How Google's 20% Project Can Spark an L&D Revolution

When’s the last time you committed yourself to brushing up on a professional skill only never to actually get around to doing it?

You know your career would benefit if you could just find the time to explore new ideas and learn new skills, but your day-to-day responsibilities take up every minute of your workday. 

Not only do you miss out on creating a better version of yourself, but your employer misses out on the benefits — both predictable and unforeseeable — that come with it too. One company that truly understands this is Google. The company’s cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin introduced the idea of 20% time — in which employees are asked to spend 20% of their workweek or one full workday — toiling on a work-related passion project of their choice that does not have to have anything to do with their day-to-day job.

In the company’s IPO letter in 2004, Larry and Sergey wrote: “We encourage our employees, in addition to their regular projects, to spend 20% of their time working on what they think will most benefit Google. This empowers them to be more creative and innovative.”

The forward-thinking founders turned out to be right. 

The investment Google made in its employees by giving them creative time has led to the creation of some of Google’s biggest products, including Google News and Gmail. Yet Larry and Sergey didn’t judge the success of the initiative on whether it led to profitable ideas. In fact, it didn’t appear to matter to them if an employee’s creativity led to a dead end. “Most risky projects fizzle,” they wrote, “often teaching us something.”

So, yes, at its heart, the 20% Project is pretty much a brilliant L&D program.

The 20% Project has lessons for learning and development

Giving employees carte blanche to pursue their passions isn’t the only way companies are redefining how talent spends company time. Some organizations are using variations of Google’s 20% Project to give employees less-structured time for learning and development. For example, LinkedIn has a program called InDays, which offers employees a day each month to invest in themselves. Once a year, an InDay is devoted solely to learning; others focus on creativity, community, and so forth.

Recognizing that learning and development opportunities sometimes come at a cost, other companies provide learning and development stipends — money on top of salary that pays for classes, workshops, and other training opportunities.

APQC, a benchmarking and best practices research organization, conducted a survey of 4,500 organizations to find out how many days they offered employees for formal learning and professional development time, which included training, onboarding, classes, certification courses, and conferences. 

APQC found that organizations at the 25th percentile offered four or fewer days of learning per year while those at the 75th percentile offered seven or more days of learning each year per employee. A program like Google’s can take learning and development to an even higher level, making it so ingrained in a company’s culture that it becomes as routine as a weekly staff meeting. 

Providing company time for learning isn’t enough

For companies that decide to follow in Google’s footsteps and create more unstructured learning opportunities for employees, there are some potential challenges.

Employees may feel a heavier burden. While one of the goals of providing L&D opportunities is to empower employees through learning, there’s a chance it could have the opposite effect. If it typically takes an employee five full workdays to complete their weekly tasks, having them allot even a couple of hours per week to learning could make them feel stressed — and stressed-out employees are more likely to browse new jobs and possibly even accept one.

If you’re serious about giving your talent the opportunity to grow through learning and development, think about learning time not as something extra but as something necessary. In doing so, look for ways to help employees balance their workload, whether that means adjusting deadlines, taking something less important off of their plates, or even hiring contingent talent to pick up some of the slack. 

Employees may feel unmotivated. Yes, it’s true that most job seekers want L&D opportunities so they can improve their skills, but if employees feel like they’re being forced to learn and it’s not getting them anywhere, they may be less inclined to engage fully in such opportunities. Again, it’s important for employers to show that they value employee learning just as much as their talent does. 

So how do you convey that message?

Giving employees opportunities to use the new skills they’ve learned in their current roles and then considering them for other jobs within the organization can send the message that employees aren’t wasting their time. Other ways employers can motivate employees to learn include recognizing them publicly when they complete a training and using gamification strategies such as award badges and leaderboards when employees move to a new level in their development.

Employers may feel it’s too costly. Some employers, particularly of smaller companies, may believe they can’t afford to let employees do anything more than what they were hired to do. However, the way social media platform Hootsuite founder Ryan Holmes sees it, companies can’t afford not to give employees time to learn and innovate. Ryan points to companies that were at the top of their field but lost ground to competitors when they didn’t keep up with evolving technology and market shifts. Blockbuster, once the king of in-home entertainment, faltered when it didn’t adapt to the growing popularity of streaming. Blackberry, which once had a lock on the smartphone market, watched as iPhones and Androids made their pioneering device largely irrelevant by offering user-friendly touchscreens and myriad apps.

The best way to avoid this, Ryan says, is to give employees the time and freedom to learn and explore new trends on company time: “Let them chase rainbows: Give employees in-office time to explore their craziest ideas and passion projects.”

Employees may feel protective of their ideas. For employers who are following Google’s model of letting employees explore creative ideas, there is another potential pitfall: Your talent may be hesitant to come up with ideas outside of the scope of their current position. They may think, “If I come up with a money-saving idea or the next big thing for my company and it’s not part of my job description, will I benefit from that creativity?” Employers have to make it clear that they value their employees’ contributions — even those that go beyond their official role or title in the company. That might mean you allow employees to collaborate across departments if their idea pertains to another part of the organization. 

Final thoughts: Give employees space for learning so it’s a win for them rather than a burden

No matter how intentional one tries to be when it comes to learning and development, there are only so many hours in the day. High-performing employees who make time for L&D could suffer if it leads to overwork, stress, and burnout. 

Employers benefit from having a highly skilled workforce. Not only can a culture of L&D lead to an explosion of creative ideas, but it can keep employees engaged and reduce the risk that you’ll lose your best people to an employer who is willing to help them grow. 

But you can’t just offer L&D opportunities without also offering support. If you’re going to give employees the option to learn, make sure they know it’s appreciated and that they have everything they need to take advantage of it without compromising their well-being.