The world of corporate learning and development (L&D) has made incredible strides in the last decade. In a single generation, technology has transformed the way learning content is delivered—evolving from classroom-based training to e-learning and blended learning, to digital and continuous learning models. Content, in particular, has retained its title as king and its development is increasingly becoming a bigger consideration for modern organizations.

Now, the corporate learning landscape is shifting once again. According to Josh Bersin, principal and founder of Bersin by Deloitte, organizations are no longer satisfied with simply exchanging the classroom-bound learning experience for an online, desk-bound one. The change might be disruptive, but like anything related to technology, it’s happening a lot faster than businesses realize—and it’s inevitable.

However, the new era isn’t just about a shift in technology and tools. It’s about a shift in mindset toward a design that’s focused around what matters most for the success of a business: the employee. It isn’t about squeezing old methods into new technology. It’s about bringing learning to where the employees are (not just throwing learning modules on a mobile device). Most importantly, it’s about leveraging the right technology to fit continuous learning seamlessly into an employee’s workflow.

This is a critical shift, and one that modern organizations are getting behind. The L&D industry is over $140 billion in size, however, where it falls flat for a lot of companies is the development of effective content.

Avoid the content overload

The need for modernizing corporate learning and development practices for learning leaders is clear. However, depending on the size of the organization, a lot of L&D teams don’t need to start from scratch (although, perhaps some should). Many mid- to large-sized enterprise organizations have mountains of stored content, ranging from new product and service offering information to competency lists and compliance documents. The list could go on. The point is—organizations are quick to overload their employees with information, but the information is just as quick to change.

The value of L&D should not be measured by the volume of content created. Businesses are not colleges or universities, and employees are not students. Employees don’t come to work to learn, they come to perform a job. They are motivated to learn subject matter that can directly improve their job function. Likewise, they shouldn’t be measured on test scores or completion of learning modules. They should be measured on their performance and the impact they’re making on business results—that’s what truly counts—and content should be at the center of these efforts.

Put the employee experience first

Businesses need to forget about their massive (and most likely, outdated) content libraries they’ve created and compiled over the last few decades—for just a second—and start thinking about the employee’s needs first. This doesn’t mean existing content should be thrown out or disregarded completely. Rather, a modern organization should look at what business outcomes it hopes to achieve. Then, work backwards to map what objectives employees need to accomplish to attain those outcomes. This mindset shift demands the employee experience be the focus of content development, instead of the content-first mentality that many L&D teams are used to pursuing.

If organizations want to develop content that has a measurable impact on business results, L&D must start with re-evaluating their learning content strategy and map it to modern learning principals.

Here are the top five strategies to think about when developing a modern learning content strategy.

1. Start with the business outcomes

Again, it’s absolutely crucial to first determine the goals of the business and the type of results that need to be achieved. Then, map the overall content strategy to align with these goals. This requires L&D teams to really think about the strategic development of content in a different way. Instead of trying to figure out how existing content can help train an employee, or creating new content before determining the actual needs of the staff, start by thinking about the individual doing the learning.

What are the overall business outcomes that need to be achieved for success? What do employees need to learn? What sort of content would influence their knowledge and behavior, so they can be successful in their individual roles? How will their success impact the company’s bottom line? This will fuel the overall content strategy and make sure learning objectives are closely tied to the company’s corporate strategy.

By having this close alignment, each business goal will be brought to the attention of each employee. They will feel like they have a stake in the company’s success. What’s even better, the development of all future content resources will be more accurately mapped to achieve these clearly defined business outcomes.

2. Create agile content

It’s important for corporate learning and training content to be built in a way that evolves as the business grows, instead of holding it back. The thing about content is that it can expire, and it can very quickly become outdated and irrelevant. But many companies still hang on to resources that provide little value. No need to toss out all of the old content that’s built up over the years. But businesses need to start thinking a little more critically about what’s actually impactful.

All too often, L&D teams get caught up in the accuracy of the content management process, rather than evaluating the value and impact it has. Organizations need to take a hard look at their existing content and plans for future development, and ask themselves, “Does it help solve a problem? Does it align with the new employee experience design?” If the answer is no, then why keep it around?

3. Make it micro

Modern organizations recognize that library size doesn’t matter. Instead, leveraging smaller selections of meaningful, high-impact content can help employees and the business achieve goals and drive higher levels of engagement. So, make the learning micro. The concept of microlearning is rooted in brain science principals and backed with proven research and studies. The fact is, people learn and retain information better when it’s presented in bite-sized chunks and spaced out over a period of time. Stand out from the common firehouse approach most companies use. People can’t recall all of the information that was dumped on them throughout their first day, or even their first week. Think about what employees need to know versus everything they could know.

4. Embrace employees’ desire to learn

Most employees genuinely want to learn. This is especially true for new hires who are motivated to make a big splash as soon as they start. Unfortunately, existing training materials are not built to be engaging enough to sustain this enthusiasm. This could be because clicking through e-learning modules and courses can be a little boring, or maybe the training materials cannot be found or accessed easily. Whatever the reason may be, businesses are looking to modernize. Engagement and retention rates are low, which results in numerous business problems, and this, in turn, results in dollars lost. Employees need to see the return of investment for their time or else they’ll disregard whatever information is thrown at them.

5. Pick the right development option

Instilling the right mindset behind a content strategy is only half the battle. Creating powerful content can be a costly challenge. The number one reason companies use third-party providers is due to a lack of internal capabilities, according to the Brandon Hall Group. Many organizations simply do not have the bandwidth, expertise, or resources to develop learning content in-house.

However, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. L&D has the option to leverage the expertise of other industry experts. They can do this by purchasing strategic content from content marketplaces. Depending on the vendor, this kind of content can be strategically developed using modern learning principals based in brain science, such as microlearning, spaced repetition-based questions, gamified learning, and so on. By purchasing content from larger, more established brands, smaller companies can take advantage of existing expertise. This can also help L&D gain access to resources quickly, so they can proactively roll out content while adapting to the changing objectives of the business.

Has content been dethroned at your organization for other competing priorities? If businesses can once again accept that content is indeed king, then it should also be accepted that its function is to serve the people. Throwing some content into a platform and having employees click through modules isn’t enough anymore. It’s time to reimagine the entire development approach behind content and leave outdated methods where they belong—in the past.