Microlearning is one of the most useful and innovative introductions to modern training. In the fast-paced workplaces, employees benefit from quick, accessible training methods that let them learn on the job and refresh their training without delays.
Microlearning for employee training is the ideal solution to improving training speed, precision, and retention. Through accessible micro-lessons, employees enjoy reduced training time with hands-on practice, where mistakes are minimized through quick references and resources. With the help of the right learning management system (LMS) for each organization, microlearning is now reshaping employee training strategy for industries across the board.
What is Microlearning?
Microlearning involves short, focused learning modules that address a single topic, skill, or process. Microlearning can help employees train quickly for a specific situation or task without breaking from their routine or scheduling a full-scale training session. They can check the lesson, skim the reference material, and perform tasks with freshly trained accuracy, all in the natural course of the workday.
Common formats for microlearning content include short videos, detailed infographics, interactive quizzes, example scenarios, and quick mobile-based lessons.
How Microlearning Differs
Microlearning stands out from traditional training methods in its short-form accessibility. Microlearning is designed to be consumed on the job. Whether by new hires learning the ropes, old pros refreshing their knowledge of a specific procedure, or a team training on new technology, microlearning makes it easy to learn and refresh without breaking your stride.
Employees can access microlearning lessons from workstations and personal devices whenever they are needed, and complete each task without guesswork.
Why Microlearning Works for Employees
The contemporary working environment is fast-paced with increasing demand for multi-skilled proficiency. This makes microlearning an ideal resource for modern employees navigating their way through an evolving workload
Attention Spans & Information Overload
Microlearning provides bite-sized learning. This makes it easy to absorb one skill at a time while keeping engagement levels high. No sleepy-eyed morning training meetings. Instead, employees access training when it is most relevant, in small and easy-to-remember units.
On-Demand Access
Mobile-accessible microlearning makes it possible for employees to learn what they need in the moment. They can make sure they understand a piece of equipment, procedure, or set of policies. Mobile learning also enables flexible scheduling beyond structured training sessions.
Improved Knowledge Retention
Smaller chunks of information applied immediately on the job are much easier to remember than full training sessions that cover multiple subjects in longer sessions.
Benefits of Microlearning in Employee Training
When microlearning is introduced to a workforce, several clear and uplifting benefits emerge. Employees enjoy access to microlessons and can make active use of them to improve their work.
- Increased Learner Engagement
- Employees engage more fully with small lessons that are immediately relevant to their tasks.
- Faster Skill Acquisition
- Employees gain skills faster with a short cycle between learning and doing.
- Cost-Effective to Produce and Update
- Each micro-lesson requires minimal investment to create or update, ensuring a cost-effective approach to comprehensive training.
- Adaptable to Learning Styles and Accessibility
- Micro-lessons can be easily adapted to accommodate different learning styles and abilities. Audio, visual, interactive, and sensory-altered lessons can be produced in equally bite-sized pieces.
- Just-In-Time Training
- Microlearning is ideal for helping employees train and refresh, so that best practices are always top-of-mind for each task.
Real-World Applications of Microlearning
Microlearning is incredibly versatile because it can teach anything in small, highly relevant lessons. A micro-learning unit might be a single infographic, a short video lesson, or an interactive quiz that helps reinforce the essentials of an on-the-job skill. There are many potential real-world applications in every industry and sector due to the adaptive nature of the training method.
Onboarding New Employees
New employees are often overwhelmed when expected to "learn the ropes" in a sequence of all-day training sessions. However, absorbing and retaining all that information is more effective when applied through small learning modules, bite-sized pieces, and the opportunity to see skills in action soon after learning them.
New employees equipped with microlearning can enjoy an initial routine that alternates between shadowing and training, where each training module pairs with real-world experience in the same day.
Equipment and Procedure Training
Using professional equipment always requires training, and a refresher is often useful to ensure that each employee uses the right procedure and best practices for each machine or technical process.
Making microlearning modules available is an excellent way to ensure every employee uses equipment correctly and is able to double-check what they remember to avoid mistakes.
Compliance Training Updates
Compliance is an evolving requirement that often requires updated training. Rather than hosting a comprehensive training session with only a few new pieces of information, you can keep your team up to date on compliance with microlearning modules.
Product Knowledge Refreshers
Employees who work in sales or product support benefit from a comprehensive knowledge of products, but not everyone is a human catalog with perfect detail recall. Microlearning makes it easy for employees to refresh their product knowledge when the information is the most useful to them and your customers or business partners.
Leadership and Soft-Skills Development
Leadership is all about applying the right skills at the right time. Learning soft-skills is often inspired by facing real-world scenarios. With microlearning, leaders can explore the right way to handle each situation and build their soft skills based on scenarios as they arise within the team.
How an LMS Supports Microlearning
The key element of microlearning is accessibility. Small-sized lessons are the most useful when employees can access them on-demand. Often from a phone or connected workstation. This makes the right learning management system (LMS) the ideal solution to provide microlearning for employee training.
An LMS can provide:
- Centralized Hosting
- A core location to host and access all microlearning modules
- Mobile Compatibility
- A mobile app that connects to the LMS platform for on-the-go learning
- Progress Tracking & Analytics
- The ability to see stats on module access and individual learning stats
- Accessibility Tools
- Integration with accessibility tools and methods to ensure everyone has full access to microlearning modules
Best Practices for Implementing Microlearning
Microlearning modules are often designed internally because they relate directly and precisely to a company's internal workflows. So how can you ensure that your microlearning implementation is engaging, accessible, and provides the full scope of benefits to your team?
Short and Sweet
Keep modules under five to ten minutes long. Some may be only two minutes or presented as a single infographic for convenient reference. The key is to provide bite-sized information that is relevant to specific tasks without significant workflow interruption.
Interactive Elements
Use quiz questions and small game-like features to help employees engage with the learning. Interactive elements boost engagement and memory retention. Encourage employees to not only brush up their skills, but to put them to use before trying the task in person.
Pair with Knowledge Checks
Don't just provide information. Pair microlearning lessons with knowledge checks. Employees who apply their information immediately can improve knowledge retention and make it easier to apply their skills immediately. Allow employees to quiz themselves and check their scores to see how well they have retained information and whether they need to access further modules.
Ensure Accessibility
Make sure your microlearning-capable LMS is equipped with ADA-compliant accessibility features. This ensures that all learners are able to access and make full use of your microlearning modules, including those with different sensory needs, manual control methods, or learning styles.
Why YesLMS is Ideal for Microlearning
YesLMS was designed to make professional training accessible for all users. Microlearning elements ensure that professionals are able to access small, important lessons in the moment alongside full-sized courses.
Accessibility-First Design
YesLMS was designed to provide accessibility as a primary feature to ensure inclusivity for every member of your team. Accessibility features aren't an add-on or hidden behind an upgrade. They are at the heart of YesLMS and included with the core plan so you can provide full accessibility in your micro-learning and training courses from day one.
Scalable and Easy to Use
YesLMS makes it easy to build your own micro-content with a scalable design that can expand to the needs of any organization. Whether you need just a few lessons or a complex system of microlearning modules to serve multiple departments and teams, you'll find it easy to add and customize modules and train team leaders to prepare sections unique to their department needs.
Transparent Pricing for Growing Organizations
You can predict your training costs from the start with YesLMS's transparent per-user pricing model. We know that growing organizations need a predictable budget that scales smoothly as you introduce more learners – and without surprise fees. The YesLMS pricing model is designed to help you achieve that goal.
Proven Success
YesLMS has seen successful implementation for government agencies, nonprofit groups, and SMB sectors where training, predictable pricing, and accessibility features are all top priorities. Our introduction of microlearning and mobile-accessible modules ensures full versatility for training your people, for every organization's unique training needs.
Empower Your Team with Microlearning
Microlearning for employee training is a powerful way to ensure your team has the information they need, exactly when they need it. Microlearning supports modern employee development by providing on-demand training with opportunities to learn new skills and keep old skills fresh without delays. With the right LMS, your organization can access all the advantages of microlearning with full accessibility features.
See how YesLMS supports microlearning with every industry–Book a Demo today!
