How Learning Experience Platforms Boost Productivity through Emotional Attachment

People are creatures of emotion, as Dale Carnegie says. It means that our perception of the world is infused by our emotional experiences. Since emotions are one of the core aspects of the way we live, think, and act, they influence the way we learn, process, and retain information.

When it comes to corporate training, L&D professionals should always consider the emotional element that influences employees’ training to a greater extent. The good news is that employees consider efficient training that boosts professional development to be one of a company’s biggest perks. However, if learning experience design is far from perfect, employees’ ability to learn and apply obtained knowledge to practice falls drastically. Moreover, it’s the first red flag that promising talent may leave a company.

We’ve already written about how to encourage your employees to use a learning platform regularly to improve their performance, and now we will delve into the question of how to develop employees’ emotional attachment to learning through your learning platform. To put it simply, we will define what learning experiences employees find most efficient to learn new skills quickly, better retain information and, most importantly, use on a daily basis to solve both routine and unpredicted job challenges. Also, you will find out what kind of learning platform drives employees’ emotional attachment and enhances their productivity through data-driven personalized training and just-in-time reminders, both serving as a personal assistant in employees’ pockets.

A connection between emotions and learning

First things first: emotions affect learning and can either drive it forward or slow it down. Our emotions originate in the limbic system of the brain and are responsible for setting the emotional tone of information. How does it influence a person’s ability to learn? If the limbic system interprets information in a positive way, it evokes a sense of purpose and excitement in a person, creating goal-achieving behavior. However, when information is perceived as negative, our cognitive processes become stunted.

Studies prove that positive emotions directly influence our ability to perceive and retain information, facilitating the learning process itself thanks to self-motivation and satisfaction with the learning material.

The conclusion is that new information should be presented in a way that is most likely to induce learners’ positive emotions. This can be done in three steps:

1) Make the learning material relevant and concise, presented in different formats (video, audio, infographics, etc.)

2) Deliver this learning material in an easily-accessible, engaging way via different tools, including learning platforms

3) Develop a personalized learning experience for each employee, based on internal and external data, that will create a sense of bonding and engagement and make employees realize that the learning platform is their personal work assistant.

Robert Sylwester, Professor of Education at the University of Oregon, points out two crucial things that influence students’ learning.

Activities that emphasize social interaction tend to provide the most emotional support. School activities that draw out emotions—simulations, role-playing, and cooperative projects, for example—may provide important contextual memory prompts that will help students recall the information during closely related events in the real world.

His findings can be easily applied in corporate training by leveraging various opportunities of a smart learning platform that will spark employees’ emotional engagement and contribute to learning and performance efficiency.

How can you build an emotional attachment?

Since self-motivation and satisfaction with learning materials lead to greater emotional engagement, the effectiveness of a learning platform can be measured by the ongoing use of it by employees and their performance outcomes. To explain how to achieve this effectiveness, we will show you an example of how a learning platform can help a definite employee.

Meet Jordan. He’s been working as a vehicle prep specialist for five months. His job position is directly connected to customers’ experiences, that’s why training is of major importance for him. For this reason, Garry, his manager, suggests using a learning platform to solve Jordan’s job-related challenges.

1. Through personalization

One of Jordan’s responsibilities is to manage inventory and reorder supplies as needed. However, he forgets to do this from time to time. Thanks to a built-in smart engine in the learning platform that mines his performance and learning data, the system periodically sends him notifications, reminding him to check whether all necessary supplies are in stock. This way, Jordan always has all the necessary supplies to perform his job. Moreover, the system can also offer learning activities with tips on what to do if certain supplies are running low so as not to disrupt workflow.

This kind of a virtual learning support is much more effective because it’s not simply telling employees about their mistakes, it offers ways to solve them. Learning becomes relevant and personalized, increasing Jordan’s engagement and the perceived value of the learning platform. When employees see the usefulness of the suggested learning tool, knowing that it will help them to perform better and offer relevant materials to cover job-related questions, they will be far more engaged in using it on a daily basis.

2. Through collaboration tools

Jordan works in a large multinational company and doesn’t have frequent opportunities to talk with other vehicle prep specialists to discuss how to better manage paint correction onsite. At the same time, Shawn, who occupies the same job position but works in Canada, knows how to do so. So Jordan resorts to using the discussion board to draw on the knowledge and experiences of his colleagues. He asks a question on the discussion board, not knowing who to directly address with this challenge, and Shawn comes to the rescue. It’s that simple. He can further discuss other questions with Shawn and share his experience of troubleshooting some emergency. As a result, learning becomes social, practical, and engaging.

3. Through microlearning

The company has several compliance standards, detailing how the vehicle exteriors and interiors should be cleaned. Jordan feels overwhelmed with the information from the manual—that’s why he decides to use short and interactive microlearning lessons available on the learning platform. These lessons contain not only written instruction but also 2-minute long videos that help Jordan clarify everything. Such learning naturally flows into the workflow and correlates with one’s attention span, thus, Jordan doesn’t experience an information overload and better retains the company’s compliance standards.

4. Through mobility and flexibility

Due to a busy work schedule, Jordan doesn’t always have time to learn the necessary material while at work. However, he does like reading in the subway while commuting. So why not use this time in a productive way? Jordan simply takes his cell phone out of his pocket and opens a mobile version of the learning platform. Now all the necessary content is at his fingertips.

5. Through gamification

To clean vehicles in the best way possible, the company has several steamers, hoses, vacuums, etc. Recently, some of the equipment had been replaced with new tools to facilitate the cleaning process. Of course, all vehicle prep specialists should go through the necessary training to learn how to operate the new equipment. For this purpose, the company designs a friendly competition with a leaderboard to see who among the vehicle prep specialists operates the new equipment best. Jordan, as well as his colleagues, receives points and badges for each positive customer review, and their progress is reflected in the leaderboard within the app. So now everybody is more engaged in learning that was spiced up with a competitive element and small rewards for better encouragement.  

6. Through UX and UI

Numerous studies show that the perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are the determining factors that influence the use of technology. The research proves the importance of visual aesthetics in enhancing the user experience. As such, an intuitive and user-friendly interface along with an appealing design of a learning platform can improve employee’s learning experience. If Jordan doesn’t need to use yet another manual just to get the hang of how to use this “cluttered learning thing” and “decipher these weird icons that look like Egyptian hieroglyphics”, then it’s more likely he’ll be engaged when using the company’s learning tool.

Moreover, according to the research, learners see well-designed materials as being more credible and valuable; learning tasks are perceived as being less difficult. These factors also develop employee’s emotional attachment.  

As a result, Jordan is more productive; he renders a high-quality car preparation service and works with his teammates on new methods of how to improve the vehicles’ readiness and customer service in general.

What benefits promote emotional attachment in the workplace?

The above-mentioned examples with Jordan provide a good illustration of how a smart learning platform can evoke emotional attachment by being beneficial for employees. And it comes as no surprise that according to a recent research on factors affecting the use and non-use of LMSs, relevance, accessibility, functionality, timely support, reliability, and understandability are considered to be crucial.

Rallyware’s learning platform takes into account these crucial aspects to help organizations bring out the best in their people. Our latest research shows that companies that use our learning platform see, on average, 2.4x higher participation in organizational activities, 32% increased productivity, 25% decreased time-to-productivity, and 43% higher employee retention. This is the result of thoroughly-designed features that make Rallyware’s learning platform useful and practical for its users: personalized learning paths that are tailored to each individual’s needs, mobile learning for greater flexibility, gamification for outstanding engagement, an intuitive interface for a positive user experience, and a set of collaboration tools that erase communication boundaries between teams and make them more productive.

If you’re interested in a learning solution that will evoke an emotional attachment in your employees and boost their productivity, schedule our free demo!