Social learning has been around for decades. However, it gained prominence in corporate learning and development (L&D) circles only recently when Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory was published.

According to Albert Bandura, humans learn best when they observe others and imitate their behaviour.

From having our friends explain difficult math theorems in school to learning photography tricks from our favorite photography blogs, we engage in social learning every day.

It has also been noticed that social learning has a positive effect on employee training initiatives as well.

With that said, many learning administrators and organisations wonder if the benefits of social learning are really worth the extra effort and time required to implement social learning in their existing training curriculum.

If you’re wondering the same thing, know that social learning training is as important as workplace safety training. These benefits of social learning solutions are sure to convince you to implement social learning in your company’s training initiatives.

Improved Collaboration Among Employees

2020 is the year of the remote work revolution. As businesses cope with the current global emergency by letting their employees work from home, efficient collaborations have never been as important as they are today.

Social learning practices allow learners to not only learn from each other, but to learn with each other. Learners can approach their peers to seek answers to their queries and work with them to solve real life problems.

This habit of working with others will translate into an incredible ability to perform in a remote team.

In other words, by introducing social learning to your employee training curriculum, you will not just be teaching them the subjects covered in the course. You will also be helping them develop other important skills like efficient communication and collaboration skills.

Easier To Identify Future Star Performers/Organisation Leaders

There are many instances of employees or learners not feeling confident enough to ask questions on public forums and missing out on critical information. This can be due to a number of reasons, including the prevalence of mental health issues in the workplace.

As far as employee training is concerned, social learning can give employees a viable alternative to seeking answers to their queries.

Moreover, organisations can utilise the social learning data to identify star performers that are also more likely to perform better than others at their core job.

Such individuals can then be provided with opportunities like leadership development that is designed to help them maximise their potential and bring more value to your organisation.

This means, not only would social learning help many employees get through the training curriculum quickly and efficiently, it will also help your organisation identify the cream of the crop and use their skills to your advantage.

Improved Learner Engagement

Online training can become boring quickly. This is especially true for employees that are taking a compulsory training course sitting at their homes.

A disengaged learner turns out to be a poorly trained employee that can potentially cost your organisation a lot of money.

With social learning features like online forums, the added social element to the training can add the much needed zest to your organisation’s training initiatives.

Your employee will no longer have to shut themselves off for hours on end without anyone to talk to.

Another benefit of introducing forums to your training experience is that they can eventually evolve into readymade question banks that can be used by future learners to find answers to their queries.

Conclusion

THese were just three of the many benefits of social learning in corporate training scenarios. Still got apprehensions related to social learning?

Tell us about them in the comments and we will help you alleviate them.