Informal learning at work - at work

"Social learning" and "informal learning" are among the training industry's hottest phrases these days, according to Jane Bozarth, Ph.D.  And we saw informal learning at work, working, just this week.

A client of ours has approximately 80 work at home CSRs. Their managers and support people are in the "corporate" office.  The work at home CSRs work part-time schedules - 3 - 4 hours a day - so not everyone is at work at the same time and, of course, there is no central gathering place for them, except... there is! 

The workers, and their managers, keep an open "chat" dialogue box on their screen throughout their work day. When they have a question such as "Are we allowed to tell the customer X" they can quickly get an answer - from a co-worker or a manager - while still on the phone with the customer. When a policy or procedure is newly updated or issued, they can get the information as quickly as the CSRs who are working in the brick-and-mortar office building. And best of all, for those who are not online at the exact time that any of these learning opportunities occur, the chat keeps a history - so they can review what happened while they were away.

What a useful addition to their work lives!