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As organizations strive to keep pace with rapidly evolving technology, just-in-time training provides a solution. 

Imagine you’re struggling to enter an expense when filing your tax returns. Suddenly, a help icon appears. When clicked, it offers step-by-step instructions with examples on how to accurately input your expense. That’s just-in-time training! 

In today’s evolving technology landscape, just-in-time training offers a scalable and efficient way for organizations to support users in their daily workflows. This comprehensive guide explores how just-in-time training can unlock efficiency by delivering timely, relevant knowledge to employees, empowering them to be more proficient technology users. 

Whether you’re looking to optimize the use of your technology suite, control costs, enhance productivity, increase engagement or improve user satisfaction, just-in-time training may be the solution for you.

What is just-in-time training?

Just-in-time (JIT) training, also referred to as just-in-time learning or just-in-time education, is a form of virtual learning that delivers educational content to employees at their time of need. Rather than scheduling traditional training sessions, users have instant access to the support they are looking for 24/7.

Just-in-time training excels in its flexibility, timeliness and ability to cater to specific user groups. It allows users to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule, making it easy to integrate learning into daily workflows without disrupting productivity. The content is often module and concise, focusing on specific skills or tasks that are highly relevant. This targeted approach increases retention by allowing employees to apply new skills while they work, helping to increase knowledge retention and combat effects like the Ebbinghaus forgetting curve. 

Just-in-time training supports a wide array of learning resources. These may include: 

• Quick-reference guides 
• Online tutorials 
• Videos 
• Interactive simulations 
• Tip sheets 
• and more 

Just-in-time training is especially useful in industries where change is constant and adoption is critical. For example, healthcare relies on the use of electronic health records (EHRs). These EHRs are subject to frequent upgrades, updates and new modules, requiring ongoing training for clinicians to stay proficient. By providing timely and relevant training in the workflow, organizations can ensure their workforce remains knowledgeable and capable of meeting evolving demands. 

Moreover, just-in-time training fosters a culture of continuous learning and improvement within organizations. It encourages employees to take the initiative in their own development by seeking out training opportunities as needed. This proactive approach to learning not only boosts individual performance but also contributes to overall organizational success. By empowering employees with the tools and resources to learn independently, just-in-time training helps cultivate a more agile and adaptable workforce, ready to tackle new challenges and drive innovation.

Benefits of just-in-time training

When compared to traditional classroom training and other virtual methods, just-in-time training offers several benefits to organizations. It can streamline content creation and delivery for training teams, allowing them to deliver more value with limited personnel. It can also improve not only the learning experience, but the software experience as a whole for users. 

In this section, we’ve outlined some of the key benefits of just-in-time training backed by real client stories.

Reduced training costs and improved scalability

Just-in-time training offers resource-strapped organizations a way to save on time and resources. Providing users with self-directed support in their workflow reduces the burden on training teams. When trainers spend less time teaching in a classroom, they can redirect their attention to more strategic initiatives. 

Take Gundersen (now Emplify Health), for example. The health system had been experiencing a period of significant growth, but it didn’t have the resources to expand its training team. Emplify transitioned to a just-in-time training strategy and realized immediate benefits. 

With less time spent in the classroom, trainers were able to cross-train and expand their own knowledge of different Epic EHR modules. It also allowed them to expand the trainer role to allow for one-on-one coaching opportunities with clinicians who benefit from additional support.

Less time spent in training

Just-in-time training doesn’t just provide time savings for training teams; it also reduces the time employees spend in training. Let’s continue with the Emplify Health example.  

Prior to implementing just-in-time training, new nurses at Emplify sometimes waited up to five days just to begin their onboarding. That training would then take three to four days to complete, depending on their role. Now, new hires complete their onboarding in just one day. 

With just-in-time training that is personalized and self-paced, users can focus only on what is relevant for their role.

More satisfied employees

Just-in-time training can also improve employee satisfaction. Most employees aren’t satisfied with traditional training methods. They don’t like taking time out of their busy workloads to attend scheduled training sessions. Once there, they often feel like the instruction moves too quickly or too slowly for their learning style. 

Just-in-time training allows employees to learn at their own pace, on their own time and via their preferred learning formats. When employees spend less time in training and still gain the skills and knowledge they need, they are happier for it. 

For instance, nurses who use just-in-time training at UCHealth report a 75% increase in satisfaction with initial training.

Improved adoption and proficiency

User adoption and proficiency are critical to the success of new technology investments. Just-in-time training encourages adoption and builds proficiency from onboarding through everyday use of your most critical applications. Unlike other eLearning methods, such as a Learning Management System (LMS), just-in-time training meets your users directly in their workflow, helping drive adoption. 

For example, when M Health Fairview first introduced an eConsent tool in Epic, adoption was low. The training team produced a bite-sized how-to video and embedded it directly in the new eConsent workflow. Within days, adoption rose from just 7% to 87%! With real-time support available in the new workflow, clinicians took the time to learn the new eConsent process.

When employees can quickly access the information they need without disrupting their workflow, adoption and proficiency improve. Perhaps no one knows this better than Aspirus Health. 

Aspirus transitioned to a just-in-time training strategy in 2022. Since doing so, 96% of new nurses achieve proficiency on their first post-training assessments. Furthermore, new nurses are spending 50% less time completing tasks in Epic than before the switch.

Deliver just-in-time training with uPerform

Initial training and ongoing support are the keys to long-term productivity and engagement. When considering the right platform for your organization, content creation, distribution and management must fall under a single solution to streamline processes and create cohesion. uPerform just-in-time training provides the following advantages: 

• Relevant, role-based solutions: uPerform creates a personalized in-app training solution by delivering content based on role. Users no longer wade through irrelevant content to find answers to their how-to questions.  
• Leading software integrations: Integrate uPerform with your most critical software applications to provide software training directly in the workflow. uPerform offers integrations for leading EHR, HCM, CRM, ERP, and other applications. View our full list of supported applications.  
• Multiple content formats: Increase learner engagement by appealing to their preferred learning style. With uPerform’s authoring tool, you can create multiple content formats best suited to different learning styles with just the click of a button.  
• Simplified content creation and management: With uPerform, authors and subject matter experts create content in half the time by simply recording a workflow and publishing it to multiple content formats. Updating content is faster too. Authors simply edit existing steps and republish documents, rather than recreating them from scratch. 

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Choose uPerform for just-in-time support

Reduce the time and cost burdens of traditional training methods. uPerform’s just-in-time training platform offers scalable ongoing software education by delivering role-specific training and support. Enhance overall productivity and increase satisfaction throughout your organization with a just-in-time approach to digital literacy.

Master your applications while you work with uPerform. Contact us today to learn more.