Amplifying the impact of peer learning with our Microsoft Teams integration

According to Josh Bersin, the average learner has just  24 minutes a week to spend on learning. But we think the reality is that today it’s probably even less. 

And for the last few years, we’ve also noticed that more and more talent and development leaders have been seeking ways to create a more connected development experience –– one that makes it easier for people to switch seamlessly between tools, that makes it harder to miss notifications, that helps them feel like they’re able to keep on top of the 10 important things on their list rather than like they’re drowning with 100 different places to go to do their work. 

But we’ve also heard that –– especially when it comes to culture and behavior change –– leaders and learners alike value the ‘mindset switch’ they get when they enter the Hive Learning platform.

(And there’s data to back this up. A HBR study found that learning retention from within social tools is low because “learning on social tools is at a remove, so people don’t think of it as such”.)

When learners come to Hive Learning, they expect to interact with challenging, thought-provoking content and conversations. They’re ready for it, they embrace it, and get value from it. 

All of our platform features are designed to stimulate conversation and action. Typically 88% of our learners take action on what they’ve learned and we see engagement rates of up to 90%. 

And so when we think about integrations, we’re always thinking about how to add the most value for the learner without sacrificing our ability to deliver exceptional learning outcomes.

Last year when the pandemic first started, we saw learning providers spin up Microsoft Teams integrations in a matter of weeks. But we knew that while learners were scrambling to get their heads into a new mode of working and were bombarded with Teams messages, ‘Teams fatigue’ was real and we certainly didn’t want to add to it.

But. (And there is a but). We know that people are busier than ever before, they get more emails than ever before (the average office worker gets 121 emails per day), and have to interact with more tools than ever before to do their jobs. 

So we were excited about the possibilities of integrating with a tool like Microsoft Teams to make our peer-driven notifications impossible to miss and help organizations keep culture change top of mind so they could achieve their mission-critical culture goals even faster.

But we were also careful to be helpful, not distract learners from their work, and made sure we wouldn’t prevent learners from getting into the right mindset for critical conversations or negatively impact learning retention by asking them to interact with Hive Learning from within Teams itself. 

So we’ve been beavering away in the background, testing and iterating on an approach that helps us create a more powerful peer learning experience.

One that makes it easier for learners to switch between tools, without distracting them or adding to their feeling of overwhelm, all the while deepening learning retention and helping you activate culture change faster.

Today we’re excited to be releasing a Microsoft Teams Integration we’re proud of. 

Our Teams integration will…

Give learners helpful nudges and notifications at moments that suit them. Nudges will be regular enough to keep motivation levels high, but spaced out enough that they won’t be distracting. Powered by machine learning, our Teams integration will determine the right cadence of notifications for your learners and your organization. 

And deliver them all in a place that’s harder to miss than email.

Use all the tactics and tools we know to drive sky-high engagement and deliver tangible learning outcomes. 

Peer-driven nudges across other channels drive engagement that’s dramatically higher than nudges featuring standard ‘marketing’ copy. 

That’s why our Teams nudges will highlight how many people have joined your programs and networks, put a spotlight on hot topics of conversation, and reward positive behaviors to help learners feel great about the work they’re doing to move your culture forward. 

This combination will create accountability, FOMO, and reward positive behavior. This will make it easier for learners to form new habits, help them put what they’ve learned into practice, and push your culture change journey forward faster than ever before.

As with every feature on the Hive Learning platform, we’re always testing, iterating, and evolving so watch this space for more updates and evolution over the coming months.

If you’d like to discuss how our Microsoft Teams integration could help your organization power up peer learning and accelerate your culture change journey, get in touch.

We’ve also recently released a whole host of other features and enhancements to the Hive Learning stable of products, all focused on helping your learners stay focused and amplify peer learning throughout your organization. You can check out the full details over on our release announcement.