People often get wrapped up in the daily tasks of their jobs. So much so they forget to take some time to learn new skills that can improve their productivity and performance on the job. However, taking time to learn new skills isn’t just beneficial. It’s actually crucial to personal and business success alike. In fact, employers are realising the importance of offering an interactive learning experience to help employees grow and improve. In this article, we’ll take a look at interactive learning and its positive effects on businesses.
What is Interactive Learning?
Interactive learning is another name for eLearning. In essence it involves combining traditional instructional methods with technology. Research suggests that a blended approach to learning—whether online or in-person training—can boost productivity by helping learners retain information over time and improve their ability to problem solve.
This combination of benefits comes from learning in an environment that’s highly responsive, engaging, and interactive. While we’re all for having fun at work, there’s serious value here. Research shows that increased workplace productivity translates into more profits for businesses. In addition, interactive learning helps employees maintain motivation through interactions with instructors. This can actually reduce attrition rates by removing some of the boring stigma associated with classroom instruction.
Interactive learning offers many benefits to organisations that are willing to invest in it. It offers a way for companies to save money and invest in training that is more engaging, cost-effective, and ultimately boosts productivity.
Specifically, interactive learning offers three key benefits:
1) The ability to train your entire team from a single platform;
2) Interactive content that makes training memorable;
3) Gamification tools make work more fun.
Experiential Learning Environment
Creating an experiential learning environment can take time. But it’s worth it. If you want to increase your employees’ productivity, you need them—literally—to walk away with knowledge and skills they can apply on their own time. Good interactive courses offer interactivity that lets learners complete tasks and solve problems in a simulated environment that mimics real-world conditions.
Bad eLearning makes employees watch dry videos about corporate policies or put checkboxes next to bullet points as they mindlessly click through slideshows.
The Forgetting Curve
Your employees are more likely to remember what they learn through immersive learning since it requires them to actively participate in the process. We have replaced traditional PowerPoint presentations with a virtual Lean simulation game where users explore and discover new skills. This will help your team retain knowledge and make sure everyone is up-to-date on Lean tools such as DMAIC.
According to recent research, people retain as much as 80% of what they learn through immersive learning techniques. In fact, they can retain information two times faster than traditional instruction methods. And they are more likely to continue using what they learned on a consistent basis. That’s why it’s important for businesses today to incorporate immersive learning into their overall employee-training strategy.
Experiential Learning Saves Money
One of the biggest benefits of using interactive learning as a corporate training technique is that it can save your company money in the long run. While large-scale e-learning courses may seem more cost effective up front, over time they tend to be far less cost effective than an interactive approach. By leveraging an interactive learning platform, your employees will be able to spend less time watching videos and more time applying new knowledge in real-world scenarios. That means they’ll become better at their jobs faster, which means you’ll have less employee turnover down the road. Fewer turnovers equal fewer training costs.
Ultimately, this hands-on approach provides valuable skills and improves overall productivity, making it ideal for new hires who need time adjusting before they become completely useful in their roles.
So What’s the Solution?
Make sure your courses are as engaging as possible by choosing engaging course design software and making sure your instructor knows how to use it well.
If you’re looking for ways to boost employee productivity, consider using a training game from our Leanteams Simulation . Our simulation game lets your employees hone their skills without requiring them to take several days off work at a time.
What is the LeanTeams Simulation Game?
The training game is, first and foremost, an online experiential learning simulation. It is centred on leveraging online workflows to process customer orders from multiple customers. We use a pharmaceutical supply chain in our generic version of the game. This, however, can be tailored to specific industry sectors.
Second, participants are asked to take on various roles. Sales, customer service, finance, operations, and supervision, for example, are all included in the game. The game’s goal is to highlight the common inefficiencies often seen in offices and workflow processes. Next, we show how simple changes to workflow processes can may be made to boost value to your customer.
This game allows your team to learn about Lean and see it in action in real time.
- Recognise the customer’s perceived value.
- Identify a value stream and eliminate any waste linked with it (unnecessary movements of tasks between individuals, hidden inventories, lost waiting time, over-processing, over-productions and the impact of passing incorrect information to another team member).
- Allow products and information to flow at the rate demanded by customers.
- Strive for excellence by always improving.
Clients have achieved a return of between 6 and 16:1 on their investment as participants apply the learning to their standard work over a period of 8 weeks with mentor support.
Conclusion
Business training and development isn’t about a one-time presentation or lecture. It’s about providing employees with ongoing opportunities to grow their skills and succeed in their jobs. Look for innovative ways to engage workers at all levels, from new hires to senior leaders. The key is making learning fun and helping them feel a sense of accomplishment, so they leave each training session wanting more. After all, learning is a great way to build employee engagement and improve employee productivity—and it can even be enjoyable. If you’re looking for effective ways to keep your workforce engaged, then interactive learning might just be your answer.
Interested in finding out more about our LeanTeams Game? Contact us for a LeanTeams Demo and see how this innovative learning can accelerate your business growth.
We hope you enjoyed reading about why using interactive learning can boost employee productivity. You may also be interested in reading our articles on why companies are turning to online experiential learning for training & development and 9 signs your business processes are broken. All our blogs are available to read here. To keep up-to-date with all our new, subscribe to our newsletter. Please connect with us on Linkedin and Twitter
