Marketing, Partners

The power of integration in HR Tech

October 29, 2019

Who are your employees? From millennial sales associates or remote salesmen to middle management and head office, we’re betting it’s quite a diverse group. Who all need to work, be motivated, trained and compensated in diverse ways.

That is why, when it comes to HR Tech- and technology in general, there is no one-size-fits all solution. For years now, there has been a shift away from the standalone app to an increased emphasis on ecosystems. Communication, connectivity and integration are key. 

If you want to go far, and fast, don’t compete: communicate. 

This is especially important when it comes to learning and employee engagement.

Why reinvent the wheel?

You know your business better than we do. You’ve built your brand, delighted your customers, and engaged your employees long before we have come along. So, if you want to maximise results in this mobile age, and amplify customer experience, don’t reinvent the wheel. Just add another cog. 

What exactly do we mean by that? 

Well, one of our longstanding clients, Azadea Group, already has a tried and tested means of reaching and engaging their employees- their in-house Azadea app. So, when they wanted to supercharge their L&D, we integrated our MobieTrain microlearning platform into their existing mobile app. 

This enabled us to work together to speed up launch, onboarding, communications and ultimately, increase employee engagement. They already knew how to reach their employees. So why re-invent a successful, existing channel?

Long-live the LMS

This may seem like a strange statement for a microlearning company to make. But, we are not looking to replace the traditional LMS, LXP or e-learning systems. We are looking to reinforce the existing knowledge taught by both LMS and classroom trainings, because it is proven that 80% of knowledge from traditional LMS & classroom learning is forgotten after 30 days.

Infact, leading author and L&D expert, Josh Bersin, predicts a new paradigm shift for corporate learning, in which LMS providers have been moving towards integration:

“LMS vendors found it harder to sell their standalone products, so they merged, were acquired, or built out performance management, competency management, and many other HR features.”

He coins this as ‘learning in the flow of work.’ Which is exactly what we are achieving through our microlearning platform, and continue to support through our HR Tech integrations, such as our recent one with SAP. 

Learning in the flow of work 

Through exciting collaborations with other leading HR Tech platforms, including Speakap and Spencer, we now offer workplaces a full suite of learning tools. This combines our existing microlearning and mobile expertise with social learning and communication, to empower employees to learn within their flow of work. And we have many more exciting collaborations in our pipeline. 

There’s no denying it. The future of work lies in collaboration, co-creation and integrating with other successful software, in order to achieve more, faster, together.

So, when you’re considering your next LMS or HR Tech provider, or are looking for an update, be sure to ask how open their infrastructure is and their ability to integrate. You don’t want to be left behind and outside of HR’s rapidly-growing ecosystem.

Development, Marketing, Partners

The best ways to onboard employees in retail

October 29, 2019

Most of us know it as one of the most difficult parts in retail to find the right employees and keep them interested and motivated. As a matter of fact, 30% of new employees leave within the first year. No wonder it is perceived as an ongoing battle. Well, we’re here to tell you:

It shouldn’t be!

With the right tools and mindset, you are on your way to a well-educated and eager-to-learn team, that will blow your socks off.

And honestly, we’re here to do the same. Stay with us for an overview of the pitfalls and the process of onboarding in retail and some tips and tricks to make your job easier.

Let’s dive right in with the most pressing concerns in onboarding:

Pitfalls

With the right onboarding track there’s a 91% chance of keeping the newcomer. Without it, chances reduce to 30%.

Furthermore, a good onboarding promises a productivity that is 54% higher and 34% faster than without one. Sounds like enough reason to invest some time in that more elaborate welcome, don’t you think?

And that’s exactly where the problem lies: Time!

We understand that in retail, time is gold and that there isn’t always enough of it to train your employees. It’s also common that training sessions are organized by the head office on certain days, so there might be a long waiting time to get your employee’s training on.

You know how it goes: a new employee starts in summer. It’s a busy time with sales and seasonal changes. To get them on board, you would need to take an employee out of their workflow to train them. This means that you lose two people (the trainer and the trainee) on the floor, and this for a large amount of time. It’s not an ideal situation and it doesn’t always work like that.

As a result, there’s a lot of learning by doing or a one-off explanation to train employees. Experience tells us that’s not the way to go. As you may suspect there’s a lot to gain with the right onboarding. A small time-investment can go a long way!

Let’s check out how to establish the right setting for motivational learning.

Process

Preboarding

Most of the time, there’s a certain period between signing the contract and the employee starting at your company. It’s important to maintain contact during this period to create involvement and trust with your new team member.

You can start by sending some congratulations! Sounds easy, but it proves to be enormously effective.

You can address the interests that are currently living within the team to involve not only the new employee, but also your existing team. Remember to explain how the new team member can find their contact person and set up a short introduction.

Of course, you can’t forget the administrative obligations, but be sure not to start with it. You wouldn’t want to come across as another boring employer, do you?

First day

When the start day has finally come, you can make sure to give the newbie a warm welcome (gift baskets for the win!). Be sure to make it a personal welcome to make them feel right at home.

Following days

Most of the companies stop there. But with our help, you can go that little bit further.

Make sure the new employee knows that their opinion matters and that, when working with humans, mistakes are inevitable (we are only machines in the proverbial sense of the word). Just remember to let them know, help is never far away.

First weeks

During those first weeks you can teach them all about the products and services you provide and where they fit in.

Microlearning is the perfect tool to present the company and set expectations. This will also decrease the amount of time you need to invest. It’s a win-win situation!

First months

There’s no need to stop while you’re ahead! Do regular check-ups on the employee’s knowledge. This too can be perfectly sustained with mobile learning!

As you see, it’s important to keep at it. There’s no need to stop after two weeks and let the new employee figure it out for themselves. In retail, they will play an important role in your customer’s experience. There’s no better investment than this!

To summarize

There are some pitfalls, but there are equally as much solutions for it. It’s just a matter of investing in some good onboarding!

Are you convinced? Not yet? No problem. We’ve got some more tips and tricks for you!

Tips and tricks

Our first and best tip is microlearning: there’s no better way to give a lot of information in 3 to 5 minutes a day and retain that info by using interesting video material.

It’s a lot less time invasive and a lot more performant then using another team member to give the training.

This way, you can also keep the training coming for several weeks and elaborate where you want. The existing team can benefit from this as well.

Picture this: a new season, a new collection! That’s a lot of information to take in. You would need a couple of hours to present the information and after that…it’s all gone (like that biology exam you studied so hard for). There’s no retention at all and a lot of time wasted.

With microlearning you don’t have that kind of problem. It gives you and the employee a lot more freedom and isn’t that what we all strive for?

Our second tip can be used in the microlearning platform as well. Wouldn’t it be great if the Managing Director presented himself and the company in a personal video? That video can be shown in a learning moment and followed up by a couple of questions to keep those brain juices flowing. It’s personal and effective: Genius, if you ask us!

Another thing you could do is integrate some trivia about the company or the team to keep it personal and fun, e.g. Did you know Emma loves her spaghetti bolognese? That too can be integrated into a microlearning platform. Win-win again!

Conclusion: A good onboarding is crucial for a strong collaboration between you and your employees!

There are only advantages here:

  • A smoother learning of products and services;
  • Higher productivity;
  • Faster work;
  • More work-related satisfaction with new and existing employees;
  • Better staff retention;
  • The new employees become an ambassador of your company.

What’s not to like?

You may have read between the lines that microlearning is a great add-on when it comes to onboarding. And that’s where MobieTrain comes in!

As Ray Riley, CEO at Progress Retail says it so beautifully:

“The culture of the retail firm needs to embrace continuing education and lifelong learning.”

We couldn’t have said it better!

Marketing, Partners

Speakap & MobieTrain talk the future of work

October 29, 2019

Studies show that companies that win in employee engagement, win in business too. So how are you engaging your employees?

In the first part of our interview series, Guy Van Neck, founder of microlearning platform MobieTrain, and Patrick van der Mijl, Co-Founder of employee communication tool Speakap, discuss why their partnership is driving the future of work and employee engagement.

Q: First thing’s first, what added value can the MobieTrain and Speakap integration give to companies? And why are you a perfect fit?

Guy: This is very exciting from a learning point of view. We already have formal learning and microlearning, but through this partnership we can also provide social learning. Put simply- how can you learn from your peers?

We can now combine personalised learning paths, while also providing peer to peer support through social channels. We have a news feed for direct employee interaction, and, vitally- two way communications to help empower and motivate employees. To help them feel heard and valued, rather than it being a one-way management to employee flow.

Patrick: Exactly. Two way communication is key to engagement. One of the most important things employees love about their jobs is their co-workers (and the relationships they have with them). Yet we’ve discovered in our latest research study, that:

‘While 93 percent of respondents said having a positive working relationship with their manager is either very important or important, 14 percent admitted that they don’t have a positive relationship with their direct/line manager.’

“Our partnership helps employees to get the best of both worlds.”

We can maximise their potential through more targeted, transparent communications, while simultaneously tapping into micro-learning segments to help them perform their jobs better, increase efficiency and work towards larger individual and team goals.

Q: We can see that there is a natural cohesion between employee comms and mobile L&D. So, why did you choose to integrate your platforms rather than build these features yourselves? What is the value in integration?

Patrick: Agility. Speed to market. And efficiency.

Product innovation and talent are always the biggest two challenges for any tech company. Without product innovation, we wouldn’t be able to grow and scale our business to be competitive in the marketplace.

So we made sure that Speakap has an open API to make it easy to fully integrate with existing software within organisations. MobieTrain has the learning expertise, we have the communications expertise, and we both have a successful client base. So, why spend years trying to build it ourselves, when we can partner and hit the market on both fronts?

Guy: Indeed. Social learning and communications has always been built into our product roadmap. We have spent the last years testing and defining our core micro-learning and knowledge retention capabilities. Now that this is bringing results for our clients, we are ready to combine with social learning. So, like Patrick says, why wait?

By integrating with Speakap, we are able to provide our clients with the full suite of learning tools to help maximise their L&D programs and results. We provide microlearning and mobile learning to ensure that employees have the knowledge that they can actually use to get results, and through Speakap’s communication features we ensure that this knowledge is now easily communicated and supported amongst peers and the company as a whole.

Q: Timing wise, is there a particular reason why you are partnering now? Can you see any changes in the business world that are driving both your platforms individually, and your collaboration?

Guy: One of the main drivers is the rise of deskless workers.

“There will be 1.45 billion deskless workers by 2022.”

Both of our platforms are geared towards this. The way that we do business is changing. And we both recognise that companies are struggling with engaging global, remote workforces who are not office-based. In-person trainings are no longer enough on their own. And the lack of face to face connection is also affecting communication and engagement.

Patrick: Non-desk workers are often the first and last points of interaction with customers, guests and patients. Our platform is predicated around helping companies improve employee communications and experience for non-desk workers. But this isn’t always an easy feat to accomplish.

We’ve seen first- hand in working with companies over the years, technology plays an integral role in delivering more relevant communications and providing employees with access with l&d content. The key is in finding the right technology.

Also, as more and more millennials and Gen Z employees hit the workforce, mobile is really the only way to deliver training and communications. And we can see this across all industries, although, both MobieTrain and Speakap have identified a particular gap in the market with retail- where customer experience and service is front of mind.

In part two of this series, Guy and Patrick shall discuss how their solutions are impacting the retail industry, which other industries are ripe for change, and the rising importance of customer experience.

For more information on how this integration can help you, contact Guy@mobietrain.com

https://www.speakap.com/