3 Essential L&D Pieces: Feedback, Engagement and Performance

Learning and development is a fast-changing landscape. With new learning formats and technologies constantly changing things up, three things remain constant. Here is a closer look to how feedback, engagement, and performance are likely to impact your learning and development program.

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Feedback

Feedback has been important to learning and development for a long time, but the way that feedback is solicited and collected has transformed. Many organizations are investing in feedback tools to help them better understand how their learners are engaging with their content, and gathering feedback from actions and outcomes rather than from the learner themselves. The questions themselves can often influence the responses in a survey designed to collect feedback, but data collected about actual user experience can be much more telling and measurable. Additionally, organizations are conducting impact studies on their own training programs to better understand the impact of the learnings. This provides companies with the opportunity to conduct a deep analysis of their own data to understand how they can invest in further training programs.

Engagement

Measuring engagement is something that organizations keen to build out their learning and development programs should be very interested in. When learners are engaged in the content, they are more likely to have effective learning outcomes. They have higher retention rates and stronger satisfaction rates when they evaluate programs. Learning and development programs require strong levels of engagement because there is a direct correlation to performance. When setting goals for training programs, it’s critical to measure engagement rates when evaluating performance rates.

Performance

Of course, performance is a key pillar of a successful learning and development program. But how you measure performance can vary from platform to platform. Make sure that you are tying your performance tracking to specific learning outcomes and that your goals make sense within the broader context of your program. Also remember that the higher your engagement, the stronger your performance will be. If you have low performance, look to your engagement rates. Consider mixing up your learning formats, whether they are instructor-led sessions, e-learning modules, or a combination of both, the more engaged your trainees are, the more likely they will retain and use the lessons you are imparting on them in their daily work. These three pillars work together to form the foundation of success for any learning and development program. Whether you are exploring new formats or new technologies to enhance the learning experience and improve outcomes, if you build off of these three essentials, you will be setting yourself and your organization up for success. Remember that learning and development are long term investments. It should be your goal to provide employees with the tools and learning opportunities to help them grow in their career while also growing within their current role. The investment you make in the development of your workforce is an investment you make in the growth of your company.

Are you looking for consultants who can help you put the pieces together?

For over 25 years, we have helped Fortune 500 firms ensure the success of learning and development projects by providing on-demand access to world-class instructional designers. For more tips on how to build a more effective learning and development program, connect with the team at Clarity Consultants today.