Over the past year, the Emerging Stronger team has developed a series of tools to make it simple for L&D professionals to embrace evidence-informed tactics to improve business impact. In the fifth of this series of “Making it Simple to Do the Right Thing”, Shannon TIpton introduces you to the Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities Tool.

Download the Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities Tool here. 

A community is “a way of being together with both individual authenticity and interpersonal harmony so that people become able to function with a collective energy even greater than the sum of their individual energies.”  M. Scott Peck

Communities create belonging. And this is particularly true in the workplace today. When people feel as though they belong to a workplace community, they become more dedicated to their group and become more motivated to level-up their performance. 

Studies tell us that those who feel isolated in life also feel hopeless. And within the workplace that feeling is compounded by a sense of powerlessness and apathy, which ultimately can take its toll on morale, productivity and engagement. 

Today our workplace communities have the same potential for creating a sense of belonging, especially with the increase in remote working. In fact the glue that has been keeping us connected is enterprise collaboration and the technology that enables it. Last year Gartner revealed that 80% of workers were using tools such as Slack, MS Teams in 2021, up 44% from 2019.

These online communities provide us with fertile ground in which learning can grow. All we needs is a plan to prepare, sow, and nurture. What is more, the rewards of that plan is a harvest of learning, a  sense of belonging, an increase in psychological safety that develops an energy for creating positive change.

Here we will guide you through the benefits of using the Cultivating learning in Workplace Communities Tool – with some handy hints on how to best incorporate this tool into your workplace toolkit. 

Benefits of using the Cultivating Learning In Workplaces Communities

Encourage people to take responsibility for their own continuous learning

Support people as they learn from work and each other

Improve performance through practice, reflection and collaboration

Build and sustain motivation through connection, accountability and progress

Given all the information about the benefits of learning within workplace communities, why don’t we see more of them in action? What is the barrier? 

Generally, the reasons for why workplace communities fail are numerous, if not somewhat predictable. 

Competing platforms - every department is acting in silo’s. This leads to duplication of effort without alignment with the organizational strategy and business goals. This results in platform over-population.

Lack of top-down, management support - Generally L&D will put in place a platform, place together a limited communication plan and hope that people will start conversing and engaging on the platform. There may be a “honeymoon” period but shortly the enthusiasm dies down, and the platform becomes a ghost town. 

Organizational competitiveness - it is very hard to be collaborative and share openly if an employee knows that s/he will be judged and measured against their peers. This turns team members into opponents. When behaviors are focused on win-lose outcomes, building a community can be difficult. 

However, despite the barriers in front of us, it’s critical to find, nurture and support the learning that is occurring in the workplace communities growing within our organizations. While it may seem a daunting task, it’s not impossible. Just as one may consider tackling a weed strewn plot of land as more effort than reward. We know that with the proper tools and plan, the weeds will eventually be a proper flower garden.

With the Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities Tool we adopt the analogy of a community being a fertile ground which can be nurtured into a garden that blooms of learning. Subsequently then, this tool will help you to cultivate and support learning in the communities that are currently woven throughout the organization - both formal and informal.

This tool has templates to take you through five parts:

Part 1 – Dig into purpose: As mentioned, what is the purpose of the community “garden”. Dig around to unearth why people are gathering in this space, what they are trying to do there and set learning goals that support this purpose.

Identify Purpose. Identify who is working in this space and the problems or opportunities that have drawn them together (e.g: onboarding support to new starters in the organisation).

Define learning goals. Set goals that support the group’s purpose with indicators that will help you know if you are on track (e.g reduce time for new starters to reach competency).

Identify priority knowledge, skills or topics. Make a short list of priority skill or knowledge topics to (e.g. How to answer customer complaints, how to find critical information).

Part 2 – Prepare the ground: Understand and improve the growing conditions of the community garden. Is the garden set-up for success?

Is the purpose or common interests of the community clear so people can decide if the learning is relevant to them?

Are guidelines posted that describe how people are expected to participate and behave in the community? 

It is easy to join the community? Are you asking people to jump through too many hoops?

Part 3: Sowing into your community: To support learning and performance, know what seeds to sow and why. Sowing is about seeding the learning process in the community with relevant content, questions, and activities. Applying principles from learning science will ensure you not only drive engagement and interaction but provide essential nutrients to grow learning.

Thoughtfully curate quality content that is relevant to the community learning goals and share it in a way that seeds engagement. 

Be a role model and share content effectively. 

Questions are a powerful way to stimulate learning. Review recent community discussions to find examples of effective questions.

Part 4: Nurture community learning: How to water, fertilize, weed and prune the garden in order for learning to thrive.

Weed the garden! Make it easy for people to find current and relevant content, find interesting conversations and each other.

Look for areas where engagement and learning are happening and support it’s growth.

Make it easy for community members to support each other, showcase SME’s or others who are contributing value. 

Part 5: Harvest results: Gather and use the fruits of your labour. Look for signs of learning maturing.

Gather the crop (find the information or learning that is “ripe” to share)

Prepare the harvest for distribution! Save resources being shared and created into a repository, tagging them for easy search.

Plan how to use the information gathered, can the resources be reused in other “gardens”?

Download the tool for guidance notes and templates for each part of Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities Tool. 

As with anything, there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution. The needs of your organization will vary.

As you unearth the variety of communities established in your organization, you will find that every learning community will have their own shared goals built around the people within it. Think of this tool as one to help support and nurture a community specific learning journey. 

The best learning community environments are collaborative, with open communication that’s aimed at promoting a rich experience that allows for the sharing of ideas, finding answers, and filling in skill or knowledge gaps. But also, a well-nurtured workplace learning community will provide support and even have a bit of fun together.

Employees everywhere are looking for a deeper partnership with the business, are wanting stronger bonds with colleagues, and are looking for clear paths to collaborate and learn. This tool can help you achieve these goals. 

In this series we have seen that most of the tools work just fine on their own, but work at their best when combined with other complementary tools. 

The Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities Tool does work stand but will provide even more impact when combined with others in this series:

Use the Cultivating Learning In Workplace Communities Tool with other tools in this series

Needs Analysis Tool: Use this tool to double check that your workplace community activties become essential support business critical needs vs an unwelcome add on.

Curation Decision Tool: Use the curation decision tool to create laser focus on the best content to sow in your communities. 

Power Hour Tool: Use the Power Hour tool to inject accountability and visibiity into your workplace community strategies

Communication Plan Launch Tool: Use the communication planning tool to explore smart ways of  leveraging your communities to engage your community and maintain learning momentum 

Improving Impact Tool: Use your improving impact tool to help clarify what conversations you need to encourage to uncover impact and use your workplace community harvest to feed the data in your improving impact tool

You may also be interested in the previous blogs in this series:
Making it simple to conduct a needs analysis conversation, where Shannon Tipton covers delivering valuable content with the Needs Analysis Tool.
Making it simple to curate with impact, which dives into moving beyond learning aggregation with the Curation Decision Tool.
Making it simple to engage with managers, Laura Overton talks through improving engagement with managers with The Power Hour Tool.
Making it simple to market learning and increase engagement, with Laura Overton exploring how to best spread the word on your learning solution with the Communication Plan Launch Tool.
Making it simple to improve impact, Laura Overton walks through a powerful and adaptive resource, the Improving Impact Tool.

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.

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L&D expert Shannon Tipton walks us through the Cultivating Learning in Workplace Communities Tool in the latest blog in our Making it Simple series.

Making it simple to cultivate learning in workplace communities

Who knows best? Who works the hardest? Who’s suffered the most hardship and come out the other side stronger than ever? For as long as there have been generations, there’s been a battle of sorts between them. 

And while I’m sure we all, no matter what generation we are, like to believe our own generation has the right way of thinking, that may not be the case. As much as many of us favour our own generation more than the others, each generation has unique strengths and weaknesses. 

Additionally, it can be really easy to pigeonhole and say that “people of a certain generation always do this”. While we should steer clear of pigeonholing, we can use each generation’s  typical characteristics  to understand their backstories and perceptions. As a result, workplaces can determine the most effective ways to lead and engage with a variety of age groups in a way that benefits everyone. 

With this in mind, let’s analyse the strengths of each generation – from Baby Boomers to Gen Z – including how generations can learn from each other to transform the workplace for the better. 

Some of their workplace habits may be viewed as outdated or no longer relevant by younger generations. However, the way Baby Boomers handle themselves in the workplace has seen them not just survive periods of uncertainty but thrive during them. And that’s something all generations could use help with right now. 

Baby Boomers in the workplace are also characterised by their commitment to their jobs, being more dedicated than any other generation. Furthermore, 53% of organisations say that they work well with others, making them an excellent addition to any team. Baby Boomers’ dedication to their workplace, combined with their excellent team skills, makes them excellent mentors for younger generations. 

While the fact that many Baby Boomers are not retiring despite being of retirement age may be perceived as a demonstration of their work ethic, it can also mean that many Baby Boomers struggle to maintain a work-life balance. Just as younger generations often turn to Baby Boomers to act as their workplace mentors, Baby Boomers can turn to younger generations to learn the secret to the elusive work-life balance. 

It’s no secret that during particularly busy times, work can feel all-consuming. Before we know it, work seems to become our whole lives. Previous generations may have believed that the harder you work, the more rewards you’ll enjoy. 

However, Gen X revolutionised the workplace by discovering the value of having a work-life balance. Prioritising work-life balance doesn’t mean that Gen X are less motivated at work. In fact, 70% of organisations believe that Gen X are the best workers. They’re also considered  the biggest revenue generators for businesses. 

Members of Gen X were also the first generation to grow up with computers as part of their everyday lives, both at home and at school. That’s a significant adjustment! Despite what could have seemed like a scary change, Gen X took it in their stride and thus began their journey of being self-sufficient, ambitious learners.  

This isn’t something that started and stopped with formal education. Members of Gen X have continued this behaviour throughout their career journeys.  

Something that goes hand in hand with their ambition is Gen X’s appreciation of constructive feedback. This doesn’t necessarily mean that members of Gen X want a strict work environment (they typically despise being micromanaged). However, it does mean that they care about and seek out ways to continuously improve and don’t mind if they have to hear some occasional tough love. 

Like everything, there are pros and cons to Gen X’s ambition and desire to be self-sufficient. They are also masters of self-deprecation. To help combat this, members of Gen X can consult with their Gen Z colleagues who are much more open to asking for help when it comes to wellbeing at work.

Alternatively, for members of Gen X who are shyer or would prefer to tackle self-deprecation solo, there are many online courses available that specifically deal with maintaining mental wellbeing in the workplace. 

Much like their predecessors Gen X, Millennials have also grown up around technology. In particular, they grew up and began to enter the workforce right in the middle of the rise of the internet. As a result, they taught themselves a variety of digital skills and fostered within themselves a desire to learn and continuously improve. Although they may not have known it while they were growing up, this love of learning is a contagious workplace skill. When members of other generations can see Millennials’ enthusiasm for learning, it encourages them to participate. That not only benefits the learners but has positive knock-on effects for the business overall. 

While it may be easy to assume that relying quite heavily on the internet and digital skills would make Millennials less social at work, it’s actually the opposite. Millennials’ passion for the internet has inspired social media tools specifically designed for the workplace, like Slack, Skype for Business, and Microsoft Teams, which are now commonplace in many businesses.  

The interactions that colleagues of all generations have on these online platforms, whether directly related to work or not, have significant positive effects for both individuals and the business overall. In fact, Harvard Business Review found that “employees who engage in online social interactions with colleagues through social media, tend to be more motivated to come up with innovative ideas.” 

Although the benefits of social media and technology in the workplace far outweigh the detriments, if Millennials find themselves relying on it too much, they can struggle to develop in-person interpersonal skills. At this point, Millennials can look to members of older generations in the workplace who began their careers long before the internet for how to feel more confident in this aspect of the world of work. 

Millennials may have been the generation that grew up during the development of the internet, but members of Gen Z don’t remember life without it. For members of older generations, this can be pretty hard to imagine (surely we’re not that old, right?). However, it has made Gen Z the most tech-competent generation.  Further, although Gen Z are the youngest members of the workforce, they can act as tech mentors for older generations as they navigate a workforce where technology use is increasing exponentially. 

Members of Gen Z are also particularly ambitious, with two-thirds of them saying that their goal in life is to reach the top of their profession. To achieve this, networking with members of older generations who are already at their top of their field can be extremely beneficial.

Enthusiasm to grow in the workplace spreads like wildfire. When other generations see that Gen Z are motivated to learn and move their way up in the industry, it’s easier for them to be motivated too. 

Everybody knows that the internet never really ‘turns off’. There’s content being generated 24/7, whether it be related to people’s business life or their personal life. That’s a lot to focus on all at once! Growing up in this environment has meant that Gen Z are excellent multi-taskers and have come to be known as the ‘always on generation’. Such skills can be beneficial to pass on to older generations at work who may have had the rate of workplace technology use creep up on them faster than they anticipated. 

However, it can also mean that Gen Z struggle to switch off at the end of a workday.  When this issue arises, Gen X, the pioneers of the work-life balance, can be excellent mentors to Gen Z. Like all workplace skills, switching off can benefit members of all generations. 

By ensuring consistent upskilling and reskilling, members of all generations can  contribute to the improvement of the workforce and positively affect their company’s business goals. However, the emotional impact of different generations learning from each other and working together is arguably even more significant.  

If workplaces notice a generational gap, it may be worth considering broadening the typical age demographic of your workplace. In the meantime, engaging in workplace learning that actively seeks to improve some of the workplace habits of each generation can make a significant difference. 

When employees are happy, psychologically safe and motivated, they are far more likely to contribute their best work. This, of course, creates knock-on effects for the company overall, including improving retention rates and enticing other potentially high-value future employees to want to work for your company. 

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. 

Let's take a look at the strengths of each generation – from Baby Boomers to Gen Z – and how different generations can learn from each other to transform the workplace for the better. 

How each generation’s strengths can transform the workplace

Over the past year, the Emerging Stronger team has developed a series of tools. These are built to make it simple for L&D professionals to embrace evidence-informed tactics to improve business impact. In the Sixth (and final) of this series of “Making it Simple to Do the Right Thing”, Michelle Ockers walks us strategically through the Improving Impact Tool.

You can download the Improving Impact Tool here.

When you talk about how your learning solutions add value, do you tend to focus on learning metrics like activity and engagement? Or are you comfortable and adept at discussing the business impact of your work, and linking it to a sound up-front needs analysis?

Even when L&D has worked with the business to be clear on what needs to be achieved, we tend to then work independently. We may get input from Subject Matter Experts as we curate content or develop a learning solution. However, we only occasionally engage others in solution development and delivery. Similarly, our evaluation mindset and practices limit the potential benefits available to us. We are often too inwardly focused, seeking to demonstrate how we add learning value. However, this doesn’t tell us whether our solutions have any impact on performance. 

Here we will guide you through using the Improving Impact Tool – with some handy hints on how to best incorporate this tool into yours and your manager’s toolkit.

Improving Impact Tool: Emerging Stronger

Interdependence and continuous improvement

According to the 2021 Learning Performance Benchmark Report, only 12% of L&D teams collect learning intelligence from line managers.

This is indicative of the the opportunity to engage others, particularly managers, to create shared ownership of solutions and responsibility to increase impact. Adopting a continuous improvement mindset regarding the purpose of evaluation leads to very different practices and outcomes. Engage in ongoing smarter conversations with managers that focus on key areas linked to improving impact, using evidence to inform your conversations and guide you to adapt your course.

This tool helps you to have smarter conversations to improve the impact of learning solutions in order to help you:

Engage others, particularly managers, to create shared ownership of solutions

Approach evaluation with a growth mindset

Efficiently identify and make evidence-informed improvements to solutions

Increase the business impact of solutions

Demonstrate the value that solutions have added 

Gather, use and share appropriate data to achieve all of the above

The tool offers straightforward, practical evaluation steps that can be undertaken with limited time and basic data literacy. 

The tool includes templates to guide you through a series of 30 minute conversations with managers whose team members are participating in a learning intervention. It also includes three separate conversation guides to help you prepare for and have smarter conversations (A) before, (B) during and (C) after a learning intervention. It includes visual ‘roadmaps’ of key check-in points in the life of both short and longer, more complex interventions.

Each conversation consists of three steps: 

Identify invitees and book the conversation

Review actions from preceding conversations and update the action log

Tailor the conversation guide if appropriate 

Ask questions as per the conversation guide

Agree actions and note them in the action log

Provide conversation participants with a copy of the competed guide with your notes

Continue monitoring completion of agreed actions

Each guide provides suggestions for when to have the conversation, specific preparation and questions to explore. You’ve got space to note outcomes and an action log template to keep track of actions from all of your conversations for a specific intervention in one place.

The real secret sauce in this tool that sets it apart from other ‘evaluation’ approaches, is the emphasis on gathering evidence that allows you to take immediate action. For example, the questions in the ‘During a learning intervention’ guide are in three sections titled:

Supporting participants to take action in their work

Evaluating progress against business metrics

What are you waiting for? I bet you have a learning intervention underway right now that you can use this tool to improve impact. Download the tool for guidance notes and templates for each of the Improving Impact conversations.

Context varies, so here’s some ideas to help you apply this tool in different situations to gain impact.

Pick your start point – a solution in development where you can identify a manager who cares about business impact and is willing to partner with you. Try using the tool with limited customization the first time, then experiment and refine how you are using it for best results.

Improving Impact offers a fresh way of thinking about the purpose of evaluation, and a straightforward practical approach that shares responsibility for monitoring progress and driving higher business impact. It’s good for you, good for the managers, and good for your business!

Over time these smarter conversations will shift your relationship with managers, lift your business impact, and boost your credibility and reputation as a value-adding business partner.

In this series we have seen that most of the tools in the Go1 Step Further Toolkit work just fine on their own, but work at their best when combined with other complementary tools. This is especially the case for the Needs Analysis Tool and Improving Impact Tool. 

Use the Improving Impact Tool with others in this series

Needs Analysis Tool: Use this tool to define business outcomes for a learning intervention before you start designing it, and then tracking and driving achievement of these outcomes through your Improving Impact conversations. 

Curation Decision Tool: Use the curation decision tool to carefully curate quality resources, then review the use and value of those resources in your Improving Impact conversations. Review and refine your curation decisions.

Power Hour Tool: Use the Power Hour tool to run a complementary team session to reflect on and engage them in driving the impact of a learning intervention.

Communication Plan Launch Tool: Use the communication planning tool to improve awareness of, and engagement with, your continuous improvement activities as you launch learning interventions and share improvement actions.

You may also be interested in the previous blogs in this series:
Making it simple to conduct a needs analysis conversation, where Shannon Tipton covers delivering valuable content with the Needs Analysis Tool.
Making it simple to curate with impact, which dives into moving beyond learning aggregation with the Curation Decision Tool.
Making it simple to engage with managersMaking it simple to engage with managers, Laura Overton talks through improving engagement with managers with The Power Hour Tool.
Making it simple to market learning and increase engagement, with Laura Overton exploring how to best spread the word on your learning solution with the Communication Plan Launch Tool.
Making it simple to cultivate learning in workplace communities, where Shannon Tipton presents ways to empower the communities at play with the Cultivating Learning Tool. 

Assessing the impact a learning solution is having can be complex. The Improving Impact Tool has been built to align and improve the business impact of L&D.

Making it simple to improve impact

By enabling students to take control of their own learning experience, eLearning can already be a less stressful way for employees to upskill and improve their knowledge. But, eLearning doesn’t necessarily remove all the general stresses that can come with the learning process.

However, your business and your employees can take steps to create a stress-free learning environment.

Why is a stress-free environment important for learning?

Employees may already feel a certain level of pressure from their day-to-day responsibilities. When that pressure is then added upon with training, particularly if it’s a lengthy or mandatory course, it can lead to burnout, stress, and anxiety.

With that unnecessary stress, it can hinder how an employee retains information. A 2008 study found that “exposure to a social stressor impaired working memory performance”. That means that students may potentially experience the stress associated with learning without even the benefit of learning a new skill or knowledge.

If employees feel stressed and don’t retain what they learn, then they’re not going to progress throughout your business and it may impact employee retention.

Similarly, the ROI of your learning and development strategy will be negatively affected because employees won’t be able to put new skills into practice.

For more information, check out our blog post on learning how to manage stress.

What can you change about your workspace?

The first step toward creating a stress-free eLearning environment is to provide employees with the ideal learning environment. While your business can’t control the environment of employees who learn remotely, you can make changes to shared spaces to limit stress-related triggers. Remote learners can also make these adjustments themselves, too.

Below are six ways to adapt workspaces and lessen stress.

A change of scenery can help employees get into the right headspace for learning. While they work at their desk, stepping away to a secondary workspace can help improve engagement.

Working can be challenging enough without having to fight around cluttered desks. A messy workspace isn’t only difficult to work in when it comes to organization and making notes, but doesn’t put students in the right headspace to begin with. Ensure there are tidy workspaces free from unnecessary clutter, such as poor cable management.

Adding color and personality to workspaces offers a far better learning environment than one that appears sterile and lacking personality. A 2014 University of Exeter study found that productivity increases by 15% when there are plants in the office. Similarly, having photographs and artwork can boost productivity and creativity.

Music goes a long way in creating a good learning environment. Nothing too heavy or with distracting lyrics, but soft, instrumental music can be relaxing. A study by Stanford University found that “music moves [the] brain to pay attention”, so why not put together a learning playlist?

5. Make sure employees aren’t disturbed

Constant interruptions are a guaranteed way to disrupt the learning process. Make sure employees are given space for personal development and reiterate how this time is critical and should be respected.

It’s important that managers help reduce stress within your business by managing time well and ensuring teams are organized.

How can employees prepare themselves for learning?

As well as creating the best environment for learning, there’s plenty employees can do to give themselves a stress-free learning experience.

If employees aren’t comfortable then they’re not going to be able to concentrate. They should ensure they have a comfortable chair, the correct lighting, and the option to raise their feet, such as by using a footstool. At home, sitting on the sofa is fine, but students should try and learn while sitting at a desk as this will improve posture.

Distractions can have a huge negative impact on eLearning, so these should be limited where possible. For example, learning shouldn’t be attempted while watching television, and students should try to find space away from other colleagues. Instant messaging platforms should be muted, and social media use should be limited, or preferably not used at all.

One of the major advantages of eLearning is it can be done at any time, any place. So, setting a learning schedule will allow students to ensure their learning never stagnates - even just ten minutes a day will go a long way to developing new skills and knowledge.

Taking regular breaks for students to recharge, stretch their legs and grab a drink is imperative. The UK government website advises that everyone should take a 5-10 minute break after every hour of screen time. This can help with fatigue, eye strain, and posture.

While students will want to progress quickly, they should set realistic goals and expectations. Learning is a marathon, not a sprint, and demanding too much can lead to stress if overly-ambitious targets aren’t met.

Where possible, students should avoid learning on top of a full day of doing day-to-day responsibilities. Because eLearning is flexible and self-directed, it can be picked up during periods of downtime or scheduled development sessions. Learning should be a positive experience, not one that means the working day has to continue longer than it should.

Sometimes things don’t always go to plan. Students should prepare for obstacles, either from a schedule point of view or other unexpected issues.

Asking for help and asking questions should always be encouraged. Doing so reduces stress and helps students to retain information.

From a business’ perspective, if you use an LMS you can monitor how employees are engaging with eLearning and offer additional support where needed.

What else can help employees learn more effectively? 

As well as creating the best environment for learning, there are additional ways employees can learn more effectively. These include:

Allow employees to control their own learning and development journey so they can learn something they’re passionate about

Ensure they don’t try to learn when tired. Getting a good night’s sleep prior to learning will help with concentration and retention

Healthy drinks and snacks are a great accompaniment to learning, whereas foods high in sugar, such as soda or chocolate, should be limited

Encourage blended learning by having students come together following the completion of eLearning courses to discuss what they’ve learned

Incentivize learning and introduce gamification to make learning more rewarding

Where can you learn more about eLearning?

One of the keys to stress-free learning is letting students choose their own paths. Go1 has a wide range of online courses available to access right now so employees can get excited about their growth within your business.

For more information about how Go1 can help your organization, book a demo with a member of our team today.

In order to learn in the best way possible, creating an environment that allows for focus and concentration is essential. Find out more with the experts at Go1.

Tips to create a stress-free eLearning environment | Go1

Tips for creating a stress-free eLearning environment

Available in over 150 markets and one of the most downloaded apps in more than 40 countries, TikTok has become the fastest-growing social media network, reaching 40% of 18 to 24-year-olds since it launched. 

Whilst many people may have dismissed it in the past as just a dance app, TikTok, which now receives more traffic than Google, is hard to ignore. And over the last few years, it has become one of the largest digital platforms in the world. 

In May 2020, the platform announced its initiative #LearnOnTikTok, recognizing a vast demand for educational content for young people. So much so, that the platform also announced a $50 million Creative Learning Fund for educational content for those who want to learn more.

It's clear that young people want to learn to benefit their careers. In fact, 3 in 5 (60%) of 16-24-year-olds admitted they have left a job due to limited growth opportunities. Gen Z is using TikTok for advice around careers to prepare them for the future - showing a further need for preparation to advance their studies or current role. To keep Gen Z employees engaged, this highlights the importance for employers to use different materials in a blended learning style to help them resonate with the workforce of the future. 

With this in mind, Go1 has uncovered what Gen Z and Millennials are consuming on TikTok and what they need help with when it comes to personal development. This will help employers understand which areas of skills they are consuming online, and help identify the gaps in their current learning and development programs. 

Soft skills have become increasingly important and are some of the most in-demand skills employers are looking for as they indicate the ability to work with others and grow within a company. In particular, employers are explicitly seeking employees with strong interpersonal skills, which are vital for business growth. 

This may explain why TikTok is ever-growing with video content focused on soft skills, building up millions of views. The hashtags #Teamwork, #Teamworkchallenge and #Team_Work have received over 2.9 billion views, whereas #CommunicationSkills, #CommunicationSkillTraining, and #communication_Skills have received 231 million views. 

The graph above shows the most popular TikTok hashtags for soft skills by the number of views. Results show teamwork with 2.9B views, communication with 231.5M views, time management with 217M views, problem-solving with 201.9M views, critical thinking with 181.7M views, work ethic with 131.5M views, decision making with 33.2M views, stress management with 31.8M views, leadership with 29.2M views and attention to detail with 28M views.

Quantifiable hard skills are also one of the fundamental things an employer needs when it comes to the right hire for a role. Some hard skills are more sought after than others in today's job market, but they are trending in the same direction - towards supporting an increasingly technical society. By looking at the number of TikTok views for hashtags relating to hard skills, we can get a better understanding of what these skills are. 

For example, hashtags on project management have received over 56 million views, with jobs in project management expected to grow 33% by 2027. Writing and language skills are the second and third most popular, with 29.2 million and 4.2 million views, respectively. 

The graph above shows the most popular TikTok hashtags for hard skills by the number of views. Results show project management with 59.6M views, writing with 29.2M views, language with 4.2M views, management with 2.4M views, finance with 2.3M views, marketing and sales both with 1.9M views, computer with 1.5M views, design with 330.5K views and IT with 191.1K views.

A number of creators have emerged on TikTok over the last couple of years to show the realities of the working world and their experience of workplace challenges, from combating negativity to insufficient training and development. 

During the pandemic, creators said these videos gave people content to bond over. But they’ve since evolved as a way to explain how the workplace has changed since the onset of remote work, offering a platform to discuss workplace topics like mental health, diversity, and wellbeing. 

The most viewed workplace challenges on TikTok relate to work-life balance, with more than 500 million views for #worklifebalance, #work_life_balance, and #worklifebalance? This is followed by communication, with more than 230 million views for #CommunicationSkills, #CommunicationSkillTraining, and #communication_skills. 

The graph above shows the most viewed workplace challenges on TikTok. Results show the most viewed challenge relates to work-life balance, with over 527 million views, followed by communication challenges, with 231 million views, problem-solving, with 201 million views, combating negativity with 88 million views, project management with 56 million views, recognition with 54 million views, bullying/conflict with 46 million views, professional development with 29 million views, building morale with 11 million views, difficult clients with 10 million views, bureaucracy with 8.7 million views, organization with 2.3 million views, positivity with 1 million views, schedule inflexibility with 110,924 views and motivation with 71,400 views. 

The learning community on TikTok is home to many industry professionals offering advice, whether it be dedicated career coaches or more industry-specific content creators, showcasing the huge skill-sharing aspect within the space. 

Key curators include J.T. O’Donnell, who has been helping people and their career paths for nearly 20 years and recently started providing professional advice on TikTok. Her videos cover everything from changing careers to answering job interview questions. Other creators leading the way include Shade Zahrai, an award-winning leadership strategist, and Lauren Selley, who provides helpful tips and advice when it comes to project management. 

The graph above shows the top TikTok curators for workplace learning and development. This includes the top curators for general skills, soft skills and hard skills. 

How can TikTok inspire your training strategy? 

Providing opportunities for professional development can have a significant impact on a workplace. With TikTok providing a new way of learning, managers can take away some key principles which could be implemented into their own training strategies, particularly when it comes to how Gen Z and Millennials like to learn.

As TikTok shows, bite-sized knowledge is the future, especially if your employees are on the younger side. Although it may be too short for employee training purposes, a short video can help with engagement, and be utilized in all kinds of training, even data compliance training.

TikTok has shown us that people, especially the younger generation, like watching videos when consuming content online. This shows that although employee training should include all types of formats, an emphasis on video content will help engage your employees. 

With blended learning, employees can personalize a learning module according to their preferences. Ultimately it offers more ways to learn, with various courses on different subjects, available online and in the training room, accessible anytime, anywhere, on any device with face-to-face or online support from a training. And it is these options that make blended learning the perfect type of training and why the future workforce prefers it to any other type of training. 

Mobile learning offers flexibility, as learners can complete training on the go. And with nearly 4 in 5 (78%) employees happy to learn new skills whenever they can during the working day, a further 59% are willing to learn outside of work hours to improve their job performance.  

Although people shouldn’t have to use their spare time to learn, it goes to show how important learning and training opportunities are to employees to aid progression. Mobile learning offers that flexibility.  

HR professionals and businesses can leverage information from TikTok for employee training and development to understand which areas of skills they are consuming online. 

After all, the success of TikTok is closely tied to the characteristics of Gen Z and Millennials. These generations will be the workforce of the future so providing blended learning is definitely worth implementing. 

Go1 have analyzed TikTok hashtags to reveal which education content is being consumed online, and what we can learn from TikTok creators.

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