The online learning environment is a convenient and flexible way for employees to engage with professional development. Regardless of location or time, participants can upskill and develop expertise in their own time, at their own pace.

While there are many benefits of online learning for both employees and organizations, the learning experience can feel isolating for participants. For learning designers, the challenge is to create opportunities for social interaction for online learners in ways that will add value. 

In this article, we will explore why discussion between learners is beneficial, and consider how to incorporate more opportunities for interaction with online courses. 

Why communication between learners is beneficial 

Whether learning takes place online, face-to-face, or uses blended methods, communication between participants is a crucial part of the process. 

The 70:20:10 model for professional learning has become an increasingly popular learning tool. The theory is simple and recognizes that the majority of learning opportunities occur outside of formal lessons. 

According to the model, social learning accounts for 20% of all learning opportunities. While many interactions will occur naturally, those responsible for learning and development in organizations can also take steps to facilitate discussion. 

Research suggests that asking the right questions is a helpful place to begin. In the journal article, Designing Discussion Questions for Online Adult Learning, Berge and Muilenburg explain this concept in more detail: 

‘Online learning environments, web-based or otherwise, are often more learner-centered than traditional brick-and-mortar classrooms. Online classrooms that use computer conferencing are discussion-oriented, authentic, problem and project-based, inquiry focused, and collaborative (Berge, 1997). In this type of environment, it is usually more important for the instructor to ask the “right questions” than to give the “right answers”.’

How to make online learning more interactive

There is no doubt that it is challenging to create authentic opportunities for social interaction with online courses. However, learning and development professionals can enhance the online experience. The following suggestions might be a useful starting point:

1. Choose or design modules with the right questions

As explained above, the questions and activities set in an online course will determine both the quality of learning and interaction between participants. It is essential that those responsible for learning and development review the lessons they choose for employees to engage with, and ensure that they are asking the “right” kind of questions.  

But what does this mean? Berge and Muilenburg go on to explain that the quality of questions asked of participants can be assessed using Bloom’s Taxonomy. 

Questions that generate more interaction between participants tend to encourage higher-order thinking skills, such as creativity, reflection, and analysis. If participants are asked to recall facts as part of a learning activity or asked to consume content, they will have very little reason to engage with each other.

In a review on making classroom discussions more interactive, Amy Peterson points to discussion boards as a handy tool. She explains that in a traditional classroom, a select few learners participate in classroom discussion, while the others remain silent. 

With online discussion boards, each participant can contribute to the debate without the social pressure of answering in front of a large group. When online courses use discussion boards effectively, this means more learners can actively participate in the learning process and engage with other students. 

Another advantage with discussion boards is that the size of the group can be controlled, allowing for closer interaction between participants when the class size is smaller. The learners can form closer bonds with fewer people, and it becomes much easier for them to collaborate. Groups can also rotate to give depth to interactions and help participants to engage in a variety of different learning interactions. 

Again, asking the right questions is key to facilitating high-quality discussion. Discussion prompts that are open-ended will be particularly helpful, and those which encourage students to give real-life examples. Students can also lead the conversation, and use prompts to guide the dialogue.

3. Create opportunities for face-to-face interaction between learners

 An online course alone can offer learners many opportunities for discussion and interaction. However, learning and development professionals can build upon these discussions either physically in the workplace or via video link. 

Although not always possible, physical interactions are preferable as they enable participants to experience the full range of communication when interacting with each other. For example, they can read each other’s body language and pick up on changes in tone of voice. 

4. Build in opportunities for reflection on learning

Learning and development professionals can also build upon the discussions generated in an online course by providing more opportunities for participants to reflect on learning. 

A well-structured online course will include opportunities to reflect on the learning process. However, it might be helpful to allocate time for further reflection and discussion beyond the online course. 

For example, if a module is focused on teaching participants a particular skill, they could be encouraged to apply their learning during the following week. At the next team catch up, they could bring their reflections along to generate discussion. 

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How to make an online learning classroom more interactive

Asking why learning is important or impactful is like asking why it's important that we breathe fresh air or drink clean water. Learning is an essential, lifelong pursuit. Providing professional development opportunities can significantly improve workplaces by boosting employees' confidence, knowledge, and productivity. Via learning, employees can refresh their skills or identify new skills that they need to improve. They can develop role-specific expertise, work on their soft skills (which are becoming increasingly sought after in the digital age) or even upskill and pivot to a new role.

Chances to learn and grow are vital for employees and will ultimately make them feel more engaged and invested in their work. At a certain point, everyone needs a new challenge to push themselves beyond what they are currently capable of, and workplace learning and development provides exactly that. 

Additionally, research shows that, via learning and development, employees can become more agile and responsive to change, giving them the skills to cope with the rapidly shifting modern workplace.

While these benefits alone make a compelling case for the positive impact of workplace learning and development, they are only the tip of the iceberg. Learning and development is vital for individual employees, yet, on a broader level, its business value is also significant. Unfortunately, L&D's business value is often overlooked. Too often, people acknowledge L&D's micro benefits, while neglecting its macro benefits. However, prioritising L&D can have a wide-ranging impact on several critical business metrics, thereby boosting your bottom line (more on that later). 

With this in mind, we explore the positive impact of learning and development on organisations, covering topics such as retention, engagement, skills development, workplace culture, measuring impact, and, most importantly, overall happiness. After all, what's more important than a love of learning? Let's get started. 

The positive impacts of learning and development

While learning for the pure love of learning should be sufficient, sadly, that is not the world we live in. To justify your L&D budget, teams must continually demonstrate L&D's impact on both individual employees and broader business goals. Thankfully, the positive impacts of learning and development are innumerable, meaning L&D should be easy to advocate for — as long as you know where to look. 

Unfortunately, knowing that L&D is impactful is one thing, but explaining this impact in concrete terms that executives can understand is often a totally different challenge. It's an age-old L&D struggle that you're probably all too familiar with. 

Below, we'll outline just that: everything you need to know to advocate for the positive impacts L&D has on your organisation. But first, a bonus statistic: 72% of organisations gain a competitive advantage by investing in digital learning. If that's not already enough to understand the positive impacts of L&D, there's plenty more where that came from. 

To help us assess learning and development's business impact, McKinsey's report Elevating Learning and Development: Insights and Practical Guidance from the Field offers a handy summary. The following diagram outlines five ways that learning and development can impact an organisation:

We'll analyse each of these areas in detail to understand why learning and development is so impactful on an organisational level.

In the past, learning and development focused primarily on improving productivity at both an employee and organisational level. While improving productivity remains important, learning now has a broader role by contributing to employability, among many other things. 

In today’s work landscape, employees are highly unlikely to remain with the same company for a long time. Gone are the days when you would stay in the same job for 40 years and retire with a gold watch, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds the median time that both wage and salary workers stay at their jobs is 4.1 years.

In this environment, attracting and retaining talent can be difficult. Many prospective employees list 'opportunities to learn' as one of the main reasons for accepting a job. On the other hand, a lack of career development opportunities is a common reason people give for moving to a new workplace. In other words, employees will only stay in a role as long as it is valuable to their personal and professional development, so you must continually offer this value to attract and retain the best talent. How? L&D. 

94% of employees say they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their professional development. Likewise, 86% of millennials would remain at their job if it offered better training and development courses, while companies that offer professional development opportunities have 34% higher retention rates.

And that’s only the beginning, as 22% of employees leave their jobs to seek better professional development opportunities elsewhere. Perhaps most significantly, ​employee retention rates increase by 30-50% on average for companies with strong learning cultures. 

For more insights, see our blog on five tips for long-term employee retention. 

In an increasingly digital world, knowledge can quickly become outdated. As such, an employee's unique strengths, skills, and insights become irrelevant faster than ever before. To combat this, employees must continuously upskill to remain abreast of current skills and workplace trends. 

What's more, studies show that the average shelf life of skills is becoming shorter and shorter, making continuous upskilling essential. According to IBM, "skills generally have a 'half-life' of about five years, with more technical skills at just two and a half years. The short shelf-life of technical skills requires a continuous re-skilling effort to stay relevant." Therefore, offering a robust upskilling program is essential to ensure your employees have the most up-to-date skills and can perform at their peak. 

Research also indicates that when organisations invest in the next generation of leaders through learning, they see an impressive return. These organisations are 2.4 times more likely to meet their performance targets. 

Learning and development can also communicate the values your company wants to prioritise, while simultaneously building a sense of community and connection between employees. For example, do you want to build a culture based on collaboration? Start offering digital learning courses about teamwork, patience, listening, and collaboration. Want to improve your team's adaptability? There's a course for that too. Whatever values you want to impress on your team, L&D is here to help.

Millennials are particularly interested in working for organisations with which they share values, as well as those that focus on social impact. To illustrate this, FastCompany found that 74% of employees believe companies should be as concerned with their social impact as they are with their bottom line, while 38% would quit their job “if an employer acted in a way that didn’t align with their values.”

To take this a step further, 73% of people wouldn’t even consider applying to a company unless its values align with their values, while 36% of people have left a job because they disagreed with a company's ethical standards.

Despite this, the 2021 Global Business Ethics Survey finds that just 14% of employees believe they work for an organisation with a strong ethical culture, meaning there is significant room for improvement. As always, investing in L&D is a great place to start.

When carefully crafted, a brand can communicate how successful your organisation is, as well as the position your organisation holds in the industry. Learning and development can improve your organisation’s reputation and help to attract new talent. As mentioned, L&D is essential to attract and retain top talent. 

A strong brand communicates a clear message to prospective employees. Similarly, building a strong culture is an essential aspect of developing your brand. To underscore this point, Glassdoor found that 56% of employees believe company culture is more important than salary, rising to 66% among Millennials. Moreover, 71% agree that if their company’s culture deteriorated, they’d look for a new job. 

For tips on building your employer brand, see our article on becoming an employer of choice. 

Research shows that opportunities for lifelong learning correlate with overall happiness. More specifically, a recent survey by TrainingMag concluded that "L&D professionals are managing to create a different trajectory based upon helping people institute positive habits, cultivate positive moments, and lean into social connection." 

Unsurprisingly, when employees are happy, they produce better, more creative work and have the energy to innovate. Who doesn't want happy, motivated, and engaged employees? 

To learn more, see our article on rediscovering lost joy at work. 

Measuring the impact of learning and development 

Clearly, organisations can reap great rewards when they invest in learning and development. More specifically, companies that provide comprehensive training programs have a 218% higher income per employee, while companies that invest in L&D have a 24% higher profit margin than those that spend less on training. Additionally, 42% of companies experience an increase in profits after investing in eLearning.

However, for leaders to feel confident in their learning strategy, they need to understand how to measure the impact of training on their employees and broader business goals. While measuring impact is incredibly beneficial, getting an accurate and insightful measure of your learning impact is often challenging.

Many organisations rely on traditional methods to measure the success of an L&D program, such as employee satisfaction and completion rates. However, these traditional L&D metrics may be holding you back. 

Organisations that perform best focus on a broader range of outcomes-based metrics, such as the impact of L&D on individual employees, engagement in learning, and the impact learning has on teams and business processes. Thankfully, Go1 has made it easy to improve L&D impact with the Improving Impact Tool, which you can download here. 

Further, McKinsey suggests reviewing the impact of learning in an organisation using the following framework: 

Strategic alignment: How effectively does the learning strategy support the organisation’s priorities?


Capabilities: How well does the learning and development function help colleagues build the mindsets, skills, and expertise they need most? L&D impact can be measured by assessing people’s capability gaps against a comprehensive competency framework.


Organisational health: To what extent does learning strengthen the overall health and DNA of the organisation? Relevant dimensions of the McKinsey Organizational Health Index can provide a baseline.


Individual peak performance: Beyond raw capabilities, how well does the learning and development function help colleagues achieve maximum impact in their role while maintaining a healthy work-life balance? 

Finally, leaders can also use data to review the impact of learning interventions. This evidence-based approach can help teams develop a rigorous learning and development strategy. Despite this, 26% of L&D teams lack the analytical skills to use learning data effectively, while just 10% say they use performance data to measure the impact of learning programs. To get started on using data to measure L&D impact, see our blogs on improving ROI metrics and accessing insights to improve your L&D content. 

For more insights, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

We explore the positive impact of learning and development on organisations, covering retention, skills development, workplace culture, measuring impact, and overall happiness.

The positive impact of learning and development on organisations

In the race to keep up with advancing technology and the shifting requirements of employees in the workplace, traditional learning methods are becoming increasingly obsolete.

In this environment, there is a necessity to look to alternative models of professional learning which are compatible with the changing landscape of work. Experiential learning is one methodology increasing in popularity in the corporate training arena, but has long been known to be an effective approach.  

In this article, we are going to explore experiential learning and how it can be applied to learning in the workplace to both improve learning outcomes and employee engagement.

Experiential learning is essentially learning by doing, but there are other important steps learners need to take in order for it to be useful. It involves a cyclical process of action, which learners reflect upon and then adjust their actions accordingly based on what happens. This cycle can be described in four parts: 

The learner has concrete experience with the content being taught.

The learner reflects on the experience by comparing it to prior experiences.

Based on experience and reflection, the learner develops new ideas about the content being taught.

The learner acts on her new ideas by experimenting in an experiential setting.

									              (Kolb and Frye, 1975)

As new ideas are put into action, a new cycle of experiential learning begins. 

While they are similar, experiential learning is not exactly the same as learning on the job or an apprenticeship. Thinking critically is an important part of the process, as well as reflecting on how to improve upon current practice. This isn’t necessarily a focus of practical training.

In the workplace, an example of experiential learning might involve an employee with a position of responsibility shadowing a more senior manager for one week in order to learn more about leadership. By taking part in the process, the employee would have gained new skills, but they won’t have engaged in experiential learning. 

In order for this to happen, the employee would need to take the time to reflect on the experience, and to compare what they have observed through shadowing to their own management style. After this, the employee would return to their position with a fresh perspective and understanding on how to approach their role. 

This approach can be applied to learning in a range of different topics or skill areas, and is proven to be an engaging way for learners to gain knowledge. 

How to engage employees in experiential learning

When experiential learning has such an impact on learner engagement, it makes sense for organisations to try and implement the strategy across their learning and development processes. Through experience, learners can also apply what they have learnt in a more timely manner, to real-life scenarios as they appear.

While the benefits of experiential learning are clear, it can be difficult to integrate into an online learning course, when the majority are conducted either at a desk or using a smartphone. The following points summarise the ways in which opportunities for experiential learning can be incorporated into the online learning process, using either online learning tools or blended methods: 

A key advantage of VR is that it offers participants an experiential learning opportunity, which creates stronger memories through employing multiple senses and emotional connections.

VR brings and experiential element to online learning that is difficult to create with videos and articles alone. Repetitive learning or memorisation has long been out of favour in schools, with ‘learning by doing’ being the preferred option. Experiential Learning methodology encourages critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, and this accelerates learning.

It also bridges the gap between theory and practice, and gives employees an opportunity first-hand to apply what has been taught. This improves retention of concepts and new ideas. 

Build in practical activities away from the desk

Online courses can serve as a basis for workplace learning, which learning and development professionals can then leverage to create a blended learning experience.  

To explain this, let’s return to the example above. If an employee is about to take on more responsibility in a more senior management position, they might need to take an online refresher course on management and think about which techniques work best for them. This could be accompanied by the opportunity to shadow a colleague with management experience in a more senior position. 

This combination of learning experiences can help the employee to gain a broad range of knowledge which they can immediately apply in their new position.

Practical stories help to put learning in context, and are particularly important for workplace training. One of the main goals of learning in the workplace is for the participants to be able to apply their knowledge in a practical context.  Acknowledging this during the learning process makes the transition from online to real-life scenarios much easier. 

Stories also give learners a familiar context to work with. This forms a great basis for gaining new knowledge and information, as they can make connections between new information and situations they already understand.

Incorporate a review process for learners to reflect on how they have applied their learning

While many online learning courses will have built-in activities to help learners think critically and reflectively, it can be helpful to extend this process beyond the course. 

After learners complete the online training, they could complete a reflection activity over the following month which asks them key questions about their learning experience and how they have been able to apply new skills or ways of thinking to their role. This process could be individual or collaborative, perhaps involving a short meeting to discuss how the group has been able to apply their learning. 

With Go1’s collection of different content providers, you will find training formats vary from bite-sized animated videos to short courses with multiple modules. Diversity in learning resources caters best to all learning styles. Choice promotes learning opportunities and activates user engagement in professional development training.

Experiential learning is an effective way to teach employees about new skills and concepts. It also helps them develop their own personal brand.

The benefits of experiential learning in the workplace

On a daily basis, both employees and leaders need to develop expertise or learn new skills to ensure they make meaningful contributions to society. They can do this by asking each other questions about how to complete new tasks, or by researching the best approach. Whichever methods they use, lifelong learning is a human pursuit, and those who engage with learning regularly are proven to be happier.

When you are at work and you need to complete an unfamiliar activity, what do you do? While there are steps you can take independently, if your organisation has a developed learning culture and openness to ongoing training, you are far more likely to be confident with the learning process and understand how to get started.  

Over time, the 70:20:10 model for learning and development has become increasingly popular with organisations. As leaders started to recognise that the traditional, structured approach to learning no longer supported strategic goals, they started to seek out an alternative approach. The 70:20:10 model is simple, and recognises that the majority of learning opportunities occur outside of formal lessons. 

In this article, we are going to explain the model and share some advice on how to put theory into practice in workplace learning. 

The 70:20:10 model can be described in different ways, but is essentially a framework for workplace learning. It offers guidance as to which types of learning have most impact on employee development, and the balance learning and development professionals should aim to strike. The different types of learning referred to in the framework are:

This is learning through practice and experience, followed by reflection, critical analysis and application.

This involves learning through speaking and interacting with others.

This learning takes place on formalised courses, both face-to-face and online.

The model is also known as performance-oriented learning, which mostly happens as an employee goes about their work day. While traditional, formal modes of learning are undoubtedly useful when there are specific skills employees need to develop, the theory outlines that the majority of learning takes place through practical activities. 

However, the ratios are not fixed. They are suggested as a guide to ensure learning and development strategy remains balanced. How the ratio is implemented will depend on the organisation and skill types employees need to develop. Invariably though, the weighting towards each type of learning remains constant, with experiential learning being the most important. 

The application of the 70:20:10 model gives those responsible for learning and development a clear structure for both creating and reviewing strategy. The following points summarise the ways in which the theory can be put into practice: 

1. Build in opportunities for experiential learning

Experiential Learning methodology encourages critical thinking, problem solving and decision making, and this accelerates learning. It also creates stronger memories through employing multiple senses and emotional connections.

Learning in this way bridges the gap between theory and practice, and gives employees an opportunity first-hand to apply what has been taught. This improves retention of concepts and new ideas. 

While they are similar, experiential learning is not as simple as employees learning on the job by osmosis. Thinking critically is an important part of the process, as well as reflecting on how to improve upon current practice. This isn’t necessarily a focus during the average work day. 

In order to create opportunities for experiential learning, the process needs to be made explicit, either by providing employees with resources, or by training them in how to engage in experiential learning techniques. Once employees have been shown how to learn through experience, they can take ownership of the process. The only need for guidance would be for learning and development professionals to review the process, and look at how the learning aligns with an employee’s performance review.  

According to the 70:20:10 model, social interactions account for approximately 20% of learning in the workplace. Much of this learning will in fact happen organically, but leaders can facilitate it and ensure that it is learning focused at opportune times.  

A focus on learning through discussion can be achieved by setting up a formal opportunity to discuss learning throughout the week, perhaps as part of the agenda at team meetings. Sharing resources with staff can also help to generate discussion, and help to guide learning conversations.

Leaders can also model discussion about learning at appropriate times.  Perhaps somebody in leadership recently learnt something new. They could share that experience with staff when giving a presentation, or if they have questions, they could ask a relevant team member for help using learning-appropriate language. 

When approximately 10% of time for workplace learning should be allocated to formal learning, investing large sums of money in face-to-face training might not be the most effective use of a training budget. Online courses are a more cost-effective way to offer employees opportunities for formal learning. 

Online courses can serve as a foundation for both experiential and social learning opportunities. Those responsible for learning and development might set employees an additional experiential learning task based on the knowledge they acquire in an online course, or set up a reflective discussion relating to a course next time team members come together for a meeting. The content found in online courses can feed into other types of learning. 

4. Review with staff and ask for feedback

Most importantly, employees should take ownership of their learning and feel that it is a two-way process. If leaders invite employees to give feedback on the learning and development processes in their organisation, they will feel both invested and involved in the process. 

Their feedback will be the best guide as to whether learning and development strategy is in balance, as they are personally experiencing the learning. Assessing an individual’s learning experience without asking for their opinion is challenging for obvious reasons!

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

The 70:20:10 model recognises that most learning opportunities occur outside of formal lessons. In this article, we explain the 70:20:10 model, including how to put theory into practice.

Optimising the 70:20:10 model for learning and development

As technology progresses, organisations are under increasing pressure to upskill their teams and equip staff with the necessary skills to thrive in the modern workplace.

Accordingly, building a robust learning and development program is a key challenge with which organisations must engage. Opportunities for workplace learning are crucial to engage employees and retain them long-term. 

Higher-order thinking skills, such as innovating, creating, and critical thinking, are now in high demand. We expect this trend to continue as the need to develop new products, ways of working, and technologies increases. 

Despite this, there is a significant gap between the skills students are leaving school with and the skills necessary to succeed in today’s workplace. According to Skillsoft’s Mind the Gap report, 48% of L&D employees believe their team is underskilled to deliver what their business need. 

The current structure, composition, and delivery of learning contributes to these skill gaps, particularly the types of skills students are encouraged to develop. These days, schools allocate little to focus on the creative, divergent thinking skills many organisations need to remain competitive.

We think it's about time that changed. So, in this article, we will explore the personal and professional advantages of higher-order thinking skills. We’ll start by asking, ‘what are higher-order thinking skills?’ before delving into five benefits of developing higher-order thinking skills.

Higher-order thinking skills are learning concepts such as analysis, synthesis, and metacognition that help learners consolidate knowledge and deepen their insights. In many ways, higher-order thinking skills are precisely what they sound like: skills that take your learning to a 'higher' level. 

Indeed defines higher-order thinking skills as: “​the thought processes that help you connect information in meaningful ways and use those connections to solve problems. Sometimes the word ‘innovation’ is used for higher-order thinking skills because it also refers to thinking that synthesises knowledge in new ways. Critical thinking is one example of higher-order thinking skills, as well as synthesis and metacognition.”

Similarly, Teachmint adds that "higher-order thinking refers to the ability and the skill to  think above the information which was gained. In simpler terms, to think  on a level that is above the memorisation and rote information. It is  basically using your cognitive ability and doing something with the information shared with you and not just memorising it."

In the context of an online course, learning designers might encourage higher-order thinking by asking learners to come up with a unique way to solve a problem specific to their field or industry.

For instance, in a workplace health and safety training course, learners might be presented with a potentially dangerous scenario and asked to explain what they would do to meet workplace health and safety requirements. The learners might then be encouraged to share their thoughts and use communication tools to discuss the similarities and differences between their responses. 

Bloom’s Taxonomy is a fantastic starting point to understanding the different thinking skills people draw upon for learning and work. In particular, Boom's Taxonomy is foundational to understanding higher-order thinking skills.   

Developed by Benjamin Bloom and his team in the 1950s, learning and development professionals continue to implement Bloom's research today, finding it as relevant now as it was then. 

According to Simply Psychology, "Bloom’s Taxonomy is a hierarchical model that categorises learning  objectives into varying levels of complexity, from basic knowledge and  comprehension to advanced evaluation and creation." 

In a recent article, we looked into how learning and development professionals can use Bloom’s Taxonomy to choose engaging learning content. The following diagram shows the ranking of different thinking skills in Bloom's Taxonomy, with higher-order thinking skills such as designing, building, constructing, producing, inventing, judging, and critiquing appearing at the top:

Now that we have defined higher-order thinking skills, let's look at some examples. Common higher-order thinking skills include:

5 benefits of developing higher-order thinking skills

For L&D professionals and organisational leaders alike, understanding which courses and activity types will help learners develop higher-order thinking skills is vital.

To emphasise this point, LinkedIn’s Workplace Learning Report identified the highest and lowest priority skills for L&D professionals, based on the percentage of surveyed L&D professionals focused on developing these skills. At the top of the list were leadership management (57%), creative problem solving and design thinking (42%), and communication (40%). Unsurprisingly, many of the highest-ranking responses were examples of higher-order thinking skills. 

More than ever in the digital era, employees must use their knowledge to create, innovate, or design to add value. Learning to develop these skills via workplace training is especially valuable.

With this in mind, we'll explore the broader benefits organisational benefits of developing higher-order thinking skills:

1. Participants build skills for creativity and innovation

The ability to create and innovate are among the most critical skills that employees require today. As technology advances, organisations and employees need to adapt to rapidly changing environments to keep up with the pace of innovation. 

Thinking creatively and innovating comes naturally to some people. However, for others, these skills need to be developed. Unfortunately, as creative thinking is not currently a focus in schools, many new graduates enter the workforce without any chance to develop these vital skills. This lack of creative skills becomes an issue when graduates enter the fast-paced modern workplace and feel unprepared. 

According to research by Deloitte, fewer than four in 10 millennials (36%) and three in 10 Gen Z (29%) graduates believe they are fully prepared and have all the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the modern workplace. What's more, 32% of millennials expect to have fewer opportunities for a fulfilling career, compared to 46% of Baby Boomers.

Notably, millennials only credit school/university studies with 23% of the skills, knowledge, and experience they use at work. In contrast, on-the-job training from employers and continuous professional development contribute to 52% of what millennials use at work. In the future, approximately eight in 10 millennials say that on-the-job training, continual professional development, and formal employer-led training will be crucial to help them perform at their best.

Encouraging learners to engage with higher-order thinking skills requires far more attention and utilises more of their brain capacity. As a result, learning becomes more interesting, and learners are more invested in their professional development. Online learning courses that implement these activity types are often far more applicable in real-life scenarios.

Better engagement in workplace learning can also improve staff retention. Staff retention is a problem across organisations and directly impacts productivity.

When employees engage with learning tasks that give them the confidence to innovate, the potential for new ideas in an organisation skyrockets.  

As technology progresses more and more rapidly, innovation will become a key advantage for organisations to remain competitive. Already, those who can quickly adapt to market shifts are more likely to survive digital transformation. 

4. Learners build transferable skills for real-life scenarios

Learners who engage with higher-order thinking skills through online courses are more likely to apply this knowledge after the training concludes.

Learning tasks that encourage divergent thinking skills that apply to a broad range of situations (and are not bound by specific topics or job requirements) are ideal for building transferable skills and engaging learners.

5. More opportunities for collaborative learning 

Learning activities which encourage higher-order thinking skills are often more conducive to employee collaboration. While finding ways for learners to collaborate can be challenging with online learning, tools such as discussion boards and information sharing allow participants to share their ideas throughout the learning process. 

For more insights on developing higher-order thinking skills, subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs.

Organisations are under increasing pressure to equip staff with higher-order thinking strategies to thrive. Here's why they are essential.

Future proof your business with higher-order thinking - Go1

Organisations are under increasing pressure to equip staff with higher-order thinking strategies to thrive in the modern workplace. Here's why higher-order thinking strategies are essential to future-proof your organisation. 

Develop higher-order thinking skills to future-proof your organisation

Go1 is pleased to announce a new partnership in The Netherlands, teaming up with learning technology specialists Educontinu.

Based in Utrecht, Educontinu guides organisations throughout the selection and implementation of the right learning technology, helping companies to reach their business goals.

“We see that companies are struggling with the internal production of engaging learning content and are looking for options to extend their training library with high quality and up-to-date content of external providers. With Go1 Premium, they will be able to preselect courses from more than 100 different content providers and make those available to their employees on the company’s LMS or via the Go1 platform. 

We also see big potential for Dutch content providers to consider Go1 as a distribution platform so they will be part of this huge content library and leverage the bigger reach.”

Go1 Senior Account Executive, Paddy Boyd said:

“Educontinu help L&D professionals to create and implement the right tools and software for learning that really has an effect on the results of the organisation. The combination of years of experience in learning technology and content creation drives the Educontinu team to always find the best solutions to overcome digital learning challenges.

“Together, Go1 and Educontinu are excited to help organisations throughout Europe reduce costs and save time, with access to thousands of quality learning resources and curation of off-the-shelf content.”

Educontinu was founded in 2014 and supports organisations to (co-)create online and blended training programs, organise expert knowledge being captured, shared or reused, and facilitate social and continued learning as part of daily work. 

Go1 makes it easy for businesses to train their staff, with the world’s largest compliance, professional development and general training marketplace. By providing a single platform that extends from first aid training through to degree bearing courses, Go1 makes it easy to find and compare the best training options available. The marketplace features over 500,000 courses and other learning items created by local and international experts. Customers include HAYS, Surrey County Council, Rohlig, Jellyfish, Robertson, and Applegreen.

Since launching in 2015, Go1 has grown to be a world leader in online learning and education. Local and overseas investors include Y Combinator, SEEK, M12, Tank Stream Ventures, Black Sheep Capital, and Our Innovation Fund.

Go1 announces new partnership with Educontinu

Let’s get straight to the point. Optimising your employee lifecycle is all about improving your employee experience so that you improve employee engagement. Improving employee engagement results in happier and more productive employees, and this, in turn, produces happy customers, which subsequently generates more revenue. That’s a win for your customers, a win for your employees and a win for your business. In a world of increasing complexity and demands on our time, having the right systems and processes in place to enhance the employee experience is essential.

 In this article, we will be exploring the critical ingredients for improving your employee experience via two under-leveraged pathways: 

1.     Implementing intelligent HR automation for the right tasks and processes during the employee lifecycle, and

2.     Providing learning and development opportunities in the flow of work so that employees can fit it into their schedules.

 Iron Mountain have conducted a significant amount of research into how automating HR processes provides a means to create the time HR needs to focus on more strategic work. Results indicate that respondents from highly automated HR departments are about twice as likely to enjoy above-average productivity and considerably more likely as those from the least automated HR departments to say they enjoyed above average HR effectiveness (38% to 25%).

 Learning is the top-rated challenge among Deloitte’s 2019 Global Human Capital Trends report. People now rate the ‘opportunity to learn’ as among their top reasons for taking a job, and business leaders know that changes in technology, longevity, work practices, and business models have created a tremendous demand for continuous, lifelong development.

We’ve outlined 4 considerations below for improving your employee experience through HR automation, learning and development. The positive results available to HR professionals will flow on to benefit the organisation as a whole to enhance overall performance and long-term growth.

1.      The model of the employee lifecycle

 The proven model known as the employee lifecycle (ELC), is a powerful way to visualise the journey your employees take and how they interact with you. Understanding this model helps you ensure that you’re engaging them at every touchpoint they have with your organisation.

By optimising each stage of your ELC, it is possible to attract and retain a top tier talent for your business.

Here is the framework for the employee lifecycle model:

1.     Attraction: Build the right brand and culture to attract the best candidates to your business.

2.     Recruitment: Develop a multi-channel recruitment strategy and don't forget referrals when assessing who is the best fit for both your company and the role.

3.     Onboarding: Provide an engaging employee experience is essential to the retention and the success of new team members, existing employees and the organisation.

4.     Development: Foster ongoing professional development and continuous improvement across your business.

5.     Retention: Develop strategies and processes to ensure you retain your top talent. A positive company culture is essential. 

Separation: All good things must come to an end. Put a process in place to learn from the experience, continue good morale within your team, and ensure that departing employees leave on good terms. 

2.     Leverage HR automation to enhance employee performance

 Did you know that almost 70 per cent of HR work is still unstructured, relying on excel, email and calls? According to the study on The State of HR Automation in Mid-Sized Organisations, 59% of respondents said the HR professionals in their organisation spend over half their time on manual administrative tasks. Essentially that means that if you don't have the right automation in place, manual, unstructured HR tasks will result in unnecessary complexity, time wasted, and a productivity drain for both HR (and other employees). 

Human Resources Automation is about making sure that employees have everything they need to be successful, learn more in this article from Go1.