Feature

Marketing e-learning in-house

Organisation-specific content, senior management support, and a change in mindset will ensure the success of e-learning projects, says Sudipta Dev

The launch of e-learning initiatives in an organisation goes beyond the mere introduction of online courses for employees to upgrade their skills. It necessitates bringing about many changes—in the mindset of employees to managing initiatives to linking it with business objectives. The most significant part of this change management process is marketing of the e-learning concept among employees. The campaign is in fact directly related to the success of the endeavour and needs concerted evangelising from the top management of the company.

When Annick Renaud-Coulon, an international expert on corporate universities, conducted a survey in four continents (75 cases across 17 countries), the foremost reason cited for success of a corporate university was “marketing”. Anil Chhikara, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, 24x7 Learning, asserts that like any new product or service launch, marketing is the most important factor for success of any e-learning initiative. He lists the factors that need to be considered.

• Marketing strategy: Development of the overall marketing strategy and its relationship to the programme goals and objectives.
• Target markets: Is the e-learning initiative targeted at executives, managers, IT professionals, sales or marketing professionals and customer service staff? Keep in mind that each target market will have different needs and/or “pain points”—creating unique messages to target these specific needs will greatly improve the support and usage of the programme.
• Marketing methods: Determine appropriate marketing and promotional techniques for the e-learning programme.
• Marketing plan: The marketing plan should comprise events as well as deliverables.

It is important that the marketing strategy reflect the culture of the organisation and consider the type of business the organisation is in. “Once the plan is set, we need to tell the story, send the key message and set the foundation for ongoing success. Work from the top down. High-level communication is key, for it sets an example for the ranks. Identify available corporate resources. Communicate who, what, when, where, and why,” informs Chhikara, adding that an ongoing review is critical in evaluating efforts to understand the changing work environment, share information, keep users energised, and determine if the objectives have been met.

Key challenges

The first priority for adopting e-learning requires a change in mindset. Atul Kunwar, Managing Director-Global Outsourcing Solutions, eFunds International India says that this involves, “Embracing the ‘self-administered’ process as opposed to an ‘instructor-led’ process; ‘learning at the workstation’ as opposed to ‘learning in the classroom’; and accepting the ‘virtual teacher’ as a partner in the learning process.”

Then, the technology issues related to deployment, which includes a learning management system, need to be tackled. Content development is yet another critical challenge. Off-the-shelf solutions are not always suitable and need specific tailoring according to requirements of user groups. Jayant Kulkarni, Executive Director, Harbinger Group agrees that developing suitable content is a major issue. “Contents that help improve on-the-job performance and add to the KRA (key result areas) are popular. This means that organisations will have to shift their focus from only off-the-shelf content to organisation-specific

content. Of course, the off-the-shelf content can always be a complimentary resource,” he says. Developed content needs to be upgraded regularly so that the e-learning initiative gets the credibility of providing the latest information. This means that organisations will have to spend time and money in building an internal authoring environment, if not to develop courses, at least to upgrade the developed courses.

The target audience

The question is, should the marketing be directed at specific groups or be mass targetted? Mass marketing gives the strategic message, target marketing delivers the specific message. Consequently, both approaches can be combined. To avoid overwhelming learners with a flood of courses, be specific about the benefits they would get by enrolling. Kulkarni agrees that marketing should be specific as well as mass targeted. “It should be specific because it addresses a particular competency level, but mass targeted to accommodate all the people in that competency level. For example, an induction programme for new recruits,” he adds.

It is also advisable to start small. Evolve a change implementation strategy with a phased roll out. According to Nilesh Vani, Vice President, Aptech, there is a need to identify a set of early adopters, encourage them, and provide them visibility. “Evangelise the benefits—time, cost, ease and effectiveness. Gradually scale up till it reaches a snowball mass and gathers momentum. Till this time, the initiative would need top management sponsorship and visibility,” adds Vani.

E-learning is a perfect mode of training for most BPO companies who need to target a large number of employees. Atul Kunwar gives an insight: “Whether it is induction, pre-process training, soft skills training, process training, or regularly administering refresher training programmes; we need to ensure that every associate is adequately equipped to contribute towards maintaining and challenging the high levels of service delivery. And, as the numbers increase, reaching out to each associate becomes even more challenging—a Herculean effort at juggling with different log-in hours, space, schedule, time and resource (trainer) constraints. E-learning provides an ideal supplement to the classroom-based training methods allowing both the associates, their teams and the training department maximise the output from the time-resource equation.”

The strategy has in fact worked well at eFunds where the associates who have undergone training using e-learning modules are regarded as ‘Concept Ambassadors’. Kunwar recounts that the first lot was challenging—communicating the concept to the associates and motivating them to take the first module. “The response thereafter was fantastic. The associates found the modules to be of great value, and were able to complete them at their own convenience. They also completed the tests and got their scores online—and faster. They then started discussing their experience with colleagues and soon, the response rates started improving,” he says. They found a significant improvement when using a mix of compulsory and optional training modules in an associate’s training calendar.

A change in mindset involves embracing the ‘self-administered’ process as opposed to an ‘instructor-led’ process and accepting the ‘virtual teacher’ as a partner in the learning process Atul Kunwar Managing Director Global Outsourcing Solutions eFunds International India	Marketing is the most important factor for the success of an e-learning initiative and is akin to the launch of a new product or service Anil Chhikara Co-Founder & CEO 24x7 Learning	To promote e-learning, evangelise the benefits, identify a set of early adopters, encourage them and provide them visibility Nilesh Vani Vice President Aptech	To improve on-the-job performance and add to the KRA (key result areas), organisations will have to shift their focus from off-the-shelf content to organisation-specific content Jayant Kulkarni Executive Director Harbinger Group

What’s in it for me?

The best way to sell an e-learning programme in the organisation is to convince everyone—from the receptionist to the CEO—about the benefits. They need the answer to the question: What’s in it for me? Anil Chhikara points out that each target market will have different needs and/or pain points, “We need to design the programme around the training requirements of each target segment. However, just providing resources that address the training requirements is not enough. We need to determine the ‘What’s in it for me?’ proposition for each target market.” It should answer questions such as—how will the e-learning initiative help an individual? Will it help in doing the job better, improve performance, get

new projects and aid career enhancement prospects? Do the courses available directly impact day-to-day working? Chhikara believes that designing the e-learning initiative with these in mind will increase its acceptability in the organisation.

The evangelists

The e-learning campaign needs active evangelists, starting from the head of the company. Other groups such as HR, administration and training should also be proactive in popularising it across the organisation. Kunwar concedes that the first sponsor or ‘evangelist’ is the company’s chief. “If the captain of the ship is convinced about the course, the sailing is that much smoother. This is especially so when dealing with a new idea which involves changing mindsets,” he says, adding that leadership plays a key role in this direction—both from a productivity perspective on a business level, and as a mentor from a leadership perspective. They would form the first line of communication.

The precautions

It is essential to take precautions while initiating an e-learning programme. The content should be finalised first followed by the implementation of learning management systems. It is also necessary to keep motivating people, irrespective of any setbacks. Says Vani, “It is necessary that top management sponsorship and visibility is not sacrificed when encountering initial setbacks. These setbacks would be technological and logistics-oriented. It is equally important to provide a helpdesk or mentoring support to push the initiative to the threshold size.”

Constant evaluation is yet another critical aspect—for the learner as well as the programme. Kunwar acknowledges that evaluation is critical to any new idea and it is important to track completion rates for the associates. “It is essential to have an effective mechanism to monitor the training activity from an associate’s perspective—how many modules were assigned and how many were completed, what the scores were, etc. All this information would prove beneficial in enhancing the associate’s performance and productivity.”

Successful completion

Organisations needs to adopt ways and means to ensure high course completion rate. The first requisite is to start small. “Start with a few course titles (preferably specialised ones rather than generic)—this might not be cost effective; but has a higher “What’s in it for me?” proposition. As a result, e-learning gets accepted and adopted fast,” informs Vani. He feels that it is important that this initiative be strategised for cost recovery over a 12 to 15 month period, rather than three months, post which the results and benefits are substantial.

Kulkarni lists a few more factors that will ensure a high course completion rate:

• Develop courses that improve on-the-job performance and not just courses bought readymade to implement e-learning.
• Identify pain areas and segment the course development strategy.
• Develop a three-year blue print and implement incrementally. Ascertain RoI every quarter. If required fine tune the process continuously.
• Provide incentives (cash or kind or appreciation letters or performance certificates) to the persons who are developing content.
• Integrate your e-learning with other enterprise applications of the organisation, so that it does not just remain an island solution.

Many organisations have included e-learning initiatives of employees as a key factor during performance appraisals. E-learning is a long-term change process for an organisation. For employees to adopt e-learning, it has to become an intrinsic part of the organisational culture.

sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com