Social learning isn’t a new concept when it comes to knowledge acquisition. We have all been learning socially since we were toddlers and most of us have been doing great at it. Recently, social learning has become a topic of common interest for studying human behaviors and characteristics.
If we go back in time and view our social learning process in slow motion, we’ll realize that we learn best by observing others and imitating their behaviors. Whether it’s a busy day at work or a day at the park, we learn whatever these social environments have to offer. This is exactly what Bandura’s Social Learning Theory explains. As per this theory, we emulate others when we see them getting benefit out of their actions and this is what actually stimulates us to learn more.
Social Learning: An Effective Corporate Training Tool
Social learning has been proven to serve as an operative training strategy for companies as well. What is interesting is that with advanced technology and incursion of social tools, the ‘social’ component can be incorporated as the driving force in the workplace.
In fact, there are also many great platforms which particularly deal with social learning and knowledge sharing in many companies. For instance, BoostHQ is one such knowledge sharing platform that allows organizations to establish a knowledge base for their company. It also enables managers to share business knowledge by creating a social learning environment for increased productivity and synchronized workflow. Knowledge transfer is no longer a one-way process with BoostHQ. You can easily extract employee knowledge and spark discussions through Q&A and comments on the content you upload. With 80% of employee learning occurring through knowledge sharing with peers, platforms like BoostHQ can also facilitate such knowledge in your company.
Ways Knowledge Sharing Can Create a Social Learning Environment
Here’s how knowledge sharing can get the ball of social learning rolling in the workplace:
1) Facilitate Easy Knowledge Sharing:
Managers can now choose content from any source and share it on the knowledge sharing platform. They can also share documents, videos, links and a lot more to increase their corporate knowledge base and also the social learning experience by allowing a large number of employees to access the content together. This easy access to information today allows employees to share as much information as they want with their colleagues just with a single click.
2) Offer Better Content Organization:
Managers can add information to their knowledge sharing tools for the utmost convenience of their employees. Features such as organizing every content by tagging and categorization into different groups, enable the employees to access information whenever they need. These features also make it easier for the employees to share relevant content which, consequently, promotes learning of the entire workforce.
3) Promote Discussions and Comments:
Various knowledge sharing software today allow feedback, comments, and discussions relevant to the content being shared. This also allows employees to share their thoughts, knowledge, and experience about the content, which can create an effective social learning environment. FAQs, instant chats, and polls are also great ways to interact with employees and enhance the overall social learning experience.
4) Provide Content Moderation:
Admins and managers can moderate content and comments on the platform before publication. Hence, only the right employees receive the correct information. They can set content permissions and access control to ensure that only specific people can access specified material, contribute content, and post questions. This provides a sense of security to all employees who would otherwise hesitate in sharing information on a public platform.
5) Provide Reports and Feedback:
Many knowledge sharing platforms offer this feature that enables managers to view which content is trending and who is the most active employee. Not only can they identify the knowledge gaps within the organization, but can also learn a great deal about the efficacy of their company’s social learning strategy.
6) Increase Peer to Peer Information Sharing:
Social learning is incorporated by organizations to help pursue their targets and goals. However, for social learning to proposer within the workplace, companies depend on peer-peer knowledge sharing accompanied with social collaboration.
7) Create a Reliable Knowledge Sharing Environment:
Knowledge is shared on trust basis. An environment of trust where knowledge is freely shared creates an effective social learning system that is crucial for an organization. Organizations can create a supporting, reliable culture along with advanced digital technology to encourage their employees to share knowledge, open up, and absorb the knowledge they receive.
8) Develop Social Skills:
Knowledge sharing can also contribute to motivated teamwork, distributed problem solving, and undertaking business challenges to develop a creative and flexible work environment in a company.
Final Thoughts
Knowledge sharing can be a game changer and an effective tool for social learning. The open access to share knowledge and receive it excites the employees and motivates them to learn socially. With advanced knowledge sharing platforms, information transfer can easily foster a genuine social learning environment in the workplace. Companies can now help their employees reach the heights with correct information right at the tips of their fingers.