Mobile technology is transforming how we find and share information. Gone are the days of waiting to find the answer to a question. Now, we can simply pick up our smartphones, perform a search query, click on one of the results and scroll to find our answer. If the website proves challenging to navigate, slow to download or lacks the information we require, we simply move on.

Google calls these micro-moments. They’re the moments when we turn to a device—often a smartphone—to take action on whatever we need or want to know. Micro-moments are critical touch points within a consumer’s journey and ultimately determine how that journey ends. Companies need to anticipate their audience’s needs and be there when the moment arises.

While this concept is in response to marketing and consumer behaviors, this strategy can also be applied to meeting the needs of today’s learners. Learning and development must be at the forefront of these micro-moments with the appropriate content in hand when their learners need it most. L&D must win these micro-moments or run the risk of employees finding and using incorrect information.

With millennials gaining majority in the workplace, analyzing the behaviors of this cohort can help us design more effective learning solutions. Almost 90 percent of millennials have their smartphone at their side, day and night. And it is estimated that we check our phones 150 times per day.

With so much information available at our fingertips, organizations need to ensure learners are receiving the right information. Organizations must develop just-in-time learning solutions to meet them where they are – on their mobile device.

Videos are becoming an increasingly popular and effective way to learn. Searches related to “how to” on YouTube are growing 70 percent year over year, and more than 100M hours of how-to content was watched in North America just last year. In fact, 67 percent of millennials believe they can find a YouTube video on anything they want to learn, according to a 2015 Google Consumer Survey.

In today’s mobile world, we can all be plumbers, hair stylists, musicians and chefs just by watching a bite-sized learning video. Preparing to meet the needs of modern learners is a challenge for all organizations. Learning and development must have a plan in place to anticipate the needs of learners and be there with flexible solutions at crucial, defining moments.

Here are three essential strategies that can help you win micro-moments:

• Be There. Anticipate the micro-moments for learners in your organization, and then commit to being there to help when those moments occur. This requires aligning business goals with training objectives to ensure the learning initiative delivers the intended outcome.
• Be Useful. It’s critical to first assess and understand the needs of your audience. Having relevant and reliable content available to your audience in the moment the need occurs enhances the learner experience and keeps them coming back.
• Be Quick. The mobile experience must be fast and frictionless, or else you will lose your audience in a matter of seconds. The technology should be designed with speed and functionality in mind.

More and more people are turning to their mobile phones for guidance in both their personal and professional lives. With the attention span of modern learners shrinking as we speak, learning solutions must be designed accordingly. Organizations need to make a commitment to their learners – to be there, be useful and be quick. Learning and development must prepare for micro-moments or risk leaving their learners behind.