Many businesses first think about the expense and the potential impact on productivity when considering how to enhance workplace learning. Every business owner seems to be thinking about return on investment.
But the evidence is unmistakable. Businesses who have effective learning and development programmes see a 218 percent increase in revenue per employee. So the fundamental query is, how do we adopt development approaches that actually matter?
It is impossible to emphasize the value of continuing education in today’s workforce. 84 percent of today’s millennial workers want access to opportunities for learning and professional growth.
The best news is that the majority of the strategies for integrating learning and development into your company are free, as this blog demonstrates.
1) Share a story
As opposed to what many people believe, workplace education is not as formal or time-consuming.
Starting a story time among coworkers is a straightforward yet incredibly powerful strategy to encourage further learning and personal growth.
Someone presents a conversation about one of their passions every lunchtime.
The objective is to teach individuals that as a species, we learn best when we are told a tale, as well as to increase their awareness of their environment.
2) Take part in a program’s development
Although I’m assuming they claim they are too busy to set aside a few hours a week to do so, you may be pressuring your team to try to learn more.
Many businesses frequently use an approach where leaders or managers choose a learning pathway or programme without ever asking individuals who would be participating for their thoughts.
As a leader, you could unintentionally force your agenda or learning preferences on your team. You must work together with your workers if you truly want to support them in creating pertinent learning initiatives.
You may start by working together on a monthly schedule of suggested team activities or certain topics or themes for each session.
3) Cultural outings
Leaving the office can be a great approach to break us out of bad patterns and habits that impede our ability to learn.
Instead, when we step outside of our daily routines and do something different, we can learn more from others and take part in activities that have an impact on our way of thinking.
A visit to the producer of a product you sell or to a user of your system or service falls under this category. Informal learning opportunities about the company and the industry can help employees better understand their duties and provide them the opportunity to suggest new ideas and initiatives that the business may not have previously thought of.
4) Inviting specialists
If you approach learning behind closed doors, your business won’t grow or prosper.
For a number of different causes, this happens regularly. The objective is the same whether it is to save costs or increase brand awareness among employees. However, this structure can only get you so far because it restricts mental processes.
By asking experts to give seminars and lectures, you can increase your team’s knowledge in particular areas or help them gain confidence and other crucial soft skills.
Outside facilitators bring a fresh viewpoint from an objective outsider to the workplace, which means the lessons they impart frequently stick a little more deeply than if they were conducted by a member of your team.
5) Examine the company
How knowledgeable about the business’s ins and outs is your team?
Your employees may not be experienced or knowledgeable about a variety of organizational components, from the supply chain to customer assistance.
One strategy to encourage internal learning and development is to offer workshops and tours of various parts of the organization.
This not only raises employee awareness of their position within the company, but it may also stimulate original thought and fresh ideas.
6) Offer possibilities for education
Even if you run a start-up or small business, learning and development expenses might not even exist.
Despite this, learning should never be hindered by a lack of funds.
Instead, you can now provide a range of free resources to your personnel to aid in the development of both their hard and soft skills.
People can now take as many of the free courses as they like on websites like FutureLearn, Udemy, and The Open University as they have time.
Allowing your team to choose what they want to learn is one piece of advice if you’re going to do this.
Once more, instead of allowing people the option to learn about anything they choose, we often direct them toward programmes that we think they should watch. even if it’s a forensic science course!
7) Create instructional materials
Go for it if your company is big enough to have the resources to offer staff learning materials and training sessions.
A excellent technique to present learning topics in manageable, bite-sized bits is through training films. They are perfect for daily learning and advancement because they are simple to understand and typically brief.
If you think this would be the best course of action for your business but are unsure of where to start, you should think about working with a training video production firm.
8) Designate group projects
Getting people together to work on a project and oversee it from beginning to end can boost not only communication and teamwork skills but also confidence and business competence because we learn just as much from one another as we do from books.
But for this to work, you have to let go of any need to micromanage and give them full trust and accountability. People won’t feel as though they are actually in control of the project if you are unable to accomplish this.
Give them permission to work on the project and give them a deadline for completion.
Anything from a client project to the introduction of a new good or service to an idea for the business culture could be the project.
Begin implementing right away
Learning and growth are occasionally neglected in quick-paced businesses in favor of customers or services. However, the more frequently this occurs, the less flexible and robust your business is.
Businesses that place learning at the core are more resilient to outside changes and have better levels of innovation, increasing their market competitiveness.
Not only are learning and growth desirable, but they are also necessary.
