What Is Performance Support? A Simple Guide to Learning in the Flow of Work
Performance support is job aids, checklists, quick reference tools, or short videos that give people the right information exactly when they need it during actual work, rather than requiring them to recall it from a training session that happened weeks earlier.
What you'll learn in this article
- What performance support actually is, and how it differs from training
- The main formats performance support can take
- When performance support works better than a full course
- How performance support fits alongside eLearning and microlearning rather than replacing them
What performance support actually is
Performance support is direct, in the moment help: a checklist, a quick reference card, a short video, or a searchable resource that answers how do I do this specific thing right now, rather than teaching a broad topic in advance.
How it's different from training
Training builds knowledge before someone needs it. Performance support delivers the answer at the exact moment of need, so people don't have to remember everything from a session that happened weeks or months earlier.
Common formats
Job aids and checklists, step by step guides, quick reference cards, short how do I videos, and searchable knowledge bases are all common formats.
When performance support beats a full course
Performance support tends to work best for tasks that are used occasionally, tasks that are too detailed for anyone to memorize every step, and new employees still building confidence in a role.
How it fits with eLearning and microlearning
eLearning builds the broader knowledge and skills, microlearning reinforces specific concepts, and performance support helps people apply what they know at the moment a task is in front of them. The three work together rather than replacing each other.
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to what course creators ask us most.
Not quite. A manual is usually a large reference document someone has to search through. Performance support is built to answer one specific question fast, often through a short checklist, card, or video rather than a lengthy document.
No. Performance support works best alongside training, handling the moments where someone needs a quick answer while doing the actual task, rather than replacing the broader knowledge training builds.
A quick checklist a new employee checks before closing out a task, or a short video showing exactly how to complete one specific step, are both common examples.
If people frequently ask the same questions while doing a task, or make errors on steps they were trained on months ago, that's usually a sign performance support would help more than another training session.