Performance Adjacent Learning: Learning More, Working Less #WorldProductivityDay

The solution? Performance Adjacent Learning. This is a way to save as many as 1.2 hours a week, helping to enhance overall productivity.

’The UK is in the midst of a productivity crisis’ – is a phrase we’re bound to hear thrown around this World Productivity Day.

What we don’t hear enough of, is how to enhance productivity in learning.

Open a paper, or do a quick Google search, and rest assured you’ll find a list of the top ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ to be more productive at work, but the same cannot be said for learning.

Think about it like this. Technological and business change is happening at a rate never seen before. This is having a profound impact on the working world – and as such, the way organisations are recruiting.

In fact, estimates suggest that as much as 50% of subject knowledge gained during one year of a four-year technical degree may be outdated by the time the student crosses the stage for graduation – and this is a huge problem.

Businesses are therefore competing to recruit – and retain the top talent in order to remain competitive and the cost of recruiting employees fast enough to meet the changing skills need is simply too expensive.

This means businesses are tasked with upskilling employees and performance adjacent learning has the power to provide both efficiency and efficacy.

Our recent research found that Performance Adjacent Learning is key to employee re-skilling and up-skilling.

In fact, 65% of our learners said they believed this kind of learning helped to save them time. On average, they estimated they saved 1.2 hours a week – enhancing their overall productivity.

Ultimately, learning is no longer confined by classroom walls, working hours or desktop computers. Technology has made it ubiquitous. It can and should happen all the time, in the course of work.

This World Productivity Day ought to serve as a reminder to businesses as to why they should become facilitators of learning.

Become a facilitator and the investment will be justified.

Karen Hebert-Maccaro, Chief Learning Experience Officer at O’Reilly Media