Why Do You Need Your Learners to be Engaged

Engagement refers to an emotional involvement with something. It can be anything – a person, a job, a task, or a piece of learning.

You may be thinking – Now why should I bother about making the learning engaging? The staff will have to go through it, anyway. Well, here is what you risk if you do not think about the engagement quotient of your learners.

If your employees do not find a learning interesting, they will quit midway. Even if you make it compulsory, they may just flip through the pages and quit emotionally. There will be a huge drop-out rate for your boring courses.
You can force your learners to go through a boring course. But, they may not retain any knowledge from it. Adult learners have a minimal attention span. If you give them a boring page-turner course, it will be a sheer waste of the time and money you spend on creating the course. At the end of it, they would not benefit from the learning in any way.
If your employees are not motivated by the learning you provide, they will be deskilled and unhappy. Dissatisfied employees are less productive and are more likely to quit their jobs and seek employees that offer better learning opportunities. You really do not wish to deal with a high turnover cost, do you?

Designing Digitally has come up with a useful infographic that talks about the top ten ways in which you can improve the overall interactivity and engagement throughout learning experiences. But before that, let’s talk about the various benefits of having engaged learners and how interactivity enhances engagement.

#1: Engaged learners are motivated.

Corporate trainers will give an arm and a leg to keep their learners motivated and engaged in the learning process. The modern learner is tech savvy. They have exposure to technologies and are connected to people worldwide. They have access to numerous apps that keep them busy and engaged. So, you need more than a ‘click next’ kind of training to catch their fancy. If you make the training interactive, they will find it exciting and remain hooked to the learning. Motivated learners are the goal of any training program.

#2: Engaged learners are productive.

When your employees like the learning, they take it seriously and learn skills from it. Skilled employees are happy employees. And, happy employees are productive ones. They are more likely to love their jobs and put an effort to do it well. They will want to innovate and improve the existing processes. At the end of it, higher productivity will lead to a better revenue and profit margin. Also, don’t forget the lower staff turnover costs.

#3: Engaged learners retain better

Studies have shown that learners who are engaged in the training content have higher retention rates. They learn faster and can recall better. This is natural. If your learners are paying attention to what is being taught, then they will remember the concept and be able to apply it at work. In scenario-based learning, learners are allowed to choose their own path and make decisions without the fear of being judged. Whatever decisions they make, they face the consequences. If they make mistakes, they learn from it. When they face a similar situation in real life, they do not make the same mistake.

Interactive elements in learning create curiosity, and that leads to engaged learners. They have the power to transform even the dullest courses to engaging and emotionally driven content. Your online courses must encourage your learners to think, explore, and evaluate their actions based on the decisions they take during the interactions.

Various studies reveal that a major reason why employees quit is because they feel that their organization do not provide them with enough opportunities for growth. It’s high time that organizations realize that performance, productivity, employee engagement, and profitability are all related. It may not be easy to keep your employees engaged, but it is important to make an effort towards it. Forbes believes that an engaged workforce results in 6% higher net profit margin and 5 times higher return from shareholders.

Designing Digitally, Inc. specializes in interactive elearning that keeps the learners motivated. We convert common web-based training components to meaningful scenarios and relevant activities.

Get in touch with our team of experts today to ensure your learners are engaged during training!