It´s not an easy task to build up training programs which aim at boosting Services personnel´s proficiency. You need to take into account that trainings are not tailored to the individual, but target a group, thus, on the average, learners already know about 20% of the content. Moreover, in an agile environment with constant changes, new or updated training content is required in increasingly shorter intervals.
Taking a different approach
“An effective method to combat those challenges evolved as my team was testing a clinically proven approach for knowledge retention and behavior change from a third-party vendor,” explains Gerhard Frischholz, Head of Delivery Enabling for Services and Solutions in Nokia´s Service Business Unitt. “As a basic principle, this approach is made up of a sequence of questions, which is streamed to the learner in intervals over a period of time. If the answer is correct, the learner moves on to the next question. If incorrect, a short, 1-minute learning video is shown. The learner earns points by timely responding to the questions, which stimulates engagement: a well-known effect of applying game mechanics.”
This approach allowed trainees to focus on and learn what was unknown for them, while skipping content which they already had learned before. The questions and the respective microcontent to learn spanned over a longer period, thus the training time was no longer than 10 minutes per day.
In addition, the gaming concept, where learners can earn points and compete with others, strengthens their learning motivation.
Saving time, cost and efforts
“The typical enablement practice involves two separate process steps: first, analyzing gaps and then, selecting the most applicable learning solutions. These two steps can now be combined into one by using this new approach and therefore significant amounts of time and effort can be saved, leading to quicker results,” Gerhard says. “It also helps reduce the time and cost of enablement, by 20% on the average. And last but not least, this method is well suited for enabling individuals in an agile environment, where learning content is to be changed constantly and rapidly.”
