5 Innovations for a More Productive Workforce

Productivity means working smarter, not harder. Firms that embrace and implement new technologies are quickly outpacing those stuck in a pre-mobile work model. According to the OECD, organizations see better output when they combine the right inputs: new ideas, technological innovation, new business models, and efficiency.

Top-performing businesses across all industries share one major common thread: A significant investment in cutting-edge employee training programs. Such companies typically see voluntary turnover rates 65% below companies that don’t make such investments. This is a big deal these days, when employee turnover is at an all-time high. Investment in simple yet valuable innovations will apply directly to the growth of a more productive workforce.

#1: Embrace technology

Discover Financial, a Fortune 1000 company, was honored by Training Magazine in 2014 for having one of the most innovative training programs. It switched 70% of its training to cloud-based content and self-study, and realized 6% higher employee satisfaction scores and 42% less attrition. The costs of high turnover are real, and simply by employing new technology to learning and development, companies like Discover Financial are hanging on to their most valuable players and increasing productivity.

#2: Enable (more) innovation

Your best employees are always learning. They are inquisitive problem solvers. Don’t limit them to a 9-5 learning schedule. Provide on-demand access to the resources they need to grow and develop their own roles, as well as understand organizational problems and solve them. Optimize information for mobile to encourage a corporate culture of learning, development, growth, and innovation–in and out of the office.

#3: Curb the forgetting curve

Only half of the information learned at a sales training event is remembered after the first 36 days. After 90 days, that drops to 16%. When your employees a) don’t remember, and b) don’t have easy access to the informational tools they need to be productive, how can productivity increase? Technology has advanced to solve this forgetting curve problem, and it’s called Google. But there is danger in using this approach at a corporate level: Google isn’t always right.

Cloud-based training and enablement tools have tweaked the search engine solution and upgraded it to house and distribute the content that powers your business. Provide your team with the eLearning tools they need to quickly and easily access updated, accurate information when they need it, and leave the forgetting curve behind.

#4: Optimize sales enablement content

Customizing and packaging training materials for each person on your sales team–based on aspects like their product, industry, and coverage areas is now possible with innovations in cloud-based content. There’s no such thing as a “perfect” sales playbook–it has to be adjusted as the market changes or the product evolves, which is why relying on a static PDF or paper delivery system is ineffective. Arming your sales team with dynamic, interactive, and beautiful content will give your reps a leg up on your competitors. Plus, by making sales materials available on mobile devices, it also provides your salespeople with an easily accessible reference tool so they can perfect their sales plays and pitches on the go.

#5: Analyze and shift

Organizations are discovering a world of data, adaptability, and customization–all made available by innovations in cloud-based content. Now more than ever, we can measure effectiveness, easily customize and adapt, and align corporate training with business goals. Incorporating improved data analytics helps corporate trainees to analyze programs and performance on both the macro and micro levels. The same set of data points can discover how the individual is performing, how the content is performing, how the overall program is performing, and subsequently how all of these fit into and affect productivity and outcomes.

Firms seeing the healthiest growth in productivity are investing in their human capital and seeing big returns. Don’t allow your organization to stand still and risk falling behind. Build a modern work environment where your team can succeed–and innovate. Build a more productive workforce.