An engaged learning culture means more than just the number of minutes recorded in a learning tool. When employee engagement with workplace learning is strong, they stretch themselves past their comfort zones to learn new skills and overcome obstacles. Teams that eagerly engage with learning drive innovation and build agility in a constantly changing business landscape. 

For learning leaders faced with limited resources and other constraints, developing an engaging learning program is easier said than done. And, it can often feel like there’s not enough time in the day. But there’s good news: many learning engagement tactics don’t require an enterprise-size team to pull off. Plus, this February, there’s an extra day on the calendar — Leap Day, February 29, a perfect time to take a break from the usual tasks and build a plan to reengage learners.

These practical engagement ideas will help you multiply the value of your company’s learning program in manageable ways for learning teams of all sizes. And you can continue to scale these approaches as your company grows. 

7 ideas to boost learner engagement

1. Assign courses to employees and teams: It’s a simple solution to a common employee question: “What do I learn first?” By assigning courses relevant to an employee’s career goals or a learning path designed to upskill a team for an upcoming project, you’re helping employees engage with learning quickly and directly.  
2. Share top courses within your company: Dig into your learning platform analytics to identify popular courses and share that list with employees. These lists will help answer: “What do I learn next?” 
3. Reveal your top three company learners: Make your company’s power learners learning advocates. Whether it’s a call-out in a company meeting or an announcement of the quarter’s most prolific learners in an internal forum, show gratitude for those already engaged in learning. Other employees will take notice of the value placed on learning and follow suit.
4. Host course clubs: Create monthly course clubs to encourage functional teams or employees with similar career goals to learn together. Like a book club, each employee reviews the material independently and then gathers with a group to share what they have learned and gain insights from colleagues. 
5. Schedule lunch-and-learns: Empower the learning advocates you recognized in idea #3 by inviting them to host lunch-and-learns on topics of their choosing. Not only does this recognize their learning accomplishments and allow them to share their learnings, but it also offers peer reinforcement of the usefulness of learning.
6. Highlight new courses: An ideal learning platform keeps its content fresh and evolving to reflect industry trends. Regularly share the latest courses and content with your workforce so employees know there’s something new to learn when they log into your learning management system (LMS). 
7. Implement company-wide learning time: It’s challenging for employees to make time in their work days for learning, which is why executive support for company-wide learning time is essential. Consider a monthly DEAL Hour — Drop Everything and Learn — where employees are encouraged by their managers and other leaders to take some pre-designated time for learning. 

Download A Checklist to Boost Learner Engagement to see 10 more learner engagement ideas, and share the list with anyone on your team working on learning programs. Use the extra time on the upcoming Leap Day to select three learning engagement ideas and make a plan to activate them with your company’s learners.