L&D’s Engagement Problem is Bigger Than Design
Better design can help, but it won’t solve every engagement problem.
I follow quite a few L&D forums and community conversations to keep up with the buzz in our profession. Other than AI, there’s been one question that I’ve seen come up regularly:
How do I get people to engage in the learning opportunities we offer?
Engagement, per those asking, is usually described as active participation. It may mean using the online content library or it may mean showing up to a live learning and actually participating. Regardless of methodology, the concern is that too few people are doing these things and when they do show up, they take a “click next and get this over with” approach while simultaneously answering emails, skipping activities, and doing the minimum required.
Sound familiar?
If we take this one level deeper it alludes to a concern about the validity and security of our roles. After all, if no one engages with the learning opportunities available, what’s the point of paying an L&D team to create and deliver them?
As L&D professionals, we generally love to learn. We also work hard to create compelling learning experiences. Thus, we are often stumped when others aren’t taking advantage of awesome opportunities sitting right in front of them.
Design May Not Be the Problem
As a result of our engagement concerns, we scrutinize our own work, wondering what we might do differently to solve this problem. The conversation naturally turns to design, the part of the work where we have the most control. We ask ourselves how we can make the course more fun, creative, interactive, etc.? We talk about stories, games, certification incentives, and more.
It’s true, sometimes altering the design will help, but if we only focus here, we are missing a large part of the picture. Often, design isn’t the primary reason people are not engaging. So solve this problem, we need to widen the net of possible causes, looking outside the course itself.
In my experience, a lack of engagement can usually be traced to five different factors:
Awareness
Motivation & Relevance
Ease of Access
Available Time, and
Organizational Culture
#1 - Awareness
If no one knows the opportunities to learn exist, your awesomely designed course will remain unseen. Awareness problems tend to show up in two ways.
Too Much Content, Too Little Direction
When L&D either purchases a large content library or builds one by continuously creating new content, the number of options available can become overwhelming. The question of, “Where do I even start?” leads to not starting at all. Similar course titles, weak descriptions, and poor search functions make the problem worse.
Several years ago, a global talent development team at an organization where I worked purchased a huge content library. They were proud that it had something for everyone. In theory, employees could find a course on almost anything they needed.
At the time, one of the managers reporting to me was struggling to give feedback. I wanted to recommend a course she could take and then discuss the concept in a one-on-one as a starting point for her developmental strategy in this skill. I searched the library for “giving feedback” and received more than 200 results. I had no idea which courses were best, relevant, or worth her time.
Overwhelmed and frustrated, I left the expensive library and called an executive coach friend. He sent me an article, which I forwarded to my manager as a starting point.
I wanted to use the content library. I was excited by the possibilities at my fingertips. But navigating it was so frustrating that I did not. Translation: I did not engage.
The moral of the story? Even though I wanted to use the content library, navigating it was frustrating. So, I didn’t use it at all. Translation for this article: I didn’t engage.
What L&D Can Do
Curate before you create. A few strong, relevant options for common needs are more useful than an endless catalog.
Schedule regular content cleanups. In my podcast conversation withGer Driesen, we discussed treating library cleanup as a planned strategic activity.
Measure failed searches. If your vendor doesn’t allow you to measure failed searches, put in an enhancement ticket today. The searches that don’t work are valuable data. Look for what employees searched for, what they did not find, and when they abandoned the process. Those patterns should inform your content creation and curation strategy.
They Do Not Know It Exists
Sometimes employees aren’t overwhelmed by the options. They simply don’t know what options exist. “Build it and they will come” made for a cool movie, but it’s a miserable L&D strategy.
I once worked with a stakeholder who insisted that their team members needed training on a task many struggled to complete. My team partnered with subject matter experts to create a fantastic learning module with plenty of hands-on practice. When it was ready, we told the stakeholder.
A month later, the stakeholder returned and said the training had not worked. Team leads were still answering the same questions and explaining the task repeatedly.
We checked the metrics. No one had completed the course except the employees assigned to test it. Why? The stakeholder never told anyone it existed.
What L&D Can Do
Build marketing into the design plan. Partner with stakeholders to decide how employees will hear about the opportunity, why it matters, and what action they should take. Ensure this is part of the initial design conversations. Check out my podcast with🌀Mike Taylor and Bianca Baumann, authors of the book, Think Like a Marketer, Train Like an L&D Pro for more ideas.
Share responsibility with the stakeholder. After the experience above, every module my team created included a communication plan, even when it was designed for a specific team.
Survey for awareness. If your organization allows it and you are likely to have a good completion rate, send a short survey to employees asking about the learning opportunities they know about and/or have used. Create follow-up communication pointing them towards relevant resources. It’s data and awareness rolled into one!
#2 - Motivation and Relevance
Marketers call out the importance of the WIIFM (What’s In It for Me) and in learning, we refer to it as they “why” or the reason someone wants to participate. Knowles tells us this motivation is key to the adult learning process.
The participant who understands how the learning will help them, is more likely to engage. Without this compelling reason to participate, it’s easy to bypass the opportunity or mentally check out.
This is especially visible in required training, where the apparent benefit is simply checking a completion box. Last I checked, most people aren’t motivated by checking boxes. Just think about your own experience with your company’s latest compliance course. Did you dive in eager to learn, or click “next” as quickly as possible?
Motivation grows when employees believe the learning will make their work easier, faster, more effective, or more rewarding. Relevance to their own work turns a generic course into something worth their attention.
What L&D Can Do
State the benefits clearly in the course description and marketing. Tell employees what will be easier, faster, or better after they participate.
Use participant testimonials that describe specifically how their performance, confidence, or efficiency improved or any other success they experienced as a result. Share these before or during the course, or both.
Ask participants to articulate their own reason for learning in pre-work or at the beginning of the experience. Reflecting and using their own words can be a powerful motivator.
Use examples, practice activities, and problems that are directly relevant to the participants’ real work. Forgo theory in favor of application. Without relevance, people are less likely to engage.
#3 - Ease of Access
A former coworker regularly asked this question as we designed learning experiences: “How many hoops are we asking people to jump through in order to participate?”
It was a valid point. When it’s difficult to get to the point of participation, people either abandon the opportunity before they begin or they come to the experience frustrated. Neither outcome is good for engagement.
In general, people working in organizations have long lists of tasks and problems to solve. Finding and completing a learning experience is often last on that list. When they do have time, access needs to be easy.
Can they find and register for the learning quickly? Does it require multiple clicks, screens, or logins? Is it housed in a system they use regularly, or in unfamiliar software they rarely open?
In one of my past roles, our LMS made onboarding registration painfully complicated. Hiring managers had to register each new employee for every required class one at a time. Each course required multiple clicks, screens, and form entries. Some employees needed more than 20 courses.
That translated into hours of administrative work for one new hire, let alone several. Managers who hired only occasionally had to relearn the process every time. Although the software created the problem, the frustration was directed at L&D. There were simply too many hoops.
We eventually worked with the vendor and developed workarounds to automate parts of the process, but not without significant frustration.
What L&D Can Do
Experience the process yourself. Take some time to try finding and accessing the learning exactly as an employee or manager would.
Observe someone else navigating it. Their confusion may reveal obstacles you no longer notice.
Count the clicks, screens, logins, and required tasks. Then, remove as many “hoops” as possible.
#4 - Available Time
Employees cannot meaningfully engage in learning unless they are allowed the time to do it, especially when the experience takes them away from daily work.
When workloads are overflowing, participation in learning activities can feel impossible. Not only is it difficult to carve out the time to participate, but any time away from the job often results in what feels like more work. Coworkers need to jump in and cover or the employee returns to a backlog requiring time to catch up. That is enough to stop someone from registering. It can also distract someone who does attend. Even the person who wants to learn may not be able to do so when their workload and time constraints take over.
What L&D Can Do
Design for interstitial time. As Brad Batesole described in our recent podcast conversation, use the five or ten minutes between tasks and meetings. Of course, you’ll need to ensure that those throughout the organization know this is an option and can access easily.
Support learning in the workflow. Design learning that can happen at the moment application is needed. When someone has a question about how to complete a task, create easy access to a brief learning module with the answer so that they aren’t required to leave their workstation or take time away.
When time away is necessary, explain why and state the time commitment clearly. Gather measures that show on the job results and behavior change, using these in your marketing and course descriptions.
Partner with business units to learn when and how employees can realistically participate and design experiences accordingly. For example, we once designed short micro-learnings that call center agents completed in the first five minutes of their shifts. We also avoided scheduling key programs during the business’s busiest season.
#5 - Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture is the silent killer of engagement that is rarely considered but yet may be the strongest factor of all. As the saying goes, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”
You can have the world’s most engaging, fun learning experience but if the organizational culture doesn’t view learning as a positive, engaging experience, you have an uphill battle.
Several years ago, I led the training strategy for a new software implementation that would change nearly every workflow in the organization. The training was highly relevant because employees needed the system to do their jobs.
My team designed hands-on, lab-style learning using real examples in a sandbox environment. It was also participant-driven. Learners took turns controlling the mouse while the facilitator guided rather than told.
Sounds great, right? The only kicker was that in this organization, people only attended training to get credit in their performance file. Missing assigned training could affect their year-end reviews and salary increases, so they showed up to check a box. They did not see learning as anything more.
People sitting down the hall from the training room logged in but did not participate. There was no engagement in the chat and almost no Q&A. Getting someone to control the mouse remotely was like pulling teeth. You can guess what happened when the software went live.
The training design was airtight. We couldn’t have created or delivered a better product. But due to the overall culture of learning in the organization, engagement was null and void.
What L&D Can Do
Start with the willing. When possible, begin with a group that is open to participating differently and use its results to build momentum.
Engage supervisors. Work directly with participants’ supervisors to clarify expectations and ask them to spread the word about how this learning experience will be different.
Communicate participation expectations clearly and repeatedly. Continuously communicate the expectations of engagement and be sure to explain why they are important to performance and results.
None of these are guaranteed to change the culture (and they certainly won’t do so overnight) but they will give you a place to start.
Stop Treating Low Engagement as a Design Problem
When employees do not engage, better design may be part of the solution. But adding a game, story, or interaction will not help if employees do not know the opportunity exists, cannot find it, do not see its relevance, lack time to participate, or work in a culture that treats learning as a compliance exercise.
Before redesigning the course, do a bit of detective work to determine whether other factors are at play. Ask:
Do employees know this opportunity exists?
Can they see how it will help them succeed in their roles?
Is this opportunity easy to find, access, and complete?
Do employees have time to participate?
What messages does the culture send about learning?
The answers may reveal that the course isn’t the problem at all.
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