20 years since learning management systems were introduced to treat the problem, low engagement rates with solutions for training, communications and compliance persist.
How is it that despite higher than ever levels of technological mobility, low frontline worker engagement with professional content remains at a meagre 30–40%?
Recent solutions: New Dog, Old Tricks
The answer lies in that despite the fact that technological platforms have evolved, the overall approach of engaging with employees has remained the same. Namely, that LMSs or org-wide systems give senior managers the perception of oversight and the illusion that the platform enables effective top-down management, without actually delivering a system that employees attend and respond to.
More features ≠ better employee engagement
This is based on two misconceptions. Firstly, there is the belief that a system with more features leads to better engagement. More numerous capabilities are not an effective substitute for the right capabilities. All the content templates, customizable surveys, communications features aren’t much good if an employee is not attentive to, or is reluctant to download the organizational app. In this sense, org-apps take an approach of publishing content, with the hope that an employee will log-on and check it out. It’s a bit of a hit and hope.
Secondly, there is the misconception that new org-apps are somehow different in their approach to the previous generation of cumbersome learning management systems. They have bright logos, slick marketing materials, but what’s really going on here is that new players have taken the publishing approach of the old-school LMS and simply transposed it to mobile.
You’re no longer publishing your key content from a 2003 Dell desktop that looks like it belongs in a museum, but the result is essentially the same: employees are still not actually getting the right content in a way that suits their needs. And the low engagement and completion rates of 30–40% continue to be the norm.
On a functional level, here are a few of the main reasons org-apps continue to fall short.
1. Creating the right content has been an issue
For org-apps, creating the right content has unsurprisingly been difficult: It’s time-consuming. It’s hard to do professionally, often requiring contractors or FTEs who have advanced skills on creative platforms. It’s ineffective: current formats including, PDF, docx, ppt, are just not engaging for on-the-go employees.
2. Employees are reluctant to use organizational apps
74% of employees don’t see the need to download org-apps which are not highly relevant to their daily job scope.¹ And the 30-day retention of these apps are about 10–20%.² Uh oh. The lengthy platform onboarding and complex implementation processes associated with organizational-apps also present significant barriers.
3. Engagement is not a one-way street.
The top-down publishing approach hardly makes employees feel valued. Solutions have to engage employees in a way that suits their preferences, and is directly beneficial to them in the scope of their job. Additionally, solutions must give employees a chance to ask questions and discuss their activities with colleagues and management. The chance to discuss bites of professional content creates an open communication channel, and the result is often remarkable. Key insights and valuable feedback emerge in this context.
Well, what can you do?
By using the communication channels employees prefer, and story-like formats that they enjoy, Bites introduces a paradigm shift in the industry and creates new possibilities for employee engagement.
Now you can create engaging content that your employees will actually enjoy, and you can share it seamlessly, and in the most effective way. It’s a solution for training, communications, and everything in between.
Bites consistently reaches completion levels above 90% within 24 hours, enabling you to achieve your goals again and again. After 20 years of ineffective organizational solutions, it’s time to stop taking employee disengagement as a fact of life.