As a millennial myself I had a pretty bad reputation to overcome even before I’ve entered the workforce.  Some bashed us for being too lazy. Others call us the generation of narcissists with toddler attention span, spending our entire days on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Yet, at the same time most of us are persistent, self-starters and self-learners and are committed to adding value to the workplace.  Considering the negative rep we already have, plus the fact that most offices now have three generations working side by side, most employers find it confusing to deal and engage with the millennials.

Today, I’d like to speak of how the training has evolved to incorporate the learning strategies millennials prefer to use – mobile, gaming and video.

1. Mobile Learning

According to the Pew Research Center, 65% of adults aged 18-29 now own a smartphone. The number drops to 59% for adults aged between 30 and 49.

Here’s the deal: milennials are resourceful. We like to grab our smartphones and Google the answer, rather than approaching someone to ask it. The same is true when it comes to accessing job-related materials, assuming those were designed for easy access and search. However, we don’t want to take the entire course from our smartphone. Instead, we’d like to have intuitive design that is easy-to-browse from mobile for quicker access

Mobile apps play an important role as well. Offer us a well-designed tool, say for action-planning or access to a video library, and we can start accomplishing new goals and learning more efficiently with little to no coaching involved. For instance, Qualcomm’s Mobile Learning team recently created a dedicated PSH mobile training app for compliance training.  The reception was overwhelmingly positive, especially among the millennials. In fact, according to this research most organizations plan to increase the use of mobile for compliance content (56% for accessing content and 46% developing apps).

Bottom line: mobile training should be easy-to-use, short and concise.

2. Gamification

When it comes to games, Millennials made a step further and want to mix work and play effectively.  We love visualizing our progress and achieving some sorts of accolades, so why shouldn’t the companies make use of this?

Since we tend to be goal-driven, gaming and storytelling can be a great way to keep us highly engaged in learning.

Gamification is also a great way to provide us with on-the-spot, scored feedback in a comfortable way. It motivates the millennials to aim for a higher score and correct their actions.

3. Video Learning

Videos are often dubbed as the new text for millennials. Blogs turn vlogs, YouTube has achieved massive traffic growth last year. Video content keeps the millennial attention much better than plain text.

Yet, the important factor in videos for millennials is brevity. The average YouTube video is about 4-5 minutes.  We prefer short media, which quickly sparks the interest and gets to the point. We are more likely to retain information, when it’s cut into smaller bits.  Sure, we will still learn from longer videos, but we are not as likely to remember everything delivered.

Video is a great tool to deliver training to millennials. Just make it short, enticing and concise to help us retain the information better.