The New Way to Train Employees

Did you know more and more organisations are making use of in-house mobile learning apps to upskill their employees?

For instance, the Institute of Banking and Finance’s Learn@IBF app, is used to future-proof professionals in the financial services industry and the Singapore College of Insurance’s SCIDigital app is enabling financial advisers in Singapore to earn Continuous Professional Development hours through bite-sized courses.

These apps are powered by global knowledge sharing and micro-learning platform SmartUp. SmartUp Asia Pacific Head Laurence Smith said that the platform’s main goal is to make learning fun again.

Laurence explained: “The whole industry had gotten so obsessed with training and technology that the actual learning experience had become painful. Why make corporate training platforms a chore to be dreaded when it can be something employees look forward to every time they have five minutes to spare?”

Wide Industry Applications

Over the past six months, Laurence observed a rising demand from a varied range of business functions and industries.

“Whether it is the human resource for luxury wine and spirits, risk management in a major bank, or procurement in a consumer goods multinational, they are determined to build their digital mindset so that they become enablers of innovation in their organisation and not the blockers. For employers, it is all about getting a better informed, more highly skilled and strongly engaged workforce,” shared Laurence.

Employers that have given new employees access to the platform for “pre-learning” before they start work reported a 25 to 30 per cent reduction in time needed for classroom training and onboarding.

Maxis, a telco in Malaysia, used SmartUp to train thousands of staff across hundreds of retail locations on how to sell a new Samsung phone via the interactive polls and quizzes. Staff can also see how popular the new phone is, how customers are reacting, and who is the best at selling it. In a single month, 827 people started over 33,000 pieces of content, increasing Maxis’ workforce engagement levels multifold.

Content that Matters

With the ability for employees to contribute bite-sized content, SmartUp encourages peer-to-peer learning and knowledge transfers.

“It democratises content creation and learning and empowers people throughout the organisation. We have the data to show that people are learning on the way to see clients, in the evenings, and even on Sundays to prepare for the week ahead. This is unprecedented – people voluntarily learning stuff relevant to their work in their own personal time.”

For clients new to content creation, SmartUp has a team that helps to convert existing materials for them. Better yet, they conduct Digital Learning Design workshops to teach associates and managers how to create good content on their own!

Laurence advised: “Make it a fun way to get digital across your organisation and enable transformation and innovation culture. Whenever possible, integrate it with live events, conferences, off sites, trainings or hackathons.

“What excites me most is that the SmartUp platform is so simple to use, that every client is experimenting with different ways to activate, engage and sustain interest. We’ve seen clients reward people with simple recognition, 15 seconds of fame for their standing on the app’s leaderboard, and even let employees swap points for discounts in the company store, air miles, or even a day’s leave!”

Interested parties can request for a demo here.