Information is turning over at an increased rate. People expect new content almost daily. This doesn’t mean you need to create new content every day, or even every six months. What you can do, however, is mix up your content, reusing, repurposing, and reconfiguring old documents and video to give them a fresh look.
In order to reuse your learning content you have to know what’s working. You’ll need to start with a digital asset and content audit along with employee interviews to make sure you’re making the best of your training material.
When reconfiguring the content, use humor to freshen up the content. Research has shown that learners have a favorable view of the material and enjoy learning when humor is involved. Seeing familiar content in a new way that makes you laugh-but not too much-helps with retention. Company in-jokes area good way to keep the content light. A caution: don’t focus on the humor more than the learning content - think of how some commercials are hilarious but you don’t remember the product it was supposed to be selling.
Create quizzes from material they’ve already seen. This is more of a review, but it can help with recall of order or steps. Take a training video, cut it up, and rearrange the steps to see if they can put them in the proper order. Test to find out if they know their job backwards, or remove the titles and ask if they can name the steps. There are all sorts of combinations and exams you can run!
Take your paper content and make videos & digital checklists from them. Having employees watch a video instead helps with retention over having them read a step-by-step document and then try to apply the abstract words to the sales floor or kitchen. Converting paper checklists to digital cuts down on paper waste and allows for easy changes or additions.
Social source the content - have your employees send in their own versions of food prep, store opening/closing steps, and other operational tasks. This frees your headquarters from having to create everything and engages your staff where they work.
If you have instructional material languishing in an old Learning Management System you may be able import the content and quizzes into a new mobile system with the Tin Can API: http://tincanapi.com/ This saves the cost of recreating content you’ve already paid for and puts it in the hands of your staff again.
These are just a few ways you can spruce up your existing digital media and content to help increase employee engagement and save money on creating or buying new lessons. These engaged employees tend to stay with their companies longer, which reduces costs as well. Give your old content a new shine and reap the benefits!