If your people are your most important asset, then doesn't it make sense to provide them with opportunities to grow professionally, develop their skills, and make a positive contribution to your company’s success?
Studies have shown that lack of learning and development opportunities contributes to up to 25% of staff turnover, and that companies that deliver high impact learning opportunities have 37% greater productivity and are 58% more future-proofed than those that don't. So it's a good idea to get behind. Try a couple of these ideas:
Training isn’t just about instructor-led courses. Explore informal and social learning environments, collaborative problem solving, experiential (and experimental!) learning, coaching and mentorship. Give your people a chance to truly interact and engage with learning.
There’s a wealth of training and learning experiences beyond those your HR department can provide. Conferences and meetups, online courses, communities, forums, videos and tutorials are all great (often free!) resources for employee development, and can support, reinforce and even inspire the training you offer.
Start at the very beginning: use your learning system for employee induction and onboarding. What better way to demonstrate your learning culture than by making it part of life from day one?
Learning is not only about role- and skill- based training. Use your learning systems to teach people about the company, communicate news and developments, showcase new products and ideas (and courses!), and promote networking. Increase engagement while showing your dedication to training - and showcasing your tools!
Encourage people to communicate their learning journey: in meetings, through personal blogs, social media, even course recommendations and ratings. Then make use of their feedback and your training data to produce varied, relevant and timely material that helps your people develop strategically and stay engaged.
If you’re using a system for e-learning, don’t stop at putting PDFs and Word documents online; experiment with interactivity and a range of media to make content come alive. Then let people access training material where and when they need it - even if that’s away from the office - and complete tasks at their own pace.
Make learning and development a focal point in performance reviews; less ’where did you go wrong’, more ’how will you grow from here?’ Reinforce the importance of ongoing development - as your people improve, so does your company!
Make learning an important part of everyday life at your company. Communicate the importance of continual learning, allow employees to follow opportunities of interest, lead by example and create an atmosphere of genuine excitement when it comes to professional development. If you want even more guidance (and who doesn't!) be sure to sign up for our webinar
