3 Powerful Considerations for Employee Learning Transfer

The pressure’s on to provide impactful learning opportunities to employees, because we know it improves engagement and lowers turnover. But let’s face it, we want more than just happy employees. 

We want evidence that the dollars invested are improving something, which brings up two challenges.

First, training is messy to measure. You can’t easily connect the dots from a well-trained manager’s actions to their employee’s rising motivation or productivity. Similarly, common sense tells us that being well-trained in Excel will likely save someone time and enable them to better use data, but that’s tricky to quantify.

And second, there’s the issue of knowledge transfer. Just because we provide training and employees gain new information doesn’t mean they’ll apply it. The information they learned doesn’t automatically become new behavior. I might “know” that exercise is good for me, but that doesn’t mean I do it. Sometimes, knowledge transfer involves breaking an old habit.

There are things we can do to help ensure knowledge transfer. And “struggling to measure something doesn’t mean that it hasn’t worked” says Ross Garner for The L&D Dispatch.

It does remind us that to get the most from our training investments, we must create the best possible circumstances. Let’s look at three things that improve knowledge transfer and the likelihood that employees use new knowledge or skills.

1. High-Quality Instructional Design

   If you’re planning employee development, it’s easy to get caught up in methods. Should it be in-person? Should it be online? Should it be live or asynchronous through a learning platform? All have benefits and shortcomings.

   It’s also easy to get caught up in topics. Do we want the management training that includes adaptive leadership or the one that includes coaching? These are worthwhile questions. But they don’t get to the heart of what matters. 

   Whether your training is live in-person, online, self-directed, or something in between, design courses using adult learning theory and the ongoing research guiding us on how adult learners learn best. 

   On any topic, there are facts – a right and a wrong way to do something. Instructional design helps us present those facts in the right order and in a way that helps learners remember. And it offers ample time for learners to absorb information, see it from different angles, discuss it. 

   Adult learners come to the training with experiences and skills of their own. Find out learners’ incoming knowledge and experience and conduct training at the right level. Include activities centered on real- world experiences. This helps learners put the new knowledge into context. Learners will ask themselves,”How does the information arrange itself around my particular job, challenge, or what I already know?”

   Let’s consider a customer service training example. If you’re a frontline floor staff worker in a casino, your customers are first-time visitors and guests whiling away free time. If you are a casino host instead, you might be handling outreach to high-paying VIPs who get special perks. While both roles are focused on customer satisfaction, there are likely differences in how these workers navigate their role. 

   Through careful instructional design, you can identify and teach foundational customer service skills that will help anyone in a customer service role. You can use role playing and other engagement tools to help learners see how to apply the   training within their job’s context. 

2. Learner Motivation 

   As mentioned earlier, applying new knowledge often means changing the way we normally do something; and that takes effort. It’s not automatic. 

   That’s why a second critical factor in learning transfer is learner motivation. Why does this learning matter to me?

   At the mention of motivation, your mind might jump to rewards and incentives – extrinsic motivation. While extrinsic motivation does play a role in adult learning, it won’t do the job on its own. Instead, tie learning programs to intrinsic motivations, things like career-related goals, excitement to take on a new challenge, or a sense of accomplishment. 

   Show employees the relevance and usefulness of the training so they understand the reason they’re learning something. Can they tie it to a vertical or lateral career path? Will it help them by saving time or getting a better outcome on a task?

   Some of this motivation is built into the design and facilitation of training. Real-life scenarios show learners how they can use knowledge right away and why it benefits them. 

   Some of the motivation comes from leadership. When top management openly encourages training, there is increased participation and commitment. Does management make time for employee training? Do they discuss what’s being learned? Offering stretch assignments based on new information the employee learned demonstrates value to the employee as well as enabling them to practice it. Which brings us to our third consideration.

3. Opportunities to Practice and Share

   You want employees to use their training on the job? The work environment has a big impact on whether this happens. Is there a supportive environment for knowledge exchange? What mechanisms are in place to encourage application?

   Research shows that social support in the workplace plays a role in enabling training participants to turn newly acquired knowledge into everyday work behavior. What this looks like in practice is that top management encourages learning participation and growth. They might do this by sharing their own learning experiences or show interest in what others are learning.

   In addition, before and after training, managers can discuss training goals with employees, setting application expectations, talking about action plans, and offering regular feedback. When possible, managers should also provide assignments that encourage the use of the new skills with regular check-ins to reinforce application. 

   Peers also help create this supportive network. You could form small groups of learners to encourage accountability by regularly discussing how they’re using new knowledge. You could encourage employees to share examples of how they’ve applied training lessons.

Continuous learning and adaptability are essential to almost every career. Organizations also clearly benefit when employees acquire new skills. But for training to be effective – for employees to apply their learning on the job – we need three key things: high-quality instructional design, employees motivated to learn and adapt, and an environment that supports the application and sharing of new skills.