Why MicroLearning Better Trains Gen Z Employees

Millions of Gen-Z workers are entering the labor force. Businesses need to adapt their training methods to ensure those workers succeed With the retail and restaurant industries facing increasingly tight margins and ever-expanding competition, nearly anything an operator can do to manage costs and improve efficiency is a benefit.One of the key ways a business can accomplish those goals is through effective training. Employees who receive great training are able to perform their jobs with confidence, leading to higher morale, lower turnover, more consistent brand messaging and a more profitable operation. But with more of our day-to-day lives being centered around technology, the way training programs are delivered is changing. Instead of having workers sit in a classroom or training center for hours on end, training programs increasingly rely on microlearning, or delivering knowledge to learners in short, easily digestible nuggets. Wikipedia defines microlearning as “a holistic approach for skill-based learning and education which deals with relatively small learning units. And according to eLearning.com, microlearning is an ideal way to cope with training challenges caused by employees’ dwindling attention spans. The short duration of microlearning modules allows learners to focus on the content, resulting in learning of higher quality. Short videos are serving as a prime delivery method for microlearning, with researchers at the University of Rochester finding that the optimal length for instructional videos is six minutes or less. Microlearning is particularly well-suited to “Gen-Z” workers, or those born from the mid-1990s to the early 2000s. Those workers grew up with the Internet, are highly visual and are the biggest consumers of what some have termed “snack media,” or information delivered in short, succinct pieces. Gen Z accounts for 61 million people in the United States, according to a May 2018 CNBC article, making up about 25 percent of today’s labor force. A recent survey conducted by the Association for Talent Development found that 38 percent of the talent development professionals queried currently use microlearning, with another 41 percent planning to start within the next year.There’s a good reason why companies are adopting microlearning platforms to train new employees: they work.One entry into the microlearning arena is INCITE, a mobile training and communication platform developed by technology firm Multimedia Plus. Key features of the INCITE platform include:
  • Video without streaming, eliminating video hiccups for media-rich content that is optimized for a low bandwidth environment.
  • A branded experience to resonate with associates and reinforce company culture while driving business goals.
  • Untethered mobility that allows access to information from anywhere at any time.
  • Real-time results that are accessible by field leaders to provide live metrics and accountability.
 INCITE allows business operators to deliver training material in short modules whenever and wherever employees have free time. Proprietary analytics tools spotlight areas of improvement needed for employees or groups of employees and identify opportunities to reward. Microlearning platforms are transforming the way companies train workers and grow their businesses. If you’re not incorporating microlearning into your training program, chances are your employees, of all generations, aren’t performing as well as they could.