5 Ways Performance Support Can Help You Amplify Productivity

• 3 min read

This free report, published in partnership with The 70:20:10 Institute, uncovers how performance support brings learning and working closer together.

We’ve all heard the age-old question directed to Learning and Development (L&D) – how can we train staff quickly, when resources are already strained? The reason this query keeps popping up is that it still hasn’t been properly answered. Thing is, solving an ongoing problem typically needs to be approached in a different way.

Performance support, also known as job guidance, is one such approach that’s gaining traction in L&D circles and it isn’t just a piece of advice about how to carry out a specific job effectively.

Performance support is a tool, such as a document or a resource, designed to support critical tasks around specific moments of need, providing only as much contextual knowledge as is necessary to solve a job-related issue more productively, safely and to the required standard of quality.

The critical point with performance support is that it’s focused on providing knowledge within the flow of work, which leads to fewer mistakes, higher productivity and faster acquisition of skills.

The demand for access and support for learning in the daily flow of work has led to increased focus on mobile learning solutions and ‘microlearning’. Performance support incorporates both of these trends, but also helps ‘flip’ L&D approaches from focusing on learning how to work, to focusing on learning while we work.

Many Learning and Development professionals see performance support as an effective opportunity to support learning in the ‘70’ component of the 70:20:10 reference model.

This isn’t a new breakthrough, though. In fact, the method dates back over 40 years, only elevated today thanks to widely available technology and advancements in e-learning that deliver online performance support, creating conditions that make it an easy choice to include it in your L&D strategy.

Five Ways Performance Support Increases Productivity

1. Performance support and working are one and the same
Users are supported while they carry out tasks to achieve the desired performance. Effective performance support means it is no longer necessary to stop work or leave the workplace for learning or support. Performance support delivers instant, measurable value because a solution to the issue is found immediately.

2. Knowledge and information are just a few clicks away
People no longer require extensive training when they can find the information they need with just a few clicks.

3. Performance support reduces the need for formal training
Performance support makes the relevant knowledge and information available in the workplace, without the distraction of training. Smart architecture drastically reduces the desire and need for training of all kinds, including orientation programs, management training, and customer service courses.

4. Performance support leads to fewer mistakes
Performance support produces task clarity and standards, and therefore, lowers error rates. This also applies to scenarios in which tasks often change as a result of improvement or innovation. In the case of an airline pilot, where accuracy is critical, it is a legal requirement to follow a directory when carrying out pre-flight tests because their memory might not be so reliable.

5. Performance support is simple
Performance support enables users to concentrate on the task at hand by not providing too much or too little information at the wrong time, simplifying the solution to an on-the-job issue while boosting that person’s performance at the same time.

Docebo’s latest whitepaper, published in partnership with The 70:20:10 Institute, aims to understand how performance support brings working and learning closer to help your workforce to feel more competent, more confident, and do their jobs better.Make performance support part of your L&D strategy.