Success Strategies for your Learning Program

Setting up a learning program and giving your team access to it will not guarantee success. In order to have a successful learning year, you need to have a strategy. At Coursera, we have helped 1,900+ companies achieve their learning goals. Below are what we think are the most important strategies to make your learning program successful:

• Strong leadership involvement: Executive staff and senior managers have a big influence over your team. Their public endorsement and promotion of your new learning initiatives will help your team get inspired and stay motivated.
• Recognition after course completion: Successful learning companies use recognition as a tool to increase engagement within their teams. This motivates other members to take new classes and share their achievements with the team.
• Effective communication: Understanding your team and their goals will help you craft your communication messages. We have found that administrators who can effectively link a learning program to tangible company goals or work outcomes see higher engagement from their teams. In your communications, you should emphasize why you think that your learning program will be beneficial and relevant for each learner.
• Curated programs do better: Companies that pick specific, relevant courses for their team have a higher utilization rate. Curated programs mean giving your employees direct paths to achieve your company's learning goals.
• Send enough invitations: Not all employees you send invitations to will end up joining the program. We recommend you send invitations to 1.5x the number of seats you’ve purchased. This will help ensure that you fully utilize your plan. Also, we recommend you send a reminder email to employees who’ve already received an invite but have not yet joined the program. 

You can also find other tactics that will help you motivate your team and also the communication tool kit with some of the best practices here.