How many times have you been in the middle of writing the best sentence ever written (just like this one) when suddenly… a Teams call pops up, or you get a Slack message, or you spot a WhatsApp message flash up on your phone, and that award-winning thought fades into the ether?
Workplace distractions are everywhere, and they’re relentless. That goes for everyone - whether Linda from accounting likes to hang around for a chat every time she passes your desk or you’re fighting a losing battle against a deluge of chat messages, we all know what it’s like to feel overwhelmed by the constant chatter and noise in the modern workplace.
So what’s the one thing you can put in place to get rid of those pesky distractions so you can focus on what really matters?
What’s the main problem that arises when you have too much content? It’s that nobody knows what they should be paying attention to, and everything quickly becomes white noise. It’s just like if every email in your inbox is marked as high priority - it becomes meaningless, and the information that matters gets missed.
Finding a way to streamline and filter information is crucial to ensure everyone gets what they need without getting distracted by what they don’t. Your engineering team doesn’t need constant updates on the new sales platform, and your sales team doesn’t want to be inundated with learning resources intended for your visual designers.
This is where you need to make smart use of your tech. Matching the right content with the right people is crucial if you’re going to minimise distractions and keep everyone on task. Even if you have thousands of resources, you can (and should) create a laser-focused experience for everyone looking for useful information on your platform.
If you’re already drowning in content, you might think that adding even more content is the last thing you need. This is a trap that many learning teams fall into, leaving learning platforms to stagnate so that employees stop seeing the value in them.
But you don’t have a content problem - you have an experience problem.
What we mean by that is that the content itself isn’t the issue. In theory, you can add as much new content to your platform as you like - as long as it’s relevant to the people who see it. Employees won’t keep coming back to your learning platform if a) they don’t trust that they can easily find what they need or b) if they don’t think that anything has changed since the last 10 times they logged in.
The way you organise your content is paramount to the success of your learning programme. That means creating structured playlists, making smart use of filters and tags and nailing your navigation to create the most user-friendly experience, whether you’re uploading new content once a month or three times a day.
The good news is that no matter how much content you have now, or may have in the future, there’s a super simple solution to make sure the right stuff gets in front of the right people.
That solution? 5app academies. Academies make it easy to slice and dice your content in a way that makes sense to you and your people. Need an academy to develop your leadership team? Want to provide your UK team with location-specific info? Looking to help your customer service team upskill and reskill? It’s all right there in 5app academies.
5app academies help businesses like Greystar cut through the noise by removing distractions and shining the spotlight on what matters to every group of employees. And once they’re set up, you’re good to go in the future too - just keep building out your academies with relevant, targeted content, and people will keep coming back for more.
Sign up for 5app CLO Steve Thompson's upcoming webinar with Brandon Hall Group’s Matt Pitman for more practical advice on how to reduce workplace distractions and get the right content to the right people at the right time... every time.
Looking to get started with 5app academies? Discover five ways you can make the most of them to streamline learning and comms across your business!
Looking for top-quality DEIB content? Then you need the DEIB Hub from 5app and All of Us! Find out why it's such a simple, affordable, effective...
Discover how Greystar boosted operational efficiency, drove knowledge sharing and cut time spent dealing with clunky processes and systems with 5app.