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February 16, 2024
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Elena Obolonskaia
In today's fast-paced world, the adoption of microlearning for employee development is on the rise. But how do you measure the true impact of bite-sized learning modules on your organization's bottom line?
Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) of implementing microlearning can be a game-changer, offering insights into its effectiveness and value. This article provides a step-by-step approach to uncovering the financial benefits of microlearning in a corporate environment. From cost savings to improved performance metrics, we'll guide you through the key factors and methodologies to accurately assess the ROI of your microlearning initiatives.
Microlearning is an educational approach that involves delivering content in small, focused, and easily digestible units. Instead of relying only on traditional long-form training, microlearning breaks down learning materials into short, targeted modules.
💡Learn how to transform existing content into micro lessons.
Microlearning should not exist in isolation but serve as a complementary component within a wider corporate learning and development ecosystem. Tools such as 7taps offer a range of integrations for a seamless connection, facilitating training within the flow of work. Its practical applications are many, from supporting and refreshing existing instruction to onboarding new hires, presenting information, engaging learners, offering practice opportunities, and even providing step-by-step guidance.
This integration requires a fresh approach to corporate training that prioritizes clarity, consistency, and compatibility with daily routines. Employing an active voice, maintaining consistent and friendly communication, and injecting whimsy and fun into your microlearning content can enhance engagement and retention.
Learn how Cisco uses microlearning to drive learner engagement and asynchronous learning
Resistance to new methods and tools is natural. To counter this, anticipate objections and prepare counterarguments to support the adoption of a microlearning platform. Understanding and appealing to different dispositions toward a new technology adoption—techies, early adopters, and laggards, as defined by Everett Rogers in his Diffusion of Innovations theory— is a critical part of the strategy. Identify and communicate with innovators and early adopters within the organization to create a ripple effect, leading to widespread acceptance over time.
“When I discovered 7taps, I simply sent out my first courses to influential people around the company via email containing a QR code and saying “scan it”. They called back within 5 minutes being impressed with this training format. 7taps was an easy sell as we could start small by creating a pilot program and testing it in one location before rolling it out company-wide.”
John Morlan
Safety and Risk Management Innovator, Consultant
Evidence-based practice is another cornerstone in making the case for microlearning. Cite studies to validate the effectiveness of microlearning approaches. The key is gathering and presenting data showing small, consistent messages are more effective in changing behavior than one-off, extensive communications.
Embarking on the microlearning journey is not merely about adopting a new educational tool; it's about precision and alignment with your organization's overarching goals. The strategic approach known as "The Alignment Process," as defined by the ROI Institute, Inc., is the compass that ensures your new microlearning initiative is not only impactful but also intricately connected to the success metrics of your business.
At the core of "The Alignment Process" lies the comprehensive analysis of needs on five crucial levels: payoff needs, business needs, performance needs, learning needs, and preference needs.
Payoff needs
Define Return on Investment (ROI) objectives. Here, microlearning initiatives are aligned with specific outcomes that contribute tangibly to the organization's bottom line.
Business needs
Determine impact objectives. Microlearning is strategically molded to address broader business goals, ensuring a direct correlation between learning outcomes and organizational success.
Performance needs
Focus on application objectives. Microlearning modules are designed to enhance job performance, providing learners with skills and knowledge that directly contribute to improved on-the-job capabilities.
Learning needs
In this phase, set the learning objectives. Microlearning content is tailored to meet the specific educational requirements of the workforce, ensuring that it aligns with the broader organizational learning strategy.
Preference needs
Consider Reaction objectives in the final stage. Microlearning experiences are crafted to not only meet the educational needs but also resonate with learners, ensuring a positive reaction and engagement.
Within "The Alignment Process," the stage of payoff needs becomes the cornerstone for setting clear and measurable return of investment (ROI) objectives. These objectives provide a roadmap for gauging the impact of microlearning on organizational success.
Leverage microlearning platforms like 7taps in "The Alignment Process". Its flexibility allows for the customization of microlearning content to align seamlessly with the unique needs identified across the five levels. This ensures that microlearning isn't just a learning initiative but a strategic asset tailored to your organization's specific requirements and existing training programs.
💡Even from the default templates of 7taps, you can easily find designs that align with your brand guidelines - take a look at this microlearning course with Figma product updates.
"The Alignment Process" is an ongoing cycle, emphasizing continuous evaluation against predefined objectives. With 7taps, analytics, and reporting features empower learning managers to track progress and adapt the microlearning strategy dynamically.
Be specific. Incorporate the following formulas and ideas into your ROI discussions, to showcase the value of purchasing a microlearning platform and provide stakeholders with tangible metrics to justify the investment.
Example: If traditional content creation takes 10 hours, and microlearning content creation takes 2 hours, then the time saved is 8 hours. (Take this further by calculating the cost of those 8 hours for each member of your L&D team.)
Example: If the total development cost is $10,000 and there are 500 learners, then cost per learner is $20. Compare that to the cost of your LMS.
Example: If traditional learning has a retention rate of 60% and microlearning has 80%, then the improvement percentage is 33.33%.
Example: If pre-training performance is 70% and post-training performance is 90%, then the performance improvement is 28.57%.
Example: If traditional learner management costs $5,000 and microlearning learner management costs $2,000, then cost savings are $3,000.
Example: If total benefits are $50,000 and total costs are $20,000, then the ROI is 150%.
One of the 7taps' key value propositions is its ability to drastically reduce the content creation cycle. Imagine a scenario where, after receiving information from a Subject Matter Expert, your Instructional Designer can transform it into a ready-to-roll-out learning asset within minutes.
No more time wasted on customizing for different screens and devices—everything is pre-designed, streamlining the entire process. In fact, according to our clients, you can drastically reduce your creation time from 4-13 hours to just 20-60 minutes with 7taps.
💡Learn how to create an effective microlearning piece in a 2-minute 7taps course example.
7taps takes current activities and processes to the next level. With pre-training bites, you make people prepare better for upcoming in-person training. With scheduled follow-ups after longer learning modules, you boost knowledge retention. With the fresh mobile-first format of the materials (that requires zero effort from your learner to open or comprehend), you increase learner engagement.
It's an efficiency booster too - 7taps framework guides you through the content creation process. It tells you when your text or course is too long or when your picture is illegible to make anyone much more productive.
Speed is essential, but the true measure of success is the Return on Investment (ROI) of your training strategy. The 7taps framework facilitates faster information consumption and ensures the content is effectively encoded into the learners’ long-term memory, allowing easy retrieval when needed and maximizing the impact of your corporate training efforts.
Some teams are built based on their experience with specific tools. Some people are hired for their design skills or a thing for gamification. 7taps enables everyone on the team to build stunning content - they can generate a draft in seconds and pretty it up with all the built-in features. Everyone can create content without any tutorials or years spent "mastering" the product. You don't need to hire extra members - you can simply empower your current team.
Nurses and store employees actively use 7taps to pass their knowledge to colleagues. It eliminates any barriers within teams and speeds up the creation of learning materials companywide. From employee onboarding to compliance training, 7taps has been a game-changer for organizations.💡 Visit 7taps Use Cases to learn how diverse industries leverage the #1 microlearning platform.
Traditional corporate training methods confine learning to computer screens. 7taps as a microlearning platform breaks these boundaries, allowing you to reach learners wherever they are—even placing QR codes for SOPs or job aids on physical objects. The tool offers a bunch of content delivery opportunities that can re-energize your current training strategy.
7taps effectively reaches your learners where traditional e-learning activities can’t: from text messages to Slack and Microsoft Teams. With the fresh mobile-first format, which requires zero effort from your learners to open or understand, you can increase learner engagement.
Learner management should be seamless. With 7taps, there's no need to constantly update learner numbers or maintain complicated lists. Train as many individuals as desired for a flat, reasonable fee. The simplicity of learner management ensures your focus remains on creating impactful content.
Inconsistent training content is a common challenge. The 7taps framework addresses this by empowering team members to produce visually appealing materials, even if they have ZERO experience in graphic design. Guarantee content cohesiveness and consistency effortlessly.
7taps enables everyone on the team to build stunning content. And, with 7taps AI tools, they can generate a quick first draft in seconds.
In a world of informational overload and shortening attention spans, microlearning is an effective and current learning technique. And 7taps, as a microlearning platform backed by research, real use cases, and a compelling ROI (the best according to G2), is the future of the approach itself.
Ready to revolutionize your corporate training? Get started with a free trial of our Enterprise Plan.
💡Check these ideas to start with microlearning
