Making digital learning collaborative and social

While COVID-19 led to drastic changes in the way organisations work, it also impacted the way in which employees learn and grow. Enterprise learners are now digitally dispersed and have an increased appetite for leveraging collaboration platforms to engage, learn and grow.  In response to this, Skillsoft Corp., a global leader in corporate digital learning, is releasing the new Skillsoft Percipio for Microsoft Teams App,  empowering organisations to foster a sense of community by enabling employees to access assignments, discuss important takeaways, and share courses they’ve discovered and found helpful — all within the flow of work.

Today’s announcement is the newest milestone in a partnership transforming workplace education between Microsoft and Skillsoft. Skillsoft customers can now access the full Percipio learning platform in the social, collaborative environment that Microsoft Teams provides. Bringing Percipio into the Microsoft Teams universe has benefits for learning and development (L&D) professionals, and for learners themselves. For example, L&D professionals can create team- and cohort-based learning experiences around Percipio’s role- and skill-based learning paths, called Aspire Journeys.

What does “learning together” mean in a pandemic?

Pandemic-era employees who are satisfied with their social connectivity are two-to-three times more likely to maintain or improve productivity, according to the Boston Consulting Group. It’s no wonder that more than one-third of chief human resource officers told PwC they are investing in new tools to support virtual teams, with a focus on collaboration. Microsoft Teams and the 145 million worldwide users it connects daily are a key example of how workers can learn together — even when “together” has a new meaning.  

Apratim Purakayastha, chief technology officer at Skillsoft, believes Percipio for Teams is a solution to a long-standing problem, saying: “A skills gap existed long before the pandemic and digital learning is more crucial than ever to building operating-model resilience. As organisations work to bridge this skills gap, providing easy access to valuable learning tools should be a top priority. Percipio for Teams provides easy access to collaborative learning tools without having to leave the flow of work.” 

With more than 97 percent of RELX’s global workforce of 33,000 operating remotely since the onset of the pandemic, the provider of information-based analytics and decision tools had to be intentional about developing collaborative learning experiences that can reunite learners in the flow of work. “In piloting Percipio for Teams, we aimed to recreate the organic interaction one would experience when sitting with peers in a classroom, while also cultivating an environment where learners could build skills, apply them in real-time, and share insights with one another–all without ever leaving Microsoft Teams,” said Mary Glowacka, global lead, digital learning, RELX. “Within weeks of launching our pilot, we saw learners from across RELX’s four businesses interacting as we’d hoped–fully in line with our objective to enable communities of practice where colleagues from around the world collaborate to learn, share ideas, and solve challenges together.”

Learning together: Meet learning in the flow of work

With Percipio for Teams, organisations and their employees can conveniently access a variety of content to learn in ways that make sense for individuals and helps contribute to personal and professional growth. This includes:

• Learning in the flow of work: Learning professionals are in the driver’s seat. Every employee using Percipio for Teams can learn in the format, schedule, and structure that’s right for them. After finding the skills they need using the chatbot, learners can launch videos, books, audiobooks, hands-on practice labs — whatever their jobs call for at that moment. And they can do all of this without ever leaving Microsoft Teams. 

• Learning in the flow of community: Percipio for Teams also lets employees instantly share helpful learning content with their peers, colleagues, and teammates in impromptu chats, group meetings, brainstorm sessions, and more. Enabling learning in the flow of working together, managers who lead teams can create virtual learning groups, recommend content, and assign learning paths — and then open the floor to discussion to help employees absorb what they have learned.

• Learning in the flow of the organisation: Learning can be pinned inside project teams sites (in a learning tab) so that all the members of that team can see which learning is required or recommended for team members. This merges work and learning into their Teams page. At each step along the way, learners can ask questions, share ideas, work together, and apply their growing knowledge toward urgent real-time needs, the organisation’s most prominent goals, and whatever business challenges the future may bring. By enabling their workforce to learn in the continuously evolving flow of work, enterprises can increase adoption and rekindle engagement.

“People are more motivated to learn when it relates directly to their job or role,” said Josh Bersin, Global Industry Analyst. “Skillsoft’s Aspire Journeys are great examples of skill or role-based learning paths that deliver relevant learning directly to employees. And through its integration with Microsoft Teams, Skillsoft can now deliver learning in the flow of work.”