Maximizing Member Engagement Through Learning Programs

Professional development opportunities are always in demand. Member-based organizations must offer enticing learning programs that provide valuable professional skills and turn members into engaged employees. However, between advances in eLearning programs and rapidly changing industry trends, it can be difficult to know what types of opportunities will engage your members.

To help your organization maximize member engagement and cultivate a skilled, passionate workforce, this guide will explore key best practices for getting started with professional learning programs.

Consider members’ goals.

For your learning programs to engage members, they need to align with members’ interests. After all, optional programs unrelated to members’ interests and development goals are likely to see little participation and ultimately not be worth the time and resources spent creating them.

When speaking to your members about their goals, consider how their objectives relate to potential professional course models. For instance, you might ask questions about:

• Subject matter. Avoid assuming you know how members want to develop their skill sets. Meet with members to discuss their individual career paths to learn if they’re interested in improving their abilities via upskilling or pivoting to a new role at your organization through reskilling opportunities.
• Certifications. Some fields require members to gain specific certifications in order to advance, while others might not be strictly required but are still a mark of expertise and professionalism. For example, members working for nonprofit organizations do not need to be certified nonprofit professionals, but earning such credentials may help their networking and growth potential.
• Preferred course format. Whether you’re developing learning programs in-house or plan to point members toward external opportunities, knowing how your members prefer to learn can increase engagement. For instance, members who take the initiative to attend online courses off the clock might also appreciate the opportunity to shadow the roles they’re interested in while on the job.

Your team will likely express a range of goals, and your learning programs should cater to as many of them as possible. For instance, you might develop beginner training courses to help new employees develop specific skills. At the same time, you could offer more advanced courses that are useful but ultimately unnecessary for basic training.

Look for engaging course models.

Various professional development courses employ different strategies to keep participants engaged. While any member taking one of these courses is motivated to learn, certain education models are better at helping learners retain information than others.

For instance, a few common engagement strategies include:

• Peer-to-peer engagement. Allow members to improve their skills together with peer-to-peer features. This might mean asking learners to comment on other’s work, participate in live chats, or answer one another’s questions.
• Attention checks. Some poorly designed courses consist of several videos that learners are expected to watch back-to-back with little input. With attention checks, course participants get opportunities to apply the information they are being taught on a regular basis, helping to reinforce it and ensure they actively engage with the material.
• Gamification. Simple gamification features can speed up the learning process and make it more engaging. For instance, something as simple as a progress bar on a learning module can motivate participants to continue pushing toward completing each lesson.

Remember, even if a member is motivated to learn, a difficult or poorly presented course can hamper their progress. The more engaging your courses are, the more likely members are to participate and see them through to completion.

Monitor results.

It can be challenging to assess whether education content has had the desired impact. After all, just because a member earned top marks on an online course doesn’t necessarily mean they can implement those skills in their day-to-day tasks.

To better understand whether your learning programs are succeeding, gather data on your members’ participation in professional development opportunities and on-the-job performance. Data-mature organizations move past merely noting outputs and instead start assessing outcomes:

• Outputs are individual data points, such as the number of members who take a specific course
• Outcomes are the quantitative and qualitative results derived from outputs, such as a 30% retention increase in employees who participate in professional development offerings

Tools like a learning management system (LMS) can help you facilitate your courses and collect relevant data. Alternatively, you can collect general employment data and information directly from members’ employers to gauge the outcomes of your offerings.

Explore other engagement opportunities.

Professional development courses are excellent for improving members’ professional skills, but they’re not the only way to foster engagement or provide opportunities for growth. To expand members’ soft and hard skills, encourage members to connect with their professional peers through your organization’s online community. Here, members can ask questions, network, and collaborate with other professionals in their fields.

Another great engagement opportunity members could explore is skilled volunteering, through which they apply their skills in new contexts and give back to their communities, either through pro-bono work or team volunteer days arranged by your organization.

While online courses are the key to a thriving learning program, they shouldn’t be the only component of your engagement strategy. Meet with members to discuss not only how they would like to progress their careers at your organization but also how they feel about your company's culture, practices, and values. This way, you can take a holistic approach to engagement that includes learning opportunities.
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Members who have the opportunity to learn and develop professionally are more likely to be devoted to your organization, provide valuable skills, and stay engaged long-term. When developing or outsourcing learning programs, look to your data and members’ goals to find opportunities that not only improve specific skills but also boost engagement.

As members participate in your learning programs, discover how they feel about your offerings by asking about their experiences. For instance, you might ask questions related to program accessibility or if members felt they had opportunities to apply their new skills in their day-to-day tasks. This feedback enables your organization to make continuous improvements so its learning programs adapt to members’ evolving needs and preferences.