Transitioning from the realm of measurement and analytics to facilitating the implementation of the 5 Moments of Need stemmed from my conviction that it offers the swiftest, most effective route to tangible impact. My prior focus with clients often revolved around metrics like learning application and alignment to business outcomes. However, when you design for learners’ support during their work processes, concerns about learning application, manager support, and business impact indicators fade away. Instead, you’re actively empowering learners to enhance their productivity and proficiency while executing critical tasks. The financial ramifications of this transformation for employers are remarkable, as exemplified by the three instances detailed below.
To provide context for this narrative, here is a graphical representation demonstrating the alignment of the 5 Moments of Need’s key deliverables with the business impact metrics typically targeted through our learning interventions:
Impact Example 1: Show Me the Money!
We worked with a quick-service industry client in high-growth mode whose new employees spent approximately 84 hours in upfront training. When released into the stores, they struggled to recall important elements of that training to apply on the job or resolve challenges faced while working in these new roles. Turnover was untenable and the disruption to productivity for managers and coaches to support these new employees was significant. We were able to show the client that by bringing performance support into the stores they could achieve more effective performance on the job with a 50% reduction in work stoppage costs. The result is that within the 300 planned new stores to be opened that year, the organization could save $76K per store or $22M across all 300 stores by implementing performance-oriented learning. The additional benefit of applying this solution to the 1,100 existing stores, based on similar data, was $41K per store or $45M across all 1,100 stores. An expected $67M economic benefit to retooling training around workflow learning was enough to get the attention of the CFO and COO and start this organization on a new performance learning journey. This analysis didn’t even take into consideration the benefits to customer satisfaction, customer retention, and sales that come along with having well trained and retained retail employees, which result in a huge competitive advantage for any quick-service company.
Impact Example 2: Leaner and Meaner Manufacturing!
We worked with a manufacturing organization that was looking to improve employee productivity in its plants while increasing operational efficiency and reducing organizational risk. Leadership knew that there was significant ineffectiveness in the plants while employees struggled to optimize and troubleshoot the machinery and processes on the shop floor. This organization retooled the training provided to employees in the plants to include some formal training supported by a performance support solution (Digital Coach) available to employees while they were working on the line. Prior to this new way of training and support, it took a line worker nearly three minutes to find a particular piece of information required while working. With the Digital Coach, the same person, with no instruction, could find the answer in 23 seconds. In addition to productivity benefits to the line workers, the organization saw a 3% improvement in operational efficiency, an 8% improvement in unplanned downtime, a 12% improvement in asset utilization, and dramatically improved product changeover. New employees were also onboarded 30% faster. The learning leader for this population was quoted as saying, “We are improving our operational efficiencies across our global supply chain and empowering our frontline operations through innovative, workflow-based performance support.”
Example 3: Reskilling on a Dime!
We worked with a multi-line insurance company that faced a significant challenge in 2020 when the COVID-19 crisis began. This company had different employees supporting auto and property insurance as well as disability claims. Shortly after the pandemic began, they saw low volumes in auto and property, but disability claims were skyrocketing, and they had insufficient staff to handle the load. With 100% of these employees being remote, retraining staff members in traditional face-to-face methods was not possible. The organization quickly created a combination of live virtual training with a performance support solution (Digital Coach), which they used to rapidly reskill hundreds of auto and property insurance claims specialists to handle disability and other claims. Not only was this client able to meet the dramatic increase in demand, but they did so without having to hire any additional staff, thus improving productivity for the organization. This reskill also allowed them to retain valuable staff who might have otherwise been furloughed due to the economic realities of the pandemic. Finally, they were able to show an increase in employee satisfaction at a time when many employees were feeling very disconnected from their organizations.
For organizations committed to driving real impact — enhancing learner performance on the job and demonstrating substantial returns on learning investments to leadership — prioritizing impact-driven design is imperative. Embracing the 5 Moments of Need stands as the sole method to ensure this outcome is realized.