How engaged are your learning troops when you run a free-to-use online training program or a consultant’s TEDx talks? You may get mixed results at best.! Or a handful of your faithful learners may pick up some jargon from the programs to impress you. This proves that cookie-cutter programs cannot produce the desired learning results, especially when you need targeted learning. Today’s L&D initiatives embrace socialized content for the highest returns on learning investment. Contextualized or localized content custom developed for a cohort of learners in your organization is the norm now.
This article explores custom content development as a much-experimented and proven method for organization-specific role training, like an employee onboarding checklist. We explore why it is used and what methods are used to develop such content. We conclude with how third-party service providers can step up your L&D programs with custom-built content.
What is Custom Content Development for Corporates?
Generic content modules produced by independent developers are helpful for top-of-funnel programs, such as an introduction to your organization’s digital tools. However, these “off-the-shelf” training modules will not be helpful if these tools are customized to your organization’s processes. So, how can we address such learning needs? As an essential corporate learning and development (L&D) practice, custom content development involves creating training materials, eLearning courses, videos, and other learning resources tailored to an organization’s needs. It addresses a company’s workforce’s unique challenges, goals, and objectives, ensuring that employees receive relevant, engaging, and practical training.
For example:
- A company that wants to train its employees on new software can create custom eLearning courses that teach them how to use it effectively.
- Another company that wants to improve its customer service can create a custom training program focusing on customer service skills and best practices.
Hence, the better learning results of such targeted learning have led to the adoption of custom content development for most L&D programs.
According to the latest research report, it has a promising market growing at a CAGR of 18.4% and is likely to reach USD 43.6 billion by 2027. Thus L&D programs will rely on tailor-made content for the highest impact. In the following sections, we explore how these targeted-learning modules are developed.
What are the major steps of custom content development in L&D?
Most content development teams focus on a logical sequence to produce a training module. The steps involved in custom content development for L&D are as follows:
- Analysis: The first step in custom content development is to conduct a needs analysis. It involves identifying the specific training needs of employees and the organization. For example, if a company wants to improve its sales performance, it may conduct a needs analysis to identify the skills and knowledge gaps among its sales team.
- Design: Once the needs analysis is complete, curating the training materials is next. It involves creating learning objectives, selecting the appropriate instructional design strategies, and developing the content for the training materials. For example, a company that wants to train its employees on workplace safety may create a series of eLearning modules that include interactive scenarios and quizzes.
- Development: The preparation of training materials begins after the design phase. It involves creating the actual content for the materials, such as writing scripts for eLearning courses or recording videos. For example, a company that wants to train its employees on a new product may create a video demonstrating how it works.
- Implementation: The implementation stage begins, which involves delivering the training to employees through an online platform or in-person training sessions. For example, a company that has created an eLearning course on data privacy may make it available to employees through its learning management system.
- Evaluation: In the final stage, evaluation of the training for effectiveness. It involves measuring whether the movement achieved its learning objectives and whether employees could apply what they learned on the job. For example, a company that trains its employees in customer service skills may survey to measure customer satisfaction levels after the training.
These steps give custom content development a direction and goal-based learning content.
Thus, tailoring training content to the organizational needs and learners’ styles helps achieve better learning outcomes, engage employees, and drive growth.
Wrapping up
Investing in custom content development can lead to improved learning outcomes, increased engagement, and better knowledge retention or ease in processes such as employee onboarding checklists customized as per an organization’s processes. With Infopro Learning’s expertise in custom content development, organizations can deliver effective and engaging learning experiences that drive performance and achieve business goals. Speak to our experts today!