Companies are increasingly aware that the greatest treasure they have are their employees and their knowledge. In fact, in many companies, they are the ones in charge of creating and sharing knowledge, becoming authentic trainers on their own. This practice is called employee generated learning (EGL) and is absolutely essential in business training.
Étienne Wegner, educational theoretical, states:
“Knowledge management in companies will never be entirely effective if, in addition to owning it, we don’t create and use it correctly”.
The reason for this change of scenario is very simple. No one knows the internal procedures better, how they work and where the valuable information is to be found. Therefore, they are the most suitable people to create any tasks, procedures, areas, and products. Combining both profiles, the former’s and the employees’, will help you meet training objectives faster and more effectively, reinforcing your organizational culture, as well as many other aspects of your company. Here are the most important points to consider?.
Why foster employee-generated organizational learning?
1. It increases loyalty and involvement
Generating organizational training content that helps other colleagues do their job better increases professional motivation. Teaching is a rewarding task and helps you connect with your knowledge, company values and the rest of the team on a deeper level.
2. Employees will broaden their knowledge voluntarily
Expert employees, when working on knowledge sharing, have to further develop certain expertise to explain it in the best possible way. They re-learn and reinforce concepts on their own to create high quality material, so it’s useful for those who are trained with it.
3. The learning process becomes more personal
Employees can help one another internally without going through the training managers. Learning has become a one-to-one process, strengthening personal relationships now that social distancing and lack of contact shape our daily lives. This ‘teaching and learning’ gives everything a more human feel, both for the trainers and students.
4. Companies get to save time and money
With EGL, training processes are streamlined, allowing to save time and money. With this type of learning, there is no need to turn to third-party providers, and less time is wasted on internal content approvals. Employees themselves already know which issues need to be reinforced and which approach is most appropriate.
5. The learning content belongs to the company forever
All this organizational learning stays in the company for when you need it. The learning generated can be reused as many times as you want, for as long as the information is valid. Without a doubt, the benefits are long-term.
6. EGL is custom-made
The content generated by your employees ensures that the audience gets 100% ‘ad hoc’ learning and that the concepts are captured in the most effective way. They are the ones who are familiar with the day-to-day work at your company -even with remote working-. They know the ins and outs of the procedures, particularities, and even the people to whom the training is addressed to.
7. It provides ‘status’ and professional self-esteem
Which is essential to encourage daily motivation in any worker. Being valuable and useful in your job position improves anyone’s performance, which in the end always positively affects the company’s performance.
8. EGL reinforces your corporate knowledge
This type of content is adapted to the reality of the company and does not focus only on theoretical knowledge that comes from the outside. This way, the internal expertise network is strengthened, allowing problems to be solved in less time and by using fewer resources.
However, for this process to be effective – especially if it’s a new process for the team – it’s necessary to provide them with course creation tools to help them along the way. Remember that your employees likely have no experience creating content, so the learning curve must be minimal and the interface user-friendly. The less they focus on learning to use the tool, the better the quality of content will be.
isEazy Author helps you with this task, since it allows anyone, with or without technical know-how, to create fascinating online courses from the very first minute. Don’t wait any longer to bring your knowledge management culture to life. Try isEazy Author for free and maximize your company’s in-house talent!
