Do you want to save time and money on your employees' professional development – while at the same time increasing the learning effect? Then let your employees create the learning content themselves! In this article, you will learn how User Generated Content helps you achieve learning success.
User Generated … – WHAT?
The term User Generated Content – short: UGC – conceals a relatively simple principle: if you translate the words into German, it almost explains itself – user-generated content. Originally, UGC is a term from advertising and states that content created by users is the best advertisement for a product.
From this, you can derive a simple learning concept: anyone who produces learning content themselves also learns more about the product or topic themselves – and can consequently convey the knowledge better. Try it out for yourself and let your employees create their own learning content! It doesn't matter how or to what extent they produce content – the only thing that counts is the learning effect for everyone involved.
Why employees should create content themselves
Both employees and HR managers benefit from self-created content – so UGC offers a win-win situation for everyone involved!
Advantages for you:
You save a lot of time creating learning content when you hand this task over to your employees. This gives you more time for other important tasks.
You save money for your company. If qualified employees create the content, you don't have to acquire the knowledge yourself, nor do you need to hire an external trainer or coach.
The learning process is more effective when your employees themselves are involved in the creation process for learning content – especially when it comes to subject- or company-specific knowledge.
Advantages for your employees:
Your own understanding increases when learning content is created by yourself. In addition, it is easier to convey to other people.
Your employees internalize the content even more intensively by writing down processes themselves.
Your employees feel better integrated into the company and feel a higher level of responsibility in the learning process. This increases the motivation to participate and learn!
Connection increases the learning effect
The last benefit is particularly important: When your employees produce content themselves, they feel more connected to your company – which increases motivation and a sense of community.
In this created community, your colleagues can not only upload content themselves in the form of learning materials – they can also help each other with their own content. UGC could therefore also consist of an answer to a specific question, a helpful tip, or the general exchange of the provided learning content.
Through the direct exchange among colleagues, information reaches its destination even faster and in a more targeted manner. This additionally accelerates the transfer of knowledge.
How employees create content [Study]
A recent Harvard Business Publishing study examined how workers learn in the context of their professional development. It showed that colleagues exchange knowledge and train each other. This is how employees generate learning content for themselves and other colleagues:
Own illustration: Harvard Business Publishing study results 2019
The graphic shows that currently, very little learning content is created by employees for internal training. However, many companies are missing out on a lot of learning potential, which you should definitely exploit! In addition to messengers for quick questions, screencasts and videos are particularly helpful formats for conveying learning content or workflows to other employees quickly and easily – because seriously: who likes reading pages of text?
Requirement: A suitable platform for User Generated Content
If employees are to create content themselves, especially in the form of videos, the question arises: Where to put the content? An important step is the provision of a suitable platform. Because: It is important to make this exchange of content as easy and pleasant as possible. How about an app where your employees can upload their own content for further training and make it accessible to other colleagues without much effort?
Supporting your employees' content creation in a targeted manner
Are your employees already creating learning content and sharing it with one another? Then support them in content creation by suggesting suitable formats. Videos in particular are well suited for making learning content available to other people. They are easy to produce and at the same time technically and cognitively highly accessible for the learners.
With these three tips, it will be even easier for you in the future to support your employees in producing valuable learning content:
Make it easy for your employees to produce videos
We give you a first aid with our free video cheat sheet. You can hand this over to your colleagues and thus take away their uncertainty about content creation.Explicitly involve employees who are enthusiastic about media
Do you have employees in your team who already have an affinity for video production or are very open to it? Involve them in your planning and let them lead by example. We will give you 5 ideas for successful learning videos in companies that you can recommend to such employees.Then get all employees excited by showing them how easy it is
Do you want to convince all employees of videos as a learning tool? Then give them a brief introduction on how to shoot videos with their smartphone.
Conclusion
User Generated Content makes employees' knowledge usable for the entire company and at the same time actively involves them in the learning process.
No complex learning content needs to be created. Short videos, screencasts, tips, or answers to specific questions are enough to pass on knowledge among colleagues. The key is to make creation and sharing as easy as possible and to provide employees with suitable formats and tools.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
What does User Generated Content mean in professional development?
User Generated Content refers to learning content created by the employees themselves. For example, they document their own specialist knowledge, processes, or practical experience and make this content available to other colleagues.
What advantages does User Generated Content offer for companies?
Companies can capture and share existing knowledge directly from their employees. At the same time, the effort required for central content creation is reduced, and employees are more strongly involved in the learning process.
Which formats are suitable for User Generated Content?
Suitable formats include, for example, short videos, screencasts, tips, or answers to specific questions. Particularly helpful are formats that employees can create themselves with little effort and make available to other colleagues.
How can companies support employees in content creation?
Companies should make creation as simple as possible, provide suitable tools, and suggest specific formats. Employees with experience or interest in content production can also serve as role models for others.
