The On-Demand Learning Answer

Taken from the Canberra Times 02-06

In addition to limited resources, today’s public sector organisation encounters many challenges supporting its workforce. Employees are called upon to be more self-reliant while performing better. For employees, the task at hand includes:

• Mastering new or complex software and systems.
• Delivering new and ever-changing government policies and programs.
• Following new processes.
• Applying regulations consistently.
• Finding critical information quickly.
• Communicating and executing precisely.

Training is not the answer

Managers and staff rely on e-learning and instructor-led workshops to educate staff and get the job done right. However, employee training programs can be expensive and what’s more, over time employees forget more than they retain. Studies show between 70-80 percent of information learned through formal training can not be recalled weeks afterwards. Because the need to fund value-added skills training continues to grow, a better means of delivering procedural and task-oriented learning can free-up vital training resources.

Repositories and Co-workers can't provide the answer

The average worker spends 15 percent of their time looking for information and only finds it half the time. However, when they do find what they need – most of the time the information isn’t even current! Looking for help on the intranet or searching a document portal can be time consuming and frustrating. Plus, the information may not be in an easily comprehensible format for the task at hand. Asking for assistance by calling the help desk for support, contacting a Subject Matter Expert, or disrupting fellow workers to get needed information essentially doubles the cost of information searching – and does not guarantee consistency in the response.

With more software, processes, procedures and policies to follow and work with every day, what’s a department to do to get more control and proficiency, without excessive cost?

The answer: On-Demand Electronic Performance Support Systems

Support those doing the job exactly when they need it. Designed for your public sector organisation, performance support systems can provide fast access to relevant information employees need to do their jobs, exactly when they need it. For job-related tasks or service information, relevant in-context knowledge at the “moment-of-need”, provides superior returns in both greater employee confidence and competency.

Unlike today’s content management systems and portals, performance support systems provide nuggets of information displayed online in a highly structured format. This facilitates increased access and on-the-job comprehension. Self-service support decreases overall training, support and information maintenance costs. At the same time, management provides the right tools to ensure tasks are performed correctly and consistently.