5 Tips to Encourage Employee Learning and Development

Having every employee aligned with your business’s objectives is a significant step to success. Every employee should understand your business’s values,?product, customers, mission, conventions, structure, etc as these are essential. But as a growing business, how can you ensure that your employees are acquiring the knowledge they need? Well, the answer is - learning culture.

A learning culture implies when a business puts a strong emphasis on encouraging its employees to understand its values, practices, beliefs, skill sets, and conventions. What does this do? It enables your employees to gain the knowledge and abilities required to perform their best, better satisfy your customers, and help your business grow.

Why is a learning culture essential?

As per the eLearning report,?94% of employees said investment in training?and development is one of the major reasons they would decide to stay in a role for longer.

A good learning culture impacts all areas of your business - from productivity to retention. It is essential for the employees as not only does it help your business grow, but makes it one of the most important practices for your organization.

Is there a way to keep the employees motivated? Yes, you can leverage a few simple techniques that can help your employees progress with their training.

Communicate With Your Employees

Offer your employees learning opportunities that are relevant to their requirements; managers must first understand the needs and goals of their employees. Ask them questions in a relaxed setting so the employees express their opinions openly.

This can be done via informal one-on-one meetings and managers can use this time to check in on employee’s progress, the projects they are working on, what they like and dislike about their roles, the challenges they may be facing, and the skills they’re interested in developing.

Include Employees in the Goal setting

Rather than setting development goals with the management for employees, take a collaborative approach to goal setting with them. Managers can guide the employees to reflect on their work. Understand if they are being challenged, ready to take on a new or different project, what areas they think they need to improve, and how can you help. Use?goal-setting methods?to formalize the discussion, and include relevant development activities to set your employees for success.

Incentivize employee achievements

Managers have the power to encourage employees to learn and grow, so this role should complement incentive and recognition structures. Make sure you design your organisation’s incentive system with rewards and recognition so employees feel motivated to go above and beyond performance standards. Also, if an employee achieves something at work, ensure they get rewarded for it.

Encourage a growth-orientated approach

Integrate learning opportunities in daily work practices, as it encourages team members to aim for constant improvement. Also, implement this type of system in several ways, such as assigning 15 minutes of work every day to learn a new skill or playing a?teamwork ?game. Another way is to encourage your team to listen to learning podcasts and read articles about their field.

Personalize Skill Development with Online Courses

Personalization is a buzzword and personalized marketing has emerged as a doorway to customer engagement, acquisition, and retention. If you believe in personalization, then you already know the deep impact it generates. Leverage it and offer personalized skill development programs to your employees so they function at their fullest.

Although it can be challenging to conduct multiple training courses as per each employee's requirement, you can opt for online courses that cater to the employee needs of your workers. It is an investment, but employee development will surely bring you massive returns on investment.

To conclude, we know that employee development is a crucial investment that surely pays off for both the employee and the employer. This way you can foster a culture of growth and development for your team, that’ll help your employees and business achieve their full potential.

--

What do you do to support employees with their learning and development to reach their goals?