3 Ways to Promote Learning to have more Engaged and Productive Teams

3 Ways to Promote Learning to have more Engaged and Productive Teams

People usually need to learn new tasks and skills in order to have confidence to work independently within an organisation – whether they are new employees or existing employees taking on new tasks or projects.?Learning is also a key driver of employee engagement.?A 2016 Deloitte report emphasised the importance of promoting learning by stating:

?‘Learning opportunities are among the largest drivers

?of employee engagement and strong workplace culture –

they are part of the entire employee value proposition,

not merely a way to build skills.’

On average, employees stay in jobs for less than 5 years and skills become out of date within 10 years. Therefore, continuous, lifelong learning is vital.

The World Economic Forum recently declared a reskilling emergency as the world faces more than one billion jobs transformed by technology.?Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, some organisations can find it challenging to help their employees achieve reskilling?goals.

Here are 3 key ways to promote learning to have a more engaged and productive team

• Provide learning that is linked to an employee’s individual career development.
• Facilitate a workplace environment where learning that is continuous in the flow of work.
• Create a learning engagement loop.

Provide learning that is linked to an employee’s individual career development.

Learning that is linked to an employee’s individual career development will lead to increased engagement.?

Employee retention is linked to investment in career development.?According to the 2018 LinkedIn Learning Workplace Learning Report, 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development.

Employees need to feel that someone is encouraging and helping them navigate their career development.?One of the most common reasons why an employee voluntarily leaves their job is because of not receiving enough career development opportunities.

In a recent Gallup study, nearly 45% of millennials said that career development is very important to them.?33% of Gen Xers said career development is very important to them. And only 18% of baby boomers said career development is very important to them. With Millennials now making up the largest generation in the workplace, it is important to focus on learning that is linked to career development.

Learning linked to career development should include learning that is also linked to team objectives and business goals.?It could include leadership courses, conferences or workshops as part of a performance development plan.?It could also include coaching or learning linked to a specific upcoming project or body of work or future role.

Employees feel valued when learning is provided towards their personal or professional development. Each employee needs to have learning that is linked to their career development to improve engagement.

Here are some Tips for Linking Learning to Career Development

• Assess capabilities and co-develop short term and long term learning goals with your employees.
• Help employees see the value in new opportunities and responsibilities.
• Create individual learning opportunities that form part of an individual development plan with your employees. ?Only a few number of defined, clear and immediate learning goals.??A deadline in which to meet those goals.?
• Create a support group or mentors to assist and monitor progress.

Facilitate a workplace environment where learning that is continuous in the flow of work.

Learning in the flow of work drives productivity, increases engagement, improves knowledge retention, according to Josh Bersin. ?

Learning in the flow of work involves accessing a short piece of learning while you are working.?

Learning in the flow of work can include micro-learning, such as searchable videos or text. It can also include embedding learning into a platform or platforms in which employees work and should include processes with coaching or support employees to be better on the job.?Learning in the flow of work should include providing a system where employees can access self-generated or team generated learning content that is relevant to specific tasks can be accessed quickly and at the point of need.

According to the 2018 Workplace learning report from LinkedIn:

• 68% of employees prefer to Learn at work
• 58% of employees prefer to Learn at own pace
• And 49% of employees also prefer to Learn at the point of need

Here are 3 Tips for Learning in the Flow of Work

1. Use technology as an enabler for learning in the flow of work - 90% of organisations utilise some form of digital learning
2. Have a corporate knowledge platform that is filled with relevant and accurate information and is easy to use
3. Provide an online space where everyone can share content internally so that each person can contribute to the integration of learning into daily tasks.

Create a learning engagement loop.

Employee experience and knowledge are two of the biggest assets for an organisation and can be leveraged to increase engagement and improve productivity.

Where do employees go when they need to learn something new??They are most likely to ask their manager (69% of the time) or their colleagues (55% of the time) for help and almost half the time the search the internet, which may not provide the best information for your organisation.

What is a learning engagement loop and how can it improve engagement and productivity???A learning engagement loop is using peer to peer learning to enhance an individual’s engagement within an organisation.

Here are some of the benefits of creating a learning engagement loop in your organisation.

• Dynamics of learning hierarchy disappear
• Employees deliver learning to their colleagues and share their expertise
• Improving their management and leadership skills
• Become more involved with their colleagues, the team objectives and organisational goals

Information/Knowledge is Needed

The first stage is when employees need information.?This information could be geared toward learning needed at the point of need and that will be learned at the employee’s own pace.?It could be information about specific tasks or processes that need to be completed.?

Creating Information / Knowledge Objects

The most accurate and relevant information is available from the subject matter experts (or SME’s) in your organisation. A subject matter expert is the best person to create the information that is needed.?It could be that it is information that the subject matter expert has already created and just needs to be available in a place where it can be shared with other team members.

Sharing Information

An employee who shares information will have a greater sense of belonging to the team and the organisation. When an SME is sharing information with other team members, the SME will be more engaged and will also feel that their input or contribution is valued.??

Employees who have a high sense of belonging are?10 times?more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and more than?twice?as engaged at work.

Fostering that sense of belonging with peer to peer learning is crucial to employee engagement.

Gaining Knowledge

For the SME who has shared the information, this peer to peer sharing of information reinforces and enhances the SME’s existing knowledge. ??Many studies show the benefits of the learning-by-teaching.

The employee who is receiving the information is gaining the critical knowledge that is needed and is more engaged as a result.

Here are some Tips to create an online learning engagement loop in your organisation

• Assist employees to understand their areas of expertise – the tasks and processes that can be shared to other team members or new employees
• Guide employees to create content that needs to be shared
• Provide a learning system where every employee can create and share content, and where the learning/knowledge content is linked to team objectives and business goals.

Final comments

When learning is promoted within your organisation, your employees become more engaged.

Employees feel valued when learning is linked to their career development.

When your employees are provided with learning in the flow of their work, then productivity and engagement will increase.

Finally, create a learning engagement loop where employees can learn from each other in structured and unstructured ways.

I am interested in your thoughts and ideas on this topic of how learning can promote more engaged and productive teams. Please feel free to contact me on +61 403 006062 or [email protected].