Why does training so often fail to translate into improved employee performance?
80% of what employees learn is forgotten within 28 days; Artificial Intelligence is the solution. According to Andy Wade (Microsoft’s Senior Business Program Manager) and Adrian Harvey (CEO at Elephants Don’t Forget), AI is the critical component missing from L&D programmes.
Learning theory was shaped by the ‘forgetting curve’ pioneered by Hermann Ebbinghaus. Where there is no attempt to retain information, behavioural science shows that 60% of learned material is lost after just 48 hours, increasing to 80% after a month.
So what’s important here is that following any learning, the student must try and use this information in order to retain it. Let’s take for example when learning a new language. If you don’t try and use the new vocabulary learned, then likely you will be scratching your head days later trying to remember what it was.
Learn, Use, Retain is the key!
Here’s an example of wasted money.
Employers spend £42 billion on annual training.[2] Taking into account that 80% of this value will be lost due to knowledge fade, that means £33.6 billion fails to land with employees.