1.
WHITEPAPER
Millennials and the Zen of
Digital Learning

2.
Executive Summary
The Millennial or the Gen Y men and women are the talked about workforce since the start of this century. This generation
is awash with information, technology, networking, and as everybody before this generation agrees, less attention time.
Businesses need to reorient themselves if they are to engage and retain this generation of workforce.
This brings us to the topic of Training or Learning and Development (L&D). To make you organization relevant, a pioneer and
thought leader you need to invest continuously in the skills (knowledge) of your employees. Knowledge is gained through
Training, and Training depends on the kind of people you hire!
Milennials are going to be deciding force in the coming years. It is obvious from the way they are reared from childhood that
their learning methods and working ethos are markedly different from other generations. Organizations will gain nothing by
forcing old fashioned methods, like classroom rote learning, to a generation whose attention span is lesser than blinking of
an eye, enjoy company of peers, and always open to change (read job hopping). Gen Y are well aware and very talented but
outspoken and brash. They work hard and party hard. Workplace, according to them should exude fun and openness. So
creating an environment that takes into consideration the Millennials habits and concerns is good for the organization, at least
from an economic perspective. Organizations can take advantage of talent of various generations and enable inter-learning
among these generations, workplace behaviour is one such example. The bottom line is that Workforce may change but not
the organization’s aim of staying relevant in the market. So do all it takes to be a great integrator of different generations of
mind sets and extract the best out of them if you want to catapult to the top position of your domain, and stay there!
Going Digital is the way forward, as Gen Y has taken to digital artefacts (internet, mobile, social media etc.) like ducks to water.
However, it must be complemented with Analytics so organizations know their investments in L&D are yielding the desired
results.
This article discusses why millennials prefer to learn themselves rather than being taught. Millennials, beginning with analysing
their nature to advisory notes on designing appropriate Learning solutions for them, powered by Analytics.
Millennials are taking over the workforce
Workforce 2014
50%
32%
17%
1%
Workforce 2014
5%
25%
38%
32%
Millennials Boomers GenX Vets Millennials Boomers GenX Vets

3.
Challenges in Engaging millennials
How can you integrate millennials with your existing workforce.
We spoke about the characteristics of the Millennial
generation. Flip the coin and you can see that these
characteristics can become challenges to employers.
Documented below are some of the challenges employers or
managers can encounter when dealing with Gen Y:
Need Directions: Millennials need directions in their work.
They perform excellently when given clear cut directions
and therefore seek clarity, and checklist sort of approach to
project tasks.
Feedback driven: Millennials ask for feedback on their efforts
and quite too often. They feel that feedback (a positive one)
will increase their confidence.
Also, Millennials prefer to advance through merit alone rather
than a combination of merit and experience.
Less Attention span: they get distracted easily making
it difficult to capture and retain their attention. Some
researchers put the average attention span of a Millennial
as 8 minutes. Absorption of complex or voluminous thought
processes in one go can be tedious for them.
Multitasking: they are excellent in multitasking but this may
interfere with the grasping instructions or performing critical
tasks requiring undivided attention.
Behaviour: Millennials are expressive, liberal, collaborative,
and strongly value their individualism. They are less open to
criticism and may clash with other generations in workplace
over values, work culture etc. leading to them being branded
as arrogant and entitled.
The reason why these challenges are discussed is to understand
the mind set of this dynamic generation and train them to adapt
to their workplaces better as the next sections explains.
Gen Y is completely brought up on a diet of technology and information. They are acutely wired to technology, unlike
the previous generations. They like everything digital, even learning. This proximity to technology enables them to stay
connected (via interaction-Whatsapp, social media, Instagram etc.) and therefore better networked. They are more amiable
to collaborating with their peers. Therefore, creating a learning environment using the power of technology and informal
learning methods that millenials identify with, helps them learn better. Millenials are used to receiving feedback often. You
can help them understand their roles in the collaborative learning environment and the support they will be lending to others.
Then sensitize them to opinions, evaluation, and critiques from peers or tutors as mediums of receiving feedback, apart
from encouraging self-analysis of their learning. Ensure that the collaborative learning is intuitive with easy to user interfaces
accessible from outside the workplace too (mobile devices) and which contain learning only required for the moment.

4.
Training –The first step to integration
Organizations have the important task to integrate Gen Y with other generations in the workplace. Training plays an important
role in imparting, not just technical skills but soft skills as well.
It is imperative that learning systems go digital. That Gen Y loves everything digital makes it worthwhile to investment in digital
learning systems. Some of the elements you can include this training are:
Keeping Millennials at the center of Learning: ascertain the learning that Millennials need at the moment. Find out how and
when they prefer to learn. At the same time drive home the point that learning will help them add skills and pave the way for
career growth.
Release short volumes of course content: impart short modules of the course that the learner can accommodate amidst his/
her work schedule. Mention links to more information on that course so the learner can look up for them.
Use different delivery formats: package the course content into various formats that suit the learner. Examples include video,
digital books, web, online interaction, Q&As, broadcast, podcast etc. Millennials aren’t averse to hand outs, job aids and ready
reckoners, so use them too. Explore the use of social media in this process as sharing/discussing the lesson among peers will
help you gauge how much the learner has understood.
Make learning accessible: making content easily accessible isas important as creating or broadcasting them. You can upload
on intranets, embed within applications (in line help), online directory etc. Go a step further by making recommendations to the
learner about a topic he/she can learn based on learning trends.
Make learning mobile device friendly: this on-the-go, multitasking, less attention span generation loves mobiles. So make
content viewable/downloadable via mobile browser or native app in a mobile or tablet. The learner can use this content to learn
while on the move (on a train, running, walking etc.).
Learning must facilitate knowledge retention: the format of delivery, ease of learning, availability, and accessibility must
all achieve the supreme goal- retention of knowledge, so the Millennial learner can apply the learning in his/her job. Repeat
learning must be encouraged until the learner gets it right.

5.
Help from Analytics
This is one area where continuous feedback is welcomed. Learning analytics accrue data about the learning programs and
learners and make it available for insight gathering. It is helpful for both trainers and learners.
According to Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR), Learning Analytics is defined as “the measurement, collection,
analysis and reporting of data about learners and their contexts, for purposes of understanding and optimizing learning and the
environments in which it occurs.”
Organizations have realized the importance of using data in
learning, especially for the following reasons:
Use learning analytics to make informed decisions on talent
suitability for critical processes/businesses
Use Learning analytics helps in engaging audiences within
and outside the organization
Make learning (and skill addition) an important component
in distinguishing organization as a pioneer in the market
With increasing number of Millennials in workforce, using
analytics makes absolute sense. It helps you tackle questions
like the ones listed below:
Which of the training programs are contributing to increase
in employee productivity?
With ongoing addition of employees, how does the
employability compliance looks across the board?
Some training programs, accessed at a particular time and
format are resulting in greater performance. Why?
Two teams of the same department had taken the same
course but have vastly different performances. Why?
Replacing an online question & answer session with web
based training has yielded negative results and drop in
participation. Why?
Analytics can help answer these questions. You can identify
newer/unique methods of training like using cloud, social
media, documentaries etc. You can track the learning
journeys of employees, mapping it with outcomes at every
touchpoint. Lastly, you can predict the future training needs in
your organization.
Conclusion
“The times they are changing” sang Bob Dylan. So is it in
the workplace which is increasingly becoming filled with Gen
Y employees. As their numbers swell you will need to find
newer ways to train them and keep them productive. You can
use their traits to their, for example, technology dependence
and collaborative nature. Plus, there is a huge boost from
using Learning Analytics. Let us face it, the bottom line of a
company’s performance sheet doesn’t care which generation
is contributing to its numbers, it just needs them to stay high.
Keep it that way with informed training.
About Tarams
Tarams is a technology consulting and product engineering
company that helps clients transform their mission critical
business applications to digital platforms. With over a decade
of experience, we offer robust technology solutions to attain
performance optimization, revenue generation and cost
savings to some of the Fortune 500 companies. Tarams takes
an agile and collaborative approach across the value chain
and provide you a strategic advantage. Explain a bit more
about Tarams expertise in offering Digital learning solutions.
Tarams Digital Learning Solutions help in optimizing Learning
Management System (LMS) capabilities. Our effective
reporting and system integration help you to develop activity-
based metrics for measuring the real impact of learning on
your business or institutions. Tarams Digital learning platform
supports millions of end-users across the world. Designed
to remove limits to learning, our systems have solutions
for diverse learners and instructors, whether K-12, higher
education, universities and corporate organizations. With
LMS emerging as an inalienable part of your organization’s
success we offer our partnership to help you grow knowledge
bank with strong learning technology strategy.
*Time to market:
It is the period from the conception of a product/service to its availability in the market. It
determines how soon the product can be developed and made available in the market before
its competitors do the same.
*Image Courtesy: Elance-odesk

6.
About Tarams
Tarams is a technology consulting and product engineering company that helps clients transform their mission critical business
applications to digital platforms. With over a decade of experience, we offer robust technology solutions to attain performance
optimization, revenue generation and cost savings to some of the Fortune 500 companies. Tarams takes an agile and
collaborative approach across the value chain and provide you a strategic advantage.
Disclaimer: The content provided in these white papers is intended solely for general information purposes.
Content in the white paper rights are reserved to Tarams Technologies Pvt Ltd, Venus Buildings, 2nd Floor 1/2,3rd Main,
Kalyanamantapa Road Jakasandra, 1st Block Kormangala, Bangalore - 560034
For more details:
sales@tarams.com
+1-212-655-9638
Credits:
* Customer Experience: Creating value through transforming customer journeys-
McKinsey&Company