Creating a Learning Culture
Creating a Learning Culture
Learning and development is one the newer disciplines within organisations, however, the amount of changes it has gone through within a short period of time is staggering. The popularity of learning and development initiatives is increasing, and organisations are really starting to see the value in the training and development of their staff.
Learning and development within organisations is a little bit like marmite. Some love it and actively invest in and encourage the learning of their employees; whereas some loathe it and just don’t see the value. However, when results of organisational surveys are published, time and time again, employees say that having learning and development opportunities within their workplace increases engagement, job satisfaction and employee retention.
What is a Learning Culture?
A learning culture is one what encourages continuous workplace learning through a collection of organisational values, practises and processes, and therefore opens up opportunities for continuous organisational transformation and growth.
Adopting a learning culture has been found to bring many benefits to organisations:
Increased efficiency, productivity and profit
Increased employee satisfaction and decreased employee turnover
A growth mindset among employees
An enhanced ability for workers to adapt to change
As well as these benefits, it has been found that those who partake in 5 or more hours of learning per week are:
74%
More likely to have a clear career vision.
48%
More likely to find purpose in their work.
47%
Less likely to be stressed at work.
So how do you create a learning culture?
Engage your workforce
Engage your workforce through marketing methods such as email marketing and your employee intranet. Sending out regular emails that promote your learning and development department is a great way to increase employee engagement.
A lot of organisations have their own intranet which is often the first thing they see when they open up the internet. If your organisation has an intranet system, advertise your L&D services on there.
Conduct surveys
Designing and distributing surveys to your employees is a great way to identify skill gaps within your workforce. By identifying skill gaps, your L&D team can design their training programmes around what your workforce needs, rather than designing yet another leadership course. Surveys are also a great way of identifying your employee’s preferred learning methods. If the majority of them tell you they don’t like classroom based learning, you can focus more on the learning and development resources you offer online.
Get managers onboard
Sometimes, getting managers onboard with learning and development can be tricky. Encouraging managers to put time aside to think about how they can develop their team is one of the main challenges for L&D teams. However, although at times it may seem like a lost cause, it is important to be persistent and encourage your managers to promote the importance of learning and development to their staff.
Create an L&D brand
Creating a brand for your learning and development team is a great way to increase engagement in workplace learning. Having a separate logo and brand colours that your employees recognise gets their attention and increases their interest in learning. Putting this branding on the staff intranet and creating posters to put in communal work areas are simple, yet effective ways of increasing employee awareness of your organisations learning and development services.
Include L&D in appraisals
Most managers carry out annual appraisals within individual staff members to discuss their work performance, provide feedback and set targets. Incorporating employee learning in appraisals is a brilliant way to increase engagement in learning and development. If the individual has completed training in the previous year, it provides a clearer picture on whether it has been beneficial to them or not. If they haven’t taken advantage of the training opportunities available to them, appraisals can be an opportunity to set them learning targets.
In Summary: creating a learning culture within your organisation has been found to bring many benefits to your organisation, including increasing employee engagement, job satisfaction and employee retention. By working alongside your learning and development team and us at T2, your organisation can adopt a number of practices that will help towards achieving a learning culture within your organisation.