Why is workflow learning the future for business?

Workflow learning is a relatively new practice that helps HR tackle emerging issues in the L&D field. The growing gap between required skills and existing skills is just one factor that makes learning initiatives important.

A recent LinkedIn study of over 6,607 research and development (R&D) professionals found that 57% expect to spend more on learning this year than in previous years. The statistics show that workflow learning affects the future of employee training. But what does this mean? Let’s review what workflow learning is and why it influences the effectiveness of the business in remarkable ways.

Moving learning into the workflow means providing self-study manuals, resources, and learning materials that employees can access on-demand from anywhere.

Workflow learning supports the productivity of your employees, helping them learn while working. The key to workflow learning is that it happens alongside regular work processes. This means employees can perform work tasks and learn simultaneously. Workflow learning is different from traditional training in several important ways.

Workflow learning helps improve employees’ performance when training distracts employees from everyday tasks. For example, when employees face gaps in knowledge, they can look for information in your company’s resources and complete tasks using training materials from your workflow. That’s what workflow learning does: it allows employees to learn when they need it. So, knowledge to search for info is the answer.

With workflow learning, employees don’t need mastering skills because they have access to information when they need it. Thus, to set your employees up for success with learning in the workflow, you need to teach them where they can find the information they’re looking for.

“Wait, but then, it doesn’t look like an alternative to full-fledged training,” you may continue. And still, there are some points to discuss.

Many L&D experts argue that workflow learning isn’t learning. In the strictest sense, they may be correct. A quick search for information is unlikely to lead to a lasting change in behavior, as workflow learning tools rarely assess gained knowledge.

However, according to Josh Bersin, the president and founder of Bersin & Associates, workflow learning focuses on lifelong learning. For workers, “the goal is to search correctly, then learn something, apply it, and get back to work.” Bersin writes that by providing advice and tools that “help us improve our work,” learning in the workflow offers the approach today’s employees really want.

Workflow learning helps in situations where employees are stuck at work. Typically, these are moments when employees need to ask a leader or colleague questions to work on a project or create a report.

In these scenarios, your employees can use your learning resources (guides, onboarding materials, or templates) to complete a task through workflow learning.

Now, let’s move to the practical part of workforce learning, or what misunderstandings may occur during the learning process.

Bob Mosher, the CEO and chief learning evangelist at Apply Synergies, offers three tips for organizations considering the learning process in the workplace:

Don’t be afraid to involve workers in new practices and experiences. Focus on productivity and encourage the development of new skills.

Be careful with upskilling. Sometimes, incorrect learning can harm employees because people in the hierarchy may rise to their “level of incompetence” (the Peter Principle). Workflow learning is excellent, and it should make sense; if it hurts, what’s the point?

Think about the results you’re trying to achieve. Determine whether outcomes are operational and skills-based or more strategic and opportunity-oriented.