Short, focused learning experiences targeted to specific employee challenges can boost engagement and retention during training, says a new article from the Association for Talent Development.

Leveraging microlearning enables companies to provide employees with information at the moment of need, when they’re truly motivated to learn and most likely to be engaged. Among the benefits:

Employees today already are accustomed to consuming information in short bursts thanks to smartphones, email and social media.

To-the-point materials take less time to source, produce, maintain and consume than traditional classroom sessions or longer e-learning courses.

Typical learning experiences like lectures or long e-learning videos present too many things at once for too long a period of time. The short bursts of microlearning respect the limitations of working memory and allow people time to reflect on what they are learning and connect it to what they already know.

Companies can link microlearning experiences to specific challenges as they come up—a course on addressing bias prior to an upcoming interview, for example, or one on giving effective feedback before performance reviews.

Author Alex Khurgin, director of learning innovation at microlearning platform Grovo, also notes the technology making microlearning easier to implement, citing Google Glass in particular. He says organizations have been using Glass prototypes to send instructions, training videos and checklists to their workforce, improving efficiency, safety and productivity.

See the full article: “How Microlearning Will Shape the Future of Work.”