User-generated content:

In today's fast-paced business world, knowledge sharing and knowledge retention within an organization is critical to success and sustainability

An effective way of tapping into knowledge in the company exactly where it is located - namely in the specialist departments - is the promotion of so-called user-generated content (UGC). But how can companies successfully implement user-generated content and motivate their employees to record their knowledge and share it with others? What obstacles do companies face when tackling this challenge - and above all, how can they overcome them? This is exactly what we wanted to find out with our qualitative study and asked L&D professionals about their experiences. We have summarized the experts' findings for you in this blog post.

Challenge #1: Lack of time

The introduction, production, quality assurance and coordination of UGC requires time that many people often cannot - or rather, usually do not want to - spend. The time factor is one of the most common challenges that we identified in our survey.

However, there are solutions to this problem. Careful planning and prioritization can help to ensure that the necessary time is available. One way to give subject matter experts time and space to create user-generated content is to set up "learning and innovation windows". These are specific periods of time that are integrated into the working day and in which employees are encouraged to focus on learning and content creation. This initial time investment pays for itself very quickly and pays off in the medium and long term, as the content created not only contributes to employees' individual knowledge growth, but can also serve as a valuable resource for others in the company. In this way, user-generated content can help to build a comprehensive, internal knowledge database that can be used for future training, onboarding processes or to solve specific, recurring challenges. The continuous exchange and constant updating of this content creates a dynamic learning environment that strengthens the entire company and contributes to a culture of lifelong learning.

One aspect that is often underestimated in this context is to closely involve managers and win them over to the project. After all, they are the ones who can free up time for their team members. Buy-in at management level is also important in order to increase acceptance of UGC - if managers are behind the project, they are much more likely to get their employees on board.

Challenge #2: Lack of acceptance

Another challenge that became clear in our survey is the partial lack of acceptance for the "user-generated content" project in the specialist departments. This can be attributed to various factors, such as a lack of understanding of the benefits of user-generated content, uncertainty in dealing with Authoring Tools, concerns about the quality of their own contributions or a lack of capacity to take on an additional task alongside their day-to-day business.

To overcome this challenge, it is important to clearly communicate the benefits of UGC and actively involve employees in the content creation process. This can be done, for example, through information events, Workshops or training. Systematic onboarding of new authors can also help to reduce uncertainty and increase acceptance.

Close cooperation with the L&D department is essential to ensure that the specialist departments do not feel left alone.

Challenge #3: Lack of didactic knowledge

The third obstacle to the introduction of user-generated content is the lack of didactics know-how and experience in creating learning content. Many employees are unsure how to present their knowledge in a form that is accessible and understandable to others.

To overcome this hurdle, you can offer training courses and workshops that provide employees with the necessary didactic knowledge and skills. In addition, best practice examples and guidelines can be helpful to give employees guidance. Another approach could be mentoring programs in which experienced content creators support less experienced colleagues.

Challenge #4: Lack of quality

Concerns about the quality of user-generated content were also frequently expressed in the survey. Many specialist departments fear that user-generated content is not of the same quality as content created by experts and that this creates a poor impression.

Challenge #5: Lack of learning culture

Our survey has shown that the topic of "learning" is not given enough priority in many companies. This can lead to employees being less motivated to voluntarily create content themselves.

Therefore, it is important to promote an open learning and error culture within the company. This can be achieved by introducing learning initiatives, recognizing and rewarding employees who share their knowledge and skills, and by managers who exemplify and promote lifelong learning.

(Dave Meier, Center for Accelerated Learning)

Looking to the future, we are certain that user-generated content will play an increasingly important role, as it promotes the exchange of knowledge and experience within the company and can therefore make a valuable contribution to corporate development - and, above all, can also meet the ever-increasing need and demand for learning content. New technologies such as generative AI are also changing the understanding of "learning" and user-generated content will become a central component of L&D initiatives in companies. This shows that creating learning content is just as important a part of the learning process as consuming learning content