5 reasons to establish a "peer to peer" learning program.

As technology advances at a rapid pace and organizations redesign business models, skills are going out-of-date faster than ever. To meet the demands of ongoing work transformation, organizations need to look beyond pure technical competency and compete for workers with blend of problem solving, cognitive  and social skills. In fact, 47% of C-suite leaders rate ‘building 21st century careers’ for their workforce critical  to driving innovation and delivering exceptional services. Yet only 9% are investing in learning and development programs to build the skills of future.

As modern careers take off on an upward trajectory driven by technologies such as AI and robotics, it is critical for companies to build a culture of learning that puts people first, and fosters employee engagement. Peer learning programs are a meaningful L&D offering that empower employees and promote personal development. Facebook is spearheading this trend by providing peer-to-peer and employee driven learning in its functional departments. 

Here are 5 ways a peer-learning program can help your organizations create the workforce of the future and stay competitive: 

#1 - Identify knowledge gap: 

According to recent Deloitte survey, only 35 percent US workers have passion to take challenging roles at work. The intense talent competition demands peer-to-peer learning that helps capture institutional knowledge, identify the knowledge gaps and fix gaps with right learning and development opportunities. For example, companies can observe how customer information is being recorded across the company. If a simple process such as identity verification is not being widely used across the organization, companies can task people who are experts in customer management to train others continuously. This helps close the gaps in an engaging and efficient way, and increases accuracy while cutting down on chances of employee jumping the ship.

#2 - Enable an agile and nimble workforce:

Worksites across the world are placing strategic importance on building an agile and happy workforce. Peer learning promotes a learning culture and encourages deep discussion, erasing knowledge silos.  Google ‘s special event “Googler to Googler” brings together employees from across different Google departments to learn from each other.  This has helped the company improve employee morale. The lesson here:  when team members share what they know and learn from their colleagues colleagues, it creates a more responsive and happy workforce while reducing the complexity and cost of traditional learning methods. 

#3 - Discover best practices:

Live learning provides an opportunity to demonstrate the way best practices work.  Retail executives, for instance, can share the roadblocks they face in pitching products to customers. The knowledge and insights can help uncover the best ways to combat sales challenges and enhance productivity. Peer learning is not only an effective tool to tap into experiences of peers but also an easy, digestible way of learning that can have a high impact on performance. 

#4 - Make knowledge easy to retain:

Peer-to-peer learning coupled with assessments and microlearning lessons provide a great way to ensure that team members learn what they need to deliver excellence. A real-time coachable moment or a quick meeting  helps get immediate information and solve specific problems. It also enables managers to assess the knowledge of their teams and keeps everyone up to speed.  For example, Coinbase has adopted Facebook coaching circle model to helps employs enhance their learning.

#5 - Boost employee collaboration:

Peer learning enhances employee interdependence and shapes the perspective of a team. Take cue from Facebo

++ok that successfully uses peer learning to foster employee engagement and form collaborative relationships.  This helps employees achieve shared learning goals to maximize team achievements. The result: enhanced employee satisfaction and retention. 



Peer learning is often the best way to practice a growth mind-set and create designed growth to encourage employees to give their best. Deploying  easy to use peer-to-peer learning tools is a great way to make new employees productive faster, keep far-flung salesforces up to date, or make remote workers more productive.