retailers. To address challenges with implementing the programs on the sales floor and maintaining employee engagement, they made the decision to take their current format of 15-20-minute training videos and whittle them down to an easier to consume series of 5-minute videos. To “test the waters” on this format, in 2016 we worked with Graff Retail to produce a series of customized 5-minute training videos for COOP stores in Western Canada and format proved to be successful. So, we took this approach again with their most recent series "Ready to Serve". As it turns out, this shift to “Microlearning” is one of the leading trends in corporate training for 2019 and is being embraced and implemented by more and more businesses every day to training their staff successfully!
So, what is Microlearning and why is it a trend? Microlearning is an effective way to train your staff using short, engaging training units around 3-5 minutes or less, focused on maximum impact with minimal time commitment. It’s easy to see how this would be an appealing way to train employees given this age of ever-decreasing attention spans! With less time to deliver their message, it also forces companies to focus on specific points in each training unit, making the message easier to absorb. Instead of gathering staff together to watch a 30-minute training video (which is often a challenge), each employee can either log on to an e-learning platform to complete their daily training in minutes, or access the training on their mobile device. It's a cost-effective way to produce training videos and a quick and easy format to change or update so a company can always keep their employees on top of new changes and developments in the business, as well as changing products or services. What’s even more appealing about this format is that it encourages ongoing learning.
In the fast-paced world of Retail, Microlearning may in fact be the ideal way to deliver training to sales associates and management. Less time spent on training during a workday would ensure staff are on the floor sooner, ready to put their training into practice and hit their daily sales targets. Onboarding would also become quicker, easier and less overwhelming for new staff. Consider the many areas that need to be covered in the retail training process; company practices, sales training, management training, product knowledge, omni-channel sales, loss prevention, health and safety and the list goes on! Shorter, more concise, easy to watch training videos, could help with information retention and increase employee engagement!
Of course, the advantages of the micro - learning approach doesn't only benefit retail organizations! Easy-to-produce, easy to consume, easy to implement videos could help companies in any sector improve their training and overall staff performance. Let's face it...training isn't what it used to be! In a world consumed by social media where people absorb information via 15 second videos or "X" amount of characters and then move on...organizations need to develop their training to meet the evolving average attention span!
So, it looks like Graff Retail may be onto something! It will be exciting to see how this new direction in training might benefit all organizations in 2019!
Tricia Jarrett
Company President
Executive Producer
