Is your business doing enough to empower its people? Most aren’t.
According to the most recent Gallup data from August 2024, only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, with 18% saying they’re actively disengaged. That paints a disturbing picture of the American economy – and one that has changed little over the past quarter-century. Why is that?
Some organizations fail to live up to their claimed values or lack effective communication channels. Others don’t prioritize employee well-being or offer flexible work arrangements. Last but by no means least, many businesses offer insufficient support for professional development.
A survey of full-time workers by INTOO and Workplace Intelligence revealed the following findings:
In short: every company needs a corporate training and development strategy. You need to provide workplace training to managers so they can upskill and adapt to changes in your industry landscape. And you need to give your employees opportunities to advance their careers.
The best way to achieve both goals is by adopting a culture of continuous learning. This blog will explain what that culture involves and walk you through the steps to implement it.
The foundation of a workplace learning culture is continuous improvement, which encourages people to acquire new knowledge and skills. Companies that embrace a learning culture recognize the crucial role education plays in helping employees thrive. They provide people with everything required for upskilling, from software and training materials to active support.
Rather than a perk or optional initiative, learning-oriented organizations treat education as a business objective — to great effect.
There are many benefits to investing in employee learning and development.
First and foremost, internal mobility has a huge impact on retention. An employee who’s made an internal move within their first two years has a 75% likelihood of remaining with their employer, versus just 56% for those who haven’t advanced.
Employees who lack opportunities for career growth or professional development within a company are far more likely to look for new jobs. Employers seem to recognize this.
LinkedIn Learning revealed that 83% of organizations now seek to build more people-centric cultures and that 81% of learning and development departments are helping make that possible.
Engagement and retention aren’t the only reasons to embrace continuous learning. Consider how much the technology landscape has evolved in just the past few years, with no indication that progress is going to slow down anytime soon.
For better or worse, technologies like generative artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality will become increasingly widespread. Employees require new knowledge and skills to leverage these technologies to their full potential. In fact, 89% of learning and development professionals believe that proactive skills development could prove essential to navigating the evolving future of work.
Learning-oriented organizations may also see improved productivity and performance. Employees will naturally become more knowledgeable and proficient in their work, operating more efficiently and tackling problems with a more creative mindset. Supported by this agile workforce, organizations will become more resilient and better-equipped to adapt to market disruptions.
Adopting a learning culture requires a gradual, measured, and strategic approach. It’s not something you’ll execute overnight. With that in mind, here’s a roadmap to guide you through the process.
Gather feedback from across your organization focused on the following questions:
What role will continuous learning play in helping you achieve your business objectives? What skills and knowledge should you prioritize? What are your key performance indicators and success criteria?
Put these questions to each department, as each has its own priorities and requirements. But always keep your core business objectives in mind. Ensure any training you incorporate in some way helps to fulfill those objectives. For example, if you prioritize business agility, you could develop training on workflow automation technologies.
A shift in organizational culture always begins with leadership. For employees to adopt a mindset of continuous improvement, they must first see that mindset in their leaders. Encourage managers and executives to:
Siloed communication is the enemy of innovation and a significant impediment to fostering a learning culture. Your leaders must communicate openly and honestly with the rest of the organization. More importantly, employees must be able to share feedback, raise concerns, and ask questions, knowing that they’ll be listened to.
For some people, learning is its own reward. Most people, however, appreciate a little acknowledgement for their learning achievements. By recognizing employees who’ve successfully completed a training program or course, you’ll motivate more people to participate.
You don’t need to go overboard with your recognition either. Your options include:
Currently, around 64% of people feel they don’t have enough time or energy to do their jobs properly. Those employees probably won’t be amenable to adding time-consuming training programs to their existing workload. Nor should you expect them to be.
Instead, consider employing microlearning. Unlike traditional training, which is delivered as a contiguous module, microlearning comes in short, focused, often interactive segments. Each of these sections takes only a few minutes to complete, allowing you to seamlessly incorporate them into an employee’s workday.
Don’t just embrace continuous improvement for your people — apply it to your training content too. Monitor your KPIs and collect feedback from your people. Regularly assess and re-examine your training.
Remember: there’s always something you could be doing better.
Now that you have a basic idea of what’s involved in creating a learning culture, think about how you can cultivate a training environment to support it.
Check out The Five Key Elements of an Effective Training Environment and 4 Reasons for Creating a Virtual Training Culture for Your Enterprise to see how you can create effective learning environments to develop a culture of learning in your organization.