
Quiet Quitting
Harness the power of employee-led L&D to combat 'quiet quitting'
The talent landscape is undergoing a seismic shift as organisations grapple with the aftermath of the Great Resignation. In an era where employee engagement has become the holy grail, we saw the emergence of quiet quitting. Coined by Brian Creely in 2022, the term relates to employees who only work to the job description. They don't go 'above and beyond', and won't put in even the slightest extra effort or time into their work above what's set out in the job spec.
Inspired by the shifting workplace attitudes and expectations post-pandemic, employees now favour remote and hybrid working. They're driven by a desire of greater work-life balance. A recent AT&T study found the hybrid work model is expected to grow from 42% in 2021 to 81% in 2024. Quiet quitting for many represents a disengagement from working life, and a drop in productivity and efficiency.
So how much of a problem is quiet quitting, and how can businesses address the trend?

Impact of quiet quitting on worker attitudes
To understand the post-pandemic trends in relation to training, we partnered with independent survey company Research Without Barriers. Finding out employee attitudes to training in 2023 gave us a clearer picture of the wider issue of employee disengagement in the workplace.
We surveyed 2,000 UK workers, split between 1,000 managers and 1,000 non-managerial employees. The surveyed managers have over 15 years of work experience and work in companies of more than 15 employees. The surveyed non-managerial employees have a maximum of three years of experience, and work in companies with more than 15 employees. The goal of these sample requirements was to give us better insight into the attitudes held at different levels of seniority. In the context of a rise in quiet quitting, the results were surprising – and promising.
Is 'quiet quitting' impacting wider employee engagement?
A common belief about quiet quitting is that employees are disengaging because they don't want to work hard or build careers. Our research actually suggests that there remains a strong desire for personal and professional growth among the UK workforce.
A staggering 86% of respondents expressed a willingness to stay longer with their employer – if the employer offers more L&D opportunities. Employees also aren't necessarily interested solely for what a company offers them. Almost all (94%) believed that the company would also benefit if they were given more training. In other words, workers are still willing and interested in engaging with their employers, supporting business goals, and building careers. But they are seeking fulfilment and a mutually beneficial relationship with their employer. This conclusion is reinforced by the social shifts we saw with the Great Resignation, where workers sought work that enhanced their lives.
Our findings underscore the pivotal role that learning & development plays in engaging employees. It provides them with fulfilling work lives – directly impacting their engagement with their roles and countering quiet quitting.
Managerial involvement in training
Managers play a crucial role in nurturing a culture of learning and development within their teams. The survey results revealed that 59% of managers recognise the importance of training in keeping employees engaged and motivated in their roles. In fact, 78% of managers also acknowledged that training had a positive impact on their own commitment and engagement. Generally, business leaders are aware that learning and development have a direct impact on employee engagement at all levels. Understanding this gives us a tool to address quiet quitting within an organisation – where employees are willing and able.

How to deliver employee-led L&D
Despite the awareness, many organisations are falling short in leveraging learning and development as a tool for employee engagement, retention and skills enhancement. Only 29% of managers actively involve employees in selecting and integrating training programmes for their professional development. And 42% of employees reported having no active involvement in training beyond participation. This suggests that many employers, while aware of the benefits of training, are missing out on the benefits that come from actively involving workers in their own development.
There are simple ways to harness the benefits of employee-driven learning and development. These include giving employees personal ownership of training through suggesting courses or subjects and assisting with the sourcing of learning content. But it may also extend to involving employees in learning KPIs or the development of learning pathways.
Russell Donders, Director of International Markets at imc Learning, notes that "we have worked closely with businesses to offer bespoke training and development pathways for a range of industries. Feedback from customers, and our research, is clear: training is a key contributor to employee engagement and business development. Each of us wants to fulfil our potential, and we see huge success in the businesses who understand how to implement that on a personal level.
Bespoke training packages, rolled out across all levels of operation, is a simple and effective tool to engage and retain talent. It even feeds into the recruitment process. In fact, 92 percent of job seekers now consider L&D opportunities to be a dealbreaker – so it makes sense this would also feed into engagement for existing talent. Empowering individual-driven learning and development pathways is a simple but effective solution to address changing priorities and reverse, or avoid, quiet quitting."
Quiet quitting can be addressed by employee-led L&D
Employee engagement has become of paramount importance given the challenges around talent scarcity. The trend of quiet quitting highlights the significance that employee satisfaction and fulfilment now play in modern-day workplaces. Businesses that are responsive to that will see real benefit to productivity and talent retention. By embracing employee-driven learning and development, organisations can align themselves with the evolving needs of their employees. The aim is to enhance retention rates and create a positive, growth-centred workplace in which productivity is a natural consequence of the environment.
Looking to implement an employee-led L&D programme?
We'd love to hear how your organisation aims to increase loyalty and engagement through employee-led L&D. Get in touch with us to see how imc can help you best reach your strategic goals.

imc board member Sven R. Becker talked to cybernews.com about competency-based learning
"Institutions must shift their focus from imparting pure factual knowledge to facilitating competency-based learning"

If your business is undergoing a digital transformation, you need to embrace not only cutting-edge technologies like VPNs, AI, and antivirus services, but also take comprehensive employee training very seriously.
As we all know, your people are the lifeblood of your business. Despite e-learning not being a new concept, many companies – from startups to large corporations – are now realizing the value of implementing a dedicated learning management system (LMS).
Sven R. Becker, Executive Board Member of imc, gave some insights into how a digital learning platform helps businesses train their employees more efficiently.
Read more on cybernews.com

automotive sector
Revolutionising automotive training with modern e-learning
The automotive industry is a rapidly evolving landscape. While new entrants to the market are relatively rare, fierce competition and rapid technological advancements create unique business and training challenges. Companies in this sector must ensure that their workforce is skilled and knowledgeable to stay ahead of the curve.

E-learning has emerged as the natural solution to help automotive companies streamline their training processes and gain competitive advantage. Having created automotive training solutions for several market-leading clients, we understand their environment.
Here we explore the advantages that great e-learning can bring to the table.
Unique business and training challenges in the automotive sector
- Technological advancements: The automotive industry is witnessing a paradigm shift, with the introduction of electric vehicles (EVs), autonomous driving systems, and connected cars. Global auto brands need to train their employees on new technologies and their applications.
- Regulatory compliance: Automotive companies must comply with strict safety and emissions regulations, which often vary across regions. Employees need to be aware of and adhere to these regulations.
- Skilled labour shortage: The automotive sector suffers from a skilled labour shortage, and auto companies are quickly upskilling their existing workforce to meet the demands of the market.
- High employee turnover: This industry often experiences high employee turnover rates, which means that companies must invest in consistent training for new hires and existing employees.
Why e-learning is the perfect solution for automotive companies
- Flexibility and scalability: E-learning platforms allow automotive companies to deliver training modules that learners can access anytime, anywhere. This flexibility ensures that employees can complete their training at their own pace, reducing the impact on their work schedule. Furthermore, L&D managers can easily scale e-learning to accommodate a growing workforce or the introduction of new technologies.
- Cost-effectiveness: Traditional training methods are expensive, with costs associated with travel, accommodations, and physical training materials. E-learning platforms significantly reduce these costs, making it a more affordable option for automotive companies.
- Personalisation: E-learning platforms can be customised to create personalised learning paths, catering to the individual needs of employees. This ensures that each employee receives training that is relevant to their job role and helps them fill their skill gaps.
- Consistency and compliance: E-learning platforms ensure that all employees receive the same training content, promoting consistency across the organisation. Moreover, administrators and training supervisors can quickly update courses to reflect changes in regulations. That way, they keep employees up to date with the latest compliance requirements.
- Analytics and performance tracking: The leading e-learning platforms, such as the imc Learning Suite, provide detailed analytics on employee performance. Automotive companies are able to track progress, identify areas that require improvement, and provide targeted support.
- Engaging and interactive content: E-learning platforms offer a variety of multimedia content, such as videos and quizzes, making the learning experience more engaging and enjoyable for employees. And easy-to-use e-learning authoring tools like imc Express empower your in-house subject matter experts to create engaging e-learning - without the need for design or technical experience
Automotive e-learning examples
How to get started
E-learning presents automotive companies with a powerful tool to address the unique business and training challenges they face. By leveraging the benefits of e-learning, automotive companies can stay ahead of the curve by continually upskilling their workforce, ensuring regulatory compliance, and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
Create an agile, knowledgeable workforce ready to tackle the challenges of the ever-evolving automotive industry.
Are you involved in L&D for an automotive company and want to learn more about how the best in modern e-learning can support your training? Get in touch, we'd love to hear from you!

the public sector
Public sector training - e-learning for government agencies
Government agencies, entrusted with serving the public and maximising budgets, must continually adapt to new policies, regulations, and technologies. A well-trained workforce is crucial to ensure that these agencies operate efficiently and effectively.
E-learning can be a powerful tool in helping government agencies overcome training challenges and deliver high-quality services to taxpayers. We've created innovative, impactful solutions for private and public sector training clients across the globe, so we understand the unique challenges faced by government bodies.
Here we look at how great e-learning can help address these challenges.
Unique training challenges in government Agencies
- Large and diverse workforce: Government agencies typically employ a large workforce with diverse roles and responsibilities. Consequently, public sector L&D departments can find it a challenge to deliver consistent and relevant training to such a varied audience.
- Budgetary constraints: Government agencies often operate within strict budgetary limits, making it difficult for them to invest in comprehensive training programs.
- Rapid policy and regulation changes: Government employees need to stay abreast of evolving policies, regulations, and procedures that govern their work. This requires regular and up-to-date training.
- Geographical dispersion: Government employees often works across vast geographical areas. Training managers sometimes find it difficult to coordinate and deliver in-person training.
- Security and privacy concerns: Government agencies must ensure that their training programmes comply with stringent security and privacy requirements to protect sensitive information.

Why e-learning is ideal for public sector training
- Cost-effectiveness: E-learning platforms can reduce the costs associated with traditional training methods, such as travel, accommodations, and printed materials. This allows government agencies to maximise their training budgets and reach a larger audience.
- Flexibility and scalability: E-learning provides government employees with the flexibility to access training materials anytime, anywhere. This enables employees to learn at their own pace and schedule, leading to higher engagement and completion rates. Additionally, e-learning platforms can be easily scaled to accommodate a growing workforce or the introduction of new policies and regulations.
- Personalisation: Customisable e-learning platforms let you deliver personalised learning paths tailored to the specific needs of each employee. This ensures that employees receive training relevant to their job roles and responsibilities, resulting in better performance and higher job satisfaction.
- Consistency and compliance: E-learning platforms ensure that all employees receive the same training content, fostering consistency across the organisation. Moreover, training managers can quickly update hem to reflect changes in policies and regulations, ensuring that employees stay current with the latest requirements.
- Analytics and performance tracking: The leading e-learning platforms, like our own imc Learning Suite, provide detailed analytics on employee performance, enabling government agencies to monitor progress, identify skill gaps, and provide targeted support.
- Enhanced security and privacy: E-learning platforms can be designed with robust security and privacy features to ensure compliance with government regulations and protect sensitive information.
Examples of successful public sector e-learning
How to get started
E-learning presents government agencies with an effective and efficient solution to address the unique training challenges they face. By embracing e-learning, government agencies can empower their workforce with the skills and knowledge needed to deliver high-quality services.
The result is a more agile, well-informed, and efficient public sector.
Are you involved in national or local government L&D and want to learn more about how the best in modern e-learning can support your training? Get in touch - we'd love to hear from you!

workforce
Training diverse and disparate workforces
Here at imc Learning, we have decades of experience helping customers train hybrid workforces - diverse and disparate learners at global companies. In this post, we cover some of the essential tools and strategies for L&D leaders to consider when training a hybrid workforce.
We also look at how the best e-learning solutions make creating, delivering and analysing your training easier than ever - wherever your employees are based, and whatever language they speak.

Look back a decade, and early proponents of remote work, such as Basecamp, were seen as unusual - even maverick. Today, post-Covid-19 pandemic, some level of remote or hybrid work is standard for large organisations.
What can vary considerably between large organisations though is the quality of training to hybrid or remote workers and the level to which they are kept engaged and in the loop.
Checklist for training hybrid/remote workers
Many of the points here might seem obvious, but whether you are an experienced L&D leader or relatively new to training remote teams, it can be easy to see certain elements of employee engagement as a given and forget to carry them out. Unfortunately, out of sight can really be out of mind all too often, and this can lead to a feeling of isolation and disengagement among remote workers.
Below is a checklist to help you ensure you don’t miss out any of the steps needed to create a comprehensive training programme for your hybrid workforce
Assess your training needs
Before you can create a training program, you need to understand your unique needs. Consider the following to train your hybrid workforce:
- Job roles: Identify the skills and knowledge required for each job role.
- Skill gaps: Determine the skills that need improvement or development.
- Technical requirements: Evaluate the tools and technology needed to support remote and onsite employees.
Set clear objectives and goals
Establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) objectives for your training program. These objectives should align with your company's overall goals and focus on addressing the skill gaps identified earlier.
Choose the right training formats
To accommodate both remote and onsite employees, consider using a mix of training formats, such as:
- E-learning: Offer self-paced online courses and tutorials.
- Webinars: Conduct live or pre-recorded sessions for real-time interaction.
- Instructor-led training: Provide in-person or virtual classes led by experienced trainers.
- Blended learning: Combine multiple training formats for a more comprehensive learning experience.
Develop engaging training content
Create high-quality, engaging training content that caters to different learning styles. Ensure your materials are up-to-date and relevant to your employees' roles. Consider incorporating interactive elements like quizzes and gamification to boost engagement.
Leverage e-learning technology
Use various technology tools to support your training program, such as:
- Learning management systems (LMS): Use an LMS to organise, distribute, and track training progress. The imc Learning Suite integrates with many other HR and business software applications, and offers powerful training delivery and learner analytics tools.
- Video conferencing: Integrate video conferencing tools, such as Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams to facilitate virtual instructor-led training and webinars.
- Collaboration tools: Encourage teamwork and collaboration among remote and onsite employees through platforms like Slack or Microsoft Teams.
Implement a support system
- Mentorship programmes: Pair employees with experienced team members for guidance and support.
- Online forums: Create a space where employees can ask questions and share knowledge.
- Regular check-ins: Schedule periodic check-ins with employees to monitor progress and address any concerns.
- Peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. imc Express is an e-learning authoring tool that makes it easy for your subject matter experts to create and share engaging learning modules in as little as 10 minutes, with no design or coding expertise needed.
Evaluate and recalibrate your training programme
Regularly assess the effectiveness of your training programme by gathering feedback from employees and analysing performance metrics. Use this information to make any necessary adjustments to your training content, format, or delivery methods.
How to get started
Learning how to train a hybrid workforce requires a thoughtful and flexible approach. Often you will need to accommodate the needs of both remote and onsite employees. By following this checklist and leveraging the latest tech, you'll be able to create a comprehensive and effective training programme that supports the success of your entire workforce.
Would you like to discuss how our suite of e-learning solutions can support your hybrid workforce? Get in touch - we'd love to hear from you!

training for retail
Transforming retail training
with e-learning
The retail sector is a dynamic and rapidly changing environment. Advancing technologies, intense competition, and evolving consumer demands, all drive transformation. Training employees to stay ahead of these changes is critical to the success of any retailer.
For decades, we’ve helped some of the world’s biggest brands to maximise their retail training ROI. Here we look at the unique challenges faced by the retail sector and how great e-learning can help overcome these challenges.
Unique training challenges in the retail sector
- High employee turnover: The retail sector is notorious for high employee turnover rates. The average retail employee turnover is 60.5% in the US and 57.3% in the UK. This makes it essential for retailers to invest in training for new hires, but also to engage and retain your best existing employees.
- Seasonal workforce: Retailers often employ a large number of temporary or seasonal workers, who require quick and efficient training to perform their roles effectively.
- Diverse workforce: Retail employees come from various backgrounds and possess varying levels of skills and experience, making it challenging to develop and deliver consistent training that feels relevant to your learners.
- Dispersed workforce: Retail companies often operate across multiple locations, making it difficult to coordinate and deliver in-person training.
- Rapid technological advancements: The integration of new technologies, such as e-commerce, mobile payments, and inventory management systems, requires retailers to continually upskill their workforce.

Why e-learning is great for retailers
- Cost-Effectiveness: E-learning platforms can significantly reduce the costs associated with traditional training methods, such as travel, accommodation, and printed materials. This allows retailers to maximise their training budgets and allocate resources more effectively.
- Flexibility and Scalability: E-learning provides retail employees with the flexibility to access training materials anytime, anywhere. This enables employees to learn at their own pace and schedule, leading to higher engagement and completion rates. Furthermore, robust e-learning platforms can be easily scaled to accommodate a growing workforce or the introduction of new technologies.
- Personalisation: E-learning platforms can be customised to create personalised learning paths, catering to the individual needs of retail employees. This ensures that each employee receives training that is relevant to their job role and helps them fill their skill gaps. Such learning personalisation can help employees to feel valued and increase staff retention levels.
- Consistency and Compliance: E-learning platforms ensure that all employees receive the same training content, promoting consistency across the organisation. Moreover, they can be updated quickly to reflect changes in regulations or company policies, keeping employees up-to-date with the latest requirements.
- Analytics and Performance Tracking: The best e-learning platforms, such as the imc Learning Suite, provide detailed analytics on employee performance, enabling retailers to track progress, identify areas that require improvement, and provide targeted support.
- Engaging and Interactive Content: E-learning platforms offer a variety of multimedia content, such as videos, quizzes, and simulations, making the learning experience more engaging and enjoyable for retail employees. Easy to use e-learning authoring tools like imc Express can allow your own subject matter experts to create engaging e-learning as and when needed to share with colleagues - without the need for design or technical experience.
Retail e-learning examples
How to get started
E-learning presents retailers with a powerful tool to address the unique training challenges they face, such as fast-changing product lines and high employee turnover. By leveraging the benefits of modern e-learning, retailers can continually upskill their workforce, ensure training consistency, and foster a culture of continuous learning.
The result is an engaged, skilled, knowledgeable workforce that’s ready to tackle the challenges of a competitive retail landscape.
Are you involved in retail L&D and want to learn more about how the best in modern e-learning can support your training? Get in touch - we'd love to hear from you!

The Great Upskill
92% of workers favour an employer with the best L&D
The Great Resignation caused a major shift in personal and professional priorities among employees. Our recent industry survey identifies a new growing trend, 'The Great Upskill'. It emerges as the natural evolution of the Great Resignation, as people seek greater fulfilment in their working lives.
Aside from a greater expectation of flexibility, employees now want to work for employers that help them to enrich their working experience through ‘upskilling’, training, personal and professional development. Employers are responding by creating engaging career paths for the short, medium and long term. In return, a staggering 92% of workers favour an employer with the best L&D.
We wanted to find out more about this trend, and find out whether people are actually motivated to engage with training, and whether businesses are accommodating and using that motivator in an ever-changing workplace.
The absence of L&D drives employee disengagement
In response to The Great Upskill trend, we conducted research in partnership with independent survey company Research Without Barriers. Our aim was to investigate employee attitudes in relation to training. We selected our research demographic to obtain rounded insight from a cross-section of UK workers, primarily in office-based roles.
To this end we surveyed 2,000 UK workers, split between 1,000 managers and 1,000 non-managerial employees. The surveyed managers have over 15 years of work experience and work in companies of more than 15 employees. The surveyed non-managerial employees have a maximum of three years of experience, and work in companies with more than 15 employees. The goal of these sample requirements was to give us better insight into the attitudes held at different levels of seniority.
The Great Upskill is all about employees seeking greater fulfilment and engagement in their working lives. One of the key factors at pla is the pursuit of personal and professional development. While traditional workplace benefits relied on 'quick wins', such as team socials, employees now seek for greater meaning in their working lives. Our research found that 86% of employees would choose to stay with their employer for longer if they were offered frequent learning opportunities. This preference demonstrates that L&D is a major priority and motivator for employees and managers alike. Employers who understand this fact can benefit amid the Great Resignation and the rise of employee disengagement, i.e. 'quiet quitting'.
The findings show the impact of this trend on employee retention.

52% of employees left a role because of a lack of training
A staggering 52% of employees admitted that they had left a role due to the lack of development opportunities. This clear indicator shows that there is a practical and real-world impact of this trend. And HR departments are seeing impact extend to the recruitment process. In fact, 92% of workers surveyed reported that, if choosing between two potential employers, they would choose the employer who offered the best learning and development opportunities.
Our research also found that, despite the rising priority of training for workers, employers are not necessarily addressing this issue through frequent training. In fact, 48% of employees said they had not received training in the last 12 months. In addition, 22% of managers reported that they did not receive as much training as they would like.
Impact of L&D on employee engagement and business ROI
Our goal with this research project was to better understand the Great Upskill trend. It gives us our greatest insights yet into the attitudes that have developed in the workplace in the aftermath of furlough. These attitudes are what's behind the rise of remote working and shifting social attitudes.
Businesses may be tightening their belts due to recent economic uncertainty. But our research indicates that in terms of real-world impact, training is one of the most beneficial tools a business can utilise to safeguard their workforce and optimise employee engagement. As well as reducing employee turnover, training supports recruitment and increasing employee engagement. What's more, 81% of managers surveyed as part of our research project found that training had a positive impact on their business's bottom line.
The insights from our research are fascinating and demonstrate a clear social trend around The Great Upskill, and UK media agreed. We secured six news features relating to this research and trend, including in:
Want to foster a learning culture at your organisation?
Get in touch with us to talk about your L&D challenges, aims, and strategies – we'd love to hear from you!

Leadership Training: When the Boss Takes the Learner’s Seat
Improving leadership ability through effective training
Our perceptions and expectations of leadership personnel have changed a lot in recent years. Today’s managers are expected to have both subject expertise and good people skills. Subject expertise can be learned, obviously, but what about the people stuff – the soft skills?
Managers are expected to be able to see things from the employee’s perspective and respond appropriately. The requirements go far beyond merely delegating projects and issuing instructions. The usual hard skills need to be tempered with empathy and judgement in dealings with staff. And that’s where our experts can help – by designing leadership training courses.


Kathrin Heidler, Instructional Designer at imc
Kathrin Heidler has a degree in education, with a major in digital learning. Since 2020 she’s been an educational designer at imc, designing digital learning formats, blended learning strategies and web-based training courses. And she has a strong focus on leadership training. “For me, leadership means empathy for staff, backing your team – both internally and externally – and having technical expertise,” she says. “These are all things you can train for – the hard skills, obviously, but the social skills too. What I find exciting is to dive deep into the ‘how’ of that.”
“Leadership training” is not the same thing as “management training”
Heidler explains that at imc, leadership training means focusing on and learning the core competencies of effective leadership. It relates exclusively to non-technical skills, like communication, empathy, organisational and methodological competencies, and other soft skills.
Management training, on the other hand, relates to learning about new products, specific processes or strategies. It’s about acquiring knowledge and technical – or “hard” – skills.
Both types of training can be combined, of course, but they are generally intended for two different target groups:
- Employees new to leadership roles who need to learn the necessary people skills and understand their company’s mission.
- Employees already in leadership roles who need to learn new strategies or acquire new technical knowledge at the managerial level.

However, in both cases, the leaders concerned are generally time poor when it comes to learning. “Leadership personnel are always on a tight schedule, and time is always a big challenge for them,” Heider explains. “That’s why it’s vital to be efficient and find out in advance exactly who needs to do what training. This is especially true for management training courses.
In these cases, I like to work with our KPI-based Readiness Check. It allows me to gauge each learner’s existing knowledge level so that I can suggest appropriate content and learning options. That saves a lot of time and frustration.”
Success hinges on having clear parameters and expectations heading into these courses. “Both parties must have a realistic understanding of the basic requirements and constraints. And by both parties, I mean the company seeking leadership training, and us as their strategic partner,” Heidler explains. “What’s to be learned, and how? Realistically, how much time is available for the leadership training? Only by having clear objectives can we achieve successful training outcomes.”

“Effective course design is about getting from the aspirational to the factual”
Katrin Heidler has already supported numerous customers as a strategic sparring partner for the design of leadership training courses.
“Given all the hype around leadership and management training, I make a point of focusing the client on the basics,” she explains. “So, at the start, we stay very analytical and nail down things like exactly who the target group is. What defines the group? What is the learning objective? What specific actions and behaviours is the course supposed to teach?
“It’s not enough to simply say, I want to make the managers more agile. I have to be able to specify exactly what actions constitute agile behaviour. Breaking it down to specific actions enables the courses we design to achieve the desired outcome of better leadership ability.”

When designing leadership training, start by writing a list of core competencies and mapping those to specific types of action. This will provide clarity around what’s expected of the training because it provides a bridge from aspiration to facts and actions.
Choosing the right learning formats

Modular learning nuggets:
learners can complete a training session in just 10-15 minutes

Performance cards as digital flashcards:
Learning content can be presented in a short and punchy way

Virtual classrooms:
Time is blocked out directly in the learner’s calendar; this format does, however, require a trainer
Hot curriculum picks for leadership training
In closing, we asked Kathrin Heidler to give us her picks for learning objectives for leadership training in 2023:
“Leaders need to be aware that we’re in a time of economic and demographic change. And they need to be confident and sure – not fearful – in dealing with this change. They should continue to work on their own technical skills. Last but not least, they need to see their staff as people, with all the needs that being human entails. That would be my learning recommendation.”


Can Germany afford its current AI scepticism?
Artificial intelligence (AI) is often viewed sceptically in Germany, but often without justification. In this interview with Kristian Schalter, we talk about how future technologies will change our working world.

AI in Corporate Learning
There are many fears about the topic of artificial intelligence (AI). But especially in corporate learning, AI can be a great help.
E-Learning Punk is an article and talk series for all L&D Pros who want to dare something and believe that digital training has to be colourful and loud.

Contact person
I joined the imc newsroom team in 2021. As a journalist my heart beats for content and storytelling.
I’m excited to figure out how e-learing and digitization affect the future of work. My task is to create content to talk about and I’m always looking for trends.
Privately I love to travel and eat Tapas.
Topics: E-Learning Trends, Corporate Social Responsibility, Press and Influencer Relations

When an Awareness Week Is Not Enough – Engaged Learning Through Learning Campaigns
Using learning campaign portals to create immersive learning campaigns
Some things just can’t be learned in an hour. Or even a week. Things like organisational change management – where attention needs to be focused on a specific topic over a prolonged period. In these cases, sustained learning is key.
It’s a little bit like classic advertising. Coca-Cola’s annual advertising presence, for example, doesn’t hinge on a single one-week TV spot campaign. Instead, the company draws attention to its products over a sustained period using a strong, well-coordinated multi-channel campaign. It’s all carefully designed to ensure consumers reach for the red can the next time they open the chiller.
In the same way, a good learning campaign should bring about a mind shift – ideally one that leads to concrete action. Sounds good, but how exactly? The answer is portals. They can provide a highly effective entry point to learning campaigns. In this article, we outline the structure and use of learning campaign portals.

Immersive user interfaces for specific topics
With organisation-wide learning and development (L&D) campaigns, the idea is to reach as many employees as possible. And for that, the content must be both learner-centric and accessible without any time or location constraints. Most importantly, it must boost learning motivation and generate successful, lasting learning outcomes.
These objectives can be achieved by using a learning campaign portal. Learning campaign portals are add-ons for learning management systems. They facilitate orientation in complex learning campaigns, providing learning environments that are so immersive, learners don’t even realise they’re learning.

These interactive learning environments are custom developed for each client and brand. Learners can make their own way through the navigation structure and access different items of learning content through jump labels. The result is a digital journey of discovery that is almost limitless in scope. Chatbots, avatars, and dynamic environmental and special-effect sounds can be integrated to reinforce sustained learning effectiveness. Similarly, gamification elements can be added to further enhance learner motivation.
Some applications of learning campaign portals
- Change campaigns: Change campaigns are a way of making lasting change to employee mindsets and corporate culture. The objective is to boost acceptance through learning. That way, employees are more amenable to the proposed changes and more willing to contribute to their success.
- Events: Many organisations use action days to raise employee awareness of certain issues and communicate the organisation’s position on those issues.
- Onboarding and upskilling: Effective onboarding gets new employees off to a good start with the company. It also creates a sense of belonging and instils an understanding of the company’s values and culture.
- Comprehensive learning journeys: Learning journeys put the learner first and offer different learning formats for different topics and learning objectives.

Gaming meets navigation system
The heart of a learning campaign portal is a 2D or 3D map. Alongside its orientation function, the map draws the learner into a fun, game-like journey of discovery. This gamification element is designed to appeal to the young and youthful. However, a good learning campaign portal will be readily accessible for learners of all backgrounds thanks to its intuitive navigation system and quality orientation features.
Example: A company wants to run a six-month sustainability and environmental campaign. The aim is to explain the company’s own position, raise employee awareness, and bring about a mind shift. In this example, the company could integrate a portal upstream of its LMS that guides employees through all learning content relevant to environmental protection.
There are no design limits to how this might be achieved. In the above example, the map through which learners journey could be a rainforest or ocean, for instance. Or perhaps the company wants to present a future vision of its own site or visualise the campaign by means of a custom campus. This level of creative freedom calls for good sparring partners who, for all their love of the product, are always mindful of functionality. This is where our experts come in. They provide comprehensive advice on all aspects and put successful learning front and centre.

The facts:
- Learning campaign portals are not ad hoc solutions – they require a planning and development phase.
- The scope of learning campaigns should be limited either to specific content or specific timeframes.
- A learning campaign portal is not a stand-alone product – it requires a learning system (LMS).
- Independent exploration of a map will enhance motivation.

Development Paths: Moving Beyond Learning Paths
Learning paths have been part of corporate learning for a while, but they’re not being used to their full potential. Learning paths offer more than just a way of providing short-term training for employees; they can be an absolute game changer in the fight to overcome skills shortages.

How Tinder and Netflix are shaping the future of learning
In a challenging environment, corporate learning will remain effective only if it is learner-centric and offers formats that are in keeping with learners’ other everyday digital experiences. This is important because learning providers are no longer competing just with other learning providers; they are also competing with dating apps, streaming services and social media.
E-Learning Punk is an article and talk series for all L&D Pros who want to dare something and believe that digital training has to be colourful and loud.

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I joined the imc newsroom team in 2021. As a journalist my heart beats for content and storytelling.
I’m excited to figure out how e-learing and digitization affect the future of work. My task is to create content to talk about and I’m always looking for trends.
Privately I love to travel and eat Tapas.
Topics: E-Learning Trends, Corporate Social Responsibility, Press and Influencer Relations

an LMS RfP
Compiling an LMS requirements for proposal (RfP)
Are you looking to compile an LMS RfP requirements document to help choose the best training solution for your organisation’s needs?
With hundreds of learning management systems (LMS) on the market today, deciding which one is right for you can be a complicated process. A good Request for Proposal (RfP) can simplify your decision making process by starting off with a training needs and features checklist.
Your choices can then be whittled down to a shortlist of LMS solutions that meet your specific criteria, with a final decision based on which provider you most like and trust.

What's an RfP for learning management systems?
A request for proposal or RfP is a document put together by the client and sent to potential learning management system providers in order to start the conversation about suitability and generating a quote.
A good RfP will contain information about the organisation and its elearning goals, the number of people (sometimes including external partners and supply chain as well as employees) to be trained, existing technology infrastructure to be integrated into, and any other LMS needs and constraints.
LMS providers who feel they can meet these criteria can then send a proposal, and the client can form a shortlist of providers to progress conversations with, and from whom to make a final choice.
Benefits of an LMS request for proposal
One of the key benefits of an LMS request for proposal is that it ensures a level of objectivity in the procurement process. By starting with a checklist of essential, then nice to have features, the client can be more assured of suitability in a learning platform, rather than being overly swayed by slick sales presentations.
Before talking to a vendor, you can define your essential LMS requirements, before going on to list those that would be a bonus but that you may be willing to forego depending on price or strengths in your must-have criteria.
It’s really important to identify which criteria are truly essential to making an LMS work for your organisation, regardless of bells and whistles in nice to have areas. These LMS priorities will help to ensure the project does not fail.
Timescales and budgets
Does your project have a strict timescale and / or budget? If you have hard limits to work within, by making these clear within your RfP you can avoid any time-wasting discussions if a vendor simply can not meet them. It also prevents time and budget creep once a project is underway.
Because the RfP is an up-front piece of work that can be sent to multiple vendors (and there really are hundreds to choose from), you will usually save time overall because you are not having to repeat yourself in initial email and telephone conversations. You can also avoid conversations with and presentations from companies that can not meet your needs.
LMS RfP components
Your document should have 3 broad RfP components, which are:
- Project overview
- LMS requirements
- Vendor expectations
Let’s go into each of these sections in some more detail:

Project overview
This should be a brief (one page should suffice) intro to your project and touch on what you are looking for and why.
What is your current training solution and what is it you’re looking to add / change / improve?
It should include the name and contact information for your project lead so that the vendor can ask any follow-up questions.
It should also include a deadline for the project so that vendors who can not work to your timescale can quickly self-eliminate. Include your timeline for receiving proposals and making a final decision on your vendor.
While you don’t need to go into detail on your company history, its founders etc (by all means link to this background info online), helpful information will include your company’s industry, regulatory environment, number of employees to be trained now and down the line, and geography - especially important if there’s likely to be a multilingual component.
LMS requirements
This is where you get into the detail of what you need from a new LMS and can be much longer than the project overview if you have put together a good list of requirements having had consultations across all your stakeholder groups.

Users
This will be much more numbers-based and touch on:
- Learner roles and numbers within each type - on launch and for subsequent roll-outs
- Geographies and languages
- Number of courses
- Existing and desired training media
- Administrator roles and any relevant hierarchies (an organisational chart may help)
- Potential numbers of concurrent users

LMS features
If you are relatively new to LMS features or you are replacing a very outdated system, you may be fuzzy on potential functionalities within the ideal platform, especially when it comes to terminology.
Feel free to talk here about what you need to achieve with the learning platform if you’re not sure how to define the feature that would make it happen.
Common LMS needs and functions
- Creation of job roles and competencies defined in each position
- Enrolment process on courses, including any combination of self-enrolment, automated enrolment by role or manual enrolment governed by managers
- Multi-tenancy - i.e. creation of tailored, and even branded, learning environments for different teams, including employee types, external partners and even customers
- Assessments and certificates - including quizzes, required competency levels and any legal / regulatory compliance needs
- Reporting tools for administrators and departments such as HR and Legal
- Mobile access - especially important if you have employees on the go who need to access training materials via a tablet or smartphone.

LMS Integrations
It’s rare that large organisations will want a learning platform that operates in isolation these days. LMS integrations with existing HR software such as Workday or SAP, a CRM like Salesforce, and other tools managing employee data can save a great deal of time spent on learner admin.
It can also improve overall business performance by increasing knowledge sharing across your organisation. Define your existing people software where integration could make life easier.
Vendor expectations
Define what you would like to receive back from the vendor. Any experienced LMS provider will have existing templates that they work with and which are often pre-populated to an extent, but you can still request information in a format that suits you.
You may want to request an initial one-page summary of their solution that encapsulates what they can deliver and when, and to what budget. This will make it easier to discuss proposals with your peers and other stakeholders without having to go into the fine detail.
As an LMS buyer, very important information to receive from the vendor includes:
Their company and background
- How long have they been in business? You don’t want to be a guinea pig or deal with an inexperienced team
- How large is their team of LMS developers? While you don’t necessarily need to work with the largest companies and all the overhead costs that come with that, you don’t want the risk of single points of failure that come with working with a small business
- Who are their customers? Do they have experience in your sector and with your company size? If so, this will fast forward their understanding of your needs.
The platform
- Have they ticked all the essential requirements? Don’t let ticking lots of boxes across the must-haves and nice-to-haves cloud your judgement here. A high overall ‘score’ is meaningless if one or to absolute musts are not met - this system just won’t work for you.
- What is the position on data security? Does it meet any specific needs for your industry?
- Technical environment - can it work with your IT set-up?
Budget
- Is the system scalable without additional costs per learner or is it priced per learner? The latter benefits smaller organisations but can become painful for larger ones…
- Is there a separate implementation cost?
- How does ongoing support work and how is it priced?
- Are there update / renewal fees and when are they payable?
- Is user training included or charged separately?
Implementation plan
- Do you start with a limited cohort of learners for user testing?
- What are the various implementation stages and timescales for each?
- What involvement is required from the LMS buyer and at what stages?
Summary
Buying an LMS can be a complicated process - especially when you need to factor in your possible future training needs in addition to your immediate requirements.
By putting together a detailed LMS RfP, you can help to ensure that your procurement will be objective and evidence-based, helping you to avoid costly mistakes and disappointment.
Separate genuine must-haves from nice-to-have features, and you can ensure you meet the needs of all your stakeholders, and that any additional features simply make the new platform more enjoyable and more useful for your business as a whole.
As imc Learning has decades of experience delivering on the training needs of some of the world’s best-known brands, if you’d like to have a conversation about your own elearning project, feel free to contact us for an informal chat.

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