Telecom sector: How to make learning more systematic & engaged using Corporate Learning Platform

With the development of 5G & next generation smart phone technology, the telecommunication industry is evolving at a rapid pace. The global telecom services market size was valued at USD 1,657.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.4% from 2021 to 2028 (Grandviewresearch.com, 2021).

 

The soaring popularity of mobile phones among different generations and large number of app-based services delivered through the mobile platform has been the greatest game-changer in the industry.

 

In the post COVID 19 situation, the demand for high-speed internet has increased with offices, schools and others operating their daily routine online. In 2020, the mobile data services segment held the largest share of nearly 33.0% and is expected to exhibit a significant CAGR from 2021 to 2028 (Grandviewresearch.com, 2021).

 

For Telecom sector, strength is in numbers – there is a huge customer base to handle, which needs a matching ratio of workforce to provide support. The training of this huge number of workforces can be quite challenging to manage but unavoidable because telecom is also a very competitive market. From onboarding to continuous employee training on changing product offerings, service parameters, and technological advances is crucial in this industry. With constantly growing workforce you would need a corporate learning platform to manage the process seamlessly and help in achieving the learning targets faster which in turn shall provide the competitive edge to your employees.

 

How a Corporate Learning Platform can make learning more engaging?

 

Online or offline learning infrastructure basically serves two purposes. On one hand it creates a robust system for the learners to seamlessly participate in their regular learning process. On the other hand, it must be an engaging system which will ensure continued learner participation. Huge manpower in the Telecom industry also signifies high rate of attrition, third-party enrolled employees, and lower engagement. An extended enterprise learning management system is known to automate the user management of this extended workforce which includes sales representatives, external distribution partners, franchises, service technicians, customer support executives etc. Let us discuss how the system can also keep your employees interested in their learning solving the challenges of attrition and lack of engagement.

 

Gamified Learning Experience

A gamified LMS with interactive features can be beneficial for your extended workforce to encourage them learn newer concepts quickly. This can be achieved by implementation at an individual level or in a group. The LMS allows you to create a healthy competitive environment with individual scores displayed on a leaderboard to boost learner engagement through scores & badges.

 

AI powered Content Library

The use of OTT platforms has increased post COVID19 and some of these apps are extremely innovative in terms of the content categorization and recommendation that they present to their viewers. On similar lines, LMS can provide recommendation of video-based learning nuggets for quick consumption & greater retention for the learners. These nuggets are very beneficial to the sales & customer support team as it serves as point-of-sale support.

 

Mobile App support for extended workforce

Collectively, the human population spends more than 60% of their time on their mobile devices. This makes the mobile phone a perfect device for learning and the mobile app variant of the LMS provides the learning on-the-go. This helps learners utilize their off hours to as it provides both online & offline learning accessibility.

 

Social Learning Tool

The social learning platform seeks to engage learners and provide a human context to their learning experience. These tools help to create an environment of collaboration between employees and provide an active platform for the remote workforce to engage with. The connection between learners and instructors can also benefit from a social learning platform. Experts believe that social learning tools promote peer-to-peer learning, which constitutes of 70% of all corporate learning, in the virtual environment.

 

To summarize, the customer base for Telecom sector has been growing daily and this shall remain the trend in the upcoming years. Thus, Telecom companies need to strategize their plans in having a workforce ready to manage this huge customer base with equal focus on the training of new hires and upskilling of existing employees. With some of the biggest names in the domain as our client, G-Cube has expertise in handling the learning, training, and development needs of Telecom sector. Our learning experts will be happy to answer any queries you may have.

How To Reduce Change Anxiety Among Your Sales Workforces?

Sales is a dynamic field, always keeping a workforce on its toes!

Even the most stalwart workers need to be constantly developing. Competing in a market and flourishing in it are two very different things.

An effective sales training program should aim to develop confidence in a team, so that problems gradually disappear with practice. For your organization to flourish, you need to pay careful attention to staff development, especially in virtual sales training.

Previously, performance was evaluated purely on sales numbers, but there is much more to it nowadays. Employees must be equipped to build customer satisfaction, trust, and positive experience throughout the sales cycle.

 

Enabling sales workforces

 

Adopting a two-way approach while developing training plans, assessing both current capabilities and assessing future demand, can give you an edge.

Change is the only constant in this era of virtual selling. The past years have caused much anxiety about how the world and its industries will change. Thankfully, most emerging trends are already becoming clear, for rest of them we should accelerate our team.

Your clients, who have been through challenging times with your business, can provide invaluable insights and predictions about transitions, desired behaviors, and expectations.

 

Characteristics of profitable sales training methodologies

 

The sales training bar is set much higher than 20 years ago. Training options can be accessed online through Google, YouTube, LinkedIn, Yelp, etc. Forbes identifies four shifts that could drive sales in 2020 and beyond: Most importantly, most of the action will be happening virtually. Introducing changes overnight will not only make a team anxious but also undermine the success of the training. So, how do you plan to prepare your people?

The science of learning and an agile learning solution focusing on audience behavior, organizational requirements, and desired impact can greatly benefit the modern sales set up during the time of uncertainty. To encourage your employees to be open to new concepts, experiments, risk-taking, ideas, quickly act, and continuously learn you may introduce a learning framework that works for your culture.

 

Tool-based intervention

 

Our daily interactions have swiftly moved from 75% physical to 75% virtual. These changes mean that speech recognition, facial recognition, real-time language translation, 3D virtual experiences, Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and other technologies are becoming ever common in people’s daily experience. Is your team equipped to handle these changes and quickly adapt?

You need targeted training for these new tools and technologies if you want to take your team swiftly from beginner to advanced level. Microlearning pertains to building a highly efficient agile learning culture, so to avoid overwhelming them, you might consider introducing the knowledge in short bursts.

 

Targeted skills training

 

How employees interact with customers, deliver on their ambiguous expectations, and can have empathy to handle customer behavior can be integrated into the learning methodology.

The high performing teams will require the new age skills. Taking them from rudimentary selling approach to holistic ‘buyer first’ approach will give the competitive edge.

Every organization is unique: Try to optimize your training for your own purposes to really make the team passionate about it.

 

Building confidence/awareness

 

Among virtual interactions through Zoom meetings, virtual training, online negotiations, and other forms of virtual communication, team members are often craving deeper human interaction. Training them in affective behaviors around themes of social justice, shared well-being, purpose-oriented buying, etc., will make it easier for them to absorb changes more smoothly.

The priorities of both organizations and customers are shifting: Increasingly important are speed to value, flexibility, adaptability, and responsiveness to market needs. Making these evolving expectations clear to your sales team will help them to understand the need for more demanding, focused, strategic, and mindful approaches.

 

As the world continues to redefine itself, sales professionals with greater experience and knowledge, and more agile capabilities, will have an edge.

There are multiple paths you can take to train your sales team. Reach out to G-Cube for help in combatting the challenges. We can help you to deliver a distinct learning experience leveraging advanced technologies.

Volvo Eicher’s Itube: User Generated Content for Training Revolution

Multi-media learning has been accepted to create better retention for a while now and L&D has seen the uptake of audio-visual learning for decades. However, the pandemic fast-forwarded our worlds and things changed rapidly.  According to Think with Google, 58% learners are using digital video to learn new skills in the post-pandemic world.

Given the blue-collared nature of work in the auto industry’s manufacturing units and service centers, watching and learning is an absolute necessity and thus the value in using video as a medium is clear. When Volvo Eicher approached GCube for a learning solution that will work for their dispersed workforce with variable educational background, we immediately identified the need for video-based learning. However, given the volume of content needed and variety of learners we were catering to there were two major challenges:  

• High costs of video production with proper content localization.
• Time taken to create the same.
  

Thus, ITube was built. ITube is a video sharing platform integrated in the GCube LMS for Volvo Eicher which is a channel-based video platform built exclusively for the client’s workforce much like the more commonly used counterpart, Youtube. The platform curates user generated content which are naturally localized, low cost and also come from in-house Subject Matter Experts.

 How did ITube solve the above stated challenges?

Leveraging localized and user generated video content: Itube resolves the time and cost issues by allowing their workers to create videos. Effectively deploying the user generated video content model for sharing knowledge. This not only brings down the cost but also crunches the hefty process of content generation from 15 – 20 days to just a 5-minute exercise. Suppose there is a need for short format videos on various parts of trucks. That will be a lot of videos with a very high production cost and also will need experts. But here, a senior worker can create a video on their respective work area and upload it for other juniors to learn from. The same can be done for topics related to features, offers, objection handling, addition or removal of parts, upgrades, after sales support and many other areas which become beneficial for the entire force.

Quality check through content moderation: Though Itube grants the content creation rights to all users, it gives singular authority to a moderator to ensure quality control measures remain in place. The moderator curates the user generated video content and after passing the quality check process they are uploaded to the video platform.

Concrete strength to the internal stakeholders for training:  Itube helps the internal leaders to increase their contribution to quality of training. Plus, it comes with a string of benefits like organizing contests for the HR teams from a content development standpoint. This adds strength to best practice sharing within the company.

Itube also comes with a live-broadcast-to-active-audience feature which increases engagement and retention.

How ITube created better learning strategy through videos?

1. With users generating video content, the first positive impact was on the number of knowledge videos spanning across a variety of categories, that were created every month. There are more than 350 videos on the platform with almost next to nothing development cost.
2. The basic fact that these videos were created by friends, colleagues, peers or seniors immediately raised the number of views, average duration of video consumption, and engagement levels of the knowledge content. As on 1st May 2021, the total users on the platform are close to 11,500.
3. Localization of video production provided a distinctive demographical edge as content was created from different regions, using different languages, and keeping in mind the preference, culture and sensibilities of the audience in that area.
4. This further allowed content distribution and penetration to the furthest corners of where Volvo Eicher ran operations.
5. By using the metrics from ITube rewards could be given to the best video content creators, providing gratification for their efforts and motivating others to get involved.
   
   

Itube is a revolutionary video training content platform that was specifically designed keeping in mind the unique characteristics of the automotive Industry. It has already delivered on its promise to Volvo Eicher with the total number of users of the platform going up to 7300.

With 100+ industry awards, and 45 new clients onboarded in the last financial year, we at GCube would love to share more about everything Itube can do for your company. Do write to us at info@gc-solutions.net.