Next-Gen Workforce Development and Employee Journeys

Overcoming employee engagement roadblocks with Luke Megarity

Luke Megarity is the President and COO of iTacit, a leading LMS and digital workforce platform. He has helped countless companies grow by helping them redefine the relationship between management and staff. His authentic passion for learning and employee satisfaction has earned him the Global Exporter Award and the title of EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year. Luke’s vision for the future is to create innovative workplaces, especially virtual ones, that take employee engagement and satisfaction to the next level. Today he talks to us about developing the next generation workforce and overcoming the technology learning curve.

What do you think is one of the most overlooked barriers to employee engagement? Can you give organizations a tip or two to take engagement to the next level?

One of the most overlooked employee involvement roadblocks is the “real” employee experience. I don’t specifically mean employee engagement platforms – a little biased here, but they are great! The real roadblock is really understanding the employee’s journey and the real challenges each staff member faces. Most employees just want to come to work and do their job well. Our role as leaders is not to let them get bogged down in bad processes, technology or politics.

Another thing I cannot repeat enough is that stronger communication in the workplace unlocks opportunities for engagement. It really is the starting point for stronger employee engagement. By that I mean two-way communication that is open and honest.

When done on a large scale through a technology like iTacit, it can come in the form of a pulse poll or survey to understand employee feedback. It can even enable communication between the same role in different locations, or unify employees with better two-way communication between unrelated teams.

When you begin to connect your organization and enable communication through secure channels, you can identify trends, opportunities and pain points for more structured engagement programs and process improvements.

Do you think there is a common misconception that prevents organizations from fully leveraging L&D apps for recruiting and onboarding?

Honestly, I’ve only encountered positivity from HR teams and L&D leaders regarding apps like iTacit. Of course it took a lot of hard work, education and training with potential customers, organizations and groups of employees. Once organizations really see the true potential of an end-to-end L&D app, they usually get energized to leverage its full range of features.

If there’s one misconception holding some organizations back, it’s the assumption that there is a steep learning curve with an L&D app. In fact, this couldn’t be further from the truth. At iTacit, our passion lies in creating an intuitive user interface that is comfortable for a wide range of employees. Learning the ins and outs of iTacit is quick and easy for different profiles, including employees who may not have a high degree of digital literacy.

When you have such a dedicated support team behind a platform, like iTacit, organizations shouldn’t worry about deploying and getting the most out of a platform. We’re here to help, support and guide HR teams to get the most out of their platform, from recruiting to onboarding and throughout the employee lifetime.

What’s one of your standout eLearning customer success stories?

We have been fortunate enough to work closely with Seaboard. They are a premier transportation group here in Canada. As a 24/7 operation, with a diverse mix of employees, they came to iTacit looking for a solution to their training challenges. We worked closely with them to get iTacit into the hands of their drivers and to ensure that every employee had easy access to the necessary training materials.

I’m ecstatic to see how they did it fully embraced digitization to provide meaningful training to their employees through our platform. iTacit has really enabled Seaboard to reach their employees on their own time. Rather than relying on in-person training sessions, they use eLearning through iTacit to ensure that all their drivers and operators are up to date on mandatory industry and compliance training.

It was great to work with Seaboard. Their employees value the flexibility that iTacit offers from a training point of view, and its use is widespread throughout the workforce. It’s a true success story about how providing flexibility, autonomy and accessibility can really directly benefit employees, making everyday life at work that much better.

Is there a recent development project, product launch, or other initiative that you would like our community to know about?

We just launched our frontline channel and contributor community. We call it the Front-Line Feed, and it’s really a dedicated content channel for articles, news, and guides related to employee experience and digital workforce management.

The Front-line Feed focuses on content such as articles, guest blogs, expert guides, and how-tos aimed at professionals in roles ranging from learning and development to employee engagement. We draw on the expertise of iTacit and the large network of opinion leaders to drive the channel in categories such as corporate culture, workforce automation, editor-in-chief and case studies.

iTacit is known as the “everything but countertop” platform for frontline workers. What do you think is the biggest challenge facing frontline workers today, and how can leaders build a strong business case for a new employee platform?

Meeting the expectations of frontline staff is a challenge for hiring managers. With Gen Z entering the job market and uncertain, but exciting, changing #futureofWork trends, these challenges are not going anywhere.

The next generation of frontline workers will be more digital than ever. They will have grown up with smartphones and tablets. Their lives will be permeated by technology, social media and social collaboration more than ever. Organizations now adopting digital workplace technology will be the ones that best suit the next generation of workers.

As for adopting a new employee platform, business leaders can make the case through improved retention and employee turnover. We all know that recruitment costs money. If companies can improve the employee experience and improve retention through engagement from day one using a platform like iTacit, the ROI is a no-brainer.

Employee retention increases as employee engagement increases. Business leaders need to harness the power of employee experience platforms to connect workforces. They should use personalized experiences with a mobile-first approach to really talk to the next generation, and future-proof their business for years to come.

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We would like to thank Luke Megarity for participating in our Thought Leader Q&A. Luke was also featured in our eLearning Pioneers: Presenters list because he is the L&D host with the most people and shares his genuine passion with the global eLearning audience.