EdTechEducationLearning and Development6 Reasons to Consider Digital Badging and Credentialing in 2016

August 8, 2015by Reva McPollom0

Continued learning and skill development is an important aspect of any given organization. This requires some means to track learning within an organization, and even personal initiatives by the employees. Digital credentialing offers a great opportunity for organizations to promote learning and manage skills and competencies. The following are some of the important reasons why you should consider implementing digital credentialing this year.

To recognize the small learning steps

Employees often take small steps towards developing skills that will enable them to perform better. An organizations needs to recognize such small steps in order to encourage employees to keep learning and developing themselves. In a way more importantly, it is necessary to recognize these things as a means to reinforce the employee’s identity through demonstrating their values are shared by the organization. Using digital badges in an organization can identify and recognize the small learning steps that employees take. This plays an important role in showing the employees that they are valuable and valued.

To create and promote a learning culture in the organization

Great organizations have perfected a culture of learning. Without continuous learning and development, businesses cannot be competitive and organizations will struggle to meet their objectives as well. It is important for all organizations to invest in, create and promote “learning culture” amongst employees. One of the ways an organization can promote a culture of learning is digital badging. By awarding badges to employees for learning achievements, an organization can encourage its employees to prioritize learning, gain new competencies, and take ownership of their learning and development. This will then develop into a culture in which employees and business leadership are aligned around the value and importance of learning and development.

To motivate employees to develop their skills

If you are a manager in a skill intensive technical firm, then you appreciate the importance of having employees who constantly update their skills. There may be many opportunities for your employees to learn and develop their skills, but some of these employees may not be motivated enough to take advantage of such opportunities if it is not explicit how them doing so impacts their ability to get to the next level in their career. Having digital badges as a proof of competency can help motivate these employees to develop their skills, as competency can be directly tied to job readiness and job level expectations. From there, the connection between learning and development and career opportunities can be made and codified. This can also help motivate employees to accumulate learning experiences that are essential to the organization.

To help build self-confidence and boost self-esteem of your employees

Research suggests that employee confidence impacts employee performance. Employees need to boost their self-esteem and confidence to perform at optimal levels. By implementing a digital credentialing system, you can help boost your employee’s self-esteem by recognizing their performance and rewarding them. It is a great honor for employees to have a badge that shows recognition by their employer, and certainly a badge says more about an employee’s skills and capabilities than “employee of the month.” Issuing badges can boost employee confidence and greatly improve their performance.

Profile the skill sets in the organization

It is important for an organization to profile the sets of skills that their employees have. Such information can play an important role in making important decisions regarding hiring and recruitment. For example, an organization that implements digital badging will know when one of their employees qualifies with a new set of skills, and in case of the need for such skills instead of hiring a new individual all that the organization need do is change the job description of the employee with the new skills so that they can begin the transition to filling that new role.

Help develop strategy for skill development

Related to the above, having a digital credentialing system in place helps an organization analyze its skills base and plan for skill deficits. This is important especially when developing training programs and when seconding employees for available training programs. Through analyzing the skills of your current workforce you can have a better sense of your “bench strength” such that a sudden loss of an employee is no longer a catastrophic event, but one which HR is ready for if not anticipated, and an opportunity for an existing employee to assume the next level in their career.

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