Every year, U.S. companies spend billions of dollars on corporate training. According to the Training Industry Report, total U.S. expenditures for training in 2018 was $166.8 billion. That is astounding when you consider people forget the majority of what they learn within the first few days, according to Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve.
As an executive coach, trainer and facilitator, I help organizations move away from cookie-cutter trainings and develop learning experiences that stick and actually lead to the outcomes they are seeking in the first place.
So why are retention rates so low with adult learning?
The Forgetting Curve
In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist, studied memory and published his findings in a book called Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Ebbinghaus originated the concept of the forgetting curve because he found that individuals forget information at an alarming rate that increases over time and starts immediately after learning. Subsequent studies have gone on to replicate the findings of Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve.
According to Courtney Hughes, senior researcher at Relias Institute, "The exact slope of the forgetting curve for a specific situation depends on a variety of factors, such as the difficulty of the material presented, the method of presentation, and the state of the learner when receiving the material." Hughes also found that regular reintroduction of the material and spaced repetition can greatly reduce the rate at which a person forgets information.
So the good news is that your training isn’t doomed to fail. There are a few best practices that integrate these approaches, and you can use them to maximize your training’s value, raise retention rates and help solidify the behavioral changes that drive organizational outcomes.
Be a coach to your employees.
Coaching, when combined with training, is a powerful solution leaders can practice to help drive learning outcomes in your organization. When designed well, acting as a coach for your employees can help reintroduce material and create opportunities for spaced repetition with individual feedback. According to one study, the productivity improvements of training jumped from 22.4% to 88% when that training was reinforced by coaching.
Tip: When training is conducted, follow up with employees within a week to craft individual development plans that integrate the training outcomes. This will help immediately add relevant reinforcement, and then coaching can be used to reintroduce and integrate over time.
Encourage peer and group mentoring.
Mentoring can be leveraged as a follow-up tool to training to reinforce a culture of learning. Peer-to-peer mentoring or group mentoring can offer an opportunity for accountability, feedback and differing perspectives on how to integrate the same behaviors. The downside is that peer-to-peer mentoring can be time-consuming and is only effective when those in the group are actually engaging. This means that extra care must be taken to make sure the content is relevant, adds value and is worth the time of those participating.
Tip: Creating accountability partners within your organizational training can be a simple structure that both reinforces learning outcomes and increases connections with participants. I recommend three people per group because it adds more perspectives, and if one person fails to follow through, there is still another person to work with.
'Gamify' training outcomes.
When planned effectively, training can be linked to specific behavioral outcomes, which can influence organizational outcomes. I've found that identifying these behavioral outcomes and "gamifying" them — or layering in game elements — can increase retention rates through group accountability, reinforce a culture of learning and provide an opportunity to measure those specific behaviors. Creating small contests or challenges framed around personal development can be a fun way to gamify the follow-up of your training and can easily be incentivized with real or fake prizes. Special attention should be given in the design of these contests to frame them in positive and collaborative ways.
Tip: Technology can be used as a tool to track and gamify specific behavioral outcomes. I’ve seen companies using Slack to track thank-you’s with a digital scoreboard to help promote a culture of gratitude.
Remember, traditional training falls short in driving behavioral change when it lacks activation, reinforcement and spaced repetition. Leveraging one or more of these best practices can help significantly increase your training outcomes while maximizing your learning and development investments.
